*The first chapter is often anthologized as a short story....Interesting.
*DeLillo is kind of fascinated with video footage which relates both to issues of authenticity and of framing.
*I love the description of my hometown in chapter two
*With the introduction of Marvin I started paying a lot of attention to the way in which the individual characters speak. Marvin is always forgetting words and Brian fills them in for him. Later in the exchanges between Nick and Matt, Matt repeats nearly everything anyone says. The Texas Highway Killer has really awkward syntax.
*Keeping objects and understanding history through them is a death of sorts and yet possessing the past through objects wards off death. History serves a similar purpose in warding off death.
*The book is nostalgic. What is it nostalgic for?
*"He wants me to go to the zoo because the animals are real. I told him these are zoo animals. These are animals that live in the Bronx. On television I can see animals in the rain forest or the desert. So which is real and which is fake..." (207). Ha! Love it.
*All the discussion of time in chapter seven makes me think that history is also a way to defeat time. So is fiction.
*There is a lot of interesting gender stuff going on. Impotence seems to be a major theme, and fatherlessness. Women often play the role of savior.
*The Texas Highway Killer is obsessed with a fantasy of wholeness and only sees himself in terms of others and as a part of the history of others. Perfect for Lacanian analysis, using Zizek. Also interesting that he has trouble finishing his sentences. The copycat shooting is also a very complicated issue for the creation of his identity.
Sorry this is a pretty lazy post. Lots of unfinished thoughts.
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"*There is a lot of interesting gender stuff going on. Impotence seems to be a major theme, and fatherlessness. Women often play the role of savior."
You've lost me with this.
-Where/how does impotence appear as a theme?
-What women would you say have played savior? I would say the opposite, that women have more of a villainous role throughout underworld, but maybe this is just reflective of our own gender associations.
I have no idea what underworld is nostalgic for overall. There are certainly many instances where "the past" could approximate an answer...but that wont do. The Prologue was also published as a short story. I love the chapter at Marvins house.
Anthony -
Impotence comes from the condom stuff (which isn't just that one scene at the condom store). "Major theme" is an overstatement, but I think there is something to be said about reproduction. Again, maybe in terms of history. Needs work.
Women as saviors come from portraying women as angels (Klara Sax) and from a conversation between the Texas Highway Killer and Bud about how if THK got married his wife would save him.
That comment was mostly in passing. I think that something about gender relations in this novel really stands out, however. I think that DeLillo can write women, but isn't doing it here. Babette in White Noise is the character I relate to most in any novel, but there is something missing from the women in this novel. Again, I don't know what it is.
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