Tom LeClair "Closing the Loop: White Noise"
Tom LeClair helps provide a
better understanding of some meaning to “White Noise.” LeClair clarifies why he
thinks Babette is so into watching and being near the children when he says
“Babette thinks of the children… as protective charms” (396). Explaining the
reason that she wants to keep them young, and the youngest child, Wilder, gives
her the most pleasure.
During the evacuation process in
part 2 Jack and Babette try to deny the threat, the “cloud” has. LeClair
explains how Jack is exposed to the toxic cloud because he was trying to
protect the children. LeClair fells that DeLillo increases his irony by “having
Jack observe people who are not only prepared for disaster but seem to welcome
it” (399).
In part 3, LeClair gives a better
understanding of Murray Jay Siskind. LeClair speaks of Siskind character in
another novel Amazon under the pseudonym Cleo Birdwell, but LeClair says that
Siskind has a bigger role in “White Noise.” Murray is confident and influential
over Jack; ultimately Siskind is the one who convinces Jack to kill “Mr. Gray.”
LeClair gives examples at the end
of his writing of different types of white noise; he says it is a term for
chaos. “What we hear as static may have meaning. DeLillo takes familiar sounds
and turns them up, exaggerating them to give their ironic effect, and turns
them down, finding in the lower frequencies a whisper of possibility” (411).
The feeling I got from reading
Tom LeClair interpretation of “White Noise” was at first a sense of
confusion. I felt as if there were too much information about other books that
I had not read, nor was I going to read. Then finally he started analyzing what
“White Noise” meant to him. Reading this gave me a slightly better
understanding about some of the characters and what the story was about.
LeClair gave a good summary about the book.
I am not sure how this will
benefit me in writing my essay other than it gave me better insight into who
the characters are and what they meant to the book.
DeLillo, Don. White Noise.
New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.
LeClair, Tom. In the Loop: Don DeLillo and the Systems
Novel. Urbana and Chicago:
University of
Illinois Press, 1987.
I like that the article incorporated the name of the book, because it does have a lot to do with the book. For a lot of the book it seems like just white noise - almost like a journal of the Gladney family.. not really anything climatic or dramatic for that matter. Of course, as the book goes on it does get more and more exciting, but, the name really has something to do with the book.. It's not just a name! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree Elizabeth the title is appropriate.
DeleteI'm having a hard time understanding the article by just your summary alone, although it gives me the feeling that the article is somewhat disjointed in the first place. As long as it helps people to understand the book it references though, it's worth reading. I noticed that in other articles the authors choose to compare White Noise to DeLillo's other novels. That makes it a little more difficult to take anything concrete away from the critiques of White Noise itself.
ReplyDeleteToni I agree, it was confusing most of the time when reading Tom LeClair's summary of "White Noise." He does make some interesting point's which gives parts of the book new perspective. Although in the long run I only got a little from his summary. Good luck with the final Toni!
ReplyDelete