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

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

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Jan 28, 2016 Jennifer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I participated in the Chaos Reading David Bowie's Top 100 challenge. I think this will be my favorite book of the year. It is gonna be hard to top.
I have been told that this is classified as a "post modern" novel. I don't care what kind of label it has or what its deeper meaning may be. I simply enjoyed this. I can't tell you how many times I laughed, guffawed and giggled. I loved the dysfunction of the the family, despite it they functioned well. I can attest to that, it happens in real life. ...more

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Jul 20, 2015 Xandra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, three-and-a-half-stars, z-m, 1950-1999, american

DeLillo’s perceptive eye and exceptional prose could have produced a fantastic book were it not for the heavy-handed satire through which transpires, inelegantly, a grumpy-old-man-on-the-porch-perpetually-dissatisfied-with-the-state-of-the-world attitude. In the end, it was more like a long complaint against a technology-driven and media-controlled society, American consumerism, and human mortality rather than something substantial.
3.5

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May 28, 2016 John rated it liked it · review of another edition

I admired but did not like this book. Ostensibly, it's a brilliant satire of modern, consumerist America. Every product is within reach (including the cure for the fear of death), every pop-culture item is being studied academically (the department of Hitler Studies, soon to be in competition with the department of Elvis studies), and everything is in absolute chaos. I love all that. As well I should. The book reads as if it were a roadmap for Infinite Jest, an absolute gem.

But this book didn't ...more

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May 06, 2013 Rand added it · review of another edition

Shelves: say-tire, novel

White Noise on White Noise
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After sixteen years of having known of this book, I finally figured it out: this novel is the barn! ...more

1 like · Like · see review