Jeez, I thought I was the only guy who remembered that one. Speaking of convolute, "Dahlgren" by Samuel Delaney took me a whole summer when I was 14. I could probably sue for psychological damage now.
Aw man, 'Dahlgren'... I tried several times as a teen, I just couldn't figure it out. And I was a big sci-fi buff, too. I remember being surprised to read years later that Delaney was a gay black dude.
That book more than any made me realize that there was a deep end of the pool, a place where only boring intellectuals and nerds dwell. It was a place where no one ever gets laid. "Dahlgren" made me turn back from the edge of the fanboy abyss, and for that I am thankful. It was back to cars, girls and beer after my sci-fi phase.
My mind is a cesspit, from which no useless knowledge escapes.
I'm with you on "Dhalgren" - I had been contemptuous of space opera in SF, but after attempting the 800+ pages of that ridiculous nonsense, all that was needed to persuade me to see "Star Wars" when it came out 2 years later was a comment by a friend that it was "the anti-Dhalgren".