White Noise
Maybe I’ve missed it on our blog, but have we had a discussion of the definition of “white noise”? I know what it means to me, but what do you think DeLillo had in mind? In an office setting, it’s that imperceptible background “noise” used to drown out what’s going on in the next cubicle. In other words, it’s a numbing of what’s going on around you so you can focus on your own priorities.
By the way, I read that after White Noise was published, DeLillo refused to discuss its message in public. Supposedly, he had cards printed explaining his position, which he passed out to the press and in group situations.
Maybe that’s just an urban legend!
Perhaps influenced by Fitzpatrick, I assumed that it meant the babble coming from all the technology in the novel. But I’m sure there are other possible explanations.
As I came in to my apt. after class Monday, I could hear the “white noise” emitted from my fan and refrigerator. It felt eerily safe. I almost want to do an experiment where I try to eliminate white noise for a certain period. The concept also has me question if we can detach from the white noise or does it surround us like consumerism, death like a chemical cloud?
I just noticed what whoever does the blurbs for Penguin thinks it is “the white noise engulfing the Gladneys — the radio transmission, sirens, microwaves, and TV murmurs that constitute the music of American magic and dread.” This is from the front flap.
I see “white noise” as anything that fills up the void of silence. Much of the dialogue between Jack and his family is trivial and fills the otherwise empty air. But then, DeLillo probably is questioning is the air every really empty? The first section is “Waves and Radiation.” What exactly goes into the air when we run our dryers and microwaves? The second section is “The Airbourne Toxic Event.” Do we really know what we are breathing in whether we are outside, inside? The third section is “Dylarama.” Do we really know how clean and natural the food we ingest or how truly helpful the artificial medicine we take is?
“White noise,” as I think DeLillo examines, is an illusionary experience. Technology becomes the menace by which we lose sight of our humanity and become numb.
Found some more direct links to “white noise” in the text. On page 189, Jack and Babette are discussing death–again. Babette asks, “What if death is nothing but sound?” Jack’s response is “Electrical noise…..Uniform, white.” Much later, during the encounter with Willie Mink, Jack hears “a noise, faint, monotonous, white” (292). The room has “busy air” and there is “White noise everywhere” (295).
We find numbness in death as well as in isolation. This is really the antithesis of what living is, so the white noise really does fill up the void.
I think it’s interesting, as the quotes you provide show, Katie, that specific mentions of white noise only start to show up towards the end of the novel. I’m sure that’s significant in some way, but my brain is addled by too much debate commentary and too little sleep, so I can’t think what.
Do you think that these “white noise” references not appearing until the end of the text are symbolic of one’s inability to see (or hear) what is really going on until it’s nearly too late? That we are so caught up in the moment of whatever we are doing that we fail to notice what has been there the whole time? Not sure where I’m going with this…
Maybe it has to do with Jack’s discovery of Babette’s Dylar use and her sexual affair to get it. It was going on for a long time before Jack realized it.
Also the toxic cloud–something must have been going on for long time before the “spill” that got everyone’s attention…