The Dragon of Bel’kwinith

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This is basically a short essay on Roger Zelazny's Roadmarks.

Zelazny liked to play with the themes of traveling and alternate histories. We can see this in the Amber series, but also in lesser Zelazny stories like Damnation Alley. The Amber series and Roadmarks put together these two interests in different ways. Unlike the fantasy setting of Amber, Roadmarks seems to have been more science fiction, with the main character, Red Dorakeen, trying to run guns to the Greeks so that they can win at Marathon. In neither setting are the mechanics of the traveling explained.

The author's thesis in his essay is that Roadmarks is actually all about being an author. Roadmarks, according to the author, is an extended metaphor for how an author provides a way of communicating between past and future. The construction of the road was done by the mysterious Dragons of Bel'kwinith, who are like authors in choosing offramps and providing a linkage between past and future. The author explains:

“In one of the opening scenes, Red comes across a broken down car. The car has a loose distributor cap. Red goes and fixes the distributor cap. In return, the driver, who doesn't speak English, gives Red a big hug. It's notable that what was wrong with the car was a busted distributor cap. Distributor caps produce “spark.” Zelazny was telling us that authors help each other. The cars are a metaphor for the stories that we write.”

Maybe so, and this is a somewhat interesting way of looking at the book, but all metaphors begin to limp when pushed too far.

The essay is about three pages long. It has a few interesting points, but I don't think the product is worth the price. I read it through Kindle Unlimited. It took around five minutes to read. If I had paid for it, I would have rated it lower.