"White Noise" is valued in part for the nature of its prophetic story-telling, visualizing a world where we're wrapped into a multimedia orgy of television, talk radio and other colorful messages. I thought it was interesting that the author obtained a copyright for "White Noise" in the same year that Apple aired its commercial for the first mainstream PC, the Apple:
"On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."
But "White Noise" offers little foray into computers; they don't even make an appearance until Jack has his survival stats analyzed at the toxic airborne event shelter. Did DeLillo write an already dated novel by making TV the chief enemy? (It being my opinion -- which is debatable -- that computers, or the Internet, have superceded TV.) Or is this relatable in a world now dominated with IM, e-mail, Facebook, PDAs? What a multimedia orgy we live in today.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I don't think casting TV in that role dates the novel. I don't think the medium here was the message. It was just the constant barrage of noise and information in our lives, no matter the particular source. It seemed like most of the TV blurbs recorded by Gladney were things he heard from another room, not things he was watching himself. It's like that stuff is just always in the atmosphere.
Can you imagine if cell phones were around in the early '80s?!
I don't think the medium here was the message.
Yeah, I guess not. Maybe it didn't matter so much where all the toxic information came from. No one medium seemed to hold more credence than another, though I love the scene where the family panics when they see Babette on TV. Like she'd traveled to heaven or something.
The interesting aspect of an Internet storyline would be how it adds to the frantic pace of how information travels. Of course, we work in a newsroom, but elsewhere I think there's a keen desire to be the first to know something. It's truly a toxic diet of bad news.
Yeah, it wasn't just TV. There was a large focus on the supermarket, for instance, with all the brightly colored packaging and advertising slogans and lists of ingredients.
You have a point, though, about computers and the Internet. The state of "white noise" has gotten exponentially worse in the last decade. I think it just makes the book more poignant now.
The supermarket! Yes! Great point. A lot of scenes occurred there. The great marketplace, the modern church perhaps. Fancily packaged fundamentals, like food. We forget how basic it is (and maybe it says something about their ravenous hunger at the chicken place — it's like they tore through the packaging and nonsense and artificial flavors and colors and just experienced raw hunger and the brute sensations and satisfactions of EATING).
The supermarket emphasis reminds me of that Clash song:
I'm all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality
The TV aspect of the book reminds me of my childhood. We didn't watch TV much -- it was considered a bad influence, and I think my dad hated the noise and considered it mind-cluttering. The way he views TV is similar to how TV appears in the book.
And, speaking of the medium, I'm amazed how the book can create such noise with TV and supermarkets in those of us who are used to cell phones and the internet.
Yes, Ben, it's still relevant today, isn't it?
Kim and Erin, I was chewing on a separate post about the supermarket. It certainly does seem to function as a modern church.
Post a Comment