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The White Noise Meander, Week 1

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Hail and welcome to the kick off for this here White Noise Meander.

What’s the big idea?

A group of us are teaming up to read Don DeLillo’s (well heck I can’t describe it because I haven’t read it yet!) novel….

How’s it work?
We’ll be reading roughly 50-60 pages a week. Each week I’ll post the next week’s target. Read along, comment on each thread by week’s end, make it to the finish line, and you qualify for one free “I Survived the White Noise Meander”magnet, designed by long-time Meanderer, Elisabeth Beller.


Figure 1.1: This is not what the magnet will look like…

I’ll confess I broke all the rules and read 12 pages or so ahead and it was a blast. That said, distractions pop up, life takes twist and turns, and thus it always is that people drop off along the way.

But I believe in you and your ability to read a book in 50 page increments and post on a blog. You’re a sure bet to make it to the end. Me? My track record is so-so. But every Meander starts with optimism so yes, yes, and yes again: I’ll see ya at the back cover, my friends!

This week: Read through the end of Chapter 11, pumping the brakes when “a series of frightened children appeared at our door for their Halloween treats.”

Onward and throughward!
-Cecil

Comments

34 responses to “The White Noise Meander, Week 1”

  1. Computilo Avatar
    Computilo

    So appropriate that this starts on Groundhog Day. I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading about the Trick or Treaters at least twice.

    Reply
  2. Leo Avatar
    Leo

    Yes, evocative of Franny & Zooey in some way, but more aware and sharper focus and humorously sarcastic. Not what I expected! I think I will now read the introduction. I like to wait sometimes so I get my own sense of the book before getting another’s perceptions stuck in my head.

    Reply
  3. Maggie Harmon Avatar
    Maggie Harmon

    I’m meandering, but distracted and far behind. That’s okay – don’t wait up I’ll run fast and catchup!

    Reply
  4. Cecil Vortex Avatar
    Cecil Vortex

    Good news! We just started today so you can’t be behind. 🙂 This week’s pages are “due” feb 8. Plenty of time to enjoy the wander…. welcome to the middle of the pack!

    Reply
  5. xian Avatar
    xian

    Starts off just as evocative as I remember the first time. I can’t help picture the equivalent scene at my own university, though when I first read it I was only a year or so away from then.

    Reply
  6. Dr. Vitz Avatar
    Dr. Vitz

    I’d forgotten how much of Murray’s thinking on the most photographed barn echo Walker Percy’s thinking in “The Loss of the Creature”- you can’t see the thing itself, you are just trying to have the same experience of seeing the thing as others have

    Reply
  7. Itto Ogami Avatar
    Itto Ogami

    Really enjoying his writing rhythm. Favorite sentence so far:
    “The chancellor went on to serve as adviser to Nixon, Ford and Carter before his death on a ski lift in Austria.”

    Happily sailing the Büyük Menderes River, aka meandering.

    Reply
  8. So-Called Bill Avatar
    So-Called Bill

    Although I loved this book first time around, and recognize that it is brilliantly written, funny, smart, and entertaining, I find that I am having a hard time letting myself enjoy it. I am suspicious, now, of this kind of irony. It has done too much damage. I suspect that beyond irony and suspicion of irony there is a third way, an acceptance, that I will be trying to get to. We shall see.

    Also: “The Hacking Jacket, as one can infer from its name, has like most pieces of classic menswear an equestrian history. The name is derived from the word hack or hackney, the saddle horse chosen for ordinary, informal pleasure riding as opposed to the horse used for jumping or hunting.”

    Reply
  9. Cecil Vortex Avatar
    Cecil Vortex

    SCB: Let yourself enjoy it! You deserve that my friend…. -Cecil

    Reply
  10. xian Avatar
    xian

    I know what you mean. In some ways it’s a bit like re-watching Pulp Fiction.

    Reply
  11. Peaseblossom Avatar
    Peaseblossom

    I’m enjoying this meander already! Thanks for guiding us, Cecil.

    Reply
  12. Neil (just Neil) Avatar
    Neil (just Neil)

    A few fast facts about my perspective.

    1) I graduated from high school in 1985, the year this was published.

    2) That’s it. That’s all you need to know.

    My historical precision is about as good as my dart game, but I’m loving the sense of foreboding that pervades the first 50 pages. (OK, I confess, I had to put it down after 70 pages because a good friend advised me against racing ahead.)

    I wasn’t tuned in at the time (I was 18 year old living in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon), but clearly DeLillo sensed the tidal wave of information heading our way. Reminded me of one of my favorite non-fiction books from the 90s called “Technopoly” by Neil Postman. He was looking at things from an educator’s perspective, but the message was similar–we’re about to be overwhelmed with information, some relevant, some trivial, some dangeous. Postman’s advice was to help students develop filters to help make sense of things and keep their sanity. But he was writing that in the early 90s. People were already talking about the internet (small “i”) then. Not so much in the early 80s. In White Noise, Jack Gladney’s world is completely unfiltered. Everything comes in–the trivial, the profound, the dangerous. I’m enjoying the low-grade anxiousness of it all so far.

    Reply
  13. Computilo Avatar
    Computilo

    I loved the narrative about generic packaging at the beginning of Chapter 5. I remember when the first truly “generic” products were introduced, they were actually advertised as “Generic” as if that itself were a brand name. Delillo’s description of the packaging (basic white with basic black and generic font lettering) is spot on, screaming cheap and perhaps not quite standard, as Murray Jay Siskind’s “irregular peanuts” advertised. The whole scene reminded me of my father, eager to become an early adopter of the generic lifestyle. He decided to test the concept by purchasing generic dog food for the family pet. Charlie had other plans for the experiment. He sniffed and circled the dog bowl for three days during the Man vs. Beast standoff but refused to back down and eat the cheap “irregular” kibble. On Day 4, most likely ready to signal the PETA people about his alleged mistreatment and forced starvation, Charlie marched over to the bowl of generic food and peed on it. NOTE: Charlie enjoyed brand name kibble for the rest of his days.

    Reply
  14. Alyssa Avatar
    Alyssa

    And we’re off! Really enjoying this so far; reminds me a little bit of Murakami and Ishiguro and also Confederacy of Dunces.

    Reply
  15. Neil Avatar
    Neil

    If you want a reminder is the anxiety and rebelliousness underlying the Reagan/Thatcher years, I recommend listening to “Eighties” by Killing Joke. Consider this an invite to suggest the 80s tune that you think of when you consider what we’ve read so far.

    Reply
  16. xian Avatar
    xian

    glad to see my edition has the same page counts.

    now i wonder if i always didn’t like murray the first time i read the book or if i am basing this on memory.

    Reply
  17. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    His voice is in my head. I’m on a quick trip to LA, staying at the Best Western Pasadena Inn. I hear the early risers outside my room, eager to be off before 6 am to beat the LA traffic. The slightly later risers eager to enjoy the Best Western buffet breakfast. The even later risers hoping to get to breakfast before the Activia is gone. There are peacocks wandering in the parking lot. This meander is just right for me.

    Reply
  18. KT Avatar
    KT

    Long time fan, first time meanderer…
    Impressions so far:
    Murray – I want to duck and pretend I don’t see him in the store…or just smack him
    Denise – my favorite character so far, the 11 year old essence well captured
    Favorite line – “She had a vast capacity for being embarrassed on other people’s behalf.”

    Reply
  19. Barbara L. Avatar
    Barbara L.

    To this moment I’m waiting for my copy of the book to ship… it’s apparently not easy to get in Austria.
    I’ll meander faster next week and will catch up with you! 😊

    Reply
  20. Peaseblossom Avatar
    Peaseblossom

    Good dog! Hooray for Charlie!

    I never understood the generic packaging. I recall the stark white labels with the basic black labeling. I distinctly remember examining products to figure out where they were manufactured and by whom. The rumor at the time was that generic products were exactly the same as name brand products, only the generics had the different label. I was always skeptical about this. If the product was exactly the same, why not claim it? The marketing and advertising were already paid for. Like Murray’s “irregular peanuts” most generic products seemed to be of lesser quality. My initial thought regarding Murray is that generic quality is perfectly suited to him.

    Reply
  21. Peaseblossom Avatar
    Peaseblossom

    Random thoughts so far…

    I have to smirk at DeLillo’s description of television at the time, with its “narcotic undertow” and its “eerie diseased brain-sucking power.” This passage seems to be the literary precursor to Bruce Springsteen’s “57 Channels (And Nothin On).” Who will record the modern encore, “1157 Channels (And Still Nothin On),” I wonder? And how would DeLillo describe the water cooler topic of this past week, the Super Bowl Halftime show?

    I’m tickled by the sprinkling of seemingly random, unrelated detail that is given, such as the woman who falls into the paperback book rack at the front of the grocery store.

    Did anyone else feel his/her heart sink when reading about Heinrich at the beginning of Chapter 6? “Babette is afraid he will end up in a barricaded room, spraying hundreds of rounds of automatic fire across an empty mall before the SWAT teams come for him with their heavy-barreled weapons, their bullhorns and body armor.” What accurate foreshadowing of the world in which we live today. *sigh*

    Reply
  22. EB Avatar
    EB

    oh damn, it’s feb 9. well, hope cecil will let me sneak in under the wire this very first time. so far–re white noise–so good. i’ve never read delillo, so i’m getting used to him. more next time–onward!

    Reply
  23. Barbara B Avatar
    Barbara B

    Loving this book so far! Very happy to have “agreed to be part of a collective perception” 🙂 with The Meanderers

    Reply
  24. Kathy Smith Avatar
    Kathy Smith

    Keeping my interest so far. The whole Hitler thing jars me after coming off Man in High Castle-not eager to enter that world again. Onto next week!

    Reply
  25. Amanda Avatar
    Amanda

    Read this a long time ago. Luckily my memory is about as good as Babette’s, so it all feels pretty fresh. I found myself laughing at lines like:

    “That night, in Murray’s off-white room, after a spectacular meal of Cornish hen in the shape of a frog, prepared on a two-burner hot plate, we moved from our metal folding chairs to the bunk bed for coffee.”

    and

    “Heinrich’s hairline is beginning to recede […] Have I raised him, unwittingly, in the vicinity of a chemical dump site, in the path of air currents that carry industrial wastes capable of producing scalp degeneration, glorious sunsets?”

    As I read, Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil” kept coming to mind. While she was referring to an individual committing evil for worldly/bureaucratic reasons (or so my Wikipedia research has told me, since I haven’t actually read her book!), I was thinking of evil in banal packaging, like gum that might give you cancer, like the scene of the whole family eating Chinese food and watching TV together on a Friday night. The shadow of this domestic scene being Steffie becoming upset, “every time something shameful or humiliating seemed to happen to someone one screen,” and Murray’s coda, “It was my own formal custom on Fridays, after an evening in front of the TV set, to read deeply in Hitler well into the night.” Yikes. Murray goes on to describe how he’s cultivated his appearance to be more like Hitler’s and how the chancellor suggested this would help Murray’s career, which, now that I think of it, creeps closer to Arendt’s definition.

    I keep thinking of the preppy undergrads, those eaters of “nacho thins” and “Mystic mints” in “their poplin walk shorts and limited-edition T-shirts” funneling into the auditorium from a gorgeous summer day to watch Murray’s supercut of propaganda films and party footage. We are given no insight into their reason for pursuing this major, just as Murray doesn’t really tell us his motivation for forming the major at all. There appears to be a clue in Murray’s convo with Heinrich about his pen pal in prison, when Heinrich talks about his pen pal’s attempt to “go down to history,” and Murray’s concession that he won’t go down in history, but that he does have Hitler. What is going on here?! Evil itself transcends mortality/banality? Co-opting and professionalizing evil is an attempt to transcend mortality/banality? With Heinrich’s relativism in the room, the answer is likely not a yes or no.

    I’d say that reading on might offer clues, but I have a feeling that things will just get less and less clear.

    Reply
  26. Mike M Avatar
    Mike M

    “All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots. Political plots, terrorist plots, lovers’ plots, narrative plots, plots that are part of children’s games. We edge nearer death every time we plot. It is like a contract that all must sign, the plotters as well as those who are the targets of the plot.”

    Hmmmm. Is this gun on the mantle going to go off in the second act?

    Reply
  27. xian Avatar
    xian

    Great observations. one note:

    The narrator is Jack (or “J.A.K.”) Gladney.

    Murray is the visiting professor.

    Reply
  28. So-Called Bill Avatar
    So-Called Bill

    It took me a while, but…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExjTcqCVTi8

    Reply
  29. Willem Avatar
    Willem

    A fun read so far, though it definitely feels from a different, pre-internet, pre-DIBs era. Just the bit about answering the phone and covering the mouthpiece brought back memories. And that Murray, so cheesy. Quit hitting on his wife, man!

    Reply
  30. Al Diablo Avatar
    Al Diablo

    Uh-oh! I just started to meander, but plan to catch up by next week.

    Reply
  31. Itto Ogami Avatar
    Itto Ogami

    I like and agree with Susan’s comment that his voice is in my head. Enjoy when that happens/changes with a new author.
    Jack’s exchanges with Heinrich are a blast, bonanza.
    Fascinated with the myriad of ways DeLillo finds/describes noise.

    Reply
  32. Rebecca Stees Avatar
    Rebecca Stees

    I’ve been listening via audiobook while I draw.

    Reply
  33. Ute Avatar
    Ute

    So, here I go. Giving “White Noise” a chance long after everyone else is done reading and commenting – and all thanks to Barbara L. for lending me her book and Cecil Vortex for encouraging me during a surprise Zoom call.
    Now about the book:
    I’m a little weirded out by the many random sentences (or at least random to me), such as: “The Airport Marriott, the Downtown Travelodge, the Sheraton Inn and Conference Center” – what am I to do with this information?
    Love the entire section on the German language, though. Hilarious! Particularly: “When he switched from English to German, it was as though a cord had been twisted in his larynx.”
    I can SO relate to this, having heard similar descriptions my entire life whenever people commented on my switching from one language to the other!

    Reply
  34. Cecil Vortex Avatar
    Cecil Vortex

    So great! Something else for me to look forward to every week now!

    Reply

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