for Don DeLillo’s, White Noise

Begin reading this ASAP; finish by class time, Feb. 24th (322 pages; 53 pages each day).

DeLillo: prolific writer often concerned with questions about media, language, reality, survival in postmodern world. Can be quite tongue-in-cheek, funny, very ironic.

As you read the novel, consider these questions:

1. How, overall, does this book ask us to understand the relationship between reality and illusion?
2. How, overall, does this book ask us to understand the relationship between observer and thing observed (subject and object)?
3. What view of media ultimately emerges in the story? Consider ALL types of media represented in the book: language, TV, radio, clothing, computers, etc.
4. What do you make of DeLillo’s sentence style? How would you describe it and how does it work to reinforce or even determine the novel’s themes?
5. What view of the future (of visual culture and postmodern society) ultimately emerges in the story? How will this “brave new world” affect personal identity? How will we cope?
6. Would you say that DeLillo is a Jammer? An Ironist? A Paranoid? A Fan? Something else?

 

 

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