Don DeLillo Thread

I think Delillo is the most overrated out of all the postmodernists. It's like he tried to dumb down every style, theme, and philosophy from that movement so much that any brainlet could understand it and feel intellectual. I enjoyed White Noise and Underworld enough, I just think they're too obvious, personally. I don't get that feeling, reading his works, that he's a verifiable genius and that I'm just trying to keep up, which is one of the things I look and find whenever I read his more talented peers.

>>9698515
Do you think Pynchon is a verifiable genius? Barth? Barthelme?

I'm not being sarcastic, but if your answer is yes to any of the above, can you give me a few reasons?

IMO, DeLillo is genius to the extent that he identifies these massive cultural ghosts that loom over our collective unconscious (JFK, 9/11, the specter of Tech), and brings them to light in a revealing and unique way. He also writes clearly, concisely, and without too much gimmicky shit.

>>9698515
brainlet thinks he's a big man

>>9698508
bullshit/10 but libra is his best, followed closely by underworld

>>9698527
he's a moron who thinks he gets all the references in delillo but is too stupid to realize he's missed 70% of them

>>9698527
This

>>9698515
Not this.

>>9698540
Who are you talking about?

>>9698546
this guy>>9698515

it's like someone who picks up whitman and says "this is overrated, its written in a style that strikes me as simple"

>>9698558
Ah, correct.

But I also think people dismiss DeLillo because he doesn't "hide the ball" like the Pynchons of our era. He is more substance, less flash, and people mistake his concision and clarity with simplicity (somehow).

>>9698564
I think Pynchon and Delillo do similar things in different ways and they're very likely IRL friends. Pynchon and Delillo are closer together than any other post-modernists, imo.

So, did this actually take place? Pretty cool if true. A-And Ratner's Star is apparently Delillo's personal favorite of his.

I keep meaning to re-read White Noise, it's been maybe a decade since I last read it. Loved it back then.

>>9698574
My good friend H. Bloom often joins them for coffee on 72nd Street. By all accounts, they seem affable.

>>9698601
Pynchon is not friends with Bloom at all.

>>9698663

>>Pynchon is not friends with Bloom at all.

Are you sure? I seem to recall a particularly fond reference to Mr. Bloom in M&D, in which Eratosthenes measures the circumference of the earth. It is there, if you look closely.

Plus, beyond the canon, Bloom's a fine fella to be around, so I hear.

*Clears throat* I believe the essential matter here is the structure of our lives, the way we *coughs* how we sit for hours on end and *licks lips* transfer from one subway car to another like blips on a circuit board or something *clears throat* say young man, got a dollar? this is my stop and I forgot to pay when I got in, I gotta get to the Deli and *clears throat* I wont make it through the intense new york summer. New York amirite? *writes about sentences*

>>9698783
Top fucking Kek my dude.

I hope DeLillo is healthy.

>>9698508
Who is this character?