{"id":429,"date":"2009-09-27T22:33:50","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T02:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/?p=429"},"modified":"2009-09-29T00:08:55","modified_gmt":"2009-09-29T04:08:55","slug":"the-waves-of-radiation-and-the-smell-of-existentialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/archives\/429","title":{"rendered":"The Waves of Radiation and The Smell of Existentialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Waves of Radiation and The Smell<\/em><\/strong> of Existentialism<\/p>\n

-\u201cEverything is concealed in symbolism, hidden by veils of mystery and layers of cultural material. But it is psychic data, absolutely. The large doors slide open, they close unbidden. Energy waves, incident radiation (Delillo 37).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Murray Jay Sinkind.<\/p>\n

This quote I believe ultimately sums up the first segment of this book. We see many different conversations leading back to the same age-old question that Nietzsche so notably studied; the importance and survival of the self. Existentialism, secretly presiding in the conversations we read between Jack Gladney and his son, Heinrich, as well as the many deep-in-thought monologues we hear from Murray like the quote above show the reader a glimpse of what is yet to come. \u00a0This question bewilders almost every character we have been introduced to thus far in the novel, especially our protagonist narrator, Jack, who becomes so bothered by this question that he ends up ranting to his students this pessimistic and existential speech:<\/p>\n

-\u201cAll plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots. Political plots, terrorist plots, lover\u2019s plots, narrative plots, plots that are part of children\u2019s games. We edge nearer [to] death every time we plot. It is like a contract that all must sign, the plotters as well as those who are the targets of the plot (Delillo 26).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J. A. K. Gladney<\/p>\n

Here we see the vocalization of the fear that manages to be the only thing that Jack does not discuss with his wife, Babette. This is outburst can clearly be noted to have been bothering Jack since the beginning of the novel. The conversations that Jack has with his son doesn\u2019t alleviate Jack\u2019s fears either: about the physicality of the self, the importance and symbolic meaning of truth both lead to Jack\u2019s deeper thought process regarding his direction in the world, or rather the energy waves that will push him towards our climactic disaster.<\/p>\n

-\u201cWho will die first (Delillo 15,30,99)?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jack Gladney<\/p>\n

We can also see Jack symbolically and existentially ask himself this question of who will die first, after listing the simple facts that many have misunderstood to be useless information. These are more important facts than what they are led on to be, especially because after them we are given this random question of who will die first; almost as if Jack subconsciously knows that some impending doom is looming around the corner and is trying to warn his conscious \u00a0about the danger.<\/p>\n

We are seeing the concealed truth of what is yet to come for this soon-to-be disastrous plotline. The signs are ultimately located underneath every line of symbolic text written by Delillo. This type of build-up leads me to believe that not only will the disaster be paramount, but also that the characters will learn and possibly understand how to deal with their important questions and trepidations towards their own deaths\u2026because their time is now sparing, just like the ill-fated character\u2019s of our previous novel, Lucifer\u2019s Hammer<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Waves of Radiation and The Smell of Existentialism -\u201cEverything is concealed in symbolism, hidden by veils of mystery and layers of cultural material. But it is psychic data, absolutely. The large doors slide open, they close unbidden. Energy waves, incident radiation (Delillo 37).\u201d \u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Murray Jay Sinkind. This quote I believe ultimately sums up… Continue reading The Waves of Radiation and The Smell of Existentialism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}