"I noticed how people played at being executives while actually
holding executive positions. Did I do this myself? You maintain a
shifting distance between yourself and your job. There's a
self-conscious space, a sense of formal play that is sort of arrested
panic, and maybe you show it in a forced gesture or a ritual clearing of
the throat. Something out of childhood whistles through this space, a
sense of games and half made selves, but it is not that you're
pretending to be someone else. You're pretending to be exactly who you
are. That's the curious thing." -page 103
"It would have been easier to believe that she deserved it. He left because she was heartless, foolish, angry, she was a bad housekeeper, a bad mother, a cold woman. But she could not invent a reliable plot for any of these excuses."
page 207
"And these were your streets. It's a curious rite of passage, isn't it? Visit the old places. First you wonder how you lived so uncomplainingly in such cramped circumstances. The streets are narrower, the buildings are smaller than you remembered. It's like coming back to Lilliput. And think of the rooms. Think of the tiny bathroom, shared by the family, by the grandparents, by the uncle who's slightly u'pazz. But what else do you see? These people you barely glance at. How can you seem them clearly? You can't."
-page 213
Random Thoughts so far...
....Sometimes in life you won't get the answers to why things end, begin, or happen. A single event can have such a lasting both positive and negative impact on the future. This seems to be a recurring theme so far within Don Delillo's Underworld. The prologue profiles the Bobby Thompson Home Run that elevated not only the Giants to the National League Pennant but created instant optimism for an entire community in New York. Ironically, on the same day across the world, the Russians were testing a nuclear bomb. The irony is that an event can create joy but on the same day another event can signify the end of an era.
...The disappearance of Jimmy Constanza while he headed out for Lucky strike cigarettes. Why did he do it? Did he actually leave or was he killed because of his gambling connections? I doubt that Delillo will provide a solid answer to these questions. Now that I am 280 pages into the novel the plot is finally starting to unfold. Or is it? Maybe it is just the theme that is more transparent.
...I am not sure what the purpose of the Texas High Way killer subplot is. This thread of the story is so odd and out there that I want to understand why it is included. Like with Infinite Jest and other epic postmodern novels that I have read, there are probably passages that will only make sense after a second reading. This is the best and worst part about reading these long tomes. Maybe those with a better memory and attention span might pick up on certain passages having significance. It all appears like random specs from a magic eye poster to me.
... The section of Sister Edgar delivering food in the Bronx was fabulous. I am caught up in the individual vignettes and rather than trying to paste together a larger story. I found that for me it is more about enjoying the novel line by line. For most of the night I found myself reading it aloud to myself.
...The novel's is hard to follow because of the non-linear structure of the story. The first few sections it appears that Delillo is sort of teaching the reader how to process the novel. I found myself reading and had these "wait a second that already happened moments." It is kind of told in reverse chronological order but with the extended descriptions it seems like the novel is progressing forward. Hard to explain the feeling of reading this novel. It is partly dream like.
...Nick's wife, Mirana smoking the heroin during her affair shocked and surprised the heck out of me. I didn't see that coming at all. The description of her encounter with Brian and the tone of replies by the individual characters was classic. It is something about the nature of an affair. It is the secrecy that is engaging, not really the person or the sex itself. The fact that they have to go to her assistants apartment to do it. The detail and description of the affair was fascinating.
"It would have been easier to believe that she deserved it. He left because she was heartless, foolish, angry, she was a bad housekeeper, a bad mother, a cold woman. But she could not invent a reliable plot for any of these excuses."
page 207
"And these were your streets. It's a curious rite of passage, isn't it? Visit the old places. First you wonder how you lived so uncomplainingly in such cramped circumstances. The streets are narrower, the buildings are smaller than you remembered. It's like coming back to Lilliput. And think of the rooms. Think of the tiny bathroom, shared by the family, by the grandparents, by the uncle who's slightly u'pazz. But what else do you see? These people you barely glance at. How can you seem them clearly? You can't."
-page 213
Random Thoughts so far...
....Sometimes in life you won't get the answers to why things end, begin, or happen. A single event can have such a lasting both positive and negative impact on the future. This seems to be a recurring theme so far within Don Delillo's Underworld. The prologue profiles the Bobby Thompson Home Run that elevated not only the Giants to the National League Pennant but created instant optimism for an entire community in New York. Ironically, on the same day across the world, the Russians were testing a nuclear bomb. The irony is that an event can create joy but on the same day another event can signify the end of an era.
...The disappearance of Jimmy Constanza while he headed out for Lucky strike cigarettes. Why did he do it? Did he actually leave or was he killed because of his gambling connections? I doubt that Delillo will provide a solid answer to these questions. Now that I am 280 pages into the novel the plot is finally starting to unfold. Or is it? Maybe it is just the theme that is more transparent.
...I am not sure what the purpose of the Texas High Way killer subplot is. This thread of the story is so odd and out there that I want to understand why it is included. Like with Infinite Jest and other epic postmodern novels that I have read, there are probably passages that will only make sense after a second reading. This is the best and worst part about reading these long tomes. Maybe those with a better memory and attention span might pick up on certain passages having significance. It all appears like random specs from a magic eye poster to me.
... The section of Sister Edgar delivering food in the Bronx was fabulous. I am caught up in the individual vignettes and rather than trying to paste together a larger story. I found that for me it is more about enjoying the novel line by line. For most of the night I found myself reading it aloud to myself.
...The novel's is hard to follow because of the non-linear structure of the story. The first few sections it appears that Delillo is sort of teaching the reader how to process the novel. I found myself reading and had these "wait a second that already happened moments." It is kind of told in reverse chronological order but with the extended descriptions it seems like the novel is progressing forward. Hard to explain the feeling of reading this novel. It is partly dream like.
...Nick's wife, Mirana smoking the heroin during her affair shocked and surprised the heck out of me. I didn't see that coming at all. The description of her encounter with Brian and the tone of replies by the individual characters was classic. It is something about the nature of an affair. It is the secrecy that is engaging, not really the person or the sex itself. The fact that they have to go to her assistants apartment to do it. The detail and description of the affair was fascinating.
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