In Episode 41 DDSWTNP continue the Summer of Underworld by turning attention to Part 5 and the conclusion of Manx Martin’s narrative and welcoming to the show Mark Osteen, major literary scholar, author of American Magic and Dread: Don DeLillo’s Dialogue with Culture (2000), and editor of the two Library of America volumes comprising DeLillo’s novels from 1982 to 1997. Mark is also an accomplished saxophonist with special insights into the inspiration DeLillo takes from jazz. We hear from Mark about all his absolutely essential work with DeLillo and Underworld since the 1990s, including his criticism on the novel, his suggestion to DeLillo about publishing his works with Library of America, and his conversations with the author about his writing techniques, from his lack of preparatory outlines to his interesting reply when asked whether he lifted any lines from Lenny Bruce recordings. In our discussion Mark moves nimbly across the many fragments of “Better Things For Better Living Through Chemistry,” showing how methods of montage and improvisation account for many of DeLillo’s structural choices, as well as how motifs of Cold War containment, chemicals’ ubiquity, the religion of consumerism, and the hidden connections of everyday life suffuse Part 5 in particular. Points of focus include the incredibly rich Bruce monologues, particularly his consideration of the art of making things up as DeLillo’s metafictional reflection; how DeLillo brings Hoover back into the narrative through the Black and White Ball and its “garbage guerrillas”; and how Part 5 fills in some unknown aspects of Nick Shay’s education, Jesuitical, sexual, and otherwise. We conclude with some close attention to Manx’s sale of the ball over a shared whiskey flask to Charles Wainwright, suggesting the ways this scene resonates with other black/white relationships across the novel. Over these two hours Mark draws on moments from his recent teaching of the novel to undergrads, makes comparisons to a few other contemporary writers, and shares with us and our listeners many ideas from the decades he’s spent at the forefront of DeLillo scholarship. For more on Mark Osteen’s work and the Library of America edition he edited that includes Underworld, see: https://www.loyola.edu/academics/english/faculty/osteen-mark.html, https://markosteen.com/, and https://www.loa.org/books/783-mao-ii-underworld/
In Episode 41 DDSWTNP continue the Summer of Underworld by turning attention to Part 5 and the conclusion of Manx Martin’s narrative and welcoming to the show Mark Osteen, major literary scholar, author of American Magic and Dread: Don DeLillo’s Dialogue with Culture (2000), and editor of the two Library of America volumes comprising DeLillo’s novels from 1982 to 1997. Mark is also an accomplished saxophonist with special insights into the inspiration DeLillo takes from jazz. We hear from Mark about all his absolutely essential work with DeLillo and Underworld since the 1990s, including his criticism on the novel, his suggestion to DeLillo about publishing his works with Library of America, and his conversations with the author about his writing techniques, from his lack of preparatory outlines to his interesting reply when asked whether he lifted any lines from Lenny Bruce recordings. In our discussion Mark moves nimbly across the many fragments of “Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry,” showing how methods of montage and improvisation account for many of DeLillo’s structural choices, as well as how motifs of Cold War containment, chemicals’ ubiquity, the religion of consumerism, and the hidden connections of everyday life suffuse Part 5 in particular. Points of focus include the incredibly rich Bruce monologues, particularly his consideration of the art of making things up as DeLillo’s metafictional reflection; how DeLillo brings Hoover back into the narrative through the Black and White Ball and its “garbage guerrillas”; and how Part 5 fills in some unknown aspects of Nick Shay’s education, Jesuitical, sexual, and otherwise. We conclude with some close attention to Manx’s sale of the ball over a shared whiskey flask to Charles Wainwright, suggesting the ways this scene resonates with other black/white relationships across the novel. Over these two hours Mark draws on moments from his recent teaching of the novel to undergrads, makes comparisons to a few other contemporary writers, and shares with us and our listeners many ideas from the decades he’s spent at the forefront of DeLillo scholarship.
For more on Mark Osteen’s work and the Library of America edition he edited that includes Underworld, see: https://www.loyola.edu/academics/english/faculty/osteen-mark.html, https://markosteen.com/, and https://www.loa.org/books/783-mao-ii-underworld/