"He wondered about being *it* . . . a fearsome power in the term because it makes you separate from the others. You flee the tag, the telling touch. But once you're *it*, name-shorn, neither boy nor girl, you're the one who must be feared. You're the dark power in the street. And you feel a kind of demonry, chasing the players, trying to put your skelly-bone hand on them, to spread your taint, your curse. Speak the syllable slowly if you can. A whisper of death perhaps" (677).

So. Upon reading this a ton of connections rushed into my head. The first was this Nike ad from years ago. The ad began, "'tag' is a complex game involving many complexities," and went on to describe in excruciating detail how the game is played, focusing in particular on what it means to be "it." Anyways, the kind of over-analysis offered in the ad seems similar to this passage.

I found the jello scenes with Erica, Eric's mom, very interesting. I thought it was very peculiar how she made so many molds, (and so many disgusting combinations). Making Jello improves her mood, and she makes it constantly, seemingly to soothe her frazzled nerves. She also loves the word "Jello" because it was so convenient, "The word went anywhere...it was a push-button word, ...they way the whole world opened behind the button that you pushed" (517). And then I thought about how Erica is scared of the Sputnik, and how she hates surpises and unpredictability and I realized! Jello is common-place, solid, and it is transparent.

"'Everyday things represent the most overlooked knowlege. These names are vital to your progress. Quotidian things. If they weren't important, we wouldn't use such a gorgeous Latinate word ... An extraordinary word that suggests the depth and reach of the commonplace'"
-- Father Paulus on page 542

"I wanted to look up words. I wanted to look up velleity and quotidian and memorize the fuckers for all time, spell them , learn them, pronounce them syllable by syllable--vocalize, phonate, utter the sounds, say the words for all they're worth. This is the only way in the world you can escape the things that made you"

The more I read this novel, the more I appreciate it--not just for its intricate plot/encyclopedic qualities/ characters/ whatever, but also for DeLillo's writing. There were a few passages in this last reading assignment that blew me away in terms of style and meaning:

"It was a fine beamed room with creepy suburban furniture and they were shy because they hadn't seen or touched each other in a long time and Janet had to get used to this. They'd only slept together several times, planned always in advance. They didn't have a set of understandings, a pace and a glance, the whole hushed protocol of wishes and hints, bodies lightly brushing in the elevator. There was no elevator here" (448).

Did page 404 make anyone else think of Gravity’s Rainbow? DeLillo talks about “Bombheads” but says they don’t walk around with “megadeath hardons”, and are not all pro-bomb. I think the term “megadeath hardon” sort of sums of Gravity’s Rainbow.

I also am interested in how DeLillo deals with one of Gravity’s Rainbow’s favorite themes, paranoia. I am thinking about how Matt gets paranoid when he gets high. I feel that scene is part of DeLillo’s commentary on paranoia and how so much of our terror is self-imposed. It seems degraded when Matt’s fears are caused by drugs. It seems very silly.

"What's the point of waking up in the morning if you don't try to match the enormousness of the known forces in the world with something powerful in your own life?" (323)

We've talked about it before, but more and more as we keep reading I think DeLillo seems to be saying that paranoia is a good thing, that establishing connections to things is absolutely necessary. This quote in particular says that making connections that maybe aren't there is actually necessary to have a sense of purpose in life. The connection between the 'enormous' powers of the world and the relative insignificance of your own life is probably not a real one, but still DeLillo says we need it.

I was just looking back through the earlier sections of the book, and the following passage, where Nick asks his wife about Brian and then wishes he had done it earlier: " 'What do I detect?' 'What do you mean?' she said. 'Between you and Brian.' 'What do you mean?' she said. 'What do I detect? That's what I mean.' He makes me laugh,' she said finally ... I hear the shower rnning accross the hall and I realized I'd done it all wrong. I should have rbought up the subject standing in the doorway while she was watching TV. Then I could have been the one who walks out of the room" (117). There is something strikingly filmic about both the exchange itself and Nick's curious reaction.

on page 338, when Sims and Nick are butting heads with each other, the text reads, "Pain is just another form of information." I think this is a really interesting way of thinking of human connections. For example, Nick keeps saying that he and his wife never fight, and he seems really messed up about it. It seems like he's trying to say that it takes a lot of love to hate or harm someone, because you have to care enough to hurt them.

Also on page 303, while Nick is watching Sims use a modern keycard, he says, "We walked along hallway mazes fitted with electronic gates that Sims opened by inserting a keycard in a lockset.

Don't you like how the famous people from the introduction keep popping up in the actual story line? I believe we have seen two of the famous four, so far. We saw mention of J. Edgar Hoover when they take about that waste management enthusiast, Detwiler, who was arrested when he snatched J. Edgar Hoover's garbage from his house (286. We also have seen many reccuring mentions of Jackie Gleason as Nick Shay's mother watches Honeymooner's reruns. I love how that exhilarating introduction is becoming tied into the novel. I hope we see the other two, also!

When I was close reading the other day, I noticed how the pyramid symbol (or concept) kept popping up in the text of Underworld. For example, 1. "He imagined he was watching the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza..." (184)
2. "We built pyramids of waste above and below the earth" (106)
3. Also the reference to the pyramid with the eye on the dollar bill.
Does anybody know a certain cultural significance of pyramids that might pertain to this book? The only think I can think of at all is that a pyramid of waste is a metaphor-- saying that the waste is so wonderful and significant it is practically another wonder of the world.