tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38446021.post8995733224006698663..comments2024-01-08T00:59:52.091-07:00Comments on muse-ings: Justin James ReedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38446021.post-73322709042050846512007-04-06T11:50:00.000-06:002007-04-06T11:50:00.000-06:00I've always liked this passage about DeLillo's Und...I've always liked this passage about DeLillo's Underworld:<BR/><BR/>DeLillo is smart enough to avoid stating the obvious, that after losing his real father, Nick is sent to a school run by multiple "fathers". One of the priests asks him to describe a shoe. "A front and a top", he answers. "You make me want to weep", the priest says, proceeding to name all the parts of a shoe including the flap under the lace, the tongue. "I knew the name", Nick says, "I just didn't see the thing". <BR/><BR/>"You didn't see the thing because you don't know how to look", says the priest. Because "everyday things lie hidden", he adds; "everyday things represent the most overlooked knowledge". These are "quotidian" things - "an extraordinary word that suggests the depth and reach of the commonplace". This may be DeLillo's way of explaining how to read "Underworld", but he's also telling us how to live.tim athertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17756179153189240704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38446021.post-828591415764499232007-04-06T10:06:00.000-06:002007-04-06T10:06:00.000-06:00well john, I'm not quite sure about that - I think...well john, I'm not quite sure about that - I think it's a sort of chicken and or or tree falling in the forest sort of thing. <BR/><BR/>If it's mundane, ordinary, quotidian but someone notices what's there and photographs it, does that change it - perhaps when anyone else walking by the same things wouldn't notice it?<BR/><BR/>Or those things only classified as mundane because not enough people notice them?tim athertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17756179153189240704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38446021.post-51689601431372483002007-04-06T00:38:00.000-06:002007-04-06T00:38:00.000-06:00I know what you're saying about mundane, but these...I know what you're saying about mundane, but these are not the mundane: the mundane is usually (by accepted convention) unphotographed.John Ellishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17126240053068650695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38446021.post-67759273621199074822007-04-04T16:03:00.000-06:002007-04-04T16:03:00.000-06:00It's the mundane everyday reality like this that w...It's the mundane everyday reality like this that we seem not to see that takes on meaning in our futures. Maybe works like this will open a few eyes here and there to the forced asthetics we live with but do not see.Chuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02993624402235496111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38446021.post-64105517597574310312007-04-04T00:43:00.000-06:002007-04-04T00:43:00.000-06:00Old, new, or mundane- they're pretty damn dramatic...Old, new, or mundane- they're pretty damn dramatic if you ask me.Stan B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17381743002180926900noreply@blogger.com