[HN Gopher] Shocks to the system: Don DeLillo's novels of the co...
___________________________________________________________________
Shocks to the system: Don DeLillo's novels of the cold war and its
aftermath
Author : apollinaire
Score : 24 points
Date : 2023-08-30 17:31 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bookforum.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bookforum.com)
| FpUser wrote:
| I am confused - is this review or a patent application?
| flenserboy wrote:
| _The Names_ is probably DD 's best novel -- what's not in these
| particular volumes, however, is his collection of extraordinary
| short novels that filled the 70s ( _Ratner 's Star_ is the major
| exception; this is a monster-sized book, and it is a strange
| precursor to Stephenson's middle work). _End Zone_ , _Great Jones
| Street_ , _Players_ , and _Running Dog_ are all amazing portraits
| of the paranoias of the age -- terrorism, bomb fear, rock &
| roll, long-running conspiracies. Reading DeLillo alongside JG
| Ballard's novels of the same era is an education in the social
| and political undercurrents running through the 70s and early
| 80s.
| viscanti wrote:
| The Recognitions by Gaddis gets you the 1950s in similar
| fashion (and it's clear he was a major influence on those
| postmodern tome style writers who came later). Pynchon has
| pretty good coverage of the 1960s. Then DeLillo and Ballard get
| you through the 1970s. It's fascinating how much history and
| culture you can pick up through some of these fiction writers.
| wffurr wrote:
| This essay is unreadable. Such incredibly torturous phrasing. I
| hope DeLillo's works hang together better.
| sarks_nz wrote:
| +1
| [deleted]
| skyechurch wrote:
| The opening chapter of Underworld is one of the greatest things I
| have read, I can't even explain it because there's almost nothing
| like it, it's the literary equivalent of a spectacular movie
| chase scene. Iirc it was excerpted in the New Yorker years ago, I
| can't find it now there or anywhere, but it made me buy the book
| despite having sworn off 800 page American novels. The first
| chapter was still great, but I gave up in boredom ~30 pages later
| in boredom and have not read another word by him.
|
| It would probably be beneficial if someone could explain what I
| am missing, or what I should read by him instead, because it just
| can't end like this.
|
| ... You can read most of it here[1], probably doesn't have the
| same impact missing the first few pages, but maybe get a flavor
| of what he's doing it. I don't know what the correct analogy is,
| but it's definitely something cinematic.
|
| [1]
| https://books.google.com/books?id=Ug3ArDMHLnQC&printsec=fron...
| jraines wrote:
| Like others downthread I recommend White Noise. But I highly
| recommend the Viking Critical Edition -- which will explain
| what you're missing. (I mean, skip if you loathe postmodern
| litcrit; but I found the batch of essays/analyses well-chosen
| and accessible rather than the inscrutable academic katas such
| things can be)
| widowlark wrote:
| If you somehow have not yet read White Noise, you should put down
| whatever you are reading and start it now.
| sbate1987 wrote:
| [dead]
| rcme wrote:
| It was just ok.
| ngai_aku wrote:
| I _liked_ but didn't _love_ Underworld. Only DeLillo I've read
| so far, but maybe I need to move White Noise up on my list.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-08-30 23:01 UTC)