From the Bookshelf of On Paths Unknown…

White Noise

Don DeLillo

Start date: November 12, 2021

Finish date: December 16, 2021

Discussion: AMERICAN POSTMODERNISTS

Discussion leader: Traveller

Why we're reading this: There has been a request for us to revisit our discussion of White Noise. We never completely finished th…more
[close] There has been a request for us to revisit our discussion of White Noise. We never completely finished the book, so for the sake of newcomers, one of the mods is up for re-reading and starting up comments again.

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AMERICAN POSTMODERNISTS

* 1. WHITE NOISE by Don de Lillo. Chapters 1-10.
By Traveller · 91 posts · 91 views

last updated Sep 01, 2022 04:01AM

4. White Noise by Don DeLillo Chapters 31- 40
By Traveller · 5 posts · 16 views

last updated Nov 21, 2021 06:56AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 14, 2007 mark monday rated it it was amazing

Shelves: unstablenarratives, alpha-team, world-of-insects, mnemonic-devices

so brilliant and funny and sad and strange; it made my brain hurt in the best sort of way. some passages still echo around in my mind, decades later, scenes or phrases that once confounded and fascinated me. now I think on them with a smile... was this book a barn or a piece of art?

39 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2012 Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-novels

This is supposed to be a postmodern classic; I'm not so sure. It's meant to be a literary classic; one of the great novels of the twentieth century. Again I'm not sure, but I really enjoyed it. It is a very funny novel about very serious subjects.
Jack and Babette Gladney, live in a typical american town where Jack is an academic who teaches Hitler Studies (without knowing any German). They have assorted children from previous marraiges; all of whom are interesting characters in their own right. This is supposed to be a postmodern classic; I'm not so sure. It's meant to be a literary classic; one of the great novels of the twentieth century. Again I'm not sure, but I really enjoyed it. It is a very funny novel about very serious subjects.
Jack and Babette Gladney, live in a typical american town where Jack is an academic who teaches Hitler Studies (without knowing any German). They have assorted children from previous marraiges; all of whom are interesting characters in their own right. Jack and Babette are both iin middle age and both terrified of death. They both wonder who will die first; not an uncommon question, I suspect; even if it isn't asked. After the initial scenesetting there is an "airborne toxic event" and the town is evacuated. Jack seems to have been exposed to the chemical and is told he may or may not be in trouble and may or may not die from it at some point in the future, Jack discovers that Babette is so afraid of death that she has contacted a rather dubious scientist who has a drug that may "cure" the fear of death. She sleeps with him to pay for it. There are lots of comedic toings and froings. The german lessons are hilarious. Jack's friend Murray provides the philosophy and is equally funny. The children entertain by being typically obsessive/irritating/lovely. Various ex spouses wander through in a random manner, as does Babette's father.
There are some wonderful reflections on modern life. The passage describing bewildered shoppers when the supermarket moves all the goods around is priceless; we all know supermarkets are modern cathedrals and DeLillo illustrates this well. The reflections on death are funny and profound;

"Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?
What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing”

There are some very funny moments; and it's a good way to ponder death and the cessation of being without getting too morbid. The ending is pants (that's a technical term) and I think Delillo got up one day and said; that's enough. Despite that it is a very accomplished analysis of modern fears and alienation. ...more

35 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2017 Brad rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: curiousity-killed-the-bananas, hopes-dashed-like-an-egg-on-cement, underwhelming, unfinished, matches-and-lighter-fluid, much-hated, blowing-all-the-goats, read-in-2017

If I want to watch someone masturbate, I can look in the mirror once a day (even in the shower this drivel could barely keep me awake).

10 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2007 Nate D rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

What exactly makes this book so perfect, and DeLillo's finest of a fine career? Partially it's just the sheer magic and rhythm of his words, some of DeLillo's best and very well suited, here, to the buzzing and humming of the information age that surrounds the story. But it's also those similar cadences of his oh so modern multi-marriage American family, their dialogue, their interactions. And the toxic resonances that surround us, felt and unfelt. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2019 Kamakana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, literature, pomo, aa-unitedstateslit, comic-satire, all-five-star, historicity, zz1985, national-book-award

.???... 90s?: well i decided to round it up to 5 stars without rereading because... of delillo’s work read, this one i recall best, in fact, in kind of negative positive i can say it is only that this work starts to work for me halfway in, when campus-novel morphs into something strange, that encourages me to keep reading his brick ‘underworld’... i hoped it would get interesting. it does, here. it does not (for me), there...

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2023 Russell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: either-or, delillo, wwii, tbr2020xoe-o, mrbid, 2022, 2023

A re-read in anticipation of watching the Noam Baumbach film, but just as exhilarating, funny and thoughtful as the first. One of my favourite authors, with possibly his best book (Underworld must come later in the year methinks to round it out - maybe a year of Delillo to savour ahead!).

I don't hold much hope for Baumbach here, this one will be hard to adapt and live up to, the substantial ones always are, though i rate him as a filmmaker - (Marriage Story was quite excellent and oof a lot; th ...more

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