Hello, Last week, I took off for a few days. Sam and I drove up the coast to Cambria, looking to get away from this infernal heat, unplugging our laptops and checking into a beachside motel with nothing but fog, surf, and novels for company. The book we both took with us was
I was near a Barnes & Noble and had time to kill so I stopped in and ended up buying The Silence. The cashier said, well, this should be a quick read. I said, well, faster than Underworld. I asked if he'd read Dellilo. He hadn't. I told him he had to. He promised he would,
Don’t mind me while I catch up on my Substack reading … First off congrats on wrapping up your ms and I look forward to possibly more frequent posts and a future paid tier! I don’t know if you saw my review of Mao II but the TL;DR version is his “quaintness,” to borrow your word (and it is a good word for it) wasn't my cup of tea. Thankfully it wasn’t my first DeLillo (I think White Noise was a perfect introduction, which I can say with great confidence having never read any of his other books). My biggest complaint, and I have this problem with Franzen as well, is the looming hubris of the Author, who seems to radiate a belief in the indisputable centrality of the novelist — interestingly, right before (or right as?) the novel was making its way into the sidelines. In the novel's heyday a hundred years before that, there's no such offputting presumption or forced quality. The quote you shared from after the publication of Underworld is really interesting because you can still hear the denial in his voice — does he honestly believe that somehow the marginality of the novelist would help his cause? Poor guy. But it made me think perhaps Underworld and his later works may be more palatable because he was losing this distracting quality. Given my response to Mao II, is there any hope for me in appreciating DeLillo? Both Underworld and Libra have been recommended highly to me. What would you recommend?
I was near a Barnes & Noble and had time to kill so I stopped in and ended up buying The Silence. The cashier said, well, this should be a quick read. I said, well, faster than Underworld. I asked if he'd read Dellilo. He hadn't. I told him he had to. He promised he would,
Don’t mind me while I catch up on my Substack reading … First off congrats on wrapping up your ms and I look forward to possibly more frequent posts and a future paid tier! I don’t know if you saw my review of Mao II but the TL;DR version is his “quaintness,” to borrow your word (and it is a good word for it) wasn't my cup of tea. Thankfully it wasn’t my first DeLillo (I think White Noise was a perfect introduction, which I can say with great confidence having never read any of his other books). My biggest complaint, and I have this problem with Franzen as well, is the looming hubris of the Author, who seems to radiate a belief in the indisputable centrality of the novelist — interestingly, right before (or right as?) the novel was making its way into the sidelines. In the novel's heyday a hundred years before that, there's no such offputting presumption or forced quality. The quote you shared from after the publication of Underworld is really interesting because you can still hear the denial in his voice — does he honestly believe that somehow the marginality of the novelist would help his cause? Poor guy. But it made me think perhaps Underworld and his later works may be more palatable because he was losing this distracting quality. Given my response to Mao II, is there any hope for me in appreciating DeLillo? Both Underworld and Libra have been recommended highly to me. What would you recommend?
So good. Thank you! Can't wait for the paid tier.