Here were just some things that stood out to me during the first part of this reading...
I thought it was oddly fitting that Sister Edgar was described like death/some powerful force in the game of "Tag, You're It" that damns children forever. (717) On page 720, Matt also describes her nun's habit like something the Grim Reaper would wear: "It was her after all, habit and hood. The cloth was daunting. She was all cloth. She was a wall of laundered cloth. A woman of the cloth."
I also wondered about those dogtags that the kids have to wear so that their bodies could be identified "following the onset of atomic war" (717). Wouldn't the dogtags be destroyed, as well? What's the point then?
Another question I had (after chuckling with amusement) is connected to what was on the 728, describing Sister Edgar's reaction to Annette Esposito's breasts. Why is S.Edgar so offended by those breasts?
I thought it was really interesting that Delillo describes Sister Edgar as afraid of viruses even in death (page 825). In this computer world of death Sister Edgar knows the fate of having a virus. Why is it that characters don't find some meaning when they die? She's still holding onto her execessive phobia of germs.
Yeah, well, they did a lot of things that were more for themselves than for practical use as far as protecting themselves against a bomb...my mom remembers, in elementary school, having to hide under her desk (which was taught by nuns...interesting, no?). At that point, she got scared because she figured out that the adults had no idea what to do...she wondered what good hiding under the desk would do if there was an atomic bomb. I think the dogtags etc are all just real things that DeLillo uses to make the time frame come alive again