{"id":25,"date":"2009-01-26T14:19:58","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T19:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=25"},"modified":"2009-01-26T23:14:39","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T04:14:39","slug":"on-lethem-delillo-hassan-and-cage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"On Lethem, DeLillo, Hassan, and Cage"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was excited to see that Jonathan Lethem was one of the included authors in the download. <\/span>I had read Lethem before but only his non fiction, an essay entitled \u201cThe Ecstasy of Influence\u201d which appeared in an issue of Harpers. <\/span>The essay was so well written and convincing that I read it twice in one sitting, which is a rare occasion considering my short attention span. <\/span>\u201cSuper Goat Man\u201d was just as engaging. <\/span>I thought the story had great blend of fantasy and reality, which I suppose is indicative of a postmodern story. <\/span>Super Goat Man is not revered by the youth like the other grandiose superheroes; instead he is small time, which I think adds a bit of reality into the plot, making Super Goat Man more of a human. <\/span>The narrator\u2019s parent generation embraces Super Goat Man for his rejection of pedestrian life, as Everett says in the opening paragraphs, \u201cIt was our dads who cared.\u201d <\/span>This was a facet of the story that I found interesting. <\/span>Everett disliked Small Goat Man, and also it seemed to me that he disliked his father for his interest in the minor hero. <\/span>It bewildered Everett that his father and Super Goat Man had so much in common. <\/span>His detest for this connection comes at the end, \u201cI knew that my loathing had its origins in an even deeper place, in the mind of a child wondering at his father\u2019s own susceptibility to the notion of a hero.\u201d <\/span>From the hippy parties to Jazz music, Super Goat Man is the hero of the past, a hero that is unrecognizable in Everett\u2019s generation. <\/span>Furthermore, I thought the element of Jazz was metaphorical for its association to Super Goat Man and Everett\u2019s father. <\/span>Everett has little interest in it, as if Jazz is pass\u00e9 for Everett\u2019s generation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Don DeLillo\u2019s story was difficult to digest, not just for the grotesque killing scenes, but also the barely there plot. <\/span>There story didn\u2019t seem to be heading in any sort of direction, but only to show the depravity of the terrorists. <\/span>Jean Claude describes the War uniforms shown in film, claiming that uniforms from the civil war are connected to success. <\/span>Color and personality are encouraged. <\/span>\u201cWe will shoot in color because color is the color of childhood fantasy.\u201d <\/span>The terrorists\u2019 uniforms reflect Jean Claude\u2019s argument; they are motley dressed with various styles that even exceed cultural boundaries. <\/span>I could possibly infer from this that the consumerist culture, which is today\u2019s culture, embraces personality and color, bears the new uniform and it is this uniform that cloaks the depravity of DeLillo\u2019s terrorists. <\/span>This sounds like total bs but it\u2019s the only thing I managed to pull from the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

I agree with Alana\u2019s post that the typography and position of the text have an impact on the Cage and Hassan essays as well as the content, and that it influences the reader\u2019s perception of the essays without even having read the words. <\/span>From what I\u2019ve seen, this tactic seems to be a reoccurring one in postmodern literature.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was excited to see that Jonathan Lethem was one of the included authors in the download. I had read Lethem before but only his non fiction, an essay entitled \u201cThe Ecstasy of Influence\u201d which appeared in an issue of Harpers. The essay was so well written and convincing that I read it twice in … Continue reading On Lethem, DeLillo, Hassan, and Cage<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,10,19,14,26,35],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-2-short-stories","tag-delillo","tag-film","tag-lethem","tag-music","tag-race","tag-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}