My greatest difficulty with this assignment was feeling like I truly grasped the meaning of a “power haunt” or “source” in the way that DeLillo uses the terms. Along with that, I struggled somewhat with asserting why certain places were important. I think, for me at least, I have a harder time with this sort of thing when I don’t feel I have all the information. Having, at that point, only read part of the book, I didn’t really feel qualified to form any concrete opinions.
On the other hand, I also found it challenging to narrow down my focus appropriately. Originally, I had intended to talk about the place through two specific passages that mostly very different things with the place. It didn’t take me too long to realize I didn’t have space for that, but I was frustrated because there were some other connections to other parts of the book that I wanted to tie in. In particular, I wanted to explore what I noted as an absence of smell in the Boy Scout barracks in light of the whole and in light of Murray’s tendency to smell essentially odorless things (packaged paper towels, utensils, and so forth). I had to be careful not to allow myself to become distracted by things I would not have time or space to address.