The name of
the building that the Richards occupy, and with which much of the 3rd
chapter is concerned, is The Labry Apartments. This bears a close resemblance to
the word labrys, which is the term for a symmetrical double-headed axe which was
originally found in Crete. The labrys is considered to be one of the oldest
symbols of Greek civilization (it’s also curiously known as a “bipennis”).
The palace of
Knossos, thought to be the place of the labyrinth in which Theseus fought the
minotaur, was known as “The House of the Double Axe”. The palace was said to be
made up of five great complexes of labyrinthine complexity, comprised of over
one 1500 rooms. Deep within this network of buildings was hidden the ritual
center. (Interestingly, Calkins’ complex has five towers in the back for
servants, of which there are said to be fifteen).
“He
had a momentary image of all these walls on pivots controlled by subterranean
machines, so that, after he had passed, they might suddenly swing to face
another direction, parting at this corner, joining now at that one, like a
great maze – forever adjustable, therefore unlearnable – “
The theme of
the labyrinth also calls to mind that of the quest. Kidd is, willingly or
otherwise, immersed in a quest to find his lost name. This
very much mirrors the Masonic quest involving the discovery of the lost Word.
The name, as with the Word, would theoretically be found at the center of
the labyrinth, which represents the end of the quest. Bellona presents itself
as a labyrinth, with its shifting geography and seeming lack of consistency,
and thus Kidd wanders through the city streets and living spaces. The thread he
lays down, mirroring that of Ariadne who accompanied Theseus on his quest, is his
poetry, written on the unused pages of the journal. It must be observed that he
does indeed find his way back out of the maze by the end of the book. It seems
that the journal contains parts of the book Dhalgren, offered to us perhaps as
a thread by which to find our way back from the inner depths of the novel.
Later on in the book, in the final chapter, Kidd finds
himself daydreaming while in the midst of orgasm. He pictures himself holding
hands with someone, and “running among
leafless trees laced with moonlight while the person behind me kept repeating: ‘…Grendal,
Grendal, Grendal…” A short while later Kidd realizes that he’d arranged the
syllables the wrong way. That the word that he’d heard repeated over and over
was “Dhalgren”. At this point in the
book, it seems quite feasible that Kidd is in fact William Dhalgren, whose name
appears listed among several others in the journal.
Several parallels exist between the story of Beowulf and
Grendal and that of Theseus and the minotaur. The stories of Beowulf and Theseus
each involve a character who comes to the aid of a city that is not the city in
which he lives, and which is menaced by a mysterious beast. Each cross a body
of water; Beowulf crosses a body of water to get to Denmark, and Theseus
crosses the Aegean to get to the minotaur’s labyrinth. Beowulf swipes a magic
sword from the treasury of Grendal’s mother and uses it to kill her as well as
her wounded son. Theseus is directed, by his mother, to reclaim the sword of
his father from beneath a stone as his birthright. Both heroes use their weapon
to decapitate their enemy.
Kidd resembles both Theseus and Beowulf. The optical chain,
found in a cave upon a rock ledge, is his weapon. With this weapon, Kidd
defends the wasted city by analyzing the nature of the light which has
destroyed it, as well as by reflecting that light and focusing it through a series
of lenses.
Later on in the book it is strongly suggested that Kidd is
not Dhalgren at all, that William Dhalgren is a reporter working for Calkins. Dhalgren
as the reporter represents the enemy. Where Kidd allows himself to descend
right down into the mud and muck of the labyrinth, grappling with it in all of
its gritty chaos, the reporter chooses to stand back in an attempt to
understand the city from afar. Kidd becomes directly involved with the light,
using poetry not only in order to represent it in all of its rawness, but also
to come to terms with it himself. The reporter, conversely, attempts to confine
the light to ‘facts’, eschewing both poetry and direct experience. Kidd is the
savage hero, and the reporter the civilized beast. Kidd’s poetry is intended as
a wound to the engine of distortion presented by the press, which, in its quest
for facts, distorts and ultimately loses touch with the true nature of the
light of experience.
On second thought, perhaps Kidd is closer in nature to the
beast. He has come to wound the city after all, not to defend it. Both Theseus
and Beowulf become kings after having defeated their enemy. Beowulf, after
defeating Grendal, returns to Geatland and there becomes the Lord of the Geats.
Theseus, after defeating the minotaur, becomes the king of Athens. The name
Theseus is thought to be descended from a Greek root word meaning “institution”.
Kidd is certainly depicted as the enemy of institutions. Much of the book in
fact is built upon the tension between the roles of Kidd and Calkins. The
newspaper is the largest institution in Bellona, and Calkins clearly considers
himself owner and king of the city. Kidd, on the other hand, quickly becomes
somewhat of a legend, and is naturally adopted as the leader of the scorpions (ironically,
since each member of the scorpions choses an iconic name, whereas Kidd’s has
been given to him). Kidd is arguably the true, if unintentional, king of Bellona.
The ambiguity between hero and villain, king and usurper,
outlaw and institution, is one of the keys by which to navigate the book, which
itself appears as a labyrinth with seven centers instead of one.
“Like everything else in town, you
just hear about it until it bumps into you. You have to put yourself at the
mercy of the geography, and hope the down-hills and up-hills, working
propitiously with how much you feel like fighting and how much you feel like
accepting, manage to get you there. You’ll find it eventually.”
Poetry, from greek Poïesis, apparently means to make or bring forth. However in Socrates' esoteric definition it means "that which reconciles thought with time and man with the world." Gave me a lot of insight to know that, while reading this book both times.
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