Favorite Passages: "The true life"

Just another reason why I think that this novel is a masterpiece.

The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever. The true life takes place when we're alone, thinking, feeling, lost in memory, dreamingly self-aware, the submicroscopic moments.

-- Point Omega

Registers of Affect #7: events

He felt they shared something, we three, that’s what he felt. It was the kind of rare fellowship that singular events engender, even if the others didn't know he was here.

-- Point Omega 

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See: Registers of Affect #1: events

Registers of Affect #6: sex

Sex finds us. Sex sees through us. That's why it's so shattering. It strips us of appearances.

-- Cosmopolis

DeLillo News & Notes: DeLillo receives the Carl Sandburg Literary Award

On October 17, 2012, both DeLillo and Walter Isaacson (author of Steve Jobs, Einstein: His Life and Universe) received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award (DeLillo for fiction, Isaacson for nonfiction).

According to the article that I read, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award "is presented annually to an acclaimed author in recognition of outstanding contributions to the literary world and honors a significant work or body of work that has enhanced the public's awareness of the written word."

Congratulations to DeLillo!

Favorite Passages: "not a crash but a crash landing"

The way in which we use language to envelope ourselves from danger. One can almost hear the echo of Derrida ("I SHALL SPEAK, THEN, OF A LETTER ...").

Certain elements in the crew had decided to pretend that it was not a crash but a crash landing that was seconds away. After all, the difference between the two is only one word. Didn't this suggest that the two forms of flight termination were more or less interchangeable? How much could one word matter?

-- White Noise

DeLillo Interviews: "Living in dangerous times"

DeLillo recently gave an interview about "Living in dangerous times."

There are a few reasons why I chose this interview for the month of October. Not only is it recent, but DeLillo also talks a little bit about his upcoming novel (though he doesn't reveal much). Above all else, this interview amazes me precisely because it tells us almost nothing new. In fact, it's amazing to compare the responses here with the responses that DeLillo has given in previous interviews. In the "Introduction" to Conversations with Don DeLillo, editor Thomas DePietro calls attention to this fact: "[DeLillo] often repeats himself and even quotes himself" (ix).

I can't explain why, but this almost self-referential quality of his interviews doesn't surprise me in the least.

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DePietro, Thomas, ed. Conversations with Don DeLillo. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2005. Print.

Registers of Affect #5: "See it and leave"

Sometimes I see something so moving I know I’m not supposed to linger. See it and leave. If you stay too long, you wear out the wordless shock. Love it and trust it and leave.

-- Underworld

DeLillo News & Notes: an odd website about White Noise

I recently came across an odd website that relates to DeLillo. Called "White Noise on White Noise," it is basically just a collection of 36 fragments from DeLillo's novel that the user can experience one-by-one.

According to the home page, the purpose of the website is "to provide an experience akin to quickly browsing through the novel in a bookstore."

It also links parts of the the text to other websites in order to "bring forth the appropriate emotional or cultural response."

Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of this website, but playing with it is interesting. I would suggest browsing through it at least once.

Enjoy!

Registers of Affect #4: accumulated energies

"Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies."

-- White Noise

DeLillo Book Reviews: The Angel Esmeralda

This summer, I wrote a review of DeLillo's The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories for Goodreads. Given the nature of the site, the purpose of the review is not so much to analyze the work, but rather to get readers who are unfamiliar with DeLillo to be interested in him.

Here's the link: Review of The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories

I've also reproduced the review below.

Enjoy!

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THE PERFECT INTRODUCTION TO DON DeLILLO

Don DeLillo is currently my favorite writer, and I've been on a quest to read all of his works over the past few months. Whenever anyone asks me about DeLillo and to recommend a book by him, my response has usually been something like this: 

"I think he's an amazing writer, but I also recognize that he's certainly not for everyone. My suggestion is to read White Noise, since it's relevant, easy to find, and highly accessible, and then decide for yourself." 

After having completed The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories, however, I revoke this past statement of mine. It's not that White Noise is a bad book with which to expose yourself to DeLillo; it is a phenomenal piece of fiction, and if you choose to read it first (as I did), my bet is that you won't regret it. 

But, as a novel alone, White Noise (1985) perhaps paints an unfair portrait of DeLillo's writing career, which has spanned more than fifty years (1960-present). In other words, if you read this particular novel first, you may -- for better or for worse -- come to expect this kind of writing in all of DeLillo's works, and consequently you may find yourself a bit disappointed when you get around to his post-Underworld works (The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, Love-Lies-Bleeding, etc.).

The Angel Esmeralda, on the other hand, manages to cover more ground than White Noise in terms of DeLillo's career, seeing as the nine stories that comprise it were published between 1979-2011. But it is not for this reason alone that I believe The Angel Esmeralda represent the perfect introduction to this hilarious, haunting, and rather enigmatic American author, the litmus test for deciding whether or not to get involved with DeLillo.

Without spoiling the stories themselves, I will at least say that here readers will find many of the qualities and themes that make DeLillo the celebrated author that he is. To name just a few: his masterful discussion of airports; his passion for describing New York City; his belief that "the future belongs to crowds"; the influence of mass media; the impending financial collapse (as he predicted in his 2003 novel Cosmopolis); the way in which people almost systematically impose stories and backgrounds on other people in order to make sense of them; his interest in art; his insightful and ironic humor; and, finally, not only his admirable command of language, but his interest in language itself.

Although it is difficult to do so, I will pick a single passage from The Angel Esmeralda to quote, from "Midnight in Dostoevsky" (2010): 

If we isolate the stray thought, the passing thought, the thought whose origin is unfathomable, then we begin to understand that we are routinely deranged, everyday crazy.

Anyway, if you are one of those readers who's teetering on whether or not to pick up a book by Don DeLillo, then The Angel Esmeralda is where to begin -- and it may just push you over the edge.

DeLillo News & Notes: Why you shouldn't pay attention to New York Magazine's "Guide to the Don DeLillo Oeuvre"

In 2007, New York Magazine published this "Guide to the Don DeLillo Oeuvre" on their website. While I think that this is a great idea, especially for a writer like DeLillo, I think that it could have been executed much better.

For example, I cannot understand why Mao II -- a short, accessible book with big ideas about images, terrorism, and novelists, a book that won the Pen/Faulkner Prize and was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist -- is listed as "Recommended" instead of "Classic." Nor can I fathom why End Zone -- an early, eerie, and deeply funny book about the relationship between war and football -- is "For Fans Only"; certainly it should be "Recommended."

This guide, following in the footsteps of many critics, asks us to disregard DeLillo's post-Underworld writings, including Valparaiso, The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, and Love-Lies-Bleeding. Though I understand why someone might criticize these works, I just cannot get on-board with it. I would recommended Valparaiso and especially Cosmopolis (which, we can say with hindsight, proved part of its worth when the American economy recessed.) The only exception, perhaps, is the Body Artist: I am still searching for a way to redeem this book.

Finally, Libra, one of my favorite DeLillo novels, is, I must say, something of a departure from his usual writing style. So, even though it is an enjoyable read, it does not give someone a good introduction into DeLillo's sensibilities as a writer. For this reason, it may not be the best place to begin. At the same time, the highlight of Libra -- i.e. the assassination of President Kennedy -- does provide the basis on which all of DeLillo's work is built, and this may be sufficient justification for reading it first.

As I wrote in a previous review that I expect to publish on this blog tomorrow, I believe that DeLillo's recently published short-story collection, The Angel Esmeralda, provides the best introduction to his work because it is accessible, easy to read, features classic DeLillo themes, and spans the better part of his writing career (1979-2011). (Of course, this short-story collection was not in print when the New York Magazine created its guide.)

Or, if it must be a novel, then I would recommend that one begin with White Noise. It's difficult to find a better representative text of DeLillo than this.

Favorite Passages: "all plots tend to move deathward"

This passage is so good, DeLillo wrote it twice.

"All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots. Political plots, terrorist plots, lovers' plots, narrative plots, plots that are part of children's games. We edge nearer to death every time we plot. It is like a contract that all must sign, the plotters as well as those who are the targets of the plot."

-- White Noise

Plots carry their own logic. There is a tendency of plots to move toward death. He believed that the idea of death is woven into the nature of every plot. A narrative plot no less than a conspiracy of armed men. The tighter the plot of a story, the more likely it will come to death. A plot in fiction, he believed, is the way we localize the force of the death outside the book, play it off, contain it."

-- Libra