Davidson, Ian

English

Northumbria Research Link

Northumbria Research Link
Citation: Davidson, Ian (2011) Mobility and materialism in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. In: Northumbria 
Research Conference, 5-6 May 2011, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
URL: 
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I Davidson - Mobility and materialism in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis 
This paper uses theoretical perspectives from the rapidly developing area of mobility studies to 
provide a reading of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. In the novel the international financial guru Eric 
Packer is driven around New York in a stretch limousine. Stuck in the streets of a gridlocked city, 
Packer buys and sells currency, gambling speculatively and illogically that the value of the Yen will 
fall, losing millions in the process. 
 The car, that should represent the freedom of automobility, is unable to make progress faster than 
walking pace through the busy streets. It never leaves Manhattan, but is stored in an underground 
car park, leaving the driver to make his way through the tunnel to a home in the suburbs. Time and 
space are no longer compressed by the ability of the car to cover distance quickly, but by the 
globalised systems of telecommunications that feed the financial data into the car and allow Packer 
to carry out his dealing. The metal box and its cargo of flesh inches forward, while money is shifted 
around the globe in fractions of a second.  


Mobility and materialism in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis

Northumbria University Research Portal

I Davidson - Mobility and materialism in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis This paper uses theoretical perspectives from the rapidly developing area of mobility studies to provide a reading of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. In the novel the international financial guru Eric Packer is driven around New York in a stretch limousine. Stuck in the streets of a gridlocked city, Packer buys and sells currency, gambling speculatively and illogically that the value of the Yen will fall, losing millions in the process.  The car, that should represent the freedom of automobility, is unable to make progress faster than walking pace through the busy streets. It never leaves Manhattan, but is stored in an underground car park, leaving the driver to make his way through the tunnel to a home in the suburbs. Time and space are no longer compressed by the ability of the car to cover distance quickly, but by the globalised systems of telecommunications that feed the financial data into the car and allow Packer to carry out his dealing. The metal box and its cargo of flesh inches forward, while money is shifted around the globe in fractions of a second.  

http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2915/1/I%20Davidson%20-%20Mobility%20and%20materialism%20in%20Don%20DeLillo%20ASS%20YES.pdf

Mobility and materialism in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis

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