White Noise Critical Essays

It is not difficult to understand why it became one of the most widely acclaimed fictional works of the 1980s: its mordantly witty anatomy of the postnuclear family; its sly satire of television, advertising, and academia; its letter-perfect portrayal of the sounds and sights of supermarkets, malls, and tabloids all strike chords that reverberate strongly with contemporary Americans.

It is not difficult to understand why it became one of the most widely acclaimed fictional works of the 1980s: its mordantly witty anatomy of the postnuclear family; its sly satire of television, advertising, and academia; its letter-perfect portrayal of the sounds and sights of supermarkets, malls, and tabloids all strike chords that reverberate strongly with contemporary Americans.

He is the author of The Economy of Ulysses: Making Both Ends Meet and coeditor of The New Economic Criticism.

His articles on modern and postmodern fiction have appeared in such journals as Modern Fiction Studies, Contemporary Literature, Twentieth Century Literature, Review of Contemporary Fiction, and fames Joyce Quarterly.

He is currently completing a book on Don De Lillo entitled American Magic and Dread: Don De Liiio's Dialogue with Culture. Reviews Sol Yurick FLEEI NG DEATH IN A WORLD OF HYPER-BABBLE Albert Mobilio DEATH BY INCHES Diane J ohnson CONSPI RATORS Pico Iyer A CONNOISSEUR OF FEAR IV Critical Essays Tom Le Clair _CLOSING THE LOOP: WHITE NOISE Frank Lentricchia DON De LILLO'S PRIMAL SCENES John Frow THE LAST THINGS BEFORE THE LAST: NOTES ON WHITE NOISE J ohn N.

THE VIKING CRITICAL LIBRARY DON DELILLO White Noise TEXT AND CRITICISM EDITED BY Mark Osteen PENGUIN BOOKS Copyright © Don De Lillo, 1984, 1985 Copyright © Mark Osteen, 1998 Introduction Chronology I The Text White Noise l_Waves and Radiation 123456789 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19_20 I I _The Airborne Toxic Event 21 I I I _Dylarama 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36_37_38_39_40 II Contexts Anthony De Curtis _from MATTERS OF FACT AND FICTION Adam Begley _from DON De LILLO: THE ART OF FICTION Caryn James 'I NEVER SET OUT TO WRITE AN APOCALYPTIC NOVEL' " Don De Lillo _from AMERICANA Don De Lillo _from END ZONE Don De Lillo _from PLAYERS Don De Lillo SILHOUETTE CITY: HITLER, MANSON AND THE MILLENNIUM Newsweek from IT WAS LIKE BREATHING FIRE . Duvall THE (SUPER) MARKETPLACE OF IMAGES: TELEVISION AS UNMEDIATED MEDIATION IN De LILLO'S WHITE NOISE Cornel Bonca DON De LILLO'S WHITE NOISE: THE NATURAL LANGUAGE OF THE SPECIES Arthur M.

Simultaneously attesting to the novel's highly textured realism and violating it by reminding us of the author's controlling presence, these mysterious, often acerbic insertions are one reason the novel has been called "postmodern." Another reason is that White Noise flouts the conventions it seems to invoke, imitating a number of different genres, but ultimately fitting none of them.

For example, the relatively plotless part 1 presents itself as a hyperintelligent TV sitcom, complete with brainy children, zany friends, and banal conflicts.

Many readers have found White Noise's humor more palatable because it is leavened by a warmth and compassion less obvious in De Lillo's earlier work.

Much of this warm comedy is derived from De Lillo's slightly skewed depiction of the postmodern family, where the once-solid core of mom, dad, and kids has given way to a loose aggregate of siblings, step-siblings, and ex-spouses rotating in various impermanent groupings.

No wonder Jack sees the family as the "cradle of the world's misinformation" (81).

But though the family's handle on facts is hilariously shaky, their conversations also suggest the unfunny results of living in a high-technology society: there is abundant information around, but nobody seems to know anything.