New DeLillo

[Richard Romeo]

I

It has elements of Kafka's The Hunger Artist, for one thing, but DD, imho, 
is trying to replicate what Joyce did in Finnegans Wake--the abolition of 
past/present/future tense in the book, of course on a much easier to 
understand level for us--not that the book isn't hard--it is.
characters seem to merge, scenes repeat, impressions are equally unsure. 
then near the end, DD throws in another "frame", a description of the work 
of the "body artist", using elements the reader has been introduced to in 
different ways up to that point. (think of stephen dedalus writing that poem 
in A Portrait, the reader experiences that act of creation along w/ 
SD--Lauren Hartke's "performance" near the end of the book has that 
quality).

fwiw

imho
rich


>From: Ivan.Z.Cestero at Dartmouth.EDU (Ivan Z. Cestero)
>Reply-To: Ivan.Z.Cestero at Dartmouth.EDU (thisisreallyhappening)
>To: lycidas2 at earthlink.net, richardromeo at hotmail.com (Richard Romeo)
>CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: New DeLillo
>Date: 23 Jan 2001 14:02:45 EST
>
>--- Terrance wrote:
>body artist is a very strange book.
>--- end of quote ---
>rich,
>
>as you continue to ponder, would you care to elaborate a lil bit re/maybe 
>why the book is weird, what it might be about, and does it deal w/lots of 
>the stuff delillo lots to deal w/?
>
>very curious,
>
>i

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