"Brain Fade" or Capitalism?

In a modern capitalist economy, noise is everywhere. White Noise to be exact, a constant fragment that never seems to silence. Sound is a part of society, but also a result of the technological capitalist advancements that seem to create more of this overbearing noise. Through the literal novel “White Noise,” DeLillo critiques the way a capitalist environment promotes this sense of noise and consumerist desire for more, which inevitably could harm society.  It is through the white noise, one will eventually be unable to think for him or herself. Placing Jack Gladney as the narrator, DeLillo superimposes him as the average American consumerist constantly wanting without reflecting on what this constant desire will leave him without: a knowledge to think critically on his own amidst distractions.

Supermarkets seem to be a staple for pursuing this notion of capitalist and materialism amidst the chaos of no silence. When walking through the grocery aisles, Jack notices they seem to be: “awash in noise. The toneless systems, the jangle and skid of carts, the loudspeaker and coffee-making machines, the cries of children. And over it all, or under it all, a dull and unlocatable roar, as of some form of swarming life just outside the range of human apprehension” (36). Even in Jack’s small town, there never seems to be silence or a calm. Even doing routine errands, like in a supermarket where people are usually focused on their own lists, there is an “unlocatable roar” a sound that cannot be pinpointed or calculated to one specific direction or location. It is this ominous sense that even humans for all their brilliance cannot even locate. In another instance, Jack turns to Murray and questions the catastrophes he watches on television as a seemingly entertaining factor for his down time, but notes that he “wanted more, more, more” (65). Murray attempts to answer the question in his response: “we’re suffering from brain fade. We need an occasional catastrophe to break up the incessant bombardment of information” (65). Catastrophes have become a routine fixture on public news channels. Jack constantly wants “more, more, more” since disasters that destroy populations and the environment do not seem to satisfy the excitement anymore. It is this desire to consume that even the ruinous disasters do not seem to be enough anymore. Something greater, or more catastrophic is sought after since disasters are viewed almost routinely and have become in a sense boring. 

Similarly it is this “white noise” effect, the “brain fade” that Murray addresses that cause people to become disinterested in events since the constant information being pushed towards the viewer becomes almost too much to bear, and one loses interest. Murray goes one step further with this notion of “brain fade” and its larger implications: “People get brain fade . . . because they’ve forgotten how to listen and look as children. They’ve forgotten how to collect data . . . this is why people’s eyes, ears, brains and nervous systems have grown weary. It’s a simple case of misuse” (66).  Through Murray, DeLillo criticizes the use of technology. Children ask questions, and constantly are curious of what they do not yet know. With technology, information presents itself up front, and no logic or questions are needed to determine the situation, since most have already seen some form of the event in one form or another. Nothing seems new or enticing. Excitement is drained, and therefore media viewers do not enjoy the simple wonders of the outside world since media presents them anyways.  They no longer look through life with their own eyes, just the lens the cameraman dictates. There is so much action and others knowledge being thrown at the viewer, that they no longer critically think for themselves and therefore the noise “fades” away their own beliefs, and the viewers become robots, without questions, only taking the information presented at face value.