The Pathogenic Mechanism Of Terrorism In Don Delillo’s Novels

This project examines the pathogenic mechanism of terrorism in Don DeLillo’sthree novels: Mao II, Falling Man, and Point Omega. Theories such as JeanBaudrillard’s culture study, D. W. Winnicott’s “transitional object”, and PierreTeilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of man are exploited as the major theoreticalframework for the analysis. I argue that there is an evolutionary trajectory over thetheme of terrorism in Don DeLillo’s writing career manifested by the triad pivoted on9/11event, from the exposition of the relationship of conspiracy between terroristsand novelists (in Mao II) to mass killing (in Falling Man), and to a philosophicalreconsideration of the impacts of terrorism and anti-terrorism from the perspective ofhuman evolution (in Point Omega). DeLillo sees that artists, consumerism, media,and the pessimistic outlook concerning the evolution of human society are all ascribedto the existence of terrorism.The issue of artists’ relationship to terrorists is discussed in Chapter One. In MaoII, the artists are mainly represented by the reclusive novelist Bill Gray. In theirzero-sum game with terrorists, artists, including their theories and their works, takereclusion for their artistic belief which apprizes individuality and originality inopposition to mass culture. This leaves the void in influencing mass consciousness forterrorists to take the chance to fill in. What is more, DeLillo’s novelist in Mao IIopposes, yet also depends on, mass culture. Bill Gray’s contention for individualityrelies on, and, in its turn, merges into mass culture. American culture of hegemonymanipulates novelists’ interpretations of the Other’s cultural identity and determinestheir hegemonic rewriting of the Other’s individualities in accordance with Americanindividual scheme, annihilating, therefore, individualities of the Other as well as thoseof their own. Act or not, the artists in Mao II seem to be part of the terrorist conspiracy,or “half murderers” as one character in the novel calls them.The theme of consumerism in relation to terrorism is explored in Chapter Two, with Falling Man as the study text. Consumerism fosters distinctive value, statusvalue, prestige value. In short, it enlarges discrepancy between rich and poor. In thecontext of globalization the superpower erects poor Others who wish to abolish it.Also consumerism propels immorality in its practice. This leaves gaps for the highlyreligious terrorism. Detailed analyses focus on Keith and Lianne, the two protagonists,husband and wife, with a close examination on each of their activities: Keith, thepoker game; Lianne, life-writing with the Alzheimer group. Both take their addictiveactivities as a “transitional object.” In contrast to the terrorist camp busy preparing forwar, the poker game is not game; while the writing group is like an obstinate child’splay. Resulting from a larger context of consumerism, the two activities demonstratethat consumerism fosters the invasion of terrorism.Chapter Three argues that DeLillo’s theme of terrorism reaches a pinnacle withphilosophical reflections in his recent novel Point Omega. Pierre Teilhard believedthat even if the slowness of evolutionary time might entail pessimism over the“mutual repulsion and materialization” of human relationship, the omega point cannevertheless be reached, at which human beings and human consciousness start toevolve in the same direction. However, the evolutionary perspective and time andspace meditations produce, for the protagonist Elster, a total pessimistic vision of theevolutionary future, when human beings are turned into stones. This is a reflection ofthe panics and claustrophobia Americans are suffering as a result of the collectivetrauma that the9/11event has inflicted.