White Noise: A Second Reading Experience

In 1997, while working as a temp in the copy center of an architectural firm near the Princeton Junction train station, I first read White Noise. I vividly remember loving it. The extraneous initials of J. A. K. Gladney, Hitler Studies, the most photographed barn in America, the Airborne Toxic Event, and the high-falutin dialogues in the supermarket aisles all charmed me. However, I was less impressed with the second half's emphasis on death. I recall reading it outside during lunch in October, enjoying a sandwich made with good bread, hard cheese, and wasabi. Years later, when I taught at the college level, I recommended the book to my students.

Fast forward 23 years, in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, I just completed a second reading. With election anxiety rising, the Northwest burning, the NFL restarting in empty stadiums, and baseball and basketball games being played to cardboard cutout and digital fans, the world seems very different. This time around, I was amazed at how much seemed new, as if I was reading it for the first time. The appearance of Murray Jay Siskind, a subcharacter from Amazons, felt like seeing an old friend. The shorter chapters and slower pace of the prose, compared to some of DeLillo's other novels, gave the book a more refined feel.

The consistent focus on death differentiates this novel from his previous works. While it is an important theme, it almost detracted from my enjoyment to the point where I considered reducing my rating. I also found myself less absorbed in the text, easily distracted by my wife and child. However, when I committed a Saturday to powering through the last third, I realized that my lack of absorption had more to do with my reading experience than the book itself.

Overall, although I will maintain the five-star rating, White Noise has fallen somewhat in my estimation after reading so many other great works in the past 23 years. It is interesting to see where it fits in DeLillo's bibliography, coming after some of his looser and more experimental works. Despite this, it still showcases his unique style and themes of code, void, and system. The characters and readers in the book search for meaning and pattern in a seemingly chaotic world, and this search itself is the resolution of the mystery. White Noise remains a significant work in DeLillo's oeuvre and a thought-provoking read.

The Airborne Toxic Event

White Noise by Noah Baumbach will open the 79th Venice Film Festival.

Let's see if for once the film will be better than the book, which didn't excite me.

The characters are cold, not very empathetic, and sometimes not very believable. The plot is thin and veers into an ending that is also in this case not very believable given how it is constructed. The postmodern style here weighs down rather than exalts.

However, what remains for me are:

- The themes, which are central and focused on living in modern Western societies. Consumerism elevated to a reason for living. The emptiness of information, today we would say of social media, a true weapon of mass distraction. The disintegration of the family. Religion that no longer saves. Violence as a safety valve and dictatorship as a refuge from the complexities to be faced. The abuse of psychoactive drugs. The psychological discomfort, of which all of the above can constitute cause-effect-diversion, here represented in the obsessive fear of death, plastically rendered with the radioactive toxic event.

- Some scenes that I'm curious to see reconstructed in the film. The initial scene of the arrival at the campus where the protagonist professor of the book teaches. The radioactive cloud that threatens the city (the scene fills the long central chapter). The pilgrimage on the highway to admire the sunsets. The orderly, colorful supermarkets, full of sounds.

I'm

a person with many dreams and aspirations. I strive to achieve my goals and make a positive impact in the world.

Every day, I wake up with a sense of determination and a willingness to learn and grow.

I believe that through hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.

I am constantly seeking new opportunities and challenges to expand my knowledge and skills.

Whether it's in my personal life or in my career, I am always looking for ways to improve and be the best version of myself.

I am also a firm believer in the power of positive thinking and surrounding myself with like-minded individuals who support and encourage me.

With their help and my own efforts, I am confident that I can achieve great things and make a difference in the lives of others.

After getting through this book for a third time, I'm still completely amazed by it.

Although the social satire becomes increasingly evident with multiple readings, there are an abundance of mind-blowing moments that make it truly worthwhile. I still have several questions lingering in my mind.

What exactly does Wilder crying at the end signify? Is it him finally finding his voice? Or is it a glimmer of hope?

Is Dylar real? Could it be a placebo?

What becomes of Mr. Gray at the end? One moment he is on the verge of death, and then the next, it cuts away to an argument about religion.

There are numerous quotes that I could insert here, but these are a few of my favorites.

"How strange it is. We have these deep, terrible, lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to people, eat and drink. We manage to function. The feelings are deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyze us? How is it we can survive them, at least for a little while? We drive a car, we teach a class. How is it no one sees how deeply afraid we were, last night, this morning? Is it something we all hide from each other, by mutual consent? Or do we share the same secret without knowing it? Wear the same disguise?"

"We finally agreed that I should invent an extra initial and call myself J.A.K. Gladney, a tag I wore like a borrowed suit… So Hitler gave me something to grow into and develop toward, tentative as I have sometimes been in the effort. The glasses with thick black heavy frames and dark lenses were my own idea, an alternative to the bushy beard that my wife of the period didn’t want me to grow…I am the false character that follows the name around."

"The smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire. We finished out lunch in silence."

"I want to believe [Atilla the Hun] lay in his tent, wrapped in animal skins, as in some internationally financed movie epic, and said brave cruel things to his aides and retainers. No weakening of the spirit. No sense of the irony of human existence, that we are the highest form of life on earth and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die."

Don Delillo is truly a genius.

Although the book can be a bit fatalistic, it is a brutally honest satire about modern life. All the characters are products of the desensitization of the information age. All tragedies are just new clippings. The television has dulled the characters' ability to properly distinguish between the horrible and the ordinary. Even the television screen has become a symbol of this. The flatness of the screen represents the flatness of every character. Jack is an unemotional shell until the end when it all explodes. The description of what happens at the end is haunting. Since so much of the book focuses on the fear of death, it can seem lost in the abstract. Delillo purposely channels all the worries and fears into strange and oblique dialogue. But at the end, death is thrust in Jack's face, and it is horrifying. When death becomes a real and tangible thing for the characters, it also becomes so for the reader, and it is written with such realism. That's how talented Delillo is.

But what really impresses me about this book is Delillo's ability to blend hundreds of different philosophies into single moments. It is the perfect distillation of the post-modern condition, living under the weight of thousands of different ideas and philosophies all crashing down into the present moment. It is extremely difficult to find any meaning in the hodge-podge of modern life. Not only that, but the characters have to endure hundreds of meaningless facts and bits of tabloid information; studies show this, no studies show that. How can one possibly handle all these things coming at once? Delillo's answer is brain fade. The brain fade causes everyone to simplify everything. The only way to process so much information being thrown at us is to compartmentalize it all and sort it into manageable figures. It all desensitizes us to the emotional and moral attention that reality should have.

It is truly amazing that this book was written in 1985. All these problems have only been magnified in the age of information and the internet. I would say that some of the things he writes may seem obvious or understood only because we are so immersed in such a culture. But as I said, this is the pessimistic way to look at it.

Here's my contribution to The Big Audio Project: http://soundcloud.com/stephenmirabito/review-of-white-noise-by-don.

Post Modernism appears not to be the suitable genre for me. In fact, until this weekend, I might have mistakenly lumped this category of books together with Dystopian or Sci-Fi novels. If you have a penchant for works like Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, or the more recent The Vegetarian by Han Kang, then perhaps this one will excite you as it did others. However, I found it mired in what seemed like shallow hopelessness, which was likely intentional on the part of the author. The characters, who had little to truly complain about, yet did so incessantly, failed to engage me. It might serve as a time capsule of how baby boomers reacted to the ennui of their era, but the author, despite being reputed for his talent, never managed to make me inhabit any of the characters. I simply couldn't connect.

The recurring theme of fear of death pervades this book, which was written in the mid-80s when the US was deeply immersed in marketing schemes and the government, still embroiled in the Cold War, was withholding information deemed too terrifying for the masses. I didn't read this on Kindle, but if I had, I would have been tempted to search for the word "death" to see just how obnoxiously frequently it appeared.

Accompanying the whining angst of the middle-aged characters is an insulting parade of pop culture, with satirical jabs at how Americans in those days were still overly enthusiastic about anything related to Elvis or any sensationalist TV shows. If today's shows like The Bachelor, Real Housewives, and Keeping up with the Kardashians had existed in the 80s, they would have fit right in. The main character, who can't speak a word of German, founded an academic department based on Hitler. The key paradox here is that if the professor can't speak or read the language, then it's clear he hasn't read the Nazi works. He's not a neo-Nazi and has a dear Jewish friend. He teaches Hitler Studies simply because the little mustachioed horror was always a topic of discussion. The university offers programs on things that everyone has a fascination for, whether positive or morbid.

Massive consumerism, industrial accidents, pollution, and the use of pills to alleviate depression are themes that are repeatedly emphasized. The dialogue between characters often devolves into soliloquies by the author, expounding his profound thoughts. There is satire, absurdity, and countless paradoxes, all of which I was intelligent enough to notice but not deep enough to fully appreciate, let alone find humorous.

Beyond all this is the kind of angst that one can understand and tolerate in an adolescent undergoing hormonal changes and learning to face a world where they must fend for themselves. But listening to 12 hours of adults lamenting life because it's imperfect? No, thank you. My own life involves interaction and friendship with many families who have children with special needs, so my patience for those who wallow in self-pity and never snap out of it is extremely limited. Being able-bodied and of sound mind is an enormous gift!

Perhaps I'm simply too shallow a person to "get" the pervasive middle-aged depression depicted in literature, let alone find any darkly humorous aspects in it. There's an incident near the end of the book that, if one pays attention, can be seen coming. Maybe my anticipation of the big moment spoiled it for me. I was eager for it to be over. Other imagery, like watching a mindless toddler wheel a tricycle fearlessly across the interstate, is supposed to show that youth and ignorance are bliss. I wish I were ignorant of this particular award-winning book.

My apologies, but after devoting nine hours of my life to White Noise, I despised it.

Roman za koji je Delilo dobio Američku nacionalnu književnu nagradu je izgleda dosta uticao i na autore poput Frenzena.

Ovaj roman se bavi temom savremene američke porodice. Beli šum je podeljen u tri dela, a svaki od njih je osvrt na neke socijalne fenomene značajne za svako društvo ovog vremena.

Prvi deo, pod naslovom Talasi i zračenje, je možda i najbolji književni opis potrošačkog mentaliteta. U ovom delu, supermarket je dignut na nivo hrama, a kupovina je religija. To je najtačnije predstavljeno kroz sledeći citat:
Kupovao sam radi same kupovine, gledao i dodirivao, pregledavao robu koju nisam ni nameravao da kupim, a onda je kupovao. Tražio sam od prodavaca da prevrću po svojim katalozima s uzorcima materijala u potrazi za nekim nepostojećim dizajnom. Počeo sam da u sopstvenim očima dobijam na vrednosti i samopoštovanju. Sit sam se nakupovao, pronašao neke nove svoje apsekte, otkrio u sebi osobu za koju sam zaboravio da postoji. Sve oko mene je blistalo. Prešli smo sa odeljenja nameštaja u odeljenje s muškom odećom, prošavši kroz deo sa kozmetikom. Naše slike pojavljivale su se na stubovima s ogledalima, na staklenim i hromiranim površinama, na monitorima u prostorijama za radnike obezbeđenja. Razmenjivao sam novac za robu. Što sam više novca trošio, to je takvo trošenje izgledalo manje značajno. Bio sam veći od tih novčanih iznosa. Ti iznosi su navirali iz moje kože kao kiša. A zapravo su mi se vraćali u obliku egzistencijalnih kredita.

Drugi deo, Toksična vazdušna pojava, opisuje ekološku katastrofu koja se dešava u gradiću, mestu radnje romana.

Treći, Dilarama, je oda strahu od smrti i šta je sve čovek spreman da uradi da bi se rešio tegoba prouzrokovanih njime.

Sva tri fenomena se prepliću kroz priču, pa čak bi se moglo zaključiti i da proističu jedan iz drugog. Specifično za roman je satira društva gde se karikiraju dijalozi i odnosi unutar familije. Tako da neki razgovori deluju prilično neverovatno, ali to je namerno urađeno da se neke socijalne pojave prikažu iz jednog neobičnog ugla.

Almost I can't remember the last time I laughed for three whole days by myself, which actually happened with this masterpiece of a book. Here, Delillo with his personal and surreal way comments on the American society of the 80s and almost predicts everything that would happen almost three decades later, in the era of information overload and hyper-consumerism.

Jack, the chair of the Department of Hitler Studies (a branch of his own inspiration), trembles at the idea of death, as does his fourth wife (in his fifth marriage since he chose to marry a woman twice). The book is full of after-events of his crazy family, but this specific trope in the hands/pen of Delillo for about 400 pages seems to be the only right way of commenting.

Certainly, it's not for everyone. The author creates one-dimensional characters to serve his purposes and the reader must love the surrealism to some extent. There are many truly unforgettable moments: the seven-hour non-stop crying of the baby, the plane that crashes into the void (I had to read this passage six times), an unlikely hunt between Jack and Gary, the list is really long (Jack's consumerist mania, the anorexia in the car, the futile attempt of the protagonist to speak German, etc.) and the essence is that White Noise is a really great book, thrillingly prophetic and strongly influential on today's pop culture, as we understand it, write about it and read it for that reason.

It became an immediate favorite and is recommended without the slightest second thought.

White Noise seems to create a distinct divide among people when it comes to literary style, and this is quite understandable.

Once you manage to embrace the skewed reality of Delillo's world, which isn't overly difficult to do, you can find pleasure in the "unrealistic" dialogue and the surrealistic events as they unfold in a surreal manner.

Otherwise, this is a rather straightforward book "about death" - in terms of theme, it doesn't get much simpler than that.

For me, Delillo's style was incredibly original, completely engrossing, and extremely funny and pleasurable throughout, especially during the 'Airborne Toxic Event' section. Here, it transitions from highbrow social satire to something dreamlike and beautiful.

As the story progresses into 'Dylarama', it becomes more Bergman-like in its warped moribundity and builds up to a sensationally lurid and haunting climax.

However, it's important to note that your experience may vary - it's precisely that kind of book that elicits different responses from different readers.

One of the best novels. Reading it was enjoyable. After reading, after some time has passed, like several months, you can still feel the atmosphere of the novel, think about it and recall it. The characters and characterizations were very attractive. Sometimes it had sentences that made you stop the book and your eyes as well. The innocence of the children was sometimes shown in a sentence in such a way that it would strike you like lightning. A special silence and a special cloud of pollution was covering the whole novel. Its large volume gave you a good feeling. With patience, it described everything for you, built its own philosophy and shaped its own world for you and you moved in it.

There is a scene in it where a family goes and eats roast chicken. That scene has been depicted so well, powerfully and impressively that you can never forget it and you make associations with it.

It is my practice to review a book immediately after reading it, if I can.

That way, it remains fresh in my mind, and I am also writing while still under the influence of the book and my feelings about it.

Right now, I am truly awed and deeply affected by this book. If I were to attempt to compress its meaning into just a few paragraphs, it would likely come out as gibberish.

So, instead, I will tell you why it earns 5 stars and why it will undoubtedly go onto my favorites list.

This novel was written 35 years ago, and yet it is even more relevant today than it might have been then.

I found myself laughing out loud at the dialogue and the family situations presented. Then, I would sit back and think, "Wow."

I initially started highlighting sentences, but soon had to give up because there were simply too many great lines.

I ended up loving everything about a book that I wasn't even sure I wanted to read at first.

The conclusion left my brain silenced for a few minutes as I realized what an extraordinary feat this author had accomplished.

It earns 5 stars not because it left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling or a sense of having learned something specific.

In fact, it confused me in many places and left me wondering what, in truth, I actually know.

It gets 5 stars because every single page had me thinking in new and different ways, along uncharted paths, more so than any book I can recall in the last few years.

More importantly, it changed the way I look at our world. That, to me, is precisely what classic literature should do.

Thank you, Laura!

*2017 "Maawuj, that bwessed awanjement, that dweam wiff-in a dweam" Award* for Most Pecuwer Maawuj in Wittawatur I Wed

\\n  Thanatophobia Θ\\n et Il Intimidito Cornuto

"Tanatos" by Mauricio García Vega

At its core, White Noise is a profound and darkly humorous novel. It tells the story of a college professor who lives in the shadow of death and is haunted by erotic humiliation, il intimidito cornuto, in the era of consumerism, against the backdrop of the rhubarb racket (or white noise).

J.A.K. Gladney, the neurotic Chair of Hitler Studies at College-on-the-Hill in a small Midwestern town, and his wife both suffer from thanatophobia, an extreme form of death anxiety. JAK discovers that his wife has repeatedly cuckolded him, effectively prostituting herself in exchange for a highly experimental drug that is said to suppress the fear. He searches for the man who had sex with his wife, finds him, but then becomes more focused on obtaining the drug for himself rather than seeking revenge, even if it means killing to get it.

I found this novel to be both more intellectually stimulating in its substance and more accessible in its traditional structure compared to Libra and Underworld, the other two DeLillo novels I have read. This is significant for me because I'm not a huge fan of his works. I often find it challenging and frustrating to read a novel like Underworld, where the dialogue lacks clear character delineation and often seems to be in the same voice (Delillo's) for multiple characters.

I rate it a 4.5. It's not my favorite, but it's definitely a recommended read.

‘All plots tend to move deathward,’ lectures Jack Gladney, the Hitler studies teacher central to Don DeLillo’s White Noise. This comic masterpiece indeed moves towards death, with the meta-statement being as significant as the actual gun Gladney is given. The whole wild ride is filled with the thought of the inevitability of death, just like in our own lives. Originally titled Panasonic, the title White Noise refers to the constant noise of society that numbs our minds to our mortality salience. DeLillo interrogates our aversion to death in a consumerist culture and steers it into the chaos of disaster emergency.

Published in 1985, White Noise came out just before the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster and in an increasingly technology-anxious world. The novel is jittering with anxieties, from the Hitler expert’s imposter syndrome to the experimental drug Dylar. DeLillo brilliantly depicts a death avoidance society that has plunged into consumerism and symbolic living. The characters in the novel, like Jack and his wife Babette, often discuss their fears of death and who they hope dies first. Family and group belonging are also seen as forms of white noise.

According to Trauma Management Theory, mortality salience and death anxiety cause people to solidify their worldview and react in ways to assert control. This is seen in the novel during the Airborne Toxic Event, where people’s thoughts of mortality reach a fever pitch. The novel also touches on distrust of authority and the role of social media in the spread of misinformation. DeLillo shows how uncertainty leads to art and how people compensate for control in the face of uncertainty. The novel takes a philosophical tone, with Jack and his colleague Murray engaging in discourses on various topics. Consumerism has replaced God in America, and the simulation of religious experience colors the novel in many ways.

Ultimately, we are left to question if all narrative in life merely moves towards death or if it is a way to seek shape and control. White Noise is a fabulous book that is both comedic and insightful, with a lasting power that is all the more relevant in the modern age. It is a deserving winner of the National Book Award and a book worth revisiting again and again.