Postmodern Reality: A Study of Zizek's

Concepts of Media, Death, and Violence in

DeLillo's Falling Man

Supervisor: Dr. Zohre Taebi

By: Negar Naderi

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October 2018

Introduction

The present study deals with a shocking event in September of 2001. As American society
was drunken from economical growth and American enjoyable dream, two airplanes attacked
the emblems of capitalist world trade centers in New York city. In the meantime, a journalist,
Richard Drew captured a photo; a man who was falling from the World Trade Center's tower.
The title of the novel Falling Man by Don DeLillo has been taken from this shocking image
distributed among people in that shocking day. However, in order to hide the realities like
violence and death as the real elements of that day and American society in general, the
journals and media paid great attention to the heroic images of rescuers, victims and
destructions. Thus, the true reality, the picture of falling man has been forgotten for some
time.

Don DeLillo attempted to recapture this documentary forgotten photo and zoom on it
as a proof to demonstrate the violence, bloodshed, terror and trauma of that day trying to
provide the real picture of American society. Using death as a traumatic means, Falling Man
is DeLillo's criticism of American false policy of seeking enjoyment in life, hiding violence,
and false role of media in presenting these realities of contemporary American society.

General background

On September 11, 2001, nineteen young men, most of them from Saudi Arabia,
two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon, hijacked four
US airliners on domestic flights. Then, they flew two of the planes into the World Trade
Center towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon building near Washington, DC, with
the last airplane, in which a fight between the hijackers and the passengers broke out, diving
into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania without reaching its intended target. Nearly three
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thousand people were killed in the attacks. The suicide bombings of the WTC buildings,
taking place in broad daylight in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, were
the most spectacular and visible of all. The instantly and repeatedly broadcast images of the
planes hitting the towers and the tall buildings collapsing soon became a symbolic stand-in
for the tragic loss of that day. Among all the pictures and images of that attack, there was one
picture that was highly influential, the falling man. Jonathan Briley was the falling man of
9/11 who leaped to his death on that infamous day in 2001 (Ronald).

Besides having political effect on the world, the attack had its effect on the American
writers such as Don DeLillo, another famous postmodern writer after Thomas Pynchon and
William Gaddis. Born in 1936 in New York, Don DeLillo educated at Fordham University,
and is currently a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a
contemporary author who has published fifteen novels, three plays, and various short essays
in the last four decades. His works are best known for their depiction and examination of
contemporary American life. With his reputation as America’s eminent, most celebrated
postmodern author established by novels like Libra (1988), Mao II (1991), Underworld
(1997), and especially White Noise (1985), it seemed inevitable that this New York resident
would reflect on the epochal event of the early 21st century in his work. Having already
explored the unreal nature of postmodernity and the seemingly inevitable nature of
catastrophe in White Noise, DeLillo’s first published response to 9/11 came in the form of an
essay in Harper’s entitled “In the Ruins of the Future: Reflections on Terror and Loss in the
Shadow of September.” In this early essay, which was among “the earliest non-journalistic
responses to 9/11,” DeLillo immediately emphasized the confusion between actual trauma
and its mere representation (Abel 1236). DeLillo’s literary response to 9/11 can be
summarized as follows:

Present day attempts to imagine a (traumatic) event’s sense cannot

operate exclusively on the level of the event’s content (the
representational what) without attending to the rhetorical mode of
representation, the ethical how. Or rather, what DeLillo shows […] is that
what an event means is always shot through with how it appears. (Abel 1236.)

This emphasis on the representational aspect of any event over and above its contents
permeates DeLillo’s earlier work. A typical example is the most photographed barn in
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America from White Noise: a barn that is itself no longer visible, because “once you’ve seen
the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn” (DeLillo 12). The question
how the author would therefore respond to the events of 9/11 in the form of a novel added
strongly to the keen sense of anticipation that preceded the publication of Falling Man in
2007. The novel revolves around Keith, the main character who walked out of the Twin
Towers right after the attack. The focus lays on how Keith Neudecker and his relationships
changed after the attack. Despite instinctively going to his estranged wife’s, named Lianne,
they never seem to reconnect and he begins an affair with Florence, another 9/11 survivor. At
the end of the novel Keith flees to Las Vegas to become a professional poker player and
Lianne becomes obsessed with religion.

Prevalent in this novel seems to be the shifting perspectives and point of views. The
novel portrays the effect of the 9/11 trauma on the domestic sphere, while rejecting the hero-
narrative the American government and media tried to expose. Kristiaan Versluys describes
Falling Man as “without a doubt, the darkest and the starkest […] it describes a trauma with
no exit, a drift toward death with hardly a glimpse of redemption. […] The endless re-
enactment of trauma presented in Falling Man allows for no accommodation or resolution”
(1). Rather than attempting to provide a realistic and documentary-like depiction of the
events, DeLillo has instead chosen to focus on the shock that the attacks caused.

The Falling Man, therefore, concentrates on the false representation of a real trauma
in the historical context of 9 September, 2001. Thus, an investigation on the representational
aspects of the event over and above the historical context will be needed to unfold show
DeLillo's creative production of the shocking event in his novel.

Statement of the problem

The present study aims at an analytically investigation of DeLillo's Falling Man to

examine the confusion between what reality is and what is represented as reality to the
community and the quest of the characters for their identity. DeLillo's depiction of fake
nature of media representation in his post-modern world society and the real nature of
catastrophic terror occurred in 9/11 needs a close study to reveal the actual trauma and the
misleading representation of reality presented by media. In the previous studies related to the
Falling Man, this aspect has been ignored. This study attempts to examine the novel under
the light of Zizek's theories and notions on death, "death drive", his three forms of violence
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and the role of media as basic notions to provide a better understanding of this novel. His
notion of "Enjoyment" is also a great help in forming the prepositions of the current study.

Through the story the presence of death and terror is noticeable; DeLillo starts the
story by portraying some minutes after the first attack to the northern tower and says " it was
not a street anymore but a world" (DeLillo, 1) and indicates that Kein "was walking north
through rubble and mud" (1). Within this context, the question of reality of death comes to
mind. What is death? Is it just a disconnection of a physical body with the natural world
around us? Or is there another message and role for death in the story? It seems that presence
of death is a tool to help the characters to distinguish their perception of life and reality.

On the other hand, Zizek believes that a capitalist society has an inherent violence in
itself. Drawing from his unique cultural views, violence takes three forms in a society (Zizek,
Violence, i). The first kind of violence is the subjective form includes the obvious crime and
terror in a society. The second form is the objective form that causes racism and
discrimination in a society. The final form of violence is the systematic one includes the
catastrophic effects of economics and political systems. The presence of violence in different
forms of it lurks everywhere in the story especially when Lianne attacks of her old friends.

Finally, the present study is going to explore the issue of identity. Zizek believes that
the life of a person in a capitalist society is completely under the influence of capitalist
media. Moreover, he states that capitalist society tries to achieve its "ideology through its
mode of delivery rather than its content". Therefore, the role of media is undeniable in
shaping the characters of people in a capitalist society ( Zizek, Zizeka and the Media, 91). It
seems that the characters of the story are in a kind of journey in order to find their real self.
This search for identity is accompanied with lack of stability.

Research Questions

Considering the mentioned issues and themes, this research is going to use Zizek's
ideas in order to provide answers for the following questions.

1. How postmodern reality is shown in The Falling Man by DeLillo?

2. How is the misleading representation of reality displayed by media in The Falling
Man ?
3. How is trauma of death portrayed in this novel?
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4. In what ways Zizek's notion of violence contribute to reveal the theme of inherent
violence in capitalist society?
5. How does the enjoyment, as an essential element of a capitalist society, is presented?

Significance of the Study

This research is going to apply Zizek's notion's of violence, use of media, and death to
The Falling Man for the first time to demonstrate different kinds of violence, mis-
representation of reality in mass media besides the trauma of death in the contemporary
American society. Zizek's ideas on different kinds of violence has never been discussed on
any literary works. On the other hand, the traumatic effect of death to provide a situation in
order to see the realities of life is another notions which is going to be applied on Fallimg
Man for the first time. Finally, the role of media to promote enjoyment from every possible
way and hiding reality of violence is a very important theme to be studies in this research.
Therefore, the significance of this study lies in the mentioned notions of Zizek, which are
going to be discussed in details.

On the other hand, works of Don DeLillo have been studied from different aspects.
For example, Jaime Frances Neudecker in 2008 wrote a thesis on selected novels by DeLillo.
The researcher looks at three novels: Americana, Mao II, and Falling Man. These three
novels, published in 1971, 1991, and 2007 respectively, represent the full range of DeLillo’s
body of work, and demonstrate a clear progression of the major themes in his writings. Each
of these novels presents a protagonist who is on a journey of self discovery. On the other
hand, the previous researchers also studied the effect of terrorism in the novels. Sarah A.
McMichael also studied the effect of terror and body in The Falling Man. She believes that
DeLillo uses the bodily form as a reference point to expose and analyze the hidden atrocities
of American exceptionalism and therefore The Falling Man uncovers a system that accepts
and allows actual human bodies to become the waste by-product of these global exchanges
(ii).
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Methodology

Since the novel is using a satiric tone in order to show the unrealities of a capitalist
society and show the reality of life inside it, this thesis is applying notions of Slavoj Zizek, a
famous anti-capitalist, to examine the novel from a new perspective.

A very important tool in American society is Media, which has a very important role
in the postmodern era in shaping people's understanding of reality. Considering this role,
Zizek believes that the people are under the attack of media and they are bombard with
"images of reality"; therefore, the images become "reality for us now" (Flisfeder, Zizek and
Media Studies, 2). The images represent Hyper-reality and not the reality itself. On the other
hand, The Falling Man satirizes the role of media in people's lives and he tries to show what
has been exposed as reality is actually hyper-reality. Zizek's view about media will help this
research to reveal the role of media in promoting false reality instead of true reality of life.

In order to show the false role of media and reality of life, the present study attempts
to use Zizek's notion of death to show how DeLillo has use it to help the characters
distinguish reality from hyper-reality. Based on Lacanian notion of "Death Drive", Zizek
propose his notion of death under a new light and meaning and challenges the symbolic
notion of death considered as an end. In his A Pervert’s Guide to Cinema documentary Zizek
states "Death drive is not a kind of Buddhist striving for annihilation to find eternal peace".
Contrary he sees Death as a trauma and an eye-opener which helps the individuals to see the
reality of life which is mis-leaded through media.

On the other hand, in order to escape the fear of death as a real traumatic reality,
characters are seeking "enjoyment". Enjoyment is an essential part of a capitalist society
promoted by media. In a capitalist and consumerist society according to Zizek, individuals
pursue their consumerist fantasies in the space regulated by expert social administration
(Gunder, 185). Since enjoyment is now a command rather than a choice, one is made to feel
guilty for not enjoying, or for lacking the enthusiasm with which one should pursue
capitalistic aims of increasing acquisition. Therefore, enjoyment is no longer considered a
pastime or a break from normal work; it is a duty. The present thesis, by employing Zizek's
notion on enjoyment will manifest how and in what ways the characters' try to seek
enjoyment in their life.
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The presence of violence in the novel and analyzing different kinds of it is the final
point, which this research is going to present. Zizek believes there are three different kinds of
violence in a capitalist society. The obvious form of violence is what we see as crime in a
society. Murdering, terrorist attacks are examples of it. Second form of violence is objective
one which can be seen in different kinds of racism and discrimination. Finally, the third form
is the systematic one which example of it can be witnessed in the economical and political
systems of a capitalist society (Zizek, Violence, i). The research will use Zizek's unique idea
of violence to show how DeLillo shows the examples of violence, as a reality in American
society, in The Falling Man.

Literature review

DeLillo's artistic career has been searched and analyzed by academicians and social
journalists who tried to define DeLillo as a postmodern thinker. You can find a lot of works
on this writer and his ideas. One of those is Joseph Dewey's Beyond Grief & Nothing: a
Reading of Don DeLillo that tries to lay bare the devices used by DeLillo to define the
American grief and its consequences in order to shape a totally alienated identity. His book is
recognized as a masterpiece that covers the process of creation of DeLillo's most famous
novels such as Libra, Mao II, and Underworld. In his attempt, Dewey tries to depict DeLillo's
exclusive characteristics of writing through creation of an American myth. This books helps
the research to find some clues about the root of postmodernism in the works of DeLillo.

Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo by John N. Duval is another work which

provides a wide range of articles about DeLillo's life, works, and ideas. In the book, you can
find some articles related to his ideas about modernism and postmodernism besides some
articles related to his works.

Another example of works considering the life an dworks of DeLillo is Bloom’s

Modern Critical Views: Don Delillo. The book is compiled with a lot of articles about the
opinion of different critics about different works of DeLillo. Moreover, the book provide us
with informative information about DeLillo's ideas toward the culture and the reality of
postmodern life in American society.
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The mentioned books are huge help to the researcher to get a clear perspective toward
the thoughts of DeLillo about the reality of life in the American society. Besides the
mentioned books, some interviews with and some lectures by DeLillo helps the writer to find
out more about his ideas. Moreover, some documented movies like The Falling man and 9/11
helps to give a clear vision about the effects of 9/11 and attacks on the life of Americans.

A lot of documentaries and interviews by Zizek were very vital sources for the the
researcher to get a clear picture about his ideas. For example Psychoanalysis, a one-hour
documentary program featuring Jacques Lacan helped the researcher to get familiar with
Zizek's ideas about the psychology. Moreover, How to Read Lacan by Žižek
helped to understand more about his ideas to ward Lacan and Lacanian ideas. . ZIzek uses
pop culture, media, and cinema in order to provide a deepr understanding about Lacan
Looking Awry subtitled as An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Pop Culture was very
much ready to lend a hand in the same direction.

Mapping Ideology and The Sublime Object of Ideology were among sources whose
critique of universal ideological propositions using Lacanian structural psychoanalysis were
particularly helpful in achieving a much vaster insight into the workings of "enjoyment" and
the ideological injunction to enjoy which represents itself in diverse forms and shapes.

Another book named Violence was also very helpful to give the researcher a clear
understanding about different types of violence in a capitalist society through Zizek's eyes.
The book helps the researcher to analyze the presence of violence in the story and its different
forms in the story. Philosophy in the Presenta conversation between Alain Badiou and
Slavoj Žižek was also of great help in forming the philosophical propositions of the current
study. Additionally, other literature written on Slavoj Žižek‘s radical philosophy and
Lacanian Psychoanalysis were brought into play as well.

Among these, the researcher can name a net-based journal of Žižekian studies,
http://zizekstudies.org edited by Paul Taylor. Tony Myers' Slavoj Žižek was also among the
very first books which gave an overall understanding of Žižek's philosophy. Jean-Michel
Rabaté‘s Jacques Lacan contributed so much to the understanding of Lacanian literary
theory, a book about which Joan Copjec says it is "sure to become a required text in literature
and Lacan courses."
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Definition of Key Terms

Death Drive: The concept of death drive exists in Freud‘s early works but in Beyond the
Pleasure Principle, Freud started to explicate on the matter in detail. Eros is a tendency
"towards cohesion and unity" whereas Thanatosor death drives "operate in the opposite
direction, undoing connections and destroying things." (Evans 33)

Lacan follows Freud in the same direction and locates death drive within the
imaginary order manifesting itself in the subject‘s desire for a lost harmony which is
represented by the mother‘s breasts. However, in the 1950s, Lacan starts to put forward a
different understanding of the death drive:

When Lacan begins to develop his concept of the three orders of imaginary,
symbolic and real, in the 1950s, he does not situate the death drive in the
imaginary but in the symbolic. In the seminar of 1954–5, for example, he
argues that the death drive is simply the fundamental tendency of the symbolic
order to produce repetition; The death instinct is only the mask of the
symbolic order‘ (S2, 326).This shift also marks a difference with Freud, for
whom the death drive was closely bound up with biology, representing the
fundamental tendency of every living thing to return to an inorganic state. By
situating the death drive firmly in the symbolic, Lacan articulates it with
culture rather than nature; he states that the death drive is not a question of
biology (E, 102), and must be distinguished from the biological instinct to
return to the inanimate (S7, 211- 12) (33, 34)

Postmodernism: The term "postmodernism" first entered the philosophical lexicon in 1979,
with the publication of The Postmodern Condition: A report on Knowledge (1984) by Jean-
Francois Lyotard (1924-1998). It emphasizes the importance of power, relationships,
personalization, and discourse in the construction of truth and reality. Knowledge is situated
in time, place and other factors, and hence it cannot be generalized. People construct their
individual understanding from the unique and separate situations. Postmodernism, thus, takes
a holistic, systematic view rather than a constructed, systematic view. It breaks from the
philosophies of the Enlightenment, which seek a universal system of aesthetics, ethics, and
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knowledge. Postmodernism started in the 1920s and developed in the 1950s as a critique of
positivism and other structural and "scientific" methods. It's anti-scientific, anti-establishment
views can leave the reader bewildered as everything they hold true is challenged.

Enjoyment: it is inferred that enjoyment in this novel means seeking the materialistic
pleasures of life in order to not following realities of life.

Hyper-reality: It is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are
seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and
the other begins. It allows the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality (VR) and
human intelligence with artificial intelligence (AI). Steven Best and Douglas Kellner in
Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations (1991) define hyper-reality as: " the blurring of
distinctions between the real in the unreal in which the prefix 'hyper' signifies more than real
whereby the real is produced according to a model" (119). They also state, in Postmodern
Turn (1997) that the hyper-reality is the "end result of a historical simulation process in which
he natural world and all its referents have been gradually replaced with technology and self-
referential signs" (101). No longer is there an underlying reality, which has an existence apart
from the simulations and simulacra. Rather, what we consider to be social reality is
indefinitely reproducible and extendable, with the copy indistinguishable from the original, or
perhaps seeming more real than the original.

Media: It is inferred from the book "Zizek and the Media that Zizek considers media as a
tool in a capitalist society to achieve and impose ideological goals. He belives that media in a
capitalist society hypocritically tries to be a solution to the problems though it is a big part of
the problem ( Zizek, Zizeka and the Media, 91, 104).

Violence: Zizek believes that there are 3 form of violence in a society. The obvious form,
which is visible in a society, is called subject. Racism and discrimination are the result of
objective violence in a society. The last form of violence is the systematic one includes the
catastrophic effects of economics and political systems (Zizek, Violence, i).
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Anticipated Findings

The study will show how using Zizek's notions will help us to understand the novel
better and find the reality of life in the American society. Moreover, by using his ideas about
the media and its role, the research will show how the reality of life is mis-leaded and hyper-
reality is considered as the reality of life in that society. Considering the role of media in
presenting hyper-reality instead of reality, the research will show how Death will play the
role of trauma that breaks man's illusion of life and display the reality of life. Moreover, the
research will show how important is enjoyment in a capital society and how people find
different ways to seek joy. Finally, tracing Dellilo's satirical views toward his contemporary
society, three kinds of violence also have been discussed according to Zizek's mindset. The
research will show how different kinds of violence based on Zizek's idea are portrayed in
novel to show the inherent violence of a capitalist society. To sum up, all of the above
findings will help the research to show the absurdity of life in a capitalist society and fall of
The Falling Man is the result of an inherent violence that brought with it the trauma of death
and consequently the main characters' awareness of reality.
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Work cited

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DeLillo, Don. White Noise. London: Penguin Books, 1999.

DeLillo, Don. Falling Man. New York: Scribner, 2007.

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