"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.

The Cirrus-ness of Mortality

Don DeLillo's White Noise consistently asserts the importance of the media in perception of an event and the significance of names and titles to how people perceive their surroundings. A critical example of this is in the section, “The Airborne Toxic Event.” In this section, the residents of Blacksmith experience the presence of a large black cloud supposedly full of “Nyodene D,” a chemical that can cause death after a maximum of thirty years within the human body. Throughout the chapter, the media gives different names to the cloud, each one eliciting a different response from Jack and the residents of Blacksmith: first, a “feathery plume” (109), which does not upset or worry too many people; then a “black billowing cloud” (113), which causes Jack to think that perhaps he should be more concerned with the situation; then finally, an “airborne toxic event,” which sends Jack and the rest of the town into a panic. Not only does the media’s description of the situation determine how people are going to react to it, but when the symptoms and effects of Nyodene D are listed, it makes me wonder if the cloud would even affect people if the media was not involved. Not only do Jack’s daughters begin experiencing symptoms immediately after the media announces which symptoms are to be expected, but the symptoms themselves are extremely commonplace and could be experienced for a variety of reasons. Among the expected symptoms are: skin irritation, sweaty palms, nausea, and miscarriage; all symptoms which can be experienced without a direct link to some specific disease or ailment. Additionally, when Heinrich describes the life of the poison, he says, “…No one seems to know exactly what it causes in humans or in the offspring of humans…it has a lifespan of 40 years…after ten years your screens will turn rusty and begin to pit and rot. Siding will warp” (127). Not only are the physical symptoms in humans relatively vague, but the effects of it on a house are just signs of normal wear and tear. The “airborne toxic event” is not so much a literal cloud full of lethal poison, it is a visible reminder of both the presence of death and the inevitability that death with occur. Jack’s overwhelming preoccupation with death and his desire for an answer to the question, “who will die first,” finally has an answer, even though there was always an answer there to begin with. The cloud, Nyodene D, and the inevitability of death make up some of the "white noise."

Food and eating in DeLillo’s White Noise

In Don DeLillo’s novel White noise food and eating are both mentioned a number of times. DeLillo is using the references to food and eating to make a point about American culture. Let’s take a look and see if we can figure out what is going on:

The first time food is mentioned, is in Jack Gladney’s opening monologue about the student’s yearly arrival to the College-on-the-Hill. He mentions it among the possessions they come with, “the junk food still in shopping bags—onion-and-garlic chips, nacho thins, peanut crème patties, Waffelos and Kabooms, fruit chews and toffee popcorn; the Dum-Dum pops, the Mystic mints.” (DeLillo 3). Waffelos and Kaboom are popular breakfast cereals from the late 70’s early 80’s and Mystic Mints are chocolate covered mint cookies popular in the 70’s. A few things about this passage are notable: it is all processed junk foods, many artificial reorientations of actual food. For instance nacho thins are presumably a chip like a Dorito engineered to taste like a nacho without having to eat actual nachos. By using these particular foods as details, the novel shows the fakeness and processed food that has become normal to consume even to the station wagon people who are certainly not of lower economic status. The fact that they are still in shopping bags shows the consuming nature. There are also numerous times Jack mentions going down the “generic food aisle” on the visits to the supermarket.

Eating is also a topic Jack’s narrations mentions a few times in an interesting light. At the beginning of chapter 4, jack says, “When times are bad, people feel compelled to overeat. Blacksmith is full of obese adults and children…” ( Delillo 14). He is commenting on the people’s use of food as a sedative or to calm them in times of distress. It shows their dependence on the food. Many other examples include the family eating at meal times. In chapter 2 they eat lunch and Jack observes, “We entered a period of chaos and noise. We milled about, bickered a little, and dropped utensils. Finally we were all satisfied with what we’d been able to snatch from the cupboards and refrigerator or swipe from each other. (De Lillo 7). This description of the family making lunch as a chaotic and noisy mess with them moving about dropping things and arguing shows I guess the even that food is in their lives. His description of the food also shows the reader things about the text’s ideas of how people in the novel use food, “we began quietly plastering mustard or mayonnaise on our brightly colored food” and “open cartons, crumpled tinfoil, shiny bags of potato chips, bowls of pasty substances covered with plastic wrap, flip-top rings and twist ties, individually wrapped slices of orange cheese” (Delillo 7). This description of the food emphasizes its fakeness with all the bright colors and artificial materials. By commenting on the foods appealing shiny packages and plastics shows the artificialness of it too, by it’s prepackaged containers. Through these multiple example, we can see that the food’s atificiality is showcased. Also the people eat it to try and gain some sort of comfort or satisfaction and are enticed by it’s shiny packaging and promising names.

Reality is the White Noise

                While reading White Noise, I have found Heinrich’s character to be the most interesting, and even likeable character in the book.  I have this reaction toward him because he gets straight to the point, he does not beat around the bush, and he is honest and quite realistic.  I find the other characters frustrating; they ignore his comments because they are afraid of the truth of what he says.  Heinrich is the only character who is willing to deal with issues head on, not passively. His approach may seem a little abrasive, but I like that he is willing to throw the issue out there instead of sweetening them up to make it easier to handle. 

Maybe the “white noise” of the book is the reality that everyone is ignoring.  Whenever Heinrich brings up a subject that makes the family uneasy, they quickly change the subject, they put it in the background as “white noise”:

‘The real issue is the kind of radiation that surrounds us every day.  Your radio, your TV, your microwave oven… forget spills, fallouts, leakages.  It’s the things around you in your own house that’ll get you sooner or later’…. ‘Is this what they teach in school today?’ Babette said.  What happened to civics, how a bill becomes a law?’ (166-68)

The rest of the passage continues with the entire family adding to this conversation that is off-topic.  They talk about rocks, math, history – nothing that has to do with the comments Heinrich just made because confronting the truth makes them too uneasy.

                The family does the exact same thing with the “airborne toxic event.”   A potentially very dangerous event is happening right outside of their house.  Babette even says to Jack that maybe they should be more concerned about the event, and he instead of listening, he talks her out of her concern, telling her “these things don’t happen in places like Blacksmith” (112).  They continue to ignore the situation, let it go on as “white noise” and instead talk about dinner and bills.  Heinrich later tells Jack the weather is about the change which means the “billowing black cloud” would be heading toward them, and what is Jack’s response?  He says “I’m the head of a department.  I don’t see myself fleeing an airborne toxic event” (115).  They ignore the situation until they decide they should probably go, not as if it is a life threatening situation, which it is.  I think this is Delillo’s critique of the desensitization of Americans: nothing seems serious, because things like “that” don’t happen to people like “us.”

Immortality

In White Noise there is an underlying theme of death that the main character and narrator is obsessed with. Jack Gladney as we are informed often asks himself "Who will die first?". But with this obsession with death comes with an obsession of something else entirely.

This theme of "modern" death appears throughout the text. The book takes place, from what we can infer, sometime in the mid 80s. This is the Cold War period in American history--the red scare is rampant, Chernobyl has recently happened and Apple has come out with new and innovative technology--it is the period of newer, more modern ways to die.

If we consider the "modern" death than we must also consider the "modern" immortality. Jack Gladney wishes he was immortal--not in a sparkly un-dead kind of way--but rather he wishes to be remembered. His legacy begins with changing his name for academic texts to J. A. K. Gladney believing that the extra initial gives him something special, something more to be remembered by. When he is teaching he wears academic robes and dark glasses, giving himself an aura. We remember auras. We remember details like someone's "signature" clothing. In this way Jack immortalizes himself.

When Babette is reading the tabloids to the old people during the Airborne Toxic Event, we see more Jack's obsession with becoming "immortal". The stories she's reading all appeal to Jack's obsession. "Life After Death Guaranteed with Bonus Coupons" and "The ghost of Elvis Presley...", "The spirit of Lyndon B Johnson...", "From beyond the grave, dead living legend John Wayne..." are the titles that Jack pays attention to (139-141).

Jack's obsessions with death and with immortality are invariably intertwined in this novel. His fear of death could be considered more a fear of being forgotten--of not having his legacy to live on.

White Noise, Black Cloud

What strikes me about White Noise, among many things, is the constant flux of optimism and pessimism, and pretty much everything in between, among the characters.  Jack Gladney is by nature a relatively average person, who isn’t enthusiastic about much and who relies on the much peppier Babette to lighten his mood.  Jack’s alter ego, J.A.K. Gladney, on the other hand, is much more sure of himself, much more positive, and has the attitude like nothing bad can ever happen to someone like him.  As the novel goes on, though, the characters become much more pessimistic, and understandably so due to the literal black cloud of toxic fumes hanging over their heads, and the constant fear of exposure or some other tragic event happening.  The realization that Babette’s once sunny outlook on life is becoming more and more clouded throws Jack into a tailspin, not knowing what to anchor his happiness on anymore now that Babette is in a similar frame of mind.

            Countering the optimism and pessimism of Jack and Babette, the four children bring another “ism” into the mix: realism.  These children are more anchored to reality than their parents are.  They don’t have a constant black cloud hanging over their heads, but they aren’t necessarily optimistic; they simply assess the situation and adjust according to the way they know how.  Steffie prefers to practice for another such tragedy that could happen, Heinrich wants to take advantage of people’s fear to educate them, Wilder simply observes and takes things as they come, and Denise wants to know everything about the situation.  When the black cloud first appears, Jack simply denies its existence, and Babette thinks it will all be fine, but the children all consider the possibilities of the cloud’s arrival into their hometown and what they should do about it.  There seems to be an element of role reversal going on as this novel progresses; in reality, the children would be blissfully ignorant of a potentially harmful situation and carry on, and the parents would be the ones to consider every facet of the situation, further evidence that this postmodern work examines an alternative to our reality coupled with very real personalities and emotions.

Adoptee as Commodity

At the risk of being in poor taste, I found this comic quite apropos of our conversation yesterday.

http://threewordphrase.com/changed.htm

Professor Cruz suggested that Chun Duc, the adopted child that Jack and Murray encounter at the supermarket, is a product of America's dominance within the system of globalized capitalism in the late 20th century. Chun Duc is encountered in the same fashion as the exotic fruits and brightly colored consumer goods at the store: as an object of consumption. Much like the (probably imported) fruit, Jack is uninterested or at least unaware of Chun Duc's country of origin. Similarly, the labor that produced the fruit is as obscured as the (child) labor that resulted in Chun Duc. In this fashion the DeLillo points towards the American consumer's reliance upon multiple registers of cheap foreign labor.

The comic, in turn, takes the parallel of transnational adoptee with consumer good to its logical conclusion. This is the same logic applies to the cheap plastic goods and cut-rate electronics that flood American markets: why fix the thing when you can just throw it away and get another one?