A palimpsest
is a piece of writing (commonly – though the term is sometimes used to refer to
other media, even architecture) which has been written over an older text, such
that at least some of the previous text can be detected. It is a blending of
past and present, often unintentional, as the past bleeds through the text that
was intended to obliterate it. All narrative
necessarily partakes of this dynamic, building as it does on previously
established themes, cultural constructs, and the personal experiences of the
narrator among other things. The avant-garde, especially insomuch as it tends
to attempt a break with past forms, is palimpsestic in nature. It cannot escape
its roots no matter how hard it tries, and its struggles merely bind it more
tightly to its origins.
Dhalgren
often reads like a stochastic mixture of pulp and literature, never quite
settling comfortably into any particular genre, long passages drifting
unsteadily in no discernible direction, having the same disregard for narrative
formality that we find in our own lives, yet revealing a common set of themes
in a manner which marks the difference between life and art. The book dispenses
with narrative tropes, yet embraces them in more subtle ways. It is almost as
if Delany were trying to demonstrate the fact that there is no escape from
traditional notions of theme and recurrence in art.
In this
chapter, Kidd finds a warehouse filled with the very objects that have most
mystified, identified, and transformed him throughout the story: boxes of
mirror/prism/lens chains, animal light balls, brass orchids and red eyes. These
objects, endowed with significance and power, would seem to be reduced to
commonplace novelties, shattering any trace of meaning within Kidd’s mind.
On the other
hand, they may be seen as props to be used in a sort of initiation. Initiatory
props have no significance outside of their ritual context, yet within that
context they contain great transformative power. A sheaf of wheat, commonplace
in itself, was said to be shown to initiates at the climax of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, resulting in cathartic transformation. It is as if Kidd has been
engaged thus far in a ritual reenactment of the Masonic search for the lost
Word. He has now been shown the holy of holies, shattering his illusions and suggesting
perhaps that his Word is just a common name after all. But is this the final
revelation, or is there more to come? Will further revelations reverse the
meaning of this mystery as this one has done to those which were revealed
before it? Kidd wonders briefly if he will forget the incidence, but ultimately
acknowledges that it has left a mark on him: “More likely it is one of those things that I will never be able to
speak of, and never forget.” It is worth noting that Kidd steals a brass
orchid from this holy chamber, as he were Mercury, the lord of thieves, or
perhaps Prometheus stealing one last flame from heaven.
The endowing
of an ordinary object with special power based on the context in which it is
found relates again to the theme of the palimpsest. Delany seems to take
delight in ambiguity – is the warehouse a Holy Temple of the Mysteries
masquerading as a common building, or is it the other way around? Is the chain
an initiatory mark or a simple decoration? Meaning is given and taken away in
layers, each additional layer bearing in some way the significance or lack
thereof of all of the layers beneath it. We are being shown, as in an
initiatory drama, to find the hidden meaning inherent in our own lives and to
descry the themes which dominate our existence, to find our own lost Word, and
yet always to beware of regarding anything as absolute, to never be so rigid in
our perceptions as to deny the possibility that life is meaningless after all.
