God was dead: to begin with. And romance was dead. Chivalry was dead. Poetry, the novel, painting, they were all dead, and art was dead. Theater and cinema were both dead. Literature was dead. The book was dead. Modernism, postmodernism, realism, and surrealism were all dead.”
-- Narrator (Book 1, Part 1)

Importance: This initial litany of “dead” (3) objects, concepts, and entities sets the novel’s simultaneously apocalyptic and wry tone. At first, each of these dead things provokes anxiety in the reader; however, as their numbers mount, the list grows comical, mocking the nihilism of those who would dismiss these grandiose concepts. The litany also has a muffling effect, each layer contributing to the snowed-in, wintery atmosphere of the novel, in which the future spring lays in constant doubt.

Forget ghosts, put them out of your mind because this isn’t a ghost story, though it’s the dead of winter when it happens, a bright...
-- Narrator (Book 1, Part 1)