We will be discussing DeLillo’s White Noise through chapter 34 on Monday.  We will write over this in about a week, so please keep up with your reading journals.

Another great discussion (From the Board below) over the censorship!  The debate was heated at times, so we’ll be writing our own argumentative articles this weekend.  By now you are all familiar with the basic structure of an argumentative article, but here’s a quick outline to help you with your writing:

• Know your position.  Begin with a basic argument, such as "Apples are good."
• Begin gathering support for your basic argument.
  • "Apples are healthy"
  • "Apples are all-American"
  • "Apples are portable"
  • "Apples can be eaten many different ways"
• Then, begin supporting each claim, adding statistics and quotations from other sources as necessary.
  • "Apples are healthy"
    • Food and Drug Administration
  • "Apples are all-American"
    • All-American Apple Council
  • "Apples are portable"
    • Relevant personal anecdote
  • "Apples can be eaten in many different ways"
    • Recipes
    • How-to guides
• After that, make sure your sources are credible and your claims are relevant and logical.
  • "Apples are all-American" (Appeal to emotion, but not a major point.)
    • All-American Apple Council (Biased source)
• After you are certain you have a logical argument, begin writing your article.  Draw your audience in with a "hook"—something to draw them in, give them interest in your article. (Look over your previous articles for examples.)  Also, because this is such a heated topic, don’t forget to appeal to those on the other side of the issue.

Post questions below for the good of all.

Legend: Black: from the articles, Blue: From you, Green: From me.

We’ll read through chapter 21 (through The Toxic Airborne Event) for Monday.  Here are a few shots from the board:

Have a great weekend!

Amazing discussion today, guys.  It gave me a chance to passively moderate the discussion while you all ran wild.  I think we’ll keep this up, unless there are any objections.  Comment below if you have a concern or another idea.

From the board:

Be sure to keep up with your reading journals.  I cannot stress enough how important these will be when we begin writing our papers.

[Note: I wasn’t planning on posting these images, as they don’t accurately capture the discussion we (you) had.  It was a dynamic document created as you talked, so things were erased.  I’ve added notes to clarify a bit, but next time I’ll keep a more legible record. If you were absent today, I would greatly appreciate any feedback or questions about what we did, in order to help me clarify our discussion.]

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.

at Barnes and Noble on 41st if you don’t already have a copy.  We will begin discussing the book tomorrow.