In Episode 37, DDSWTNP kick off the Summer of Underworld with an overview that, like Episode 20: Discovering White Noise, offers newcomers to the novel a set of things to look out for as well as readings bound to appeal to those already familiar with DeLillo’s big book and headed back to it. How is this mega-novel structured in its six main Parts bookended by Prologue and Epilogue? How and why does it portray time’s variability and crisscross four decades of history? What to make of all the depictions of art and artists, from Klara Sax to Moonman 157, that populate these pages? What does a reader have to look forward to when they make it to the remarkable Lenny Bruce stand-up DeLillo creates? How do we keep track of all the meanings of waste and “under” in this book, and how does the quest for a single baseball help move the reader along? How to describe all the uncanny connections between paired characters and images, and is an aesthetic of filmic montage the way to understand Underworld’s method? Has DeLillo somehow made this giant book into both a vast, scattered history of the Cold War and a page-turning, character-driven account of personal transgression, confession, and regret? With these and other questions DDSWTNP begin a series of episodes, featuring many a guest appearance and working through the sections of Underworld one by one. 

Enjoy the new variations in intro and outro music, and stay tuned for more episodes in the Summer of Underworld. Coming up next, an episode devoted to the Prologue and “Pafko at the Wall” with DeLillo scholar John Duvall.

Texts mentioned in this episode: 

Mark Osteen, American Magic and Dread: Don DeLillo’s Dialogue with Culture. Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania P., 2000.