thoughts on 'falling man' by don delillo

i was in junior high during 9/11, and can mainly remember watching television in the class room on the day. i remember a few teachers mumbling to each other in my morning class. i remember the 'funny' teacher was the one who told everyone a plane flew into the world trade center. when i got home, and i remember my mom having an extremely neutral facial expression, but she was very pale. she avoided eye contact. she seemed very frightened and very human.

i was about 13. the event was sort of 'lost' on me, i imagine. i remember comparing it 'march madness', because the teachers all would watch tv in class for that too. i was talking to a girl and made a joke about guys jumping out of buildings and the girl scolded me. it was everything that followed 9/11 that had an impact on me. all the incendiary speech and flag waving and general feeling of hope/fear.

delillo starts the novel with a man named keith emerging from the bottom of one of the towers. he does not recount his experiences until the novels finale. the children refer to 'bin laden' as 'bill lawton'. they hide binoculars from their parents and search the skies for more planes. they claim the towers are still standing. it is a very effective dynamic for establishing muddled fear/confusion + an entertaining vignette.

delillo's style is strategically repetitive in parts and disconnected and often brilliant. characters spew clunky philosophy that is endearing somehow, probably because how muddy and confused and humane the entire novel is. i wouldn't imagine the dialogue as being universally liked, it frequently goes 'abstract/disconnected', like a dialogue with two people is usually basically two monologues seemingly chopped up. it works, though, but it ain't 'easy' or 'streamlined'.

i think a huge part of why the novel 'works' is because this is not about the terrorists. while he does write scenes focusing on a 'terrorist' character, it isn't out of hate/malice/any kind of spite. its a calm veil of understanding. don't confuse the understanding with sympathy. the style is not passionate about any particular character. its a grey medium that lets the individual colors of scenarios/situations 'pop' out.

i remember watching the planes hit the towers a lot on cable television, wide eyed, absorbing, digesting. i watched them and i never really reacted, never fully committed to a set, established reaction. i remember our jr high had a fake election debate in 2000, where one kid in the grade pretended to be george bush and one kid pretended to be john kerry. i was george bush.