Don DeLillo The University of Georgia Press Athens and London David Cowart Don DeLíllo The Physics of Language Revised Edition University of Georgia Press paperback edition, 2003 © 2002 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 All rights reserved Designed by Sandra Hudson Set in Minion by G&S Typesetters, Inc. Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Printed in the United States of America 07 06 05 04 03 P 5 4 3 2 1 The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cowart, David, 1947– Don DeLillo: the physics of language / David Cowart, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8203-2320-9 (alk. paper) 1. DeLillo, Don — Criticism and interpretation. 2. Postmodernism (Literature) — United States. I. Title. PS3554.E4425 Z59 2002 813'.54—dc21 2001045070 ISBN 0-8203-2581-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4226-9 The chapter "For Whom Bell Tolls Americana" was first published in slightly different form as "For Whom Bell Tolls: Don DeLillo's Americana." Contemporary Literature, 37, no. 4 (winter 1996): 602–19. Copyright ©1996 The University of Wisconsin Press. Reprinted with permission. The chapter "More Advanced the Deeper We Dig: Ratner's Star" was first published under the same title but in slightly different form in Modern Fiction Studies 45, no. 3 (fall 1999): 600–620. Copyright ©1999 The Purdue Research Foundation. For Chase Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells, er I began to suspect that language was a subject as well as an instrument in my work. Don DeLillo Contents Acknowledgments, ix Introduction, i Port One: "For me the crux of the whole matter is language" 1. Football and Unsäglichkeit: End Zone, 17 2. Pharmaceutical Philomela: Great Jones Street, 33 3. Mortal Stakes: Players, 43 4. The Naive and Sentimental Reader: Running Dog, 55 vii Part Two: "Before everything, there's language" 5. Timor Mortis Conturbat Me: White Noise, 71 6. Convergence of the Twain: Libra, 91 7. "Our Only Language Is Beirut": Mao II, 111 Part Three: "The word beyond speech" 8. For Whom Bell Tolls: Americana, 131 9. "More Advanced the Deeper We Dig": Ratner's Star, 145 10. "The Deepest Being": Language in The Names, 162 11. "The Physics of Language": Underworld, 181 12. DeLillolalia: From Underworld to The Body Artist, 197 13. DeLillo after 9/11: Cosmopolis, 210 Notes, 227 Works by Don DeLillo, 251 Bibliography, 253 Index, 263 viii Contents Acknowledgments I have many colleagues and friends to thank for their generous support during my work on this project: those in the Department of English at the University of South Carolina include Amitai Aviram, Meili Steele, and Ed Madden, who shared their knowledge of theory. When I was living abroad and facing a long wait for a newly translated piece by Walter Benjamin, Professor Aviram took the trouble to Xerox his copy and mail it to me. Professor Madden has on more than one occasion saved me a trip to the library by lending me his per- sonal copies of theoretical books I do not own myself. I am grateful to other colleagues who were instrumental in my receiving a research grant in the summer of 1998—and to Robert Newman, the department chair, who found money to allow me to attend the premiere of DeLillo s play Valparaiso in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. On a Fulbright fellowship at Syddansk Universitet in Odense, Denmark, I ix was assigned to the Center for American Studies and was much stimulated by its faculty, especially Helle Porsdam, Clara Juncker, David Nye, and Jan Nordby Gretlund. The students in my fall 1996 kursusfag seminar, with whom I read DeLillo, were wonderfully sharp and jogged my thinking at every meet- ing. Thanks, Jan, Stephen, Lone, Pernille, and Paul. I appreciate the sage counsel of the readers for my articles (incorporated here in slightly different form) in Contemporary Literature and Modern Fiction Studies. I should also like to thank and half-seriously reproach the authors of the previous book-length studies of DeLillo: Thomas LeClair, Douglas Keesey, and Mark Osteen (I had the great privilege of reading Professor Osteens book in manuscript). Their work, along with that of Frank Lentricchia, is so good as to discourage the academic community from doing with the DeLillo canon what was done with that of Pynchon and others, that is, create whole shelves of scholarly discussion. At the same time, however, I know that they will want the dialogue to continue. Laura di Prête, my graduate assistant one semester, was a great help in track- ing down secondary materials. Casey Clabough helped compile the bibliog- raphy. Kelly Innés helped with last-minute preparation of the manuscript. Jus- tin Pittas-Giroux also helped, notably with some heroic photocopying. Barbara Pace, administrative assistant during the three years in which I served as my department's graduate director, took considerable pains to insure that a reluc- tant administrator had time for his research. Glen Scott Allen took the trouble to e-mail me his article on Ratner's Star at a time when my library did not subscribe to Postmodern Culture (an oversight since rectified). Jesse Kavadlo brought my attention to the DeLillo essays in the electronic journal Undercur- rent. Richard Rorty was kind enough to answer a stranger's e-mailed query about a Heidegger reference. I also wish to thank Mr. DeLillo's agent, Lois Wallace, who arranged for me to receive an advance copy of The Body Artist months before its official publication. I had the good fortune to serve on the doctoral committee of Paul Price, whose 1995 dissertation on the artist figure in DeLillo helped me to see just how multivalent this author is. Paul's bibliog- raphy was especially valuable to the early stages of my project. I am happy not to be alone in saluting the work of Curt Gardner, whose Internet site on De- Lillo is one of the very best of its kind. It is gratifying to see him recognized in scholarly citations and in reviews and articles in the popular press. Another first-rate website is that of the Don DeLillo Society, maintained by Philip W. Nel of Kansas State University. One often reads touching tributes to long-suffering spouses and children left to their own devices during the long seasons of authorial travail. But as I look back over the period spent on this project it occurs to me that the work x Acknowledgments was frequently retarded because my children and parents and other relatives firmly insisted on my presence and participation in the daily business of family life. If ever I seemed impatient to return to my contemplation of the blinking cursor, I apologize, for I am fully aware that years hence one is unlikely to say: I wish I had spent more time at the office. Thanks, all, for slowing me down— I wouldn't for anything have missed those school pageants, those obligatory visits, those family activities. On a more serious note, I am deeply grateful for the love and support I have received from my daughter, Rachel, and my son, Chase. Acknowledgments xi This page intentionally left blank Don DeLillo This page intentionally left blank .