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ORCHID_PETALS

Consider Dhalgren.
                                           DHALGREN
Step through the
strange events.

Begin cataloging the
fantastic elements.


The main character enters the
apocalyptic city.  Some strange
things happen. He's disoriented.
He meets someone who says that
he's an engineer.  Aha, this is
the Campbellian competent man who
is going to provide an explanation
for the strange events, yes? But
no, this engineer is much like a
*real* engineer. His last job was        In general, this is the way the
something mundane involving              novel goes... Delany repeatedly
setting up a peanut butter               teases the typical SF reader,
factory. It turns out that he's          providing hints that there's about
gay, and wants to have sex with          to be an explanation, a simple,
the main character.                      logical, comprehensive framework
                                         that all of the oddities of
                                         Bellona will fit into, and then it
                                         just doesn't happen.


For example, the bizarre
astronomical effects...

You can imagine explanations (massive
holograms, much like the Sensory
Shield from "Triton").  Nothing like            TRITON
this is explicitly stated, though
there are the small portable hologram
projectors that people carry around...

Or let's take the Red Eye
phenomena: Near the end of
the book, the Kid stumbles
across a room with bins full
of things like "red eye                          red sun
caps". But are you really                        red eye
supposed to believe that
every time someone's eyes                        mirrors
have turned this odd color,
it's because they                                the inside and
surreptitiously slipped these                    the outside...
eye caps in? A practical joke
everyone plays on newcomers?                         my god.
Why doesn't someone see how
freaked out he is by this,                             An "explanation":
and say something like "Hey,                           you see the red sun
don't worry it's just these                            when you wear the
funny eye caps I've got on."                           red eye caps.

There are others questions...                              (My opinion:
                                                            no explanations
The main character's amnesia:                               will hold
In a typical SF adventure                                   under examination.)
tale, the amnesiac breaks
through the barrier of memory,
and learns that he is
greater than he seems.

    "Maker of Universes"     MAKER
    by Philip Jose Farmer

    "Worlds of Null-A"       THE_SECRET_MASTERS_OF_DESTINY
     by A.E. van Vogt



What *happened* to
the city of
Bellona, how did it                Many a Van Vogtian hang-up
get into this                      is on display, but all are
condition?                         left hanging...


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