Two interesting points from Don DeLillo:
"She hand-patted through the clothes he'd left in the bedroom closet. She was not undone by the things that people leave behind when they die and she put the clothes in a box for the needy." (32)
This is from The Body Artist, and after reading Peter Stallybrass' well-known work, "Worn Worlds: Clothes, Mourning and the Life of Things" and writing my master's thesis on clothing saved in memorium, I forget that there are people in the world who DON'T value Things--especially clothes--the way I (and so many others) do! Or, in any case, this woman in the book is so...physically sensitive, in a way, and feels so much, which I obliquely merge with that which I feel, including nostalgia. But this little passage redefined her for me, her emotions rising from present awarenesses and other complexities I haven't quite figured out yet.
The second is just something I found beautiful in the way that the author thinks about Things, what he felt was important to include in this sentence, parts of which we have read more than once in this short book:
"She threw off the sweater and hit her hand on the hanging lamp, which she always forgot was there, and then pulled the sweater down over her head, front side front, as they'd intended in Taiwan." (112)
Front side front, just as they'd intended.
DeLillo, Don. The Body Artist. London: Picador, 2001.
"She hand-patted through the clothes he'd left in the bedroom closet. She was not undone by the things that people leave behind when they die and she put the clothes in a box for the needy." (32)
This is from The Body Artist, and after reading Peter Stallybrass' well-known work, "Worn Worlds: Clothes, Mourning and the Life of Things" and writing my master's thesis on clothing saved in memorium, I forget that there are people in the world who DON'T value Things--especially clothes--the way I (and so many others) do! Or, in any case, this woman in the book is so...physically sensitive, in a way, and feels so much, which I obliquely merge with that which I feel, including nostalgia. But this little passage redefined her for me, her emotions rising from present awarenesses and other complexities I haven't quite figured out yet.
The second is just something I found beautiful in the way that the author thinks about Things, what he felt was important to include in this sentence, parts of which we have read more than once in this short book:
"She threw off the sweater and hit her hand on the hanging lamp, which she always forgot was there, and then pulled the sweater down over her head, front side front, as they'd intended in Taiwan." (112)
Front side front, just as they'd intended.
DeLillo, Don. The Body Artist. London: Picador, 2001.