"It is surely possible to be awed by the thing that threatens your life, to see it as a cosmic force, so much larger than yourself, more powerful, created by elemental willful rhythms" (124). The man-made phenomena being described here is the black cloud that creates the airborne toxic event. The characters in the novel are in the presence of something much larger than them, something that could destroy them in the cruelest ways possible. This is not only humbling, but brings about a feeling of wonder. They are confronted with a disaster that was created by themselves (man), one that they had control over, even though it feels as though they did not. The feeling of the sublime cannot be put into words, only experiences, the scene that the characters
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The symbol of crowds is one that I have noticed is very powerful and re-appears in the reading today. When the family arrives at Kung Fu Palace, crowds begin to form around people who are believed to have special information regarding the Airborne Toxic Event. The crowds that gathered at Kung Fu Palace made it more than a Chinese restaurant, it transformed it into a social area where people with similar experiences gathered. As jack explains "This large gray area, dank and bare and lost to history just a couple of hours ago, was an oddly agreeable place right now, filled with an eagerness of community and voice" (126). This is the power of crowds, of people, turning a seeming insignificant place into something more by giving it a unique aura. The symbol crowds appeared in the beginning of the novel at the Most Photographed Barn in America. The change from the crowd at the barn to the crowds at Kung Fu Palace is that the crowd at Kung Fu Palace had reason as it was meant to give individuals more information about the Airborne Toxic Event. The crowd at the barn was meaningless and maintained an aura that serve no purpose. Delillo is trying to say (not postmodern I know) that we, as humans, should use our collective voice, and ability to create and aura for purpose rather than
The symbol of crowds is one that I have noticed is very powerful and re-appears in the reading today. When the family arrives at Kung Fu Palace, crowds begin to form around people who are believed to have special information regarding the Airborne Toxic Event. The crowds that gathered at Kung Fu Palace made it more than a Chinese restaurant, it transformed it into a social area where people with similar experiences gathered. As jack explains "This large gray area, dank and bare and lost to history just a couple of hours ago, was an oddly agreeable place right now, filled with an eagerness of community and voice" (126). This is the power of crowds, of people, turning a seeming insignificant place into something more by giving it a unique aura. The symbol crowds appeared in the beginning of the novel at the Most Photographed Barn in America. The change from the crowd at the barn to the crowds at Kung Fu Palace is that the crowd at Kung Fu Palace had reason as it was meant to give individuals more information about the Airborne Toxic Event. The crowd at the barn was meaningless and maintained an aura that serve no purpose. Delillo is trying to say (not postmodern I know) that we, as humans, should use our collective voice, and ability to create and aura for purpose rather than