Delillo The Names Summary

DeLillo writes about a variety of fiction themes. These themes range from magic or dread, consumerism, global capitalism, terrorism, mystery or enlightenment, language as imprisonment or freedom, and conspiracy theories. DeLillo’s either/or approach to theme agrees with writer Mark Osteen’s debate that DeLillo both agrees and disagrees with post-modern culture.
DeLillo believes that “writing is a concentrated form of thinking”. DeLillo states that writing should be convenient and done in a place of comfort. His literary style uses heavy emphasis on visualizing the piece of work in a vague manner. He thinks about a particular scene first, a simple idea of a character in a setting. He utilizes a list of items and ideas, in order, that
DeLillo begins a new, clean page when finishing any paragraph, long or short. This enables DeLillo to see his work and groups of sentences more clearly. Empty, white space around a page create an environment that helps DeLillo concentrate on writing. The white space made rewriting work easier and more efficient. The Names marked the start of a newly found dedication for DeLillo. DeLillo discovered that he needed the excitement of a new and unfamiliar language. Due to this new found excitement, DeLillo began to study the Greek alphabet. Learning about the shapes and letters carved into the stones of Athens gave DeLillo a much needed refreshed energy for writing. (Begley, “Don DeLillo, The Art of Fiction No.135”, http://www.theparisreview.org/)
DeLillo’s use of dialogue differed from book to book. In The Names, DeLillo raised the characters levels of intelligence. He made it so that each character possessed a fairly high degree of intellect. In Libra, DeLillo made a bigger and broader variety of characters. He attempted to “flatten things out”. In the book White Noise, DeLillo made it so there was much less dialogue and an increase of human dread. Dialogue changed dramatically with plot changes (Kaur 76, 77, 79,