The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television

281 Pages·2006·1.84 MB·English

by  Kathleen Fitzpatrick

Anxiety
the
Obsolescence
of

the american novel

in the age of television
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
The Anxiety of Obsolescence

The Anxiety
of Obsolescence
The American Novel in the Age of Television
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Vanderbilt University Press •
nashville
© 2006 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First Edition 2006
10 09 08 07 06 05 1 2 3 4 5
Printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Portions of Chapter 3 of this book first appeared in different form as “The
Clockwork Eye: Technology, Woman, and the Decay of the Modern in Thomas
Pynchon’s V.,” in Thomas Pynchon: Reading from the Margins, ed. Niran Abbas
(2002). I gratefully acknowledge the permission granted by the Associated
University Presses to reprint this material.
The “schematic diagram of a general communication system” on page 156
is reprinted from The Mathematical Theory of Communication, copyright 1949,
1998 by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Press, and is used with
permission of the University of Illinois Press.
The “encoding/decoding” diagram on page 157 is reprinted from
Culture, Media, Language, copyright 1980 by Centre for Contemporary
Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, and is used with permission
of Taylor & Francis.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, 1967–
The anxiety of obsolescence : the American novel in the age of television /
Kathleen Fitzpatrick.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8265-1519-3 (acid-free paper)
ISBN 0-8265-1520-7 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. American fiction—History and criticism.
2. Television broadcasting—United States—Influence.
3. Literacy—United States. 4. Popular culture—United States.
I. Title.
PS371F58 2006
813’.5409—dc22
2005031076
For Rick

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Anxiety of Obsolescence 1
1 Three Discourses on the Age of Television 11
2 Machine 58
3 Spectacle 98
4 Network 149
5 Obsolescence, the Marginal, and the Popular 201
Notes 235
Bibliography 249
Index 259

Acknowledgments
Any text such as this one owes its existence to countless individuals and in-
stitutions that have supported its coming into being, and any expression of
gratitude seems destined for inadequacy. Such an inadequacy in what follows
should be understood as a failure in the expression, rather than the absence,
of sincere emotion.
This project has taken a long and often painful path to its final fruition but
has been fostered at each stage by teachers, counselors, and guides who have
managed through their efforts to make it something more than I could have
produced on my own. At New York University, the instruction and mentor-
ship of Cyrus Patell, Phillip Brian Harper, Josephine Hendin, Pat Hoy, and
Carolyn Dever created the atmosphere of support and rigor that enabled me
to take an ill-formed question about the relationship between television and
the novel and develop a project that has sustained my interest through many
dark moments. The material support of both the English Department and
the Expository Writing Program were crucial to the speedy completion of the
dissertation from which the present project developed. That dissertation also
benefited from the critical input of the postmodernist dissertation support
group, including Sandy Baldwin, Martin FitzPatrick, and Jae Roe, whose
camaraderie and friendly challenges made the process as worthwhile as the
product. I also want to thank Megan Abbott, Margaret Longbrake, and Laurie
Marcus for their demanding, insightful readings of my work. For their unflag-
ging support through the always tendentious and often exhilarating days in the
doctoral program, I’d like to convey my deepest gratitude to Corinne Abate,
Stephen Brauer, Joshua Gaylord, Michael Matto, Lahney Preston-Matto, James
Polchin, Aaron Rosenthal, and all the members of Table 13, whose sympathy,
kindness, and eternal readiness with the appropriate televisual reference made
the early days of this project more fun than I could have hoped.
At Pomona College, I have been blessed with generous colleagues, both pres-
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