The Anxiety of Obsolescence

Index

Kathleen Fitzpatrick

April 12, 2006

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Abernethy, Peter, 161, 176, 246n. 18
academia
anxiety of obsolescence within, 8, 41-42, 218, 236nn. 9, 11
critique of in White Noise, 103-106, 117, 120-25, 148, 243n. 22, 246 n. 21
Acker, Kathy, 48, 206
advertising, 107-108, 112, 116-17, 124, 242n. 9
alienation, 58-61, 71, 83, 89, 208-209
Althusser, Louis, 113, 177-78
Anderson, Perry, 42-44, 238n. 35
Antrim, Donald, 207-208
anxiety of obsolescence
discursive construction of, 11, 25, 40-41, 47, 56, 201
function, 13, 23-26, 56-57, 101, 201, 230-33
historical recurrence, 26-39
political implications, 8, 32, 36, 61, 137, 190, 209
relationship to loss of social privilege, 7, 20, 47-50, 111, 202, 220, 231-33
apocalypticism, 21, 23-25, 48, 236-37n. 15
Armstrong, Nancy, 13-14, 235n. 5
artificial intelligence, 62, 68
assemblage, 71-72, 87-91, 170, 174, 239-40n. 14
Atlas, James, 53, 247n. 36
Auletta, Ken, 235n. 4
Auster, Paul, 51
and Don DeLillo, 238n. 39
automaton, 84-86, 89, 92-93, 95, 198
avant-garde, 15, 18, 19, 26, 57, 238n. 41

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Baldwin, James, 228
Balsamo, Anne, 59
Barnouw, Erik, 176, 246n. 24
Barth, John, 231, 237n. 16
LETTERS, 13, 24-25, 50, 235n. 4
“The Literature of Exhaustion,” 23-25, 40, 48, 57, 216
“The Literature of Replenishment,” 47, 236n. 14
and postmodern canon, 47, 49, 202, 206
Barthelme, Donald, 47, 231
Barthes, Roland
Camera Lucida, 108, 125-26, 128, 130, 243n. 19
“The Death of the Author,” 18, 159-60, 243n. 23
Bateson, Gregory, 152
Baudrillard, Jean
The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, 130
The Mirror of Production, 113, 116
Simulacra and Simulation, 106, 108-10, 114-15, 133-34, 142, 145
Baym, Nina, 50, 231, 236n. 8, 248n. 2
Begley, Adam, 131
Bellow, Saul, 19
Benjamin, Walter, 34, 120, 239n. 13, 243n. 20
Berressem, Hanjo, 240n. 18, 241n. 27, 246n. 20, 247n. 29
Bersani, Leo, 179, 245-46n. 16
Bérubé, Michael, 248nn. 38, 3
Bhabha, Homi, 238n. 36
Birkerts, Sven, 21-22, 60, 116, 150, 237n. 18
The Blob, 198
Bloom, Harold, 5-6, 49, 220, 248n. 2
Bold Type, 2-4, 22, 48
Bolter, Jay David, 39
and Richard Grusin, 235n. 1
Bonca, Cornel, 207
Bone, James, 247-48n. 37
book, death of
in The Crying of Lot 49, 52
pronouncements, 3-4, 11, 20-22, 235n. 4, 236nn. 10-15
relationship to media ecology, 6, 17, 39, 150
in V., 51
book, electronic, 39, 235n. 1
Boorstin, Daniel, 105, 235n. 3, 242n. 8
Borges, Jorge Luis, 23-25
Brinkley, Joel, 235n. 2
Brown, William Hill, 13
Burroughs, William S., 47, 206

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 camera, power of, 125-34, 141, 143-44, 244n. 34
canon
anxieties about, 15, 19, 21
postmodern, 47-49, 206-208, 211, 221, 224, 236n. 8
Cartesian thought, 69-70, 93-94, 190, 239n. 9 (see also Descartes, René)
Cervantes, Miguel de, 13
chaos theory, 150-54, 156, 167-76, 183-84, 246n. 20
clockwork, 84, 86, 88-89, 93, 175
computer
anxieties about, 27, 37, 237-38n. 30
in The Crying of Lot 49, 163, 167, 183-84
and dehumanization, 65, 76
in Gravity’s Rainbow, 90
and network, 150, 179, 189, 245n. 9
and quantification of information, 166
sentience of, 62, 91
in Underworld, 131
use in writing, 68
in V., 96
in Wallace, 213-14
conflict, metaphors of, 2-5, 9, 64-67, 102, 104-105, 203-206, 220
Connor, Stephen, 12, 19, 40-42, 44, 238nn. 34-35
convergence, 37-39, 213, 238nn. 31-32, 242n. 9
Coover, Robert, 47, 202, 206, 236n. 12
“culture industry,” 115-16, 120, 191, 228-29, 245nn. 11-12
cybernetics, 94, 150-52, 155-161, 168, 177-78, 244nn. 3-4, 245nn. 9, 12
cyborg, 39, 59, 64-69, 78, 82, 91
Czitrom, Daniel, 235n. 3

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 daguerreotype, 31
Davidson, Cathy, 235-36n. 6, 239n. 2
Davies, Duncan, et al, 105-106
death of the author, 15, 18-20, 159-60, 243n. 23
death of the novel, 2, 11, 13-26, 47
imaginary status of, 23, 40, 48, 56, 104
pronouncements, 2-3, 11-12, 17, 22, 104
pronouncements, function of, 11, 15-16, 23-25
purported causes of, 18-26
relationship to rise of critic, 17-18
responsibility of novelist for, 224
Debord, Guy, 106, 112-13, 119, 126
DeCurtis, Anthony, 174
Defoe, Daniel, 13
Delaroche, Paul, 31
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari, 71-74, 239-40n. 14, 240nn. 16, 19, 246n. 26, 247n. 29
DeLillo, Don, 3, 47-51, 56, 79, 89, 91, 112, 154, 198, 201
Americana, 89, 98, 103, 119, 125-26, 130, 142-44, 149, 152, 195-96
comparison to other novelists, 49, 202, 206, 210-28 passim
Great Jones Street, 103, 146
Libra, 103, 127, 134-35, 153-54, 160, 164-66, 171, 174, 176-77, 184-86, 245n. 7
Mao II, 51-54, 56, 103, 126-30, 135-37, 140-42, 148, 154, 194, 196-97, 198, 243n. 28, 244nn. 33-34, 247n. 35
The Names, v
Players, 98-99
“The Power of History,” 48, 103, 109-11, 114-15, 117, 133, 143, 232-33, 242n. 14
Ratner’s Star, 52
Running Dog, 89, 103
Underworld, 26, 62, 91, 103, 109, 131-33, 154, 172-74, 232, 238n. 40, 242n. 7, 243n. 25, 247n. 36
White Noise, 83, 99-100, 102-104, 117, 118-26, 137-41, 144-48, 154, 166, 170-72, 195-96, 198, 241n. 2, 242n. 15, 243nn. 18, 27, 30, 244nn. 31-32, 37-38, 247n. 33
Derrida, Jacques, 20, 159
Descartes, René, 63-64, 97, (see also Cartesian thought)
desire, and machine, 71-79, 82-89, 92-94
Didion, Joan, 48
Dienst, Richard, 237n. 20
discursive formations, 11-12, 235nn. 2-3
Dobrzynski, Judith, 100
Doctorow, E. L., 22-23
Don Quixote, 13, 19, 25
as figure for novelist, 4, 25, 53
Douglas, Kirk, 142, 181
drugs, in anxiety of obsolescence, 100, 145-47, 154, 215
Duvall, John, 118, 197, 242 n. 5, 243 n. 21, 244 n. 36

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Eggers, Dave, 207, 216
ekphrasis, 111-16
“electronic media,” definition, 36-37
elitism, in discourse of obsolescence, 5, 7, 36-37, 104, 115, 203-204, 219-20
Elliott, Jane, 217
Ellison, Ralph, 228
emergence, 150-54, 184-91, 198-99, 247n. 30
Emerson, R. W., 34, 237n. 25
endangered species as metaphor, 3, 4, 26, 127
Engles, Tim, 244n. 31
entropy
in The Crying of Lot 49, 167-70, 175-76, 179-83, 193-94
in cybernetics, 168, 170
in “Entropy,” 168, 193
as product of network, 150, 152, 154, 167, 200
in Underworld, 172-74
in V., 117
in White Noise, 170-72
epistemology
changes in, 21, 160, 239n. 7
relationship to postmodernism, 12
relationship to realism, 31
relationship to technology, 33, 62-70, 94
relationship to visuality, 102, 104-105, 115
Epstein, Joseph, 15, 20
Eugenides, Jeffrey, 207
Eve of Destruction, 62-63
exhaustion, 6, 13, 23-26, 48, 58

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 Fail Safe, 62
Father Knows Best, 210
Faulkner, William, 18, 47
feminization, 7, 14, 61, 77, 219, 232
Ferraro, Thomas, 100, 241n. 2
Fiedler, Leslie, 18, 23
Fielding, Henry, 13
film
in Americana, 103, 142-44
anxieties about, 28, 34-36
in the academy, 105, 236n. 9
in The Crying of Lot 49, 180, 182
and death, 132-33
dominance of narrative form, 4, 22, 36
in Morrison, 226
relationship to machine, 64, 70, 89-90, 151
relationship to reality, 114-15, 163-64, 182, 246-47n. 28
relationship to television, 4, 38, 101-102
relationship to video, 131-33
relationship to writer, 22, 223, 229, 236n. 13
in Running Dog, 89, 103
social implications, 35-36, 221, 239n. 4
in Underworld, 109, 131-133
and violence, 132-34
in White Noise, 123
Fiske, John
on “audiences,” 218, 245n. 11
on ideological codes, 180, 247n. 37, 248n. 7
on “mass” culture, 228, 243n. 17
on passivity, 239n. 1, 240n. 15
on television’s visuality, 102
Foucault, Michel, 65, 116
The Archaeology of Knowledge, 12, 235nn. 2-3, 239n. 7
“What Is an Author?”, 18, 159
Francese, Joseph, 49
Frankenstein, 35, 61, 67
Franzen, Jonathan, 1-2, 8, 202-209, 216-19, 223
Frow, John, 242n. 5, 244n. 38

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 Gaddis, William, 47, 202, 206
Garrison, Deborah, 22
Gass, William, 47, 117-18, 202, 206
gender, relationship to machine, 61, 64-65, 77, 96-97
Gibson, William, 91, 241n. 28
Gilder, George, 238n. 32
Gilmore, Michael, 13, 236n. 7
Gleick, James, 175
Golden, Robert, 197
Goodheart, Eugene, 244n. 38
Graff, Gerald, 69
Green, Jeremy, 243nn. 20, 25
Green-Lewis, Jennifer, 31-32, 237n. 22
Gutenberg, 1, 22, 27

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 Habermas, Jurgen, 42-44
Halberstam, Judith, and Ira Livingston, 59
Hall, Stuart, 157-59, 161, 245n. 12
Hansen, Miriam, 239n. 4
Haraway, Donna, 39, 58-59, 64-65, 68-69, 73, 91
Harper, Phillip Brian, 44-46, 48, 49-50, 87, 233, 238nn. 35-36
Hassan, Ihab, 47, 206
Hawkes, John, 47
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 14, 54
Hayles, N. Katherine, 63-64, 155-56, 244n. 3, 245n. 9
Heidegger, Martin, 62-63, 83, 241n. 26
Heisenberg, Werner, 169, 246n. 19
Hemingway, Ernest, 18, 47
Herzberg, Bruce, 241n. 24
Hite, Molly, 48, 206, 218, 231
Hitler, Adolph, 123-24, 137-39, 196, 198
“hive mind,” 190-99
hooks, bell, 50, 238nn. 36-37
Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor Adorno
on the destruction of the individual, 191, 245n. 11
on the destruction of meaning, 116
on the destruction of reality, 114-15, 246-47n. 28
on the functionalization of culture, 120
on jazz, 228, 248n. 8
humanism
conflict with technology, 65-70, 72, 91, 93-94, 174
desire of writer for return to, 25, 217
relationship to structures of power, 17, 69, 73, 190, 202, 220
Hutcheon, Linda, 40, 238n. 35, 242n. 7, 243n. 30
Huyssen, Andreas, 14, 88, 96, 204-205, 219, 232
hyperreal, 114, 142, 144

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 “identity politics”
in DeLillo, 137, 230, 248n. 9
and postmodernism, 46, 217-18
image (see spectacle)
impotence, and anxiety of obsolescence, 54, 58, 61, 76-78, 97, 112, 240n. 22
individual
obsolescence of, 11, 20, 27-28, 49, 187, 200
relationship to machine, 60-61, 77-79, 87
relationship to network, 150-55, 166, 184-200, 212, 245n. 11
relationship to spectacle, 113-14
individualism, relationship to novel, 14, 54, 150-51, 189-90, 200
influence, anxiety of, 5-6, 220
internet
anxieties about, 28, 36-38, 150
and interconnection, 150-51
relationship to print, 2-4, 39
relationship to television, 4, 36-38, 237-38
in Underworld, 131
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 198

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 Jacobs, Alexandra, 203
Jameson, Fredric
on image, 119
in postmodernist discourse, 29, 42-45
on postmodern novel, 79-80, 117
on representation of network, 189-91, 197
on schizophrenia, 152-53
Johnson, Steven, 174, 184-85, 190, 198-99
Johnston, John
on cybernetics, 152, 155-56, 158, 244n. 3
on “de-multiplication” of identity, 170, 191
on novel as assemblage, 170, 174, 239-240n. 14
Joyce, James, 16, 18

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 Kay, Alan, 150
Keesey, Douglas, 144, 242n. 5, 243n. 16, 244nn. 35-36, 246n. 21
Kelly, Kevin, 150, 174-76, 189-91, 199-200, 247n. 30, 248n. 39
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 39, 130
in Libra, 134, 160, 164, 176, 185-86
Kernan, Alvin, 19-21, 23, 107, 115-16, 235n. 4
Khomeini, Ayatollah, 135-36, 196
killer robots, 62-63, 65, 68
King Kong, 67
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 137
King, Rodney, 131
Kingston, Maxine Hong, 48
Kirby, Lynne, 237nn. 23-24
Kittler, Friedrich, 151, 166-67
Klapp, Orin, 170
Klinkowitz, Jerome, 18
Kucich, John, 230-31, 233, 244n. 32, 248n. 9
Kurzweil, Ray, 91, 239n. 6, 241n. 28

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 Lacan, Jacques, 98, 116, 241n. 1
Lancaster, Burt, 142
Lang, Fritz, 96
Lapham, Lewis, 188
Lawrence, D. H., 16-17
Leave It to Beaver, 210
Leavis, F. R., 66
LeClair, Tom, 146, 152
Lehman, David, 239n. 13
Lentricchia, Frank, 242n. 5, 243n. 16, 244n. 36
Lethem, Jonatham, 207
Levinson, Paul, 31, 36, 38, 237n. 28, 238n. 33
literature
cultural role of, 6, 221, 225, 229
death of, 4, 15-16, 19-25, 69, 224-25
marginality of, 5, 15, 48
relationship to audience, 5
relationship to technology, 30
relationship to television, 8, 224
relationship to theory, 69, 239n. 13
Liu, Catherine, 69, 92, 239n. 13, 241n. 29
Luddites, 65-68
Lyotard, Jean-François, 31, 42-44
machine
animate state of, 62-63, 90-97
in “border war” with human, 62-68, 70, 97, 174, 237n. 21, 239n. 11
as discursive category for understanding the televisual, 8, 27-28, 48, 101, 160, 201, 220, 226, 230-31, 237n. 20
historical development, 28-39
and inanimation of human, 59, 71-79, 82-88, 97
relationship to cybernetics, 155, 177
relationship to network, 149-52, 166, 188
relationship to reading, 60, 70, 80, 86-87
relationship to “theory,” 69, 239n. 13
(see also technology)
Mailer, Norman, 16, 19, 47, 231
Malamud, Bernard, 19
de Man, Paul, 69
Mangel, Anne, 170, 246n. 18
Mann, Paul, 11, 15-16, 19, 26-27, 57, 235n. 1, 238n. 41
Mann, Thomas, 18
Marcuse, Herbert, 119, 193, 241n. 25
marginalization
of academic, claimed, 41-42, 46
of novelist, claimed, 50-51, 56, 111, 201-202, 208-209, 230-33, 248n. 3
role of claims in preservation of novel, 5, 48, 204, 217-18, 242n. 11
social, relationship to cultural marginalization, 45-46, 49-50, 141, 201-209, 217-21, 230-33
Marx, Leo, 28-30, 33-35, 237n. 25
masculinism
and anxieties about feminization, 61, 73-74, 77-78, 97, 218-20
and novel, 14, 54, 231
and novelist of obsolescence, 48-49, 61, 248n. 1
relationship to humanism, 70, 73-74
mass, 187-200
otherness of, 7, 36, 135-36, 198
relationship to fascism, 120, 123-24, 150, 187
versus individual, 28, 101-102, 135-36, 152
mass culture
as feminine, 205, 219-20, 232
versus high culture, 2, 4, 6, 14, 44, 232
versus popular, 204, 228-29
Massumi, Brian, 240n. 17
The Matrix, 62
Maxwell’s Demon, 167-70, 174-75, 181
McElroy, Joseph, 206
McGrath, Charles, 236n. 9
McKeever, W. A., 237n. 28
McLuhan, Marshall
“cool” versus “hot” media, 37
on content of media, 151, 244n. 2
“global village,” 40, 189
on machine, 73-74
on mass media, 188-89
“the medium is the message,” 176
on network, 151, 166, 244n. 1
on photography, 119, 127
“rear-view mirrorism,” 38
referred to in Barth, “Literature of Exhaustion,” 23-25
and technological determinism, 246n. 24
“mechanism,” historical shift in meaning of, 30
media ecology, 2, 6, 17, 27, 38, 238n. 33
Melley, Timothy
“agency panic,” 61, 184, 186-87, 247n. 31
on paranoia, 189, 245n. 6
Metropolis, 62-63, 96
Milgram, Stanley, 240n. 20
Miller, Laura, 208
Miller, Henry, 16
Mitchell, W. J. T., 103, 106-107, 111-13, 116, 241n. 3
modernism
relationship to postmodernism, 29, 204, 206
relationship to technology, 29-30
modernization, 28-29
Moody, Rick, 207-208, 215-16
Moravec, Hans, 91, 2441n. 28
Morrison, Toni, 48-49, 202, 221-230, 248nn. 4-5
Moses, Michael Valdez, 146, 244n. 37
Moulthrop, Stuart, 1, 39
murder as metaphor, 19, 109, 114, 131-135, 243n. 27
Mussa-Ivaldi, Sandro, 59-60

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 Nabokov, Vladimir, 19, 24-25, 231
nature, relationship to technology, 29-30
network
and agency, 161-63, 184, 186-87, 222, 245n. 13, 247n. 31
and chaos, 150, 152-54, 156, 159, 167-76, 179, 183-84, 193, 246n. 20
and control, 152-55, 158-59, 166, 174-87, 193, 198, 229, 245n. 12
and cybernetics, 150-52, 155-59, 161, 168, 177-78, 244nn. 3-4, 245nn. 9, 12
and death of individual, 148, 150-55, 163, 166, 168, 177, 184-200, 212, 245n. 11
as discursive category for understanding the televisual, 8, 28, 36-37, 48, 101, 201, 212, 220, 222, 226, 230-31, 237n. 20, 242nn. 10, 13, 245-46n. 16, 248n. 39
and emergence, 150, 152, 154, 184-86, 189-91, 198-99, 247n. 30
and entropy, 150, 152, 154, 167-76, 179, 181, 183, 193-94, 200, 242n. 13, 246nn. 18, 20
and fascism, 150, 184, 187, 197-99, 229, 245n. 11, 246n. 26
and hive, 148, 150-51, 155, 190-99
and information, 148, 150-52, 154-72, 176-79, 181-83, 200, 245nn. 9, 16, 246n. 20
and mass, 150, 152, 187-200, 222, 229
and noise, 156-58, 160-61, 164, 168, 170-72, 193
and paranoia, 153-54, 158, 162, 165-66, 168, 177, 179, 182-87, 188, 244-45n. 5-6, 16, 246n. 26, 247n. 29
relationship to machine, 150-52, 155
relationship to spectacle, 150
and schizophrenia, 152, 162, 166, 179, 246n. 26, 247n. 29
and surveillance, 37, 162, 166-67, 176-77, 188, 246n. 23
and systems theory, 150-53, 155-57, 159, 170, 172-76, 184, 244n. 4, 245n. 9
“New White Guys,” 206-209, 211, 216-17, 248n. 1
Newman, Charles, 20-21, 41-43
newspapers, anxiety of obsolescence and, 28, 101, 227, 236n. 10, 241n. 4
Norris, Christopher, 42, 46
novel
birth of, 13-14, 25, 235n. 5
continuing importance of, 17, 103-104, 110, 174, 216, 224-25, 230
death of; see death of the novel
former cultural dominance of, 3, 15, 236n. 10

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 obituary, of novel, 11, 15-16, 18, 22
obsolescence, planned, 3
Olster, Stacey, 114
Oprah’s Book Club
and Jonathan Franzen, 1-2, 8, 202-205, 219
and Toni Morrison, 223-24, 229, 248n. 5
relationship to “literature,” 20, 201, 217
Osteen, Mark, 173-74, 243n. 28, 244n. 34, 246nn. 21-22
overproduction, as cause of death of novel, 20-21, 23, 26
Owen, Bruce, 38, 237-38n. 30

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 painting, obsolescence of, 31-32
paranoia
as postmodern reading strategy, 154, 165, 168, 177, 179, 182-87, 245n. 6
relationship to schizophrenia, 152-53, 162, 179, 244-45n. 5, 246n. 26, 247n. 29
Passaro, Vince, 247n. 35
Patell, Cyrus, 190, 198-99, 248n. 4
Pattee, Howard, 149
Percy, Walker, 119-21
photography
in Americana, 125-26, 143
anxieties about, 28, 30-32, 34, 36, 119
and death, 126, 128, 130
in Libra, 134, 165
in Mao II, 53, 56, 126-30, 135-36, 141-42
in Morrison, 225
and realism, 4, 31-32, 38, 108, 237n. 22
and Romanticism, 31-32
and reification, 110, 119, 125-26, 130, 137
relationship to writer, 127-129
representation in, 107-108
social implications, 32
and violence, 129, 134-36, 141, 244n. 33
in White Noise, 102-104, 119-22, 125
“pictorial turn,” 103, 106-107, 116
Plato, 26-27, 237n. 17
poetry, death of, 5-6, 15, 20, 22, 26, 51-52
Pope, Alexander, 27
Poster, Mark, 116, 158, 242n. 10
posthumanism, 65-66, 71-72, 174, 239n. 8
Postman, Neil, 27, 60, 232, 237n. 19
Amusing Ourselves to Death, 102, 104-108, 115, 195, 218-19, 237n. 18, 246nn. 17, 25
Technopoly, 9, 65-67, 76, 104, 166-67, 177-78, 237n. 17, 239nn. 7, 10, 240n. 20
postmodernism
and decentered subject, 18, 44-46, 49-51, 61, 217, 221, 233
definition of, 39-41, 238n. 34
discourse of, 11-12, 39-46
discursive function of, 41-42, 46, 217-18
and feminism, 206, 217-20, 238n. 36
and fragmentation, 40, 44-46, 87, 176, 191, 193-94, 233
and irony, 217-18
and novelist, 47-50, 202, 206-207, 217-18
and obsolescence, 41, 46, 220
and paradox, 12
relationship to modernism, 29, 204, 206
and self-reflexivity, 11-12, 40
social versus cultural, 44-46, 49-50, 220-21
Powers, Richard, 50
Prigogine, Ilya, 174-75
print
authority of, 21, 154, 160, 227
obsolescence of, 1-3, 20, 23-24, 39, 101, 116, 236nn. 10, 12
relationship to image, 101, 104-106, 114, 241n. 3
relationship to internet, 3, 22, 39
relationship to television, 2, 27, 104, 195, 237n. 18
rise of, 27, 237n. 18
as undead, 1, 39
Proust, Marcel, 18
Pynchon, Thomas, 3, 47-51, 53-54, 56, 79, 89, 152, 194, 201, 238n. 40, 247-48n. 37
comparison to other novelists, 49, 202, 206-207, 210-28 passim
The Crying of Lot 49, 52, 155, 159-65, 167-70, 174-75, 178-84, 188, 191-94, 246n. 25, 247n. 29
Gravity’s Rainbow, 26, 61, 75-80, 82, 86, 90, 176, 193-94, 198, 240nn. 21-22, 244-45n. 5
“Is It OK to Be a Luddite?”, 66-69, 239nn. 10, 12
“A Journey into the Mind of Watts,” 198-99
Mason & Dixon, 91-94, 97, 247-48n. 37
Slow Learner, 168, 193, 245n. 8
V., 51, 58-59, 61, 64, 70-71, 73-75, 78-91, 93-97, 116-18, 149, 169, 175, 191, 241nn. 23-24, 245nn. 14-15
Vineland, 61, 94, 114, 133-34, 153-54, 162, 178-79, 198, 214, 247n. 33

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 quality, relationship to death of novel, 20-21, 223

¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 race, relationship to spectacle, 111, 136-41
radio
anxieties about, 16
in The Crying of Lot 49, 163, 191-94
in Mao II, 127
in Morrison, 226, 229
relationship to machine, 64
relationship to network, 150, 151, 187-88
relationship to other media, 28, 33-34, 38, 102, 109-10
in Underworld, 109-10, 131
in White Noise, 118, 171
railroad, 28, 33-35, 237nn. 23-24
Reagan, Ronald, 39, 246-47n. 28
realism
relationship to photography, 4, 31-32, 38
and rise of novel, 13
Reed, Ishmael, 48, 206
Reid, Robert, 237n. 29
Remnick, David, 126-27
Richardson, Samuel, 13
Riesman, David, 190
Robbe-Grillet, Alain, 117
Rubin, Louis, 18, 21
Rucker, Rudy, 91, 190, 241n. 28
Rushdie, Salman, 54, 238nn. 38-39

¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 Sales, Nancy Jo, 247-48n. 37
Salinger, J. D., 126, 130
Santayana, George, 239n. 3
Scanlan, Margaret, 238n. 38, 243n. 22
Schachterle, Lance, 241nn. 24, 26
Schickel, Richard, 236n. 9
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang, 33-34, 237n. 23
schizophrenia, 152, 162, 166, 179, 246n. 26, 247n. 29
Seltzer, Mark, 70, 166
sexuality, and machine, 61, 63, 70-79, 82, 84-86, 95-97
Shannon, Claude, and Warren Weaver, 155-58, 245nn. 9-10
Shelley, Mary, 61, 67
Sheppard, R. Z., 207
Shikibu, Murasaki, 235n. 5
Silko, Leslie Marmon, 48
Simon, Claude, 117
Simpson, David, 41
simulation, 106, 108-110, 114-15, 118, 144-48
Sklar, Robert, 35-36
Slade, Joseph, 80, 107, 182, 244n. 4
Snow, C. P., 66-67
Socrates, 26-27
Sontag, Susan, 18, 125
Sorid, Daniel, 59-60, 63
spectacle
academic complicity with, 103-107, 119-25
and commodification, 112-13, 119-21, 125-26, 130, 141, 242n. 9
and deception, 108, 114
as discursive category for understanding the televisual, 8, 28, 32, 36-37, 48, 149-50, 160, 201, 220, 222, 230-32
as drug, 100, 145-47
light as purest form of, 98
and materiality/immateriality of the image, 98-99, 109-10, 133, 142
and reification, 113-14, 117, 119, 124-26, 130, 137-38, 140-41, 242n. 10
relationship to history, 109-11, 124, 133
relationship to network, 194-96
relationship to race, 111, 136-41
relationship to real, 100, 108, 110, 114-15, 125-26, 129, 141-47
relationship to textual/linguistic, 102, 104-108, 110-11, 114-18, 121, 146
and state power, 113-15, 130, 133-34, 137
and violence, 113-14, 130-36, 141, 144
(see also photography, film, television, video)
speed, 30, 33-35, 105-106
Spigel, Lynn, 72, 187-88, 192, 239n. 4, 241n. 30, 246nn. 23, 27, 247n. 32
Spilka, Mark, and Caroline McCracken-Flesher, 17-18, 50
Stalin, Joseph, 137
Star Trek, 190-91
Stark, John, 176-77, 246n. 18
Steiner, George, 236n. 13, 236-37n. 15
Steiner, Wendy, 48
Stephens, Mitchell, 13, 27, 31, 105, 237n. 18, 242n. 6, 243n. 29
Sterling, Bruce, 91, 174, 241n. 28
Susann, Jacqueline, 20
systems theory, 38, 150-53, 155-57, 159, 170, 172-76, 184, 244n. 4, 245n. 9
Szilard, Leo, 170

¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 Tabbi, Joseph, 6, 179, 182, 194, 197, 243n. 23
and Michael Wutz, 17-18, 38
Tanner, Tony, 117, 246n. 18
technologies, conflict among, 104-105
technology
anxieties about, 1, 3, 8-9, 11, 21, 26-39, 60, 101, 187-88, 235n. 1, 239nn. 7, 11
anxieties about, as displacement of social anxieties, 20, 26, 28, 97, 230
anxieties about, function, 27, 36
in “border war” with the human, 62-68, 97, 174, 237n. 21, 239n. 11
as cause of death of novel, 16, 20-25, 101, 220
and control, 152, 155, 166, 176-77, 241n. 24-25, 246n. 25
as element of literary criticism, 6-7
and feminization, 61, 64-65, 77, 96-97
in Gravity’s Rainbow, 75-78
and image production, 103, 119-20, 125, 130, 137
in Mason & Dixon, 91-93
relationship to cultural production, 28-29
relationship to death, 83-84, 145-47, 159
relationship to modernism, 29-30
relationship to network, 151, 244n. 4
relationship to Romanticism, 29-32
relationship to postmodernism, 44-45
relationship to reading, 60, 70, 80, 86-87
relationship to “theory,” 69
relationship to writing, 68, 70, 159
social implications, 20, 28, 35, 60-61, 64-65, 188-89, 199
in V., 80-89, 91, 93-97
in White Noise, 103
(see also machine, film, internet, photography, railroad, radio, television)
technophilia, 9, 13, 150
technophobia, 9, 11, 13, 60-71
television
in Americana, 89, 98, 119, 125, 142-44, 149, 195
and aurality, 102
as cause of death of novel, 4-5, 24-25, 27, 60, 202, 220
communications model of, 157-58, 245
and control, 153-54, 161-62, 176, 178-79, 186, 188, 240n. 16, 246nn. 23, 25, 27
and convergence, 37-38, 213, 238n. 32, 242n. 9
critique of audience, 2, 7-8, 37, 158, 203-205, 218-19, 230, 239n. 1, 240n. 15, 245n. 11
in The Crying of Lot 49, 161-62, 178-81, 245n. 14
and dehumanization, 59-60, 64-65, 72, 75, 89-91, 97
as drug, 146-47, 153-54, 215, 247n. 33
and epistemological change, 104-105
and ethnicity, 139-41, 199, 202
and gender, 61, 64-65, 72-73, 97, 202, 205, 218-19, 232-33, 239n. 4, 241n. 30
in Gravity’s Rainbow, 90
and history, 100-101, 130
as human, 90-94, 97
and ideology, 139, 180-81, 192
and interconnection, 149-51, 153, 162, 176, 186, 247n. 32
and individualism, 150-51, 187, 189, 196-97, 199, 202
and irony, 210-12, 216
and language, 118-19, 243n. 17
in Libra, 153, 186
in Mao II, 135-36, 194, 196-97
and massification, 150-51, 187-90, 194-97, 199
in Moody, 215-16
in Morrison, 221-24, 226, 229-30
and paranoia, 153-54, 179, 188
perceived feminization of audience, 7, 205, 218-19
in Players, 98-99
and race, 139-41, 199, 202, 205, 232-33
relationship to other media forms, 4, 36-38, 100-102, 104, 236n. 9, 237n. 18, 237-38n. 30
representations of, 6-8, 49, 60
as representing machine, 60, 70
and sexuality, 72-73
and simulation, 142-48
social implications, 8, 37, 50
in Underworld, 131-32
in V., 58-59, 75, 90-91, 149, 191
in Vineland, 94, 153-54, 162, 178
and violence, 135-36, 139, 194-95
and visuality, 100-102
in Wallace, 121, 209-15
in White Noise, 99, 118, 124-26, 139-41, 145-48, 195-96
Tenner, Edward, 63
Terminator, 62-63
“theory”
as cause of death of novel, 18-20, 23
and decline of language, 115-16
as manifestation of anxiety of obsolescence, 42, 46, 217-18
as mechanized reading practice, 69, 239n. 13
relationship to fiction, 6
in White Noise, 117-21
Them!, 198
The Thing, 198
Tichi, Cecelia, 27-30, 69, 236n. 10, 237n. 21
de Tocqueville, 14
Toffler, Alvin, 40
Torgovnick, Marianna, 20, 50
Turner, Frederick Jackson, 239n. 3

¶ 20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 Varos, Remedios, 161, 165
Vaucanson, Jacques de, and the mechanical duck, 91-94, 97, 241n. 29
video, relationship to film, 131-33
Vinge, Vernor, 174
Virilio, Paul, 125, 130
Vollmann, William T., 207
Vonnegut, Kurt, 47

¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 Walker, Joseph, 243nn. 25-26
Wallace, David Foster, 121-23, 201, 202, 207-17, 247n. 34, 248 n. 1
Walter, Natasha, 11-12
War Games, 62
waste, 171-74
Watt, Ian, 13-14, 235n. 5
WebTV, 37, 48, 238n. 31
Weissman, Larry, 2, 4-5, 48
Wheeler, William, 247n. 30
white masculinity, relationship to humanism, 20, 46, 49-50, 190, 199, 205-206
whiteness, and anxiety of obsolescence, 36, 137-141, 198-99, 202, 206-211, 217-33
Wicke, Jennifer, 238n. 36
Wiener, Norbert
and cybernetics, 151-52, 155, 159, 177-78, 245nn. 9, 12
on entropy, 168
on information, 156, 170
on the relationship between human and machine, 88-89, 94-95
Williams, Raymond, 246n. 24
Winfrey, Oprah, see Oprah’s Book Club
Winn, Marie, 154, 215
Wired magazine, 22
writer, representations of, 50-56, 70

¶ 22 Leave a comment on paragraph 22 0 Yehnert, Curtis, 242n. 5
Young, John, 223-24, 248nn. 5-6