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White Noise Study guide
prepared by: Indhushree Rajan
12, July, 2003
Acacia Study Group
CSUF
SIMUVAC, Elvis, Tibetan Supermarkets, and Death: Tracing the Postmodern in DeLillo's WHITE NOISE
On White Noise:
Published in 1985
Won National Book Award
DeLillo's inspiration for J.A.K. Gladney's obsessive fear of death: Ernest Becker's 1974 non-fiction work, The Denial of Death.
Premise of Becker's work: man's attempt to deny the fact of his own death is his major impulse.
DeLillo's spin on this: reminders of our death lurk beneath our technologically saturated society.
Major Theoretical Influences Central to White Noise:
DeLillo explores the notion of simulacra-something that resembles an original object or, in other words, simulations or replications. Important to this process of replication is the notion that the copied original is lost. This theory was put forth by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, in his theoretical work, Simulations, in 1983.
Baudrillard's major supposition about simulacra in society: the postmodern condition privileges simulacra over objective reality; we believe our secondary, simulated reality is more real than first-degree reality.
DeLillo also imparts radically postmodern ideas throughout the text including: the ambiguity of identity, waste, intertextuality, technology, consumerism, racial heterogeneity, the loss of nuclear/biologically or socially consistent family unit, anxiety, the unnatural/fragmented quality inherent to language/discourse, etc. The arbitrariness and fragmentation of "T"ruth and reality, and specifically, the centers that drive any paradigm of thought, language, philosophy, reality, etc. derives from Jaques Derrida's discussions as put forth in his work Structure, Sign, and Play (circa 1961).
Major Themes Running Through White Noise:
Fear of Death: The major theme of the novel is that death lurks everywhere, and especially in the "white noise" of the modern world-specifically marked by the waves of radiation with which we surround ourselves. The airborne toxic event is a physical symbol of this submerged death/our anxiety concerning the ambiguity of death.
DeLillo's explorations of possible solutions to humanity's natural fear of death include:
embracing it and confronting it (eg. the Tibetan philosophy toward death),
masking fear with "mystical" science (eg. Babette's use of Dylar),
denying it through consumerism (as long as there are jingles, commercials on t.v., and "new and improved" products to by at the supermarket, our lives will always be "new and improved"),
ignoring it (eg. Wilder's connection to a primitive, innocent, untainted relationship to life),
face death through crowds (safety in numbers),
by being a killer instead of a victim (Murray J. Siskind's philosophy),
or ensconcing one's self in larger than life (and presumably death) figures in pop culture (eg. Hitler-the supreme killer, or Elvis-to this day thought to be alive and well).
Simulations Replacing Reality: Throughout White Noise, DeLillo creates a world in which simulacra has effectively replaced reality. The most notable examples in which chains of replication ensure that there is "no there there" (original article has been lost) are:
SIMUVAC- simulated evacuation. Although the first run-through is for an actual emergency, SIMUVAC views it as a practice for an actual simulation. In other words, its status as a simulation takes precedence over its use for a real emergency.
"The most photographed barn in America"- Jack and Murray visit signs called "the most photographed barn in America." Murray notes that people pay more attention to the signs than the actual barn; they are wrapped in the simulated idea of barn, rather than the real barn itself. Indeed, people take photographs of the signs, creating another remove back from the lost original, and further extending the chain of replication that exists.
Babette on T.V.- Another remove from reality is created in this scene, and only Wilder, not yet schooled in the way of simulacra, truly believes that Babette's image on screen is actually her, in the flesh, and cries by the t.v.
Aura of Authority- In some ways, the aura of authority that pervades the text exists as a subset of the simulacric theme.
Murray observes (in the barn scene) that the onlookers are unable to escape the "aura" of the barn. The barn assumes the aura of authority that controls the observers.
In similar manner, media controls reality-even to the extent that we ignore our own senses. (eg. the girls consistently experience symptoms from Nyodene D exposure only after the radio informs them of what they are, also, tabloids, the "mystical" authority of psychics, etc.)
Blind faith in science/technological language we can't
understand.
J.A.K.'s preoccupation with creating a Hitleresque image for himself- controlling his students, and mainly his own fears about mortality by the aura of his authoritative academic persona.
The aura of chemical authority- DeLillo raises the question: To what extent do we control our brains, and to what degree is the brain merely a set of chemical processes? (eg. Dylar's main side-effect is that the user confuses language with reality-side note-this confusion is a referent for Pm notion that all "realities" are arbitrary discursive constructs-this side-effect suggests that a drug can over-ride our senses and construct reality for us).
The authoritative aura of death- The notion that there is something uniquely human about the fear of death that technology and science cannot fully control.
Blind faith in religion/any paradigm of belief that exists as a center for our existence and identity- The German nun that talks to J.A.K. about heaven and faith illustrates Derridian notions of arbitrary constructions of "T"ruth, and reality/identity as derives from such centers (eg. she notes that none of the order really believes in God or heaven; they persist in the illusion of higher "T'ruth because society would collapse if they didn't).
Consumerism as Defense Against Death: DeLillo explores the American impulse to buy things, and belong to groups as a means to ward off death. (eg. J.A.K.'s belief that Hitler unified Nazi Germany by grouping them together and making them feel invincible, throughout the novel frightened people cling together in groups-after airplane scare and throughout the airborne toxic event).
Consumerism creates its own death-Consumerism amasses waste, cultural death, and ultimately leaves people feeling empty and lifeless, as J.A.K. feels after his shopping spree. Wilder is the only one who escapes this because he is too primitive to understand the abstract implications of consumerism-he can grab things of the supermarket shelves and feel entirely satisfied.
Ambiguity of Identity: J.A.K. and Murray both seek to re-invent themselves through Hitler and Elvis respectively, J.A.K. tried to complete himself through consumerism, there is a pervasive ambiguity surrounding racial/ethnic identity through the text (J.A.K. wonders what ethnicity Orest really is, and essentially, everyone in the text-to some degree-becomes an "Other" to him, because he continually identifies others in opposition to himself.
Identity of Reality Is Fragmented Through The Arbitrary Collapse of Time, Space, and Experience- Ref. Heinrich's conversation with his father about whether or not it's raining.
Identity Is Created/Destroyed, Present/Absent Through Language- J.A.K.'s learning German will "complete" his academic identity, the scientific language that communicates J.A.K.'s medical condition will destroy him, thus destroying his "identity," the media's sensationalist language creates symptomatic reactions to Nyodene D, thereby altering the physical "identities" of its supposed victims, etc.
The Existence and Power of Mysterious Systems: DeLillo suggests that the world is a network of huge systems of throught, language, and phenomena that no one can understand, or feel that the answers are always going to exist beyond their grasp. (eg. peoples' belief in conspiracy theories-aliens, UFOs, shoppers' panic when their items cannot be found on supermarket shelves, J.A.K.'s belief that someone else always knows more than he does-his wives that are spies, the mysterious language of medicine, the flashing SIMUVAC code on the computer, and in a larger context, the novel itself exists as a structure replete with systems, codes, language systems, symbols, etc. that the reader is left to navigate through and figure out).
The Postmodern Family: In DeLillo's world, there is a subversion of familial structure. (eg. J.A.K. and Babette are convinced that they will die before their children, the children have a sullen, jaded, too-much-lived quality, Heinrich is the most philosophically advanced member of the family-receding hairline and all, the family itself is called the "disseminator of misinformation", parenthood is itself a fragmented replication of family since no single child is biologically from both Babette and J.A.K., J.A.K. is often undermined in his role of father as Bob Pardee comes over and takes the kids out to dinner, and the family's "together time" is, in some sense, based in technology/consumerism (Friday night t.v.) rather than any kind of real nuclear relationship base.
Formal Structural Aspects of White Noise:
Fragmented narrative style/structure- Although the main narrator is J.A.K. throughout the text, there are numerous interruptions within the body of this novel that infuses a consistent yet unexpected anxiety throughout the textual movement of the work (eg. randomly occurring jingles, product placement, audible t.v. voices speaking to no one in particular but functioning to intrude upon the reader on the text through the narrative, etc.)
The inconsistency of time, space, and event with regard to a singular "objective" reality in the narrative- Is the disasterous airborne toxic event really happening? Or are they just practicing for a practice simulation of the event? Is it really raining-in the present, past, future at all? Is the rain on the windshield merely the result of your desire to believe in its occurrence? Is your ability to touch, smell, and taste it merely due to your having been sensorily duped? There is a perpetual sense of play surrounding notions of the real, actual, and objective-as occurring, occurred, or possible that pervades the text.
White Noise as occupying the genre of "un-novel"- When taken as a whole, it would seem that White Noise can be as readily seen as a technological systems manual, commercial/advertising reel, or rambling religious/philosophical pastiche, as it can a novel. Indeed, it can even be seen as a collection of codes/discursive systems needing to be "hacked" or broken down in order to be entered, much less understood.
APPLICATIONS?
I leave you with some questions/ideas which may be useful if explored within the context that is White Noise:
1. In what regard is the "anxiety" underlying the text Derridian?
2. Define Wilder in terms of the postmodern condition in which he
resides.
3. To what extent do we, as readers of this text, create another
remove to the chain of replication/simulacra? If we do function in this regard, what is the original that is being lost to us?
4. How does intertextuality operate throughout the text?
5. What does the next imply about the existence of any kind of
natural language?
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