White Noise

I've gotta say, this one irritated me. Especially the dialogue, which seemed weirdly and poorly constructed.

White Noise – Did Not Finish

I gave White Noise a shot, but ultimately did not finish it. I found it boring and self-indulgent, filled with endless dialogue and observations that went nowhere. The book seemed more interested in its own cleverness than in telling a compelling story. With nothing happening and no real engagement, it simply wasn’t worth my time.

have fallen into a reading slump yet this was a good remedy. the satire is amusing if not occasionally tedious and there's some genuinely compelling themes about mortality and childhood. something about delillo's writing style clicks with me more often than not. pretty great stuff

Overcomes it's annoying “sad smart white guy” energy by so clearly illustrating the dread that permeates existence in the mass media age. The constant buzz of information, both mystical and inane, is ever present as an overbearing undercurrent to all the machinery of the story.

Reads extremely well in 2023, as the smartphone/information age has only increased the flow and rate of information blasted upon us.

Entertaining series of vignettes about American consumer culture, the absurdity of life and fear of death. The only problem is DeLillo consistently beats the reader over the head with it to the extent that it becomes laborious to read in the last third.

Entertaining series of vignettes about American consumer culture, the absurdity of life and fear of death. The only problem is DeLillo consistently beats the reader over the head with it to the extent that it becomes laborious to read in the last third.

I gave 2 stars because it is clear DeLillo can write very well, however, generally speaking, it felt like the author was trying too hard to be different resulting in a wandering and rather pointless read.

White Noise is one of those books trying to offer commentary on American life and death but misses its mark by being over-the-top pedantic. I understand that DeLillo does this to connect the book to American life, but it makes for an incredibly sluggish read. The characters have no agency in their lives; everything, from the fake “disasters” to the Airborn Toxic Event, are just simulations they enact. Yes, I understand this is the point: people going through life are subjected to events that they cannot prevent and can only respond to.

DeLillo touches on issues that are important, such as over-the-top advertising, pollution, violence, drug use, death, etc. but only in a passing hazy way.

I suppose that my complaint with the book is not that it does not do what it sets out to do but rather that the philosophical backing is what it sets out to do is that of a nihilistic 14-year-old.

This was such an odd (yet clever) book. By the time I finished, I sat quietly for a few minutes trying to make sense what I had just read but felt just as bemused as I did at the start. The book feels like a nod and ponder after a long conversation about nothing in particular yet everything significant. I probably won't remember a single thing from it in three weeks.

On the train I was asked a few times what I was reading and I truly struggled to describe the book because well, there's not much to say! It's mostly just about life and by extension, death (but isn't everything?) Like someone else said, this book should be read by everyone planning to die. It probably won't change much but at least you'll have something to distract you until then.

The dialogue is amazing, I loved the literary style and I truly admired every character, yet on the whole I never quiet felt completely hooked? I like being pulled into a story but here I just felt like I never could quite settle in

Exactly. Look past the violence, Jack. There is a wonderful brimming spirit of innocence and fun.

This was hard...
I wanted to like it, I liked a lot of it, but it overall didn't seem to work for me. I struggled to get into it, it felt meandering and self satisfied.

Honestly, if section two “The Airborne Toxic Event” was a standalone short story with no other edits, it would be incredible.

just a real joy to read. hilarious, clever, biting: the truest embodiment of postmodernism i have read thus far. and after reading DFW's (brilliant) “E Unibus Pluram” essay where he breaks down the “Most Photographed Barn in America” scene, I know I only got like half of the deeper meanings here. looking forward to rereading this again and again in the years to come

side note: really love the idea of a supermarket-as-sensory-experience. also Murray is one of my favorite characters in fiction, ever.

I highly appreciate this novel for its thematic ambitions. ‘White Noise' shed lights on superficial aspects of modern consumerist societies and on our modern day obsession with data to the point of worshiping them. Despite all the characters' desperate attempts of collecting data and making sense of their life events, they both consciously choose to remain ignorant as artificial attempt to cling to illusional sense of control.

However, this story is worthless. The characters lack personalities. The philosophical dialogues lack epistemological foundation, which make them sound dull and vague. When I reached the final page of this book, I found myself having wasted time reading Jack's self-justification for his irresponsibility and pretentiousness. This novel has no relevance at communities that value intimate human connections over intellectual hypocrisy.

Funny, frightening and horribly real, this is a masterful satire of a culture which has lost its moorings. Brilliant.

Pairs well with Tim Hecker.

Palahniuk owes a lot to the author of “White Noise”. Especially Heinrich frequently enters in a Tyler or Rant mode. DeLillo's novel is impressive, in spite of its somehow dated “heroic” Postmodernism . Open a book by Palahniuk, Ellis or Clevenger and you would reach a more violent, shocking and intense universe, a version of “Postmodernism in war against itself”. A recent philosopher noted that one must only read a text published after 2010 or watch the latest movie to feel what life after Postmodernism means and to see how dated Postmodernism which believed in itself is. Influenced by Baudrillard, Lyotard, Becker but also by Kierkegaard and Tolstoy, DeLillo writes a brilliant novel, almost a “classic” I would say, that can easily compete with Joyce for instance and that becomes a point of reference, a Ground Zero for the revolutionary masterpieces of the 1990's and 2000's created by his - acknowledged or closet - disciples.

Rumore bianco è un romanzo del 1985 dello scrittore americano Don DeLillo, da molti ritenuto esemplificativo della letteratura postmoderna. È stato anche vincitore del National Book Award.

E' molto difficile commentare questo libro perchè è stata una lettura faticosa, molto impegnativa ed infatti ho impiegato molto tempo per finirlo, per il mio continuio fermarmi per rileggere paragrafi, pagine a volte capitoli interi, incantato molte volte dalla scrittura e dalle sensazioni che uscivano ininterrotte dalle pagine.

Il romanzo è ambientato in un college del Midwest degli Stati Uniti, e ha come protagonista Jack Gladney, un professore universitario che è diventato famoso e noto per essere diventato preside della facoltà dove si svolgono studi approfonditi sulla figura di Hitler. Sposato diverse volte, vive con Babette, sua moglie attuale in una casa dove convivono con i figli generati dai precedenti matrimoni. Questa parte ingloba quasi tutta la prima metà di “Rumore bianco” ed è una cronaca dell'assurdo della vita di famiglia, combinata con una satira sul mondo accademico.

Nella seconda parte, una fuoriuscita di materiali chimici da un vagone ferroviario causa la formazione di una nuvola tossica nella zona in cui vivono Jack e la sua famiglia, rendendo necessaria un'evacuazione; preoccupato per essersi esposto alla tossina, Jack è costretto a fare i conti col fatto di poter morire. Qui il romanzo diviene una profonda riflessione sulla paura della morte nella società moderna e sulla sua ossessione per le cure mediche, con Jack che cerca di comprare al mercato nero un farmaco chiamato Dylar, che si ritiene possa alleviare la paura della morte.

I temi trattati dal libro sono molteplici: il consumismo rampante, la saturazione mediatica, l'intellettualismo spicciolo, le cospirazioni sotterranee, la disintegrazione e la reintegrazione della famiglia, la paranoia e le qualità potenzialmente positive della violenza umana. Da qui anche il titolo del libro che fa riferimento al “rumore bianco” prodotto dal consumismo, dai media, dalle tecnologie della comunicazione.

I dialoghi e le parti introspettive del protagonista sono continui rimandi di riflessioni sociologiche e filosofiche, tutto coperto da questo rumore bianco di sottofondo che è sempre presente, lo stile di De Lillo è trascinatorio ed evocativo: lucido, affilato e corposo, caustico e feroce, ripeto, in alcuni punti resta un romanzo di non facile lettura, che richiede molta attenzione, ma ne vale sicuramente la pena.

Noi tutti, circondati dalle radiazioni emesse da televisori, radio, forni a microonde, cellulari, siamo costantemente immersi nel “rumore bianco” e cerchiamo anche noi di sconfiggere la paura della morte con l'esasperazione del consumismo, dove l'ottica è che più comperiamo, più siamo, più esistiamo e diamo un senso, per quanto vuoto, alla nostra vita, perchè il rumore bianco è la paura della morte.

Un romanzo che vale la pena leggere, per la storia, la scrittura di DeLillo e per tutto quello che ha da raccontarci.

I read this in my freshman lit course which was themed “apocalyptic literature.” I remember almost nothing about it, but I'm adding it to remind me to give it another go.