White Noise
Don Delillo
I read Mao II by Delillo at university, I liked his narrative style so when I saw this on my aunt’s shelf I gave it a go. It’s a story about a college professor (Jack), his family and a creeping existential dread brought on by the ‘white noise’ of modern life. This post is a collection of quotes, passages and ideas that I found interesting.
“Things, boxes. Why do these possessions carry such sorrowful weight? There is a darkness attached to them, a foreboding. They make me wary not of personal failure and defeat but of something more general, something large in scope and content”
Things matter because people agree they do
Murray, a colleague of Jack’s who is a professor of ‘Cultural Studies’ suggests they drive to the most photographed barn in America as an homage, to witness the cultural phenomenon. There is nothing special about this barn other than the fact everyone photographs it. Murray takes a picture, saying “We’re not here to capture an image, we’re here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies.”
Existential dread
The major preoccupation of Jack and Jack’s wife, Babette, is who will die first. This is a central plot device, driving Babette to liaisons with a faceless pharmaceutical executive called Mr Gray in a motel in return for an experimental drug that cures the fear of death. Jack thinking about and ultimately tracking down Mr Gray forms the third arc of the novel.
The elderly are always well groomed. Jack observes, “We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming”
“A person has to be told he is going to die before he can live life to the fullest. True or false?” “False. Once your death is established, it becomes impossible to live a satisfying life.” “Would you prefer to know the exact date and time of your death?” “Absolutely not. It’s bad enough to fear the unknown. Faced with the unknown, we can pretend it isn’t there. Exact dates would drive many to suicide, if only to beat the system.”
Consumerism
The supermarket is elevated to the level of a church - the center of the religion of consumerism. Jack observes:
“There were six kinds of apples… Everything seemed to be in season, sprayed, burnished, bright. People tore filmy bags off racks and tried to figure out which end opened. I realized the place was awash with noise. The toneless systems, the jangle and skid of carts, the loudspeaker… the cries of children. And over it all… a dull and unlocatable roar, as of some form of swarming life just outside the range of human apprehension.”
Growing up
Another theme of the book is the identity experience of growing up. Murray says of kids, “minute by minute they’re beginning to diverge from each other. You are spinning out from the core, becoming less recognizable as a group, less targetable by advertisers and mass-producers of culture. Kids are a true universal.” This last sentence is interesting in light of the subsequent success of Google and Facebook who solved this ‘diverging identity’ problem by collecting data to better target you.
“I tell myself I have reached an age, the age of unreliable menace. The world is full of abandoned meanings. In the commonplace I find unexpected themes and intensities.”
Numbers and science as a refuge
“The power of numbers is never more evident than when we use them to speculate on the time of our dying”
“I wanted this man on my side. He had access to data”. There’s an absurdity of what is real and what is a simulation too: “What does SIMUVAC mean?” “Short for simulated evacuation”… “But this evacuation isn’t simulated, it’s real.” “We know that. But we thought we could use it as a model.”
Babette’s father, Vernon, comes to visit. He’s a practical, blue-collar worker, everything Jack isn’t. His introduction highlights the contrast between our technological advances and our poor understanding of this new world. “He saw my shakiness in such matters as a sign of some deeper incompetence… These were the things that built the world. Not to know or care about them was a betrayal of fundamental principles, a betrayal of gender, of species. What could be more useless than a man who couldn’t fix a dripping faucet… I wasn’t sure I disagreed.”
Noise
“There is an expressway beyond the backyard now, well below us, and at night as we settle into our brass bed the sparse traffic washes past, a remote and steady murmur around our sleep, as of dead souls babbling at the edge of a dream”
Faceless organisations
The second arc of the novel deals with ‘the airborne toxic event’, a chemicals leak that occurs at a railway depot. This causes a mass evacuation of the town. Jack gets exposed to the unknown toxin and speculates more excitedly than ever on his death. The government and numerous officials are involved in the response. They are mysterious, faceless and talk in impenetrable jargon
Humour
“In situations like this, you want to stick close to people in right-wing fringe groups. They’ve practiced staying alive.”