The article about Don DeLillo was quite interesting and gave some insight into his writing. When I began reading "The Names", I really did not enjoy it. But now the more I read it the better it is getting because we are debriefing the novel in class, which gives me a better understanding of the story, and the characters. In the article DeLillo had a bit of an aversion towards technology, and communication now, and in the future. He does not use email and only writes on an old typewriter from the 1970s. DeLillo says "He doesn’t use e-mail, because he says it “encourages communication I’d just as soon not have.” In his book "The Names" the protagonist, Jim, has a difficult time dealing with the past. He becomes very stressed in the opening of the book when he sees the Acropolis in the distance. This theme is carried throughout the novel. It's intriguing that in DeLillo's life he doesn't want to use future technology and technology that is available now, but his character in the book has an aversion to the past.
I'm struggling a bit getting through this book, but I found that our discussion of James' search for (or his attempt to avoid) a moment of revelation has helped. Reading chapters 6-9 this weekend, a few things jumped out at me that I think are worth pointing out. First, James has a revelation about the cult and the way they choose their victims. This is a major moment for this protagonist, who has wandered throughout the novel in time and space and has now found some clarity. He describes himself as being "aware" and "alert." It was something that came to him as if he had known the whole time. This is a huge moment in the novel, when James is finally set on a path. His actions from this point on have some sort of purpose, though I struggle to see exactly what this purpose is. It is possible that this cult and their actions are James' Acropolis. James begins to search for signs of the cult as his own way of finding himself, a path that for many others seems to come in discovering bits of the past such as the Parthenon and finding their own relation to it in space and time. While his journey gives some more meaning to the novel, there are times when it appears cheap, particularly on page 205 where James says, "I would conceal myself in Volterra's obsession as I had in Owen's unprotected pain, his songs of helplessness." Is this journey another of James' many ways of hiding himself? As he says on the next page, he is not "a man who has seen himself plain." So what is he doing wandering about trying to find this cult? Is it some sort of journey in search of personal growth, or is it merely a matter of getting caught up in something that makes someone else unique and trying to freeload from their passions and journeys some meaning of life?
Although I really like the specific historic context of the novel, I find it hard to actually enjoy the story. It switches between discussing the dangerous environment surrounding these expatriate Americans, their intimate lives, the cult, and abstract theories of language too often for me to actually become absorbed in any one thread.
Honestly, I could do without all the philandering American escapades as I can't even keep track of which jet-setting couple has which particular problem because they all seem so interchangeable.
Also, DeLillo's style sometimes creates a barrier with his short narrative sentences that jump from subject to subject. The randomness of it is irksome at times.
That being said, I have had moments where I am completely engrossed in the novel. Unfortunately, that spell breaks too often.
James’ view of Ancient Greek in the novel The Names seems related with his understanding of what shaped history in today’s era. In addition, he has trouble in dealing with his own past, especially maintaining relationship with his wife and son. Delillo’s opening summarizes the protagonist notion of his perceptive of the past, present, and future:
For a long time I stayed away from the Acropolis. It daunted me, that somber rock. I preferred to wander in the modern city, imperfect, blaring. The weight and moment of those worked stones promised to make the business of seeing them a complicated one. So much converges there. It’s what we’ve rescued from the madness. Beauty, dignity, order, proportion. There are obligations attached to such a visit (DeLillo, pg. 3).
James feels detached with his own environment. He “Stayed away” from the ancient and prefer the modernized urban places. He’s in the state of divorce proceedings but still admire his wife. Hence, he is in complex situation especially when it comes to dealing with the past (or “Ancient” times).
I thought the NYT article was great but surprising. In it, the reviewer says that DeLillo's newest novel is only 117 pages, and that the text is very straight-forward with minimal dialogue--a complete '180' from his earlier novels such as Underworld or even The Names. The Names is not even mentioned in the article as being one of his more widely acclaimed books, which I thought was interesting. Overall though, reading DeLillo's work has opened my eyes to exploring texts that don't initially appeal to me. Perhaps the books I read should not act as a mirror of myself but rather teach me something new about a different group of people with interests and experiences different from my own. --Christopher Stoddard
I am at the very early chapters of this book The Name, and for a moment I was confused; wondering if I had missed some vital piece of information seeing that I began the class in it's third session; because I was rereading passages thinking that the plots did not follow what I considered a normal sequence that makes reading easy. I am thankful to know this style is intentional.
I have pondered on Ann’s nonchalant attitude to the stressful encounters of her existence in the different places that she and Charles, her husband had to flee due to political unrest or instability of wars in those regions. Her statement, “Port Harcourt, Nigeria … was the only regret” in my opinion gives Ann some normalcy and although I was told how she was able to cope I am still looking forward to discovering this for myself.
I parallel this section with the incident of the World Trade Center bombings and I remember the casual comments from some nations who had experienced bombings on a regular basis, and while Americans we were outraged by such a violation on American soil we have come to a place of learning to cope. Are we having an affair with anti-terrorist information? In early January of this year, at Newark Airport, a young man passed under a rope barrier to walk hand in hand with his girlfriend to the boarding area to kiss her at the this breach in security cause huge delays for passengers world wide. This act may be a romantic idea for the movies but not for reality.
I can reiterate many of the frustrations already shared by other members of the class.
Don DeLillo's THE NAMES has been a meandering, at times "stream of consciousness" reading experience. In class, we went over the numerous subplots that pepper the story.
For example, DeLillo, usually with no transitional dialogue, navigates the reader through Jim's personal family struggles; then, he zig-zags to Owen B's long winded stories about the island cult. Slammed against this are elaborate descriptions of jet-set parties attended by couples who work on international accounts for enormous global corporations. As the reader grasps all of this, then a new character, Volterra, is thrown into the mix.
I nary to say all of this is complicated, because I've been able to follow along without asking myself, "Wait a second, did I miss something?"
In fact, at times I find it boring. I suppose on some level, I'm supposing that the brilliance of this particular work of fiction is that the boring parts contain some substance that fuels the overall plot. Because what ends up happening right as I am on the cusp of dozing off from the dullness of DeLillo's prose, a twist will happen in the plot...something peculiar that leans towards another clue in the murders, or more information about the cult.
In spite of this, the fact remains that we discussed the "anti novel" at the last class meeting. I don't think I've read something that is supposed to have an indefinite end point. It's challenging me as a reader. Part of me is relying on my past experiences reading novels that take the reader on an expected journey from beginning to end. I am about to finish chapter 10. I must admit, with less than one-third of the book left to finish, I am anxious to see how this will turn out, even with the knowledge that this style of writing is supposed to be open ended.
Follow the link above to read Vanity Fair's account of DeLillo's appearance earlier this month at a store called BookCourt in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn.
I think you mentioned in class that DeLillo's wife worked for some banking company and that brought the couple to Greece for awhile, so that experience obviously influenced the book (unless I completely imagined all of that, in which case, forget it).
Aside from that, I think Greece as the setting works thematically; what better place to question the effects of Western civilization than in its birthplace? Athens also offers a unique opportunity in that it is one of the few places in the world that allows for such an extreme juxtaposition of ancient history (the Acropolis) and the modern day (sprawling, overcrowded metropolis). Also, considering that a theme of the book is globalization and that term often goes hand-in-hand with neocolonialism, Greece is also appropriate as it was a civilization that sought an empire, a criticism often lobbied at Western nations, particularly the U.S.
DeLillo is clever in choosing Ancient Greece, it being a land with harldy any natural resources and business being held up by globalization as seen with recent events of Greece bankrupting and causing the Euro to fall because of Goldman Sachs. The reason for the characters being there itself is digging history without any capital gain. The historical artifacts themselves lack worth being mostly made of clay and only have a cultural value. The country demands contact with the world to prosper.
Delillo seems to strategically place his characters while subversively unraveling the conventional rules of literary writing. I think that he needed to do this to bring the global diaspora into perspective and exploit its context in general by thoughtfully intrusive means.
Ancient Greece particularly has always (in history and modern times)garnered a historically intriguing pandemic effect. This carries over to the characters in "The names", mainly James. He is trying to find himself admidst a global fabric that is being constantly woven by the people and the companies that surrounds him. It is no wonder that Jeams is so enthralled by the Parthenon-- captivated by what it represents. Amassed with history, culture, and prevailing notions of existential providence, the Parthenon is the embodiment of what James' life is devoid of or what it ambiguously demonstrates (what our lives are devoid of).
Delillo granted us the task to take apart the intricate and methodical global narratives because that is what globalization is. It is a complicated network of dehumanization held together by technology, and driven by novelty and sociological ambitions. I think Delillo cleverly gave us a personal story of anecdotal accounts of what globalization means and does to other people. James is the manifestation of this narrative that Delillo uses to give a sense of how this phenomena engulfs us to the point that we are in a complex web of networks.
It was no mistake that the book's setting was in Ancient Greece, neither was the fact that James is a risk analyst. By being a technical and detail-oriented person, James was able to potray a tale in an obejective way while having to balance his personal relationships. One particular story couldn't be the main focus in the names... for it would not have been imaginably realistic. We all have our part in adding to globalization, and within our personal stories are even more stories within. I think that is why Delillo had James unknowingly working for the CIA. It is from that point where you can see that James is like many of us. We who think that globalization is an esoteric notion will soon find that we have a direct hand in supplementing its spread, as did James is we such hard enough. Delillo utilized Ancient Greece as the epitome of what we once was and what we still seek, but seemed to have loss.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe article about Don DeLillo was quite interesting and gave some insight into his writing. When I began reading "The Names", I really did not enjoy it. But now the more I read it the better it is getting because we are debriefing the novel in class, which gives me a better understanding of the story, and the characters.
ReplyDeleteIn the article DeLillo had a bit of an aversion towards technology, and communication now, and in the future. He does not use email and only writes on an old typewriter from the 1970s. DeLillo says "He doesn’t use e-mail, because he says it “encourages communication I’d just as soon not have.” In his book "The Names" the protagonist, Jim, has a difficult time dealing with the past. He becomes very stressed in the opening of the book when he sees the Acropolis in the distance. This theme is carried throughout the novel. It's intriguing that in DeLillo's life he doesn't want to use future technology and technology that is available now, but his character in the book has an aversion to the past.
I'm struggling a bit getting through this book, but I found that our discussion of James' search for (or his attempt to avoid) a moment of revelation has helped. Reading chapters 6-9 this weekend, a few things jumped out at me that I think are worth pointing out. First, James has a revelation about the cult and the way they choose their victims. This is a major moment for this protagonist, who has wandered throughout the novel in time and space and has now found some clarity. He describes himself as being "aware" and "alert." It was something that came to him as if he had known the whole time. This is a huge moment in the novel, when James is finally set on a path. His actions from this point on have some sort of purpose, though I struggle to see exactly what this purpose is. It is possible that this cult and their actions are James' Acropolis. James begins to search for signs of the cult as his own way of finding himself, a path that for many others seems to come in discovering bits of the past such as the Parthenon and finding their own relation to it in space and time. While his journey gives some more meaning to the novel, there are times when it appears cheap, particularly on page 205 where James says, "I would conceal myself in Volterra's obsession as I had in Owen's unprotected pain, his songs of helplessness." Is this journey another of James' many ways of hiding himself? As he says on the next page, he is not "a man who has seen himself plain." So what is he doing wandering about trying to find this cult? Is it some sort of journey in search of personal growth, or is it merely a matter of getting caught up in something that makes someone else unique and trying to freeload from their passions and journeys some meaning of life?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I really like the specific historic context of the novel, I find it hard to actually enjoy the story. It switches between discussing the dangerous environment surrounding these expatriate Americans, their intimate lives, the cult, and abstract theories of language too often for me to actually become absorbed in any one thread.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I could do without all the philandering American escapades as I can't even keep track of which jet-setting couple has which particular problem because they all seem so interchangeable.
Also, DeLillo's style sometimes creates a barrier with his short narrative sentences that jump from subject to subject. The randomness of it is irksome at times.
That being said, I have had moments where I am completely engrossed in the novel. Unfortunately, that spell breaks too often.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJames’ view of Ancient Greek in the novel The Names seems related with his understanding of what shaped history in today’s era. In addition, he has trouble in dealing with his own past, especially maintaining relationship with his wife and son. Delillo’s opening summarizes the protagonist notion of his perceptive of the past, present, and future:
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I stayed away from the Acropolis. It daunted me, that somber rock. I preferred to wander in the modern city, imperfect, blaring. The weight and moment of those worked stones promised to make the business of seeing them a complicated one. So much converges there. It’s what we’ve rescued from the madness. Beauty, dignity, order, proportion. There are obligations attached to such a visit (DeLillo, pg. 3).
James feels detached with his own environment. He “Stayed away” from the ancient and prefer the modernized urban places. He’s in the state of divorce proceedings but still admire his wife. Hence, he is in complex situation especially when it comes to dealing with the past (or “Ancient” times).
Aisha Parlindungan
ENG 3950
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought the NYT article was great but surprising. In it, the reviewer says that DeLillo's newest novel is only 117 pages, and that the text is very straight-forward with minimal dialogue--a complete '180' from his earlier novels such as Underworld or even The Names. The Names is not even mentioned in the article as being one of his more widely acclaimed books, which I thought was interesting. Overall though, reading DeLillo's work has opened my eyes to exploring texts that don't initially appeal to me. Perhaps the books I read should not act as a mirror of myself but rather teach me something new about a different group of people with interests and experiences different from my own. --Christopher Stoddard
ReplyDeleteI am at the very early chapters of this book The Name, and for a moment I was confused; wondering if I had missed some vital piece of information seeing that I began the class in it's third session; because I was rereading passages thinking that the plots did not follow what I considered a normal sequence that makes reading easy. I am thankful to know this style is intentional.
ReplyDeleteI have pondered on Ann’s nonchalant attitude to the stressful encounters of her existence in the different places that she and Charles, her husband had to flee due to political unrest or instability of wars in those regions. Her statement, “Port Harcourt, Nigeria … was the only regret” in my opinion gives Ann some normalcy and although I was told how she was able to cope I am still looking forward to discovering this for myself.
I parallel this section with the incident of the World Trade Center bombings and I remember the casual comments from some nations who had experienced bombings on a regular basis, and while Americans we were outraged by such a violation on American soil we have come to a place of learning to cope. Are we having an affair with anti-terrorist information? In early January of this year, at Newark Airport, a young man passed under a rope barrier to walk hand in hand with his girlfriend to the boarding area to kiss her at the this breach in security cause huge delays for passengers world wide. This act may be a romantic idea for the movies but not for reality.
I can reiterate many of the frustrations already shared by other members of the class.
ReplyDeleteDon DeLillo's THE NAMES has been a meandering, at times "stream of consciousness" reading experience. In class, we went over the numerous subplots that pepper the story.
For example, DeLillo, usually with no transitional dialogue, navigates the reader through Jim's personal family struggles; then, he zig-zags to Owen B's long winded stories about the island cult. Slammed against this are elaborate descriptions of jet-set parties attended by couples who work on international accounts for enormous global corporations. As the reader grasps all of this, then a new character, Volterra, is thrown into the mix.
I nary to say all of this is complicated, because I've been able to follow along without asking myself, "Wait a second, did I miss something?"
In fact, at times I find it boring. I suppose on some level, I'm supposing that the brilliance of this particular work of fiction is that the boring parts contain some substance that fuels the overall plot. Because what ends up happening right as I am on the cusp of dozing off from the dullness of DeLillo's prose, a twist will happen in the plot...something peculiar that leans towards another clue in the murders, or more information about the cult.
In spite of this, the fact remains that we discussed the "anti novel" at the last class meeting. I don't think I've read something that is supposed to have an indefinite end point. It's challenging me as a reader. Part of me is relying on my past experiences reading novels that take the reader on an expected journey from beginning to end. I am about to finish chapter 10. I must admit, with less than one-third of the book left to finish, I am anxious to see how this will turn out, even with the knowledge that this style of writing is supposed to be open ended.
- Aaron Kinchen
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2010/02/12/brooklyns-date-with-don-delillo-a-reading-of-point-omega.html
ReplyDeleteFollow the link above to read Vanity Fair's account of DeLillo's appearance earlier this month at a store called BookCourt in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn.
- Aaron Kinchen
Very funny -- thanks for posting this link!
ReplyDeleteI think you mentioned in class that DeLillo's wife worked for some banking company and that brought the couple to Greece for awhile, so that experience obviously influenced the book (unless I completely imagined all of that, in which case, forget it).
ReplyDeleteAside from that, I think Greece as the setting works thematically; what better place to question the effects of Western civilization than in its birthplace? Athens also offers a unique opportunity in that it is one of the few places in the world that allows for such an extreme juxtaposition of ancient history (the Acropolis) and the modern day (sprawling, overcrowded metropolis). Also, considering that a theme of the book is globalization and that term often goes hand-in-hand with neocolonialism, Greece is also appropriate as it was a civilization that sought an empire, a criticism often lobbied at Western nations, particularly the U.S.
DeLillo is clever in choosing Ancient Greece, it being a land with harldy any natural resources and business being held up by globalization as seen with recent events of Greece bankrupting and causing the Euro to fall because of Goldman Sachs. The reason for the characters being there itself is digging history without any capital gain. The historical artifacts themselves lack worth being mostly made of clay and only have a cultural value. The country demands contact with the world to prosper.
ReplyDeleteDelillo seems to strategically place his characters while subversively unraveling the conventional rules of literary writing. I think that he needed to do this to bring the global diaspora into perspective and exploit its context in general by thoughtfully intrusive means.
ReplyDeleteAncient Greece particularly has always (in history and modern times)garnered a historically intriguing pandemic effect. This carries over to the characters in "The names", mainly James. He is trying to find himself admidst a global fabric that is being constantly woven by the people and the companies that surrounds him. It is no wonder that Jeams is so enthralled by the Parthenon-- captivated by what it represents. Amassed with history, culture, and prevailing notions of existential providence, the Parthenon is the embodiment of what James' life is devoid of or what it ambiguously demonstrates (what our lives are devoid of).
Delillo granted us the task to take apart the intricate and methodical global narratives because that is what globalization is. It is a complicated network of dehumanization held together by technology, and driven by novelty and sociological ambitions. I think Delillo cleverly gave us a personal story of anecdotal accounts of what globalization means and does to other people. James is the manifestation of this narrative that Delillo uses to give a sense of how this phenomena engulfs us to the point that we are in a complex web of networks.
It was no mistake that the book's setting was in Ancient Greece, neither was the fact that James is a risk analyst. By being a technical and detail-oriented person, James was able to potray a tale in an obejective way while having to balance his personal relationships. One particular story couldn't be the main focus in the names... for it would not have been imaginably realistic. We all have our part in adding to globalization, and within our personal stories are even more stories within. I think that is why Delillo had James unknowingly working for the CIA. It is from that point where you can see that James is like many of us. We who think that globalization is an esoteric notion will soon find that we have a direct hand in supplementing its spread, as did James is we such hard enough. Delillo utilized Ancient Greece as the epitome of what we once was and what we still seek, but seemed to have loss.