Writing

What did you think about the Queen's decision to become a writer as well as a reader? What do you think she might write about? Did you feel she would actually produce something or would it turn out like the old servant who had been "working" fruitlessly on his memoirs for decades?

Above and below

What do you think makes tales of the high-and-mighty mingling with everyday people so irresistible?

(I loved how the Queen didn't really get Jane Austen at first because she was so removed from and above the social struggles Austen wrote about, but she eventually was in a position to understand it and to enjoy Austen).

Luxury of access

The Queen had the luxury of meeting any author or literary scholar she wanted and quizzing them on their work. If you could meet a few writers for this purpose, whom would you pick?

And if you had access to any historic manuscript, what would it be?

Fact and fiction

What did you think of Bennett's mingling of fact and fiction — putting real people in made-up situations? Did you think the effectiveness of the novella depended on just that?

Hostility

Why do you think the people around the Queen were hostile to her reading? And why did people feel so uncomfortable in the presence of literary matters (like they had to be prepped that the Queen might ask what they were reading)?

Reading and writing

I was amused when the Queen had all the writers gathered and found that she had little to say to them and vice versa. It was like being in their physical presence didn't hold a candle to being in their mental presence as she was when she communed with them in her solitary reading.

Related: I found it intensely intriguing that she had so much access to the world of literature — to authors, literary scholars, historic first editions, estates, private letters, all the priceless manuscripts in the British Museum and everywhere in the world — and yet none of that could really trump the simple pleasure of carrying a cheap paperback in her purse, like all of us commoners might do, and marking it up with her pencil and her private insights. The contents of the book — mere ink on paper — were ultimately more valuable than anything else.

And also all the notions about how reading and writing are highly solitary activities, but also have the effect of humanizing a person, of fostering empathy and passion and all the best feelings. The reading of literature takes us out of society (as we see when the Queen starts evading her duties to have more time to read) but the understanding of it puts us back in and makes us emotionally richer members (as we see in her changed reactions, like taking more notice, to people and situations around her).

The world of literature seemed like the real world. And the real world seemed like the contrived one.

I like how the Queen would suggest books for people and seriously expect them to read them and talk about them. Reading wasn't just a thing one did for a pleasant diversion; it was essential to understanding the human condition. Everyone was "too busy" to read, but the Queen dismissively and endearingly concludes: "one must make the time."

There's not a question in there, but just some stuff that grabbed me about the book. What grabbed you?

Uncommonly fond

What, exactly, was it about Norman that drew the Queen to him? And what was the significance, if any, of his preference for gay writers?

Erin's pick

Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum

So, the book was about death?

When I first read about Jack and Babette's fears about who would die first, I thought it was sort of charming and incidental -- just another layer of proof about how much they loved each other. I missed the boat that the fear of death could be called the theme of the book. (Would you agree?)

The Murray-Jack exchange on death made up all of chapter 37. To sum up, here were Murray's suggestions to "beat the system" as I understood them:

1. Put your faith in technology ("lust removed from nature"). It can prolong life and the quality of it.

2. Concentrate on the life beyond (or faith?). Reincarnation, heaven, etc.

3. Have a near-death experience

4. Become a killer, not a dier. "Think how exciting it is, in theory, to kill a person in direct confrontation. If he dies, you cannot. To kill him is to gain life credit."

Anyone have any thought about this? I think this was the summary of the book -- that Jack would try all of these options to overcome his fears. I have been thinking since whether it's human nature to embrace some or all four of these ideas with different label. Yes, even number four ... maybe people aren't taking actual lives, but if materialism or one-upping their neighbors is buying them the life credits in a way that society deems more acceptable.

Murray

What did you make of Murray? He was my favorite character -- or in any case, the most pithy -- through most of the story, maybe until his final treatise on dealing with death, when he took such a cheerfully academic approach to how people can avoid death (or fear of it) that his lack of a conscience took sort of a menacing turn. Or that could have been my reservations about his audience's (Jack's) state of mind. A separate question -- is he culpable at all for the lack of ethics he espouses?

Toxic buildup

I thought there were indications, from Wilder's delayed speech development to Heinrich's receding hairline, to the school evacuation and the description of the unnaturally bright/attractive supermarket produce (making me think of preservatives, hormones), that toxic buildup had been long in the making. Was the author making a case on an environmental level that we live in an unhealthy world?

(By the way, despite his many observations, I didn't find DeLillo to be preachy. If I'm getting preachy, let's move on.)

Point of crisis

I am chewing on whether Jack's world was turned upside down by the airborne toxic event or Babette's Dylar confession. I'm inclined to think it was the second crisis. The toxic event seemed to be a modern threat the family unit was able to manage, not without casualties but that sort of worked within the grid of fears they'd already set up for themselves.

Or perhaps he already was in crisis mode when the story began?

Ben's pick

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. I hope it isn't too short.

What the 20th century is all about

Why do you think a character like the awkward, elusive Winnie Richards was included in the novel? She's the chemist at Jack's university.

They have this conversation:

"Have you been hiding from me? I've left notes, phone messages."

"Not from you, Jack, or anyone in particular."

"Then why have you been so hard to find?"

"Isn't this what the twentieth century is all about?"

"What?"

"People going into hiding even when no one is looking for them."

The mystique of Wilder

I never resolved the mystery of Wilder, a small, vulnerable and lovable little boy in a wild and dangerous fictional landscape. The scene where he inexplicably cries for hours and hours resonated deeply with me. It reminded me of my youngest nephew and the frightening two years he spent adamantly crying, but not talking, like children his age should do. For that reason this storyline touched me, but I think it has broader significance: In a world that is a communicative and sensory blitz, Wilder grabbed attention for what he didn't say.

"I Want a New Drug"

Would you rather try Dylar or the Stanford Linear Accelerator 3-Day Particle Smashing Diet?

Really, if we could be fed a pill, what would it do?

Toxic denial

In the creepy and somewhat slow-paced passages about the actual toxic airborne event, I was struck by how Jack was slow to respond because of his certainty that no major catastrophe could touch his town's well-bred and white-bread existence. That disaster only struck in other places; that's what TV was for. I thought that was a fair critique. I haven't read up on how much of the Katrina mess was terrible emergency planning versus the accusations by some (like Kanye West) that the poor minorities barricaded at the stadium didn't get the same treatment as other Americans would. (I have seen some VH1 special that quoted Kanye and then brought in a comedian speculating what the Bush administration would have done if a natural disaster touched down in an investment banking neighborhood in Connecticut.) And Jack lives in a variation of that Connecticut neighborhood.

This post is signed by CL. Of course, the relevant tagline would be: "The wire editor who missed an urgent late-night advisory in December 2005 that a tsunami's death toll had just moved into the thousands ..."

Hitler?

What do you make of Gladney being a Hitler scholar — and one who doesn't know German? (cl, this may be somewhat related to your observations on pop culture in academia — and the superficial nature of some "studies").

Rebel flags

"White Noise" has plenty to say about academia, but my favorite exchange was the pop culture throwdown about what faculty could remember about the day James Dean died. But how often have I been asked what I remember about Princess Di's death? What makes this kind of crap the moral zenith of pop culture? I don't know, myself ... what are the highlights in our time of cultural significance? What makes them special? Would DeLillo agree?

A bite of Apple

"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.