I was thinking about this book and everything we've read earlier this weekend, and I realized that there is a lot of westward movement/motion. The book shifts from New York to Arizona/Texas/etc.; (I forget where these are, but) a lot of the freeways are heading west; and on 422 it says that Matt drives into the west, "deeper into the white parts of the map, where he would try to find a clue to his future." All this time heading west is countered by the scene on 467 when Matt realizes the sun is rising behind him and "he'd been facing in the wrong direction all along." Has anyone else noticed this/What do you think?
DeLillo describes the landscape of the west as remote and white. The landscape is hazy and barren and the animals there have evolved, slowly bleaching themselves white to blend in with their surroundings. I don't remember if this was from the book or a class discussion, but it was brought up that bombs were tested in the desert because it wouldn't cause any harm there and it wouldn't drastically change the surroundings. Ironically enough, though, those animals and that "once-brown mouse" (402) won't be saved by their camoflaging abilities.
When I read this book, I like how random characters are connected and how they sometimes say or do the same things. DeLillo writes on 465 that "Because everything connects in the end, or only seems to, or seems to only because it does." I thought that was a good way of looking at all those connections.
Matt is waiting for the sun to rise, and realizes that he is facing west instead of east, and that "he'd been facing in the wrong direction all along." This is immediately after he contemplates his work with bombs, and that "all technology refers to the bomb." He is realizing that he has been facing the wrong direction-- he is not meant to work with bombs,and does not want to. He's been facing west instead of east; he's been living in the Pocket rather than in Boston with Janet. He knows he isn't a weaponry man of the west and would rather be east with Janet, but can't bring himself to do it on his own.
On the subject of direction-- do you think that there's any connection between the west and the left? Page 422:
"And maybe it looked sinister because it was the left shoe, on the left foot, and this is what sinister means of course--unlucky, unfavorable, leftward-- and the word was asserting its baleful roots, its edible tubers and stems, through the medium of someone's shoe." Why is the left unlucky? The Highway Killer also shot with his left hand, right? The left definitely seems to be associated with the sinister. And the left side of the country, the west, is where the weapons tests are being held. I don't know if there's any significance in this, but there could be.
I remember reading that and I didn't really think about it, but it's an interesting point. I thought DeLillo just mentioned the left shoe/foot as sinister and unlucky because he wanted to reference that old superstition that the left is evil.
Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handed#Linguistic_suggestion
Another interesting bit about the "sinister left":
I read in the companion that Part 2, "Elegy for a Left Hand Alone," is referring to the instance where Albert Bronzini is listening to a piano recording and says that "something dark seemed to enter, the soloist's left hand urging the tempo" (229). I didn't catch that reference while reading. The companion notes how the "something dark" is a indirect reference to the Texas Highway Killer, who teaches himself to shoot with his left hand.
DeLillo applying the old "evil left" superstition does make sense, especially since he includes the old "unlucky thirteen" superstition as well.