Paul A. Harris, one scholar who discussed DeLillo's novel, has claimed that The Names needs to be considered as "work that continually loops back through itself, that interweaves strands of narrative across an enmeshed, recursive surface" (196). How is this model of writing reflecting the process of globalization? What stories (be it confusing or boring) about global existence are being told in this book?
P.S. From what I gather from reading reviews, DeLillo's last book seems to approach similar topics (maybe in a less convoluted manner).
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The recursive model, by design, repeats itself. While DeLillo isn't repeating himself, per se, the method that he uses to tell the story necessarily flows in a cyclical manner.
ReplyDeleteIn class, the professor used the Venn Diagram (to great success, I thought) to explain to us how the three main narratives (Failed Romance, Expats, Murder Cult) slightly overlap, but never really fully touch.
The failed romance was, in my view, a side bar. By DeLillo giving him a mundane experience, it made Jim seem more like an "any man". If Jim were just this jet-setting expat analyzing data from the far flung reaches of the earth, no one would be able to relate to him. The failed romance was a device that deflated his balloon a little, making it easier for everyday people to put themselves in his shoes.
During last night's lecture, the professor went into greater detail about the interrelatedness of the expats and the murder cult. Although we touched on it some last Tuesday, the mirrored nomadic nature of the two groups really jumped out at me. There are many facets to this, but I'll just talk about what touched me the most. In the same way that the murder cult travels from place to place, carrying out these murders in the name of something they believe is greater than themselves, so does the corporations.
The corporations send their minions all over the earth to deplete the resources of a particular region until they are are totally used up, only to pull out and leave the region destitute. All of this is done, the multinationals believe, for the greater good of the entire world. It benefits their shareholders bottom line and trickles down to the consumer as lower prices. Regardless, there is still a "raping" taking place. Not unlike the murder cult going from place to place and killing people to achieve their own ends.
- Aaron Kinchen
By definition, fractals are geometric shapes that divide to produce roughly smaller versions of themselves, ad infinitum. I can see how DeLillo's plot resembles this, in a way.
ReplyDeleteDespite there being three distinct threads to the plot, they are all similar, dealing with distance, language, impermanence, association. In that way, they are similar to fractals as they are "roughly the same shape." Also, looking at surface of either one gives the impression that it is independent, though when you dive deeper in you discover they are interwoven, appendages part of the same hand. This is also similar to the independent "branches" of a fractal at close inspection. The plot line and fractals are also similar in their recurring qualities. Even if the individual situations themselves may cease, the processes that have brought them into being continue on with no end in sight, like the repeating pattern of a fractal.
Just realized that the question didn't mention fractals even once. But we discussed that in class, so it's kosher, right?
ReplyDeleteAlthough Globalization remains to be a very contentious process, one fact holds true …It is a process that has linked world economies into a system that depend on each other for an economically sound structure. One example of this can be noted in the recent downfall of the US economy – as a result of their loss, other economies suffered the repercussion. As globalization constantly connects these countries, it is in this way that DeLillo’s narrative, The Names, show a recurring connection through its series of events.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization gives us this impression that we are in commune. However, I feel that the world is a much bigger place with epidemic issues.
ReplyDeleteI think that the lives of most of the characters never travel in straight lines. Owen Brademas goes wherever the smell of semiotics takes him. James is a risk analyst and has traveled to Turkey, Pakistan, and Istanbul among other places. James’ professional life has its own “Particular pattern.” The pattern is erratic and precarious. Traveling back and forth and living out of suitcases does not leave room to live in a “Straight line.” Hence, James’ life is the perfect model of uncertainty. Living and working in countries where there is conflict, being separated and still living with his wife and accessing danger in order to sell insurance. The last two ideas: danger and insurance, which are abstract or uncertain. I believe this shows a connection and disconnection with the world at hand including his world. This is the same impression globalization gives us. I feel it is an illusion that space and time have been modified leading us to feel our world is smaller than it really is.
Delillo attempts to reveal to us through the characters that we are still just sprockets in this vast convoluted network. It only ebbs and flows making this meandering system of globalization spin, twist, and bend. In a pattern that mercilessly repeats itself.
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ReplyDeleteDelillo intertwines the characters as they are super-imposed into the global world with very minute details of their lives. Delillo takes us on a journey through the narrator, his wife and ever so precocious child, and the expatriates that are laced singularly without pause only to regress within another loop or chasm of the global narrative.
ReplyDeleteIt is the laud of self preserving themes that the characters seem to share, that binds them together. This sort of spectatorship that is granted to them by their jobs preserves their hypothetical diplomatic immunity, yet and still gives them a front row seat into the dichotomous global network of people, places, and sentiments. Many of which are interchangeable, and Delillo gives you the sense of that while circumnavigating his non-linear, somewhat bewildering story.
The caveat of this non-participation turned into direct involvement unfolded with James and his job as a risk analyst. He soon finds out that he is no more uninvolved in what is taking place in foreign parts of the world then the suspicious murderous cult that has infiltrated the local region.
does anyone know how to create a new topic or subject? or can the professor only do that?
ReplyDeleteIn class we were talking about the "mirror-world" and what it was exactly, I found a quote in the book where Cayce explains that the "mirror-world" is the opposite of new york, which in her case is London.
ReplyDelete"the open trunk of a small and uncharacteristically old mirror-world car. Not so much a mirror-world car as an English car, as no equivalent exists, on Cayce's side of the Atlantic, to mirror." page 28