AtD blurb - "worldwide disaster looming"

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 18/08/2006:

> I don't think that the current world situation is
> going to be directly evoked in the novel, any more or
> less than the early 70s were evoked in GR, or the 90s
> were in M&D.

I think it's more to do with the Cold War implications or premonitions 
of GR, and in particular the way that that novel's final page -- once 
the "screaming" of the rocket which opens the novel is revealed to be 
the 00000's Descent, then the narrative suddenly morphs into a "present 
day" cinema setting -- forces the reader into a stark recognition of 
the immediate proximity of nuclear Armageddon in his or her "present" 
time and situation. Or P's comment in the SL 'Intro' about 'Under the 
Rose': "Our common nightmare The Bomb is in there too. It was bad 
enough in '59 and is much worse now, as the level of danger has 
continued to grow. [...]"

That sort of thing, not the "do not inhale" jokes. But I'm generally in 
agreement with you.

best

> I'm probably throwing a grenade in the tank by telling
> this story, but here it is...
>
> Not too long after the start of the Iraq War, I had an
> opportunity to see Don DeLillo do a reading (from
> Cosmopolis, which was catchy, but a letdown) & do some
> audience Q&A.  This was in SF, so you can imagine the
> political sensibilities (for the record, I'm a lefty.
> Be gentle.)  The questioners seemed to treat Mr.
> DeLillo like a great prognosticator, and the questions
> revolved not around his writings, but rather the
> pressing questions of the day to Bay Area natives:
> What the hell is going on and what do we do?  Someone
> asked him why we would have invaded Iraq, and his
> answer was guarded and elusive (in a nutshell, we did
> it because we've created new military technology since
> the last fight & wanted to screw around with it, which
> is a fine answer for a novelist).  Even DeLillo, who
> is so relentlessly focused on the contemporary (can
> you imagine him writing something like M&D?), isn't
> some kind of soothsayer, politician or ideologue.
> He's a storyteller.
>
> So the long and the short of my argument is, yup.
>
> -Chris