As we decided in class on Friday, we are reading through chapter 10 of White Noise this weekend. (We will read through the first section, chapter 20, by Friday if you want to get a head start.) Here are a few themes you might want to focus on in your reading journals:
Death
- "’I have trouble imagining death at that income level.’" . . . "’Maybe there is no death as we know it. Just documents changing hands’" (6).
- "Who will die first?" (15).
- Is this what it’s like, abrupt, preemptory? Shouldn’t death, I thought, be a swan dive, graceful, white-winged and smooth, leaving the surface undisturbed? (18).
- "’I want to immerse myself in American magic and dread’" (19).
- "’All plots tend to move deathward’" (26).
"Naming of Things…"
- "’It’s the day of the station wagons.’" . . . "He is known as Old Man Treadwell, as if he were a landmark, a rock formation or brooding swamp" (5).
- "’Do the women wear plaid skirts, cable-knit sweaters? Are the men in hacking jackets? What’s a hacking jacket?’" (5)
- "’I’m totally captivated and intrigued. It’s a gorgeous old crumbling house near the insane asylum. . . . A woman who harbors a terrible secret. A man with a haunted look. A man who never comes out of his room. A woman who stands by the letter box for hours, waiting for something that never seems to arrive. A man with no past. A woman with a past.’ . . . ‘I’m the Jew. What else would I be?’" (10).
- "We finally agreed that I should invent an extra initial and call myself J.A.K. Gladney, a tag I wore like a borrowed suit" (16).
- Note: This is incredible. His name is pronounced exactly the same, but by adding an initial it has a more authoritative air.
Consumer Aura
(We’ll talk about this in class on Tuesday, but think "things being important because of how they are described or advertised, not because they are valuable in themselves."
- "’She feels guilty of she doesn’t buy it, she feels guilty of she buys it and doesn’t eat it, she feels guilty when she sees it in the fridge, she feels guilty when she throws it away’" (6).
- "’He is now your Hitler. Gladney’s Hitler. . . . The college is internationally known as a result of Hitler studies. It has an identity, a sense of achievement. . . . It’s what I want to do with Elvis’" (11).
- "’No one sees the barn. . . . Once you’ve seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn’" (12). [Read this section twice. It’s important.]
- "’You were right, Jack. This is the last avant-garde. Bold new forms. The power to shock’" (19). [They’re peanuts.]
- "’This place recharges us spiritually, it prepares us, it’s a gateway or pathway. Look how bright. It’s full of psychic data. . . . Everything is concealed in symbolism, hidden by veils of mystery and layers of cultural material" (36).
A few more to search for: reality/perception, memory, and "white noise."
Remember, it is more important to enjoy the book than to focus solely on these themes. This is normally an activity reserved for the second reading of a text, but since most of you scoff at me when I suggest reading a book twice, I thought I’d give you a head start.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday.
