2 - White Noise introduction

Question 1

Novel publsihed in ?

Answer 1

1985

Question 2

Publication marked :

Answer 2

a turning point in De Lillo’s career.

→ Frank Letricchia “Until the publication of White Noise in 1985 De Lillo was a pretty obscure object of acclaim both in and out of the academy”

Question 3

White Noise “was inspired by Stacy Olster

Answer 3

White Noise “was inspired by the profligate consumption of the late 20th century”

White Noise = a critique of 1980s America.

Question 4

Historical context
Hitler

Answer 4

1933 : Hitler became chancellor of Germany

Question 5

Historical context
The Reagan Years

Answer 5

Ronald Regean was inaugurated in January 1991 as president of the US & reelected in 1984. The years of his presidency are reflected in the novel.

Reagan Years were characterised among other things by a feel-good consumerism

Throughout his Presidency, the US economy saw: ++ reduction in inflation, the unemployment rate fell and the US entered its then - longest peacetime expansion. However, his cut in domestic spending and taxes as well as increase military spending contributed to a near tripling of the federal debt.

His neo-liberal economics policy were named Reaganomics and including increasing defence spending reducing the federal income tax and capital gaze tax, reducing government regulation and tightening the money supply in order to reduce inflation

Question 6

Historical context
Talk Radio

Answer 6

His talk radio of the kind that Babette usually listened to involves a regular host who takes call from listeners about a number of subjects, most often about politic and cultural issues or psychological & personal issue.

This format became dominant in the 1980s and has continued to grow until many radio program used it.

Question 7

Environmental disaster

Answer 7

In the 80s, several shocking examples of the dangers of the careless handling of complex industrial technology happened.

• Bhopal disaster : 03/12/1984 : it was a toxic gas leak.
• Chernobyle, Ukraine : Nuclear Meltdown : 26/04/1986
  → The explosion sent radioactive material into the atmosphere in a cloud of smole like the one described in the novel.
• Dioxin contamination in Times Beach, Missouri : 3/03/1979 : a Meltdown at the three-mile island unit
  Some radioactive gas was believe to have escape however, no death has been linked to this incident with certainty.
  ⇒ This accident crystallised anti-nuclear safety concern among activist and the general public and resulted in new regulation for nuclear industry
• Exxon, Valdez oil spill : 24/03/1989 : The Oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck a riff /reef in Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska.
  The tanker spilled nearly 11M gallons of crude oil into the sea in Alaska
• East Palestine, Ohio : Train derailment : 03/02/23

Question 8

The Novel
narrator

Answer 8

1st-person narrator who tells his own story : auto-diegetic.

Question 9

Onomastic Narrator

Answer 9

Jack Gladney = glad-né = né heureux
glad-nay/no = an impossible happiness

Question 10

Magalie Cornier Mickael on the narrator

Answer 10

“The first person narrative positions De Lillo at a remove from the text”

Question 11

White noise def

Answer 11

a noise having approximately equal intensities at all the frequencies of its range

Question 12

The title : White Noise

Answer 12

Before White Noise was chosen as the title of the novel, De Lillo had thought of 2 other titles : “Panasonic” or “The American Book of the Dead”

Question 13

The novel starts…

Answer 13

in medias res

Question 14

Structure

Answer 14

1- Waves and radiation from chap 1 to 20 (p3-105)
The novel starts in medias res describing the daily life of a campus somewhere in the US. The narration starts at the beginning of the fall semester & starts with a description of a routine : “I’ve witnessed this spectacle every september for 21 years, it’s a brilliant event invariably” p 3

2- The Airborne toxic event from p 109 to 160 : it deals with the event, the catastrophe, it’s almost incoherent and it is at the same time a diversion of the narrative and a climax of the narrative. It’s definitely a break in the routine described in the first part “it marks the end of uneventful things, this is just the beginning” p 151

3- Diorama : from chap 22 to 44, from p 167 to 356 : it is more or less getting back to normal & the resolution of the book ?

Question 15

A hybrid novel

Answer 15

Campus novel
Ecological novel
Domestic novel (also sense of around the family)

Question 16

Campus novel

Answer 16

Jack is chair of the department of Hitler’s studies at College on the Hill (= general name for a general designation, the only thing we know is geographical)
Jack teaches one class once a week.

He is troubled by his complete ignorance of German. (?? his legitimacy)

He is “living on the edge of a landscape of vast shame” (p31) to compensate for his professional inadequacy

His chancellor (=superior) advises him to build an aura : he changes his name, he uses props like sunglasses : he disguises himself, he hides his true identity which hence at the question of self.

=> The initial (J.AC) give “intimidant dignity, significance an prestige” p17

Question 17

Ecological novel

Answer 17

There is an ecological disaster at the very beginning of ecological consciousness. There is no graphic description of the poisoning that could have occurred, there is rather an emphasis on the subtler long-term effect of the disaster (or not)

Question 18

Domestic novel (also sense of around the family)

Answer 18

They are linked by the catastrophe, a recomposed family, they all go together to the supermarket.

The Gladneys are not your regular nuclear family as Jack makes known at the very beginning of the novel

And it is not unreasonable to wonder who the children or farmer spouses are as the novel revolves around the daily life of the household. Moreover each child plays a significant part in the narrative.

It takes the whole novel to sort out the relationship btw children,spouses and family.

⇒ The Gladneys could be described as a non uniform family. However, the family in the novel acts as a closed circuit and its reassuring function is mentioned several times :

Question 19

Relationships to spouse, children etc

Answer 19

It takes the whole novel to sort out the relationship btw children,spouses and family.
In chap 2 : the names of the children are introduced during a family lunch but not their descent line.

In chap 11 : we know that there are indeed 4 children : 2 boys & 2 girls and that one girl and one boy are Jack’s and the other 2 are Babette’s.

It is not until chapter 28 (= ⅔ of the novel) that we can determine who the other parent of each child is, where he/she lives, what he/she does

→ Jack has 4 children
Mary Elise, 19 & Steffie, 9 ⇒ two of them are from their 1st and 2nd marriages to Diana Breedlove
Heinrich, 14 ⇒ from his marriage to Jeanette Savory now known as Devi
Bee, 12 ⇒ from his marriage to Tweedy Browner
Only 2 of them live with Jack : Steffie & Heinrich

→ His wife Babette’s three children are :
Denise, 11
Eugene, 8
Wilder, 2

Question 20

Thomas J. Ferraro
quote

Answer 20

“Each adult live with a third or fourth spouse, a son from previous marriage, a daughter from a different previous marriage, a step-son from one of the last spouse’s previous marriage & a step-daughter from another of that spouse’s previous marriages. Every child lives with one progenitor, the parent’s current mate, one half-sibling of the opposite sex whose other parent lives elsewhere & combination of step-sisters and step-brothers who are only half sibling to one another”

Question 21

False informations etc

Answer 21

Family = place where information is mislanded
⇒ + representative of the way information or rather misinformation spread in the novel.
⇒ c’est pas l’info qui est transmise mais plutôt la misinformation.

Nothing corrects the false information & it just goes on being recycled and exchanged. Only snippets and fragments of information are exchanged and this extract lays emphasis on the fact that the death implied by the idea of White Noise and the book in general is also the death of knowledge. And it also suggests the result of the high technology society they are living in. There is abundant information around but nobody seems to know anything.