The Speed Is The Point

Reflection on time is the key to understanding Don DcLillo’s literary works.For DeLillo,a novelist who shares a deep concern about the era,the most intuitive experience of time in the twenty-first century is an ever-accelerating urgency.He is keenly aware of the significant impact that the acceleration of time has imposed on individuals and the whole society,and gradually becomes increasingly alert to the social crisis resulting from speed.In the new-century novel Cosmopolis,DeLillo pinpoints the complicity between the acceleration of technology and the vicious expansion of global capitalism.He offers a comprehensive critique of American capitalism,pointing out that the irrational development of capitalism stems from the underlying logic of speed,and that the acceleration of information technology has inflated the cyber financial market bubble.In addition to his observations of the social system,DeLillo also focuses on the great influences of accelerationism on humans’ experience of life.No matter it is the billionaire or the tramp,all fictional characters are looking for ways to survive in the age of acceleration through active or passive acceleration.From both the macro social structure and micro daily life levels,the novel offers a profound reflection on the accelerating time.In Cosmopolis,DeLillo uses a highly compressed narrative of time and space,telling the story of the protagonist Parker’s one-day travel across downtown Manhattan in New York.He skillfully displays the enclosed interior space of the car and the chaotic exterior environment of the cosmopolis,conjuring up a sense of post-apocalyptic vertigo built on high speed in the ever-accelerating world.The novel not only displays the symbolic representation of acceleration through the shaping of the particular character and setting but also pays attention to the phenomena of deceleration and stagnation behind the acceleration.It takes advantage of a constantly switching perspective of narration and an elaborate storyline to express the contradiction and tension between acceleration and deceleration.And in response to the various chaos caused by the asymmetry of speed,DeLillo powerfully questions the frenzy of accelerationism in post-modern times with the fateful tragedy of the protagonist Eric.From the perspective of speed,the thesis will systematically penetrate into the logic of acceleration embodied in Cosmopolis through the lens of Harmut Rosa’s critique of social acceleration and Paul Virilio’s theory of "Dromology".The main body of the thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter examines the "Dromology"system in Cosmopolis from three aspects:the background of the times,the acceleration of individuals,and the speed medium.The second chapter concentrates on the forces of deceleration or stagnation in the novel and analyzes the causes of deceleration in the context of globalization and how it affects the cosmopolis.The third chapter explores individual and social chaos triggered by the asymmetry speed,which includes the selfalienation and the death obsession of society.Finally,in the conclusion part,the thesis analyzes how Cosmopolis,in light of social acceleration,predicted the terrorist crisis represented by 9/11,the neoliberal economic crisis,and the capitalist ideological crisis after the Millennium.The prophecy of the novel shows the precision and foresight of DeLillo’s grasp of the laws of acceleration in capitalism.This thesis attempts to show that DeLillo,through his presentation and reflection on accelerating time in Cosmopolis,maintains a negative attitude towards fanatical accelerationism and expects a more diverse standard of speed as well as a more humanistic world.