Thursday, May 1, 2008

White Noise Day

Though I thought that WND was a very good experience, I felt like it relied too heavily on a student's ability to use and edit video. Having no prior experience in this field, I felt a bit at a disadvantage compared to others who could produce quality material (in the form of their movie) from their taping.

WNOISE

In the novel there are several instances of back-and-forth dialogue that are absurd in the lack of thought that each character puts into their own statements. I found this in the dialogue on page twenty-eight (What do you want to do?...whatever you want to do...I want to do whatever's best for you...what's best for me is to please you...etc). These dialogues definitely satirize the abruptness and lack of depth in social interactions, and I think they do so very affectively.

WN

"Society is set up in such a way that it's the poor and the uneducated who suffer the main impact of natural and man-made disasters" (115) is a quote that I found particularly interesting. It is a quote that, though no one would ever admit it, many people do actually believe in. I think this say-what-most-people-only-think satire is extremely effective and sharp.

Delillo sees the future

Just like we said in class that Delillo's writings on the overabundance of information in society- before the internet was even invented- were almost prophetic, I also think that he was way ahead of his time in terms of writing about pollution. His phrase about the "toxic cloud," "this was a death made in the laboratory" (127) is particularly prophetic, as global warming and other environmental problems have been directly caused by human's use of chemicals invented in labs.

White Noise

Though I did enjoy reading White Noise, some parts of it were frustrating to read. I was particularly frustrated during the sections of the book in which the subject matter was Babette's pill usage. Each time a character asked Babette if she was taking pills, the conversation somehow moved to a very different topic. These digressions were frustrating as a reader, as I just wanted to know whether or not she was taking pills.

my last post

I just thought I would comment on today's in-class writing assignment.  I agreed with Neitszche's statement about conflict arising from the juxtaposition of chaos and order in the plot and also the contrasting themes throughout the novel, particularly those regarding death.

wn

I really liked the book for all its intricacies.  I can't say that it was my favorite in terms of plot, but the endless contradictions and switching back and forth between chaos and order were very interesting.