SLINGER - ED DORN

This book is confusing from the title. Many editions, as well as Wikipedia itself, seem to think this book is called “GUNSLINGER” but, at least this 1975 edition thinks the work is called SLINGER. The character the book is named after is also referred to as both “The Gunslinger” and “Slinger,” as well as “Zlinger.” Nothing is easy with this one. I don’t know if I’ve ever read an epic length poem written in the last, say, 200+ years. I’d have to think about it. The pages of this book are unnumbered, which I admire, so this 200-ish page poem does follow a single story and group of characters who are on a quest. However, unlike other epic poems, like, say, the Aeneid, it’s frequently difficult to tell what’s going on. The Gunslinger, who is a demi-god, is on a quest with his joint-rolling horse and with a handful of people, who seem to rotate in-and-out, with names like “Kool Everything” and “i”, to meet (or kidnap?) Howard Hughes. But that’s just my best guess, I’d probably have to read it a half-dozen more times to get the “plot,” which clearly isn’t the point. There’s lots of strange syntactic, linguistic, typographical stuff going on. I appreciate his use of “thot” for “thought” and I’d like to think he’d be so pleased to learn that “thot” has taken on yet another meaning. He’ll use the “sh” pronunciation of “x” to rewrite words like xit (to mean “shit”) which is cool and new-to-me. Occasionally, he places certain letters in a different font (with more serif) and also in italics which was baffling. I’m not sure if they spell something out or what. Their meaning was opaque to me. As was the larger meaning for most of the poem. I would say my understanding of what was going on as well as what I was able to pull from the text weakened evenly throughout the book. The first Book of the poem was my favorite. I found it the best written and most engaging. As each part and chapter went on, I found less and less I could latch onto. Overall, the effect was interesting, it’s full of old hippy slang which I’m always on board for. Perhaps I don’t read enough long form poetry to compare it to much but it worked better for me in shorter passages that really hit hard while connective tissues between these segments weren’t engaging. I believe I would have preferred these segments removed and presented as stand-alone poems. But, this might just be my familiarity with poems in a different format rearing its ignorant head and I should broaden my idea of what a poem looks like. Hard to know. 5 Bombers rolled by a horse