'Death In Don Delillo's Zero K'

“Death destroys a man: the idea of death saves him.” This is a quote by the late English, modernist novelist E.M Forster. Death is an event that all life must eventually embrace. We live everyday under the precedent that death is inevitable. But it is under these rules that we begin to find meaning in our life. Everything we do in life is dictated by the fact that we know the ending of the book. When Forster references to death as saving a man he is discussing the idea of humans trying to understand life in the defiance of death.

The Austrian philosopher Sigmund Freud believed that this urge to fathom and interpret death gives way to the ‘Death Drive’ as he calls it. The idea of the death drive began to appear in Freuds later work. It expresses

It discusses the idea of being ready for death, but not death as we know it, this death with a promise of rebirth. Following the son of a bombastic millionaire it explores it explores the idea of morning someone who is not really dead, but gone from your life. One of the striking themes throughout the book is the declaration of technology as a new god. Ross Lockhart describes it as a “faith based technology…another god”. He goes on to say that “we ought to regard it as form of art”. Comparing this new technology to god and art relates back to Freuds idea of the superego and how we create these things in the insubordination of death. In chapter 6, Delillo expresses that “the defining element of life is that it ends”. All life is made to end; we appreciate life because of this factor. Delillio expresses is view that we need to enjoy life in together in chapter 2 saying “I glanced back down the hall waiting for someone to appear, another witness, a person who might stand next to me while the images built and clung.” The main character Ross says this as he stands beneath a form of art. In my opinion Dellio is trying to express that art and life are profoundly linked, that in both situation we need companionship to help convey our thoughts and worries, to justify and reassure our self’s that are feelings are not experienced

I never knew him but my mother was close. He suffered from depression and became an artist, perhaps to deal with his suffering. The day he died I found myself comforting my mother and reassuring her. They had both shared a passion of fine art together. I wondered why we create art as a copying mechanism. I found this quote in Zero K, a story about main character who is also going through the loss of someone close to ones parent. It seemed to reassure my beliefs in why we create art. “This is what I did in any new environment. I tried to inject meaning, make a place coherent or at least locate myself within the place, to confirm my uneasy presence.” The greatest meaning of life can be found in the face of death. We make art to save our self from