The novel is a gritty, subtly dystopian look at everyday life in New York City around the year 2025, when there have been few real technological advances except for new recreational drugs. There have been no dramatic disasters, but overpopulation has become a constant problem despite compulsory birth control; class divisions persist; and feelings of apathy and alienation are widespread. Sexual norms have loosened considerably, while other personal freedoms have been subtly curtailed. The city government is a highly bureaucraticwelfare state. Almost nothing is mentioned of the world outside of New York, except that the U.S. continues to be embroiled in Vietnam-like wars; most citizens are so politically uninvolved that "Democrat" and "Republican" are used only as sexual slang. On one level it is a plausible prediction of future social trends; on another, it is a satire of urban America in the 1970s.
The structure of the novel is unusual, reflecting the experimentation characteristic of New Wave writers (Disch's frank treatment of sex is also typical of the New Wave). It contains five independent novellas (previously published separately) with a common setting but different characters, and a longer sub-novel whose many short sections trace the members of a single family forward and backward in time. The focus is on the characters' personal relationships, and the ways that these relationships are shaped by social change while still being based on universal concerns.
The title refers to the address of a huge housing project where most of the characters live (formerly Disch's own address), and also to the year AD 334 during the later years of the Roman Empire—a secondary theme of the novel is that the United States may be a superpower in decline.
Examples: Alices Tulips by Sandra Dallas is an example of a traditional epistolary novel, in which all the letters are written by the same person.
In addition to the gloomy, isolated castle, other common gothic trappings include insanity (often in the form of a mad relative kept locked in a room in the castle), ghosts and spirits, and dramatic thunder-and-lightning storms.
If the propagandistic purpose dominates the work so as to dwarf or eclipse all other elements, such as plot and character, then the novel belongs to the realm of the didactic and probably cannot be understood or appreciated for its own sake as a work of art.
The novel is a gritty, subtly dystopian look at everyday life in New York City around the year 2025, when there have been few real technological advances except for new recreational drugs.
The structure of the novel is unusual, reflecting the experimentation characteristic of New Wave writers (Disch's frank treatment of sex is also typical of the New Wave).
The title refers to the address of a huge housing project where most of the characters live (formerly Disch's own address), and also to the year AD 334 during the later years of the Roman Empire—a secondary theme of the novel is that the United States may be a superpower in decline.
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