November 12, 2007

Falling Man

Don DeLillo's new novel, Falling Man, seems like an interesting read based on this review from Chron.com.

A world on the edge
As he notes in Underworld, he is a "dietrologist." "It means the science of what is behind something. A suspicious event. The science of what is behind an event." Not plots, but what's behind them inform his writing.

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Much of DeLillo's work is a meditation on the equalizing tendencies of technology and mass society, and how that flattening out of culture results from a single source, our collective fear of death. Fear of death is what drives American culture, creating a culture of distraction. Television, pill-popping, and consumption are among our collectively unconscious strategies for forgetting the omnipresence of death.
Sept. 11, at least for a time, rubbed our noses in the immediacy and irrationality of death. In examining its effects on a few of the survivors, DeLillo is seeking to restore our collective awareness of the fragility of life. He finds, of course, powerful opponents: Anna Nicole Smith's baby-daddy, Katie Couric's nightly ratings and Sanjaya's fate. Reading this absorbing work makes one wonder what the hell we're doing with our lives.
Also, another book review via Chron.com:
The Meaning of Life
Love, happiness and all that jazz: Terry Eagleton contends that finding meaning in life comes with being part of an ensemble

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