White Noise in Classics Without All the Class

Apr 15, 2023 K. G. Whitehurst rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Tedious. Absurdist (some of which is brilliant and laugh out loud hilarious). Uninteresting postmodern novel of 80s America, where the rot set b/c the Boomer discovered they were--OMG--going to die. Tedious.

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Feb 17, 2016 Leo Walsh rated it liked it

It could be that reading his later "Underworld" spoiled DeLillo's highly regarded "White Noise" for me. But I do not think so. Though filled with excellent insights about the increasingly complex, abstract nature of life as technology and science explode and unleash dangers that have never existed -- like Nyodene D, an airborne toxin that the novel's protagonist Jack Gladney is exposed to.

Worse, DeLillo's narrative argues that our technology is even making it more abstract to even be human. Ins It could be that reading his later "Underworld" spoiled DeLillo's highly regarded "White Noise" for me. But I do not think so. Though filled with excellent insights about the increasingly complex, abstract nature of life as technology and science explode and unleash dangers that have never existed -- like Nyodene D, an airborne toxin that the novel's protagonist Jack Gladney is exposed to.

Worse, DeLillo's narrative argues that our technology is even making it more abstract to even be human. Instead of talking, reading and telling stories, we veg in front of TV together -- and call that "family time." Instead of creating comedies and dramas that bring us face-to-face with our existential dilemma, Hollywood gives us ever more elaborate car crashes. Which, according to Jack's best friend Murray, reflect American optimism. Since each car crash is more elaborate that the previous, the promise is that Hollywood's special effects will improve forever...

Salvation through escapism and technology. And freed from the mundane, Aristotelian "elements" which make crashes in reality boring affairs.

Even medicine and disasters seem less elemental. Doctoring is replaced by shiny instruments performing obscure tests. And disaster workers use what happens in a real evacuation to create a model simulation -- which they prefer to the messy, real ones. Since humans just don't behave.

By-and-large, I agree with DeLillo's assessments. American culture is often vapid. We worship yet seldom understand technology. And because of technology, we lead disembodied lives.

However, I found DeLillo's fiction technique in the book unengaging at times. I read swathes of dialog that struck me as unrealistic, even in an academic situation. Especially when it was the least inspired, wooden pillow talk between man and wife that I have ever read. And one of the plot devices -- Jack, afraid of death, confronts a man who creates a pill that promises to suppress our fear of death -- unfulfilling. Even though his actions throughout the sequence were a positive refutation of Murray's binary, zero-sum assertions that killers increase their life by killing and thus taking the life-force of others.

On the upside, though, there are flashes of mid-eighties absurdest brilliance. Like having jack be the chair of a small, liberal arts college's Department of Hitler Studies. And having Murray, a visiting lecturer, turn to Jack for help in establishing a Department of Elvis Studies. And their dialog -- about generic versus brand-name grocery products, use of public restrooms and philosophies of death -- often hilarious and absurd, if unbelievable.

Not quite Pynchon, but close.

DeLillo's best sections in "White Noise,) though has to be the harrowing final chapter involving Jack's toddler son Wilder (No details... I want to avoid spoilers). I could not put down the book during that scene. It was the most deeply human scene in the book. And looks forward to his more grounded later work, like "Underworld's" more lived-in feel.

I will likely read "White Noise" again. Due to the respected critics who call it a masterpiece, I could be wrong in my evaluation. Often on re-reads, I revise my opinions. For instance, I recently re-read "The Great Gatsby" and moved it into the five-star range from three. Other times, like my low opinion of "Moby Dick," I remain at odds with the critics.

So be it.

Problem is, life is short... and there are so many books to read.

Bottom line: Recommended with reservations. I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could. But cannot. And I really think "White Noise" doesn't deserve the round-up. So I'm settling on a 3-star rating. ...more

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