I guess I identify with Nick Shay, isn't that the point? Aren't we supposed to identify with the "main" character of the novel? That's not a rhetorical question. Really, are we supposed to identify with Shay? I feel like we are, but I'm rebelling against it, if only because I feel like that's what Delillo wants from me. He wants me and everybody else to feel Nick’s pain, reflect something in our lives that relates to his past relationship with Klara or his current one with Marian. I feel Delillo is trying to get everyone to identify with Nick through his relationship with the ball/Dodgers, his relationship with brother/mother/wife/co-workers, his thoughts on his father.
Maybe I ought to stop fighting this pervasive feeling that I’m being taken for a ride by Mr. Don. It’s not that I don’t want to be taken for a ride, on the contrary, I do, that’s why I read literature (at least I think). But I want to ride the Underworld ride the way I set it up for myself. I don’t want to ride the same one as everyone else. Reading this aloud, it sounds pretty vain, like I’m above the common man identifying with these petty characters, like I can see through the façade and get to the real depth of Underworld (a weak pun). But that’s not my objective, I guess I seek to know how others think. Case in point, I don't identify with Brian Glaser, in fact I despise Brian, think he's a real dick, and selfish. But is that how everyone else feels? Is that what Delillo wants us all to think in how he paints Brian's character? I’m clueless I really am. Maybe I need to stop looking for a “point” and just read and absorb and be entertained. I have a quirk with literature, in that I always feel I have to over-analyze everything I read. There are never things that I can read in the way that I would watch a stupid movie, mindless, enjoying, yet non-stimulating.
ps. All the women in this book are disgusting me.
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t, you have started reading part 3 before posting this, right? I started this morning so i might change my mind on this, but up to now, i dont identify with Nick. I understand his pain but i dont identify with him. And I think that I like Glassic. I find him funny. i wonder how you pronounce Klara. Because i think half of the disgust i feel for her comes from the name. I like Clara, in spanish, but when i read Klara it sounds like in german in my head, Klagga, and i hate it.
-No, I haven't started reading part 3, I just like Nick because he seems the most real, whatever that means.
-Klara, I pronounce Cl-air-uh,
-I can't believe you like Glassic, he's a pig. And isn't that what Mariam likes about him too, he's "funny". You women.
-I can't get off my sexist perch, you women.
dude, maybe "he's funny" means something else among us women, hehehe. i am super interested in your identifications and hates.
What I find interesting about DeLillo is that I'm pretty sure I dont care at all about any of the characters. And yet I still find the work so compelling. Which is kind of amazing i guess.n T, why are the women disgusting?
I think you are supposed to identify with Nick (hint: 1st person), but it seems impossible, because he has no depth. When you say he is afraid, I'm not sure I know that. I might assume it, but even from the his perspective, we know very little about what he is thinking.
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