Detecting Meaninglessness and Meaning in Don DeLillo’s Players

Abstract

This article discusses Don DeLillo's Players as a critique of the media and the extent to which our lives are shaped and influenced by our interaction with the detective and thriller genres. Drawing upon Baudrillard’s definition of the hyperreal and Jameson’s understanding of postmodernity, I explore the novel's depiction of Lyle and Pammy Wynant’s journey as a reaction against the controlling nature of the media, and the couple's experience of the world through the detective and thriller genres. I argue that DeLillo’s Players provides penetrating insights into the extent to which our postmodern cultural moment is deadly to the individual. I suggest that the defining features of the novel’s characters are their subjection to the anonymizing processes of the media and their sense of dissatisfaction and yearning for escape and adventure.