A Flag for Sunrise

[MalignD at aol.com]

Richard Romeo:

<< Anyone else a little worried about DeLillo's increasing popularity? ...   
seems like lots of young writers are either dropping his name as the current 
standard or in some cases, imitating him, the hipster dialogue, the cool 
detached automaton, hardly any plot to speak--aimless ramblings. the media 
has caught up with him, too. ...  I wonder if it's a not such a bad thing 
that Pynchon/Gaddis are not so loved as DeLillo.>>

I seem to be missing something in that I don't quite see the connection 
between popularity and quality.  DeLillo's being or becoming more popular 
than previously (or Gaddis/Pynchon not so) has no effect on the quality of 
his or either of the latter's work.  (It hasn't improved the quality of the 
DeLillo-list either, or maybe that's your complaint?)

That said, I agree with you that DeLillo's work is over-esteemed at the 
moment or, perhaps, esteemed for the wrong reasons--the enjoyable and not 
particularly profound (but "big") Underworld, likely the cause.  The 
pleasures of DeLillo's work lie on the surface, the 
sometimes-too-worked-over, but usually effective aridity of his style.  It 
works best when he's least ambitious, I think.  E.g., Great Jones Street.