I'm typing on my phone tonight,  so excuse the typos.

I've been reading Dhalgren lately.  I'm not really far enough into it to make a full assessment about it,  but so far it isn't that confusing -- and i mention that because all the reviews said it was confusing.  It strikes me just as like a scifi, post apocalyptic,  slice-of-life story... like Nichijou but for adults, and with symbolism and social commentary instead of humor. Some commentators said it challenges the reader's perceptions about the relationship between reader and author by never delivering things that the reader feels entitled to. I gather from that,  and from the story so far,  that there probably won't be a clear rising conflict and resolution.  I don't mind that, and maybe it's because I like the slice of life genre,  and that genre doesn't have the features of a normal drama. It won't bother me if the story is like this the entire time.

The slice of life genre naturally lends itself to social commentary anyway,  but Delany seems to be self aware enough to bring his social commentary a few steps deeper than any other social commentary I've seen like this.  Again I still have a long way to go in the book,  but I've been very impressed so far with his attention to the impressions people can have about their surroundings which can't be described directly,  but which nonetheless exist.  The best way to describe those sensations (I think) is by drawing relationships between commonly experienced phenomena which illicit the same unique sensation or emotion. Those analogies can highlight emotions for which we don't have words,  and Delany does it really well,  without being too direct about it -- the analogies are made naturally by means of the events in the story. 

Anyway,  on a personal note,  I'm stressed. I keep feeling like I want to say something -- to reconcile myself with my situation by means of some kind of apology or something, as if circumstance were an estranged friend,  but I don't really have anything plain to say about it, and that's just as frustrating as the situation itself. 

I'm tired.  I'm gonna go to sleep. 

"It does not offer me any protection,  this mist; rather a refracting grid through which to view the violent machine,  explore the technocracy of the eye itself,  spelunk the semi circular canal.  I am traveling my own optic nerve."