PREVIEW: 14 November 2002 (Thursday)
POSTSCRIPT: 12 November 2002 (Tuesday)
Postscript from Juan:
--Following up from what Bretlan had to say, I do agree with ending the
novel with Wilder crossing the street.
The description of the anxiety and fear from the ladies watching and
trying to tell him to "stop" and he would not listen, feels like the
initiation of Wilder into the white noise club, he is invited by the
fear expressed by the women and he joins them when he starts crying on
the other side of the street, almost saying... " here I am, hopeless and
I am afraid something is going to happen to me; i am going to die". Also
to consider in what kind of circumstances he went through this
initiation: the event of cars avoiding to him, making a spectacular
scene that Jack and Heinrick would love to watch on TV. (Who would not
be amazed?)
And a preview from Steve:
Arthur Saltzman: "The Figure in the Static: White Noise" Pp 480-497.
This critical essay deals with the author's attempt to exist both apart from the subject matter
and yet use it in the telling of the story. This 'writing in the margin' is part and parcel of the
novelist's craft. DeLillo also claims that there are times when the writer, while always trying to
bend the world, the story, his own way, breaks free and lets loose a torrent of words that form
contextual images of their own accord, a writer's 'rapture'. Another effect is for the protagonist
to always find himself alienated from the very things that surround him and define his existence.
Several examples in DeLillo's many novels are compared in this vein, and several cogent
passages from White Noise are pointed out.
Themes of mob behavior, crowd consciencness, and peer pressure emerge in nearly all the
works cited. I am left wondering if 'white noise' is an unanimated form of crowd behavior.
Jack Gladney repeatedly makes observations that should elevate him above the noise, yet,
unfailingly, he merely teases the surface before resubmerging once again, overcome by the
familiar yet elusive environment that rules him.
Saltzman is interpreting the inherent indictment of consumer culture with his reading of White
Noise. In every instance he finds fault with the man-made mechanisms of coping with natural
processes such as death. The Gladneys collect material things as protection, but Jack also
throws things away to renew. He recognizes boxes of old possessions as 'dark things' with a
'depressing air about them'. Similarly, in an effort to reconnect with himself and smash through
the ever-present layers of noise, Jack actually tries to be visceral at one point in murdering
Willie Mink., or more exactly, his static representation, Mr. Gray. Saltzman likens this act to
"smashing through the television screen and reclaiming immediacy." Jack repeats the telling of
his 'plot' so many times because he thrills in its ritual more than the act itself, much like a drug
addict dreams of the act and then feels disappointed with the 'boost' itself. Saltzman suggests
all this effort is an attempt to counteract the symbolized 'brain fade' represented by the sounds
of clothes in the dryer, commercial announcements, tail lights dancing on the highway and other
inane and innumerable input.
Ultimately, white noise is a saturation effect. It becomes so common that it is virtually ignored or
unnoticed, whichever, I guess, is worse. DeLillo linguistically represents the culture by use of
jargon, idiom and predefined words that invoke more than their single, specific contextual
meanings. This explains the stilted quality to DeLillo's characters, who never seem to have a
normal conversation but instead insist on spouting theory, and illustrating that theory, all at
once. This method is so subtle it slaps you in the face, or, as Saltzman articulates it, DeLillo
"whistles in an undissipating but most precipitous dark."
And notes from James:
--White Noise may be the whitest book ever (with the possible exception of  Moby Dick).
This book shows us ethnicity in white society like we see in other societies (i.e. black
culture in Sula).
pills->white
noise->white
white->death
--Blacksmith (no black people)
industrial vs contemporary
working with hands vs nothing but talk
irony reminicent of Sula (the Bottom)
--We never meet any students. Its gotta be a little hard to be set in a college town and never
see any students. 
Middle class focus is not a theme but more of a consideration.
Faculty look bad.
Pseudo-authority figures?
Less important the material the more they think of themselves
--Orest gets bit (anticlimax)
Stovers are never seen much like the students. Jack's narcissism (Steve) throughout the book.
Town revolves around Jack, not students.
Infant view of the world.
This is why he relates to Wilder.
Rena pointed out flower version of Narcisis fable.
--Murray has a persistent presence.
Babette wears ski mask when she sleeps with Mr. Gray.
Jack's angry only because Babette never told him.
"Babette Experience"
Murray convinces Jack to kill Mr. Gray to live longer.
The fire at the insane asylum smells "manly" at first but turns more real when the smell of
chemicals and burning flesh appear.
Beth mentioned this as a "less tv experience"
Vernon contributes gun.
--Wilder is Jack and Babette's Dylar when they run out. He stays young and so do they (so they
feel).
--Words vs. reality
Hail of bullets wounds Mr. Gray. Undone by something he warned Babette about.
--Wilder 25 word vocab->Jacks German vocab
--German conference (anticlimax?)
Beth suggests that supermarket explains life.
"not simply a 'store' of goods but a rhetorical structure designed to manipulate us" (Nordquist)
--Winnie says life is precious because of death
Anyone who knows anything knows nothing. Vice Versa
The stronger they think they are the weaker the reality.
Winnie is real she blushes. (Steve)
Jack has to actively seek out truth and then denies it. Truth->Winnie
If we deny death we deny life. (Nordquist)

PREVIEW: 12 November 2002 (Tuesday)
--During Tuesday's class, each of us will sign up to read roughly ten pages from the "Contexts" section of White Noise (i.e., the section following the novel itself).  On Thursday, I'll ask each of you to report briefly on the section that you've read.
--A few notes.  Because (fairly or not) DeLillo is so often characterized as a "postmodern" writer, it's useful to have some sense of what this remarkably vague and persistently abused term might actually mean.   Postmodernist writers are not really "opposite" anyone or anything; their work, in part, can be seen as both an extension of as well as a reaction to modernism (another term that's often abused).  At this University of Colorado (Boulder) site, Dr. Mary Klages offers remarkably cogent explanations of both modernism and postmodernism.  Please check it out.
--At our RESOURCES page, you'll find links to a number of sites that concern themselves with White Noise as well as with Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death (1973)--a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that DeLillo points to as an influence on his novel.
--Throughout this week, I'll be adding some additional notes on Becker, DeLillo, and White Noise.  As thoughts come to you, please jot them down in an e-mail and pass them along so that I can add them to our class notes. 

POSTSCRIPT: 7 November 2002 (Thursday)
--Notes from Beth:
We began class today with a short disscussion on how we, as honor
students, stand on the issue of cheating and plagerism. Dr.
Nordquist informed us that there would be faculty disscussion of this
topic sometime early next semester and to expect an e-mail from him
inviting some of us to attend. From what I understood from everyone's
comments, I think we all are in a general agreement that cheaters are
only cheating themselves out of their education and abusing honest,
hardworking students in the process.

After this disscussion and a quick quiz on the first two parts of
White Noise, we began class disscussion on DeLillo's postmodern
masterpiece.

postmodernist- a very loose category of writers that have an extra
self-consciousness about telling their tales; remind the reader that the
story is not real and make less effort to convince the reader to see the
characters as real people; writers that concentrate more on stepping back
and anylizing the world and what is really there rather than the way one
percieves it.

--postmodernists are opposite of modernist writers such as: Katherine
Mansfield, James Wood, Virginia Wolfe, and William Faulkner. Modernists
are concerned with one's conciousness and perception of the world, as well
as connecting readers to their characters.

--In DeLillo's White Noise we learn early on that things are never what
they seem to be.

--The narrator, who we never really sypethise with, actually consits of
two characters: Jack and J.A.K. Gladney
-J.A.K.-the fashioned, dark coat and glasses wearing, character that
Jack appears to the world outside his close friends and family to be:
esteemed head professor of Hitler studies. We only see this
character durring the lecture that Jack joins with Murray in giving
about Hitler vs. Elvis.
-Jack--"the false character that follows the name around;" the actual
man behind the J.A.K. mask who reveals himself more so because we are
reading the book through his eyes and seeing mostly interaction
between he and his family.

--Contradicting to cynical Jack is Murray--professor of pop culture and
Elvis. But how contradictory are these two?

--All of Jack's ex-wifes are connected with spying and have bony body
structures.

--Jack's present wife, Babette, is vuluptous and truthfull; these are the
two best qualities, according to Jack, that Babette possesses.

--Heinrich, Jack's 14 year old son, is so far the only true intellectual
in the book. The class all seemed to enjoy this character.

--Wilder, Baba's 2 year old son, is the opposite of Heinrich; Wilder is
used to portray strong emotions. Nordquist told us to note where Wilder
ends up at the end of the book.

--Many references towards television and radio are made in the book,
including various quotes from these "white noises" durring different
scenes in the book.

We disscussed these topics as well as the incident where Old Man
Treadwell and Sister Herman Marie were stranded in a cookie
shack--the entire class found this quite amusing. Then, we watched a
5 min recording of various commercials and T.V. shows, (obviously
taped at 2 in the morning), that Nordquist had prepared and attempted
to anylize the images and search for patterns and connections between
the different images. We found a pattern: problem, solution,
problem, solution,.... This pattern was present throughout the
entire taping. Dr. Nordquist challenged us for over the weekend to
step outside ourselves and watch ourselves watching T.V. Does
American consumerism effect us more than we realize?

PREVIEW: 7 November 2002 (Thursday)
--Published in 1985, Don DeLillo's White Noise includes a verbal duel (or duet) of sorts between the Professor of Hitler Studies and the would-be Professor of Elvis Studies (pp. 70-74).  In 2000, Time magazine invited readers to submit nominations for the "Person of the Century"--"that person who, for better or worse, most influenced the course of history over the past 100 years."  Yitzhak Rabin came in at number two on the readers' poll: check out who came in at numbers one and three.  What is this connection between Elvis and Hitler?  Purely optional: Today's word is simulacrum.   This week's films are Pleasantville and The Truman Show (both remakes, of course, of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave").
--Before today's class, in addition to reviewing your classmates' Discussion Questions on White Noise, please check out the "Topics for Discussion" at the end of our text (pp. 517-524).  (If you have time, also have a look at the White Noise book discussion questions at this Manitowac Library site.)
--Purely optional: See "the most photographed barn in America."  See "the most photographed barn in America."  See "the most photographed barn in America."  See "America's most photographed barn."  See "America's most photographed barn."  See this note from Don DeLillo on White Noise. See "The Most Photographed View Anywhere."   e

POSTSCRIPT: 31 October 2002 (Thursday)
--Notes from Rebecca:

-- In the spirit of Rebecca's quotation from Heinlein, here are a few other brief (and purely optional) postscripts to our discussion today:
-  Education n. : That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding."  (Ambrose Bierce, Cynic's Word Book);
- "Real education must ultimately be limited to those who insist on knowing; the rest is mere sheep-herding."  (Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading);
- "Habitualization devours work, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war. . . . And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things. . . . The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception."  (Victor Shklovsky, quoted in "Reflections on the Liberal Arts," by Steven C. Scheer;
-  "The Purpose of Education," by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1948);
- "Enjoy every sandwich."  (Warren Zevon, 10/30/02).

PREVIEW: 31 October 2002 (Thursday--costumes optional)
Before today's class, if you have time after reading Mark Edmundson's article ("On the Uses of a Liberal Education"), you might find it interesting to consider some responses to the article from students in an English class at Iona College.  Do you find yourself agreeing--or disagreeing--with any of these students?  (Btw, a so-called "Branding Committee" at Armstrong Atlantic has recently contributed the slogan for a new marketing campaign: "Learn Today, Lead Tomorrow"--which also happens to be the slogan of the Arizona Teenage Republicans, Alameda Elementary School, and the Phillipine National Police Academy.)  If you're in the mood for a fight (again, this is purely optional), have a look at this article by Michael O'Donovan-Anderson titled, contentiously, "Why Have Today's Students Become a Bunch of Grade-Grubbing Morons?"   Do you think this article is just another example of a grouchy, middle-aged fart (a sort of academic Old Man Warner) complaining about "today's students"?  Or is there something to this notion of "The Big Lie"?  We'll have some guests joining us for today's discussion.

POSTSCRIPT: 29 October 2002 (Tuesday)
-- Notes from Tim:

The first part of class was spent briefly discussing college:
-College was originally intended primarily for aristocrats and teachers
-After WW II more and more men and women flooded to college (GI Bill)
-Are colleges too generalized or is that generalization valuable?
-Is specialization more valuable than a rounded education?
-Are students at college to actually learn and be educated, or instead
to earn credits and earn a piece of paper?
-Finally there are other ways to round out your education besides
school (e.g. books, discussion, etc.).

Next we all got a little advice on writing papers from the master Dr.
Nordquist:
-Not all critical papers need to be (intellectually) neat
-Sometimes the best papers raise questions instead of answering
them
-A paper doesn't have to end tied up as a package with a nice bow: in other
words, a good critical essay explores a text but doesn't presume to exhaust
its meanings.

Finally, as a class we read and discussed "Miss Brill" by Katherine
Mansfield:
-Miss Brill seems to be superficial and very conscious of detail
-she is happy because of the little things in life
-in the story she is in France, but she is likely British
-lives a sort of depressing life by inventing stories for everything she
seems to come across
-the couple on the bench where she sits takes away her invisible
quality
-all of a sudden she realizes she is a part of the world spinning
beneath her, just like everyone else around her
-as soon as she feels acceptance she leaves with a feeling of ridicule

PREVIEW: 29 October 2002 (Tuesday)
-- In the first part of class we'll return to a few of the stories that we were looking at two weeks ago: Hawthorne's "The Ambitious Guest," Mansfield's "The Child Who-Was-Tired," and Chekhov's "Sleepy" (also known as "Sleepy-Eye").
-- Then we'll begin our discussion of "Liberal Arts and Liberal Education." Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is an excerpt from Book Seven ofThe Republic; Professor Cohen has provided an illustration of Plato's cave (see also Simone's cave); here are a few discussion questions.   Btw, this online version of Cronon's "Only Connect: The Goals of a Liberal Education" may be easier to read than the version handed out in class last Thursday. 

POSTSCRIPT: 24 October 2002 (Thursday)
--In today's discussion of Sula , after tracing the family trees of the Sabat/Wright and Peace families, we identified some of the images in Toni Morrison's novel that we found most memorable (and/or troubling), considered the significance of the novel's setting(s) and the functions served by various secondary characters, examined a variety of issues and themes evoked by our careful reading of the novel, and, finally, focused on the novel as a social parable, reflecting the evolving conditions of African-Americans from 1916 to 1965.
--Rena reported eloquently on the legendary character of Ajax (confused by Sula with the character of Albert Jacks, pp. 135-37).
--Several characters in Morrison's novel have names with biblical derivations (many are identified in this "log assignment").
--Among the images examined today were the contrasting houses of Nel and Sula (p. 29); the burning of Plum (pp. 46-48); the silent spontaneous ritual carried out by Sula and Nel on the river bank (pp. 58-59); the flinging of Chicken Little into the river (pp. 60-61); Sula's visit to Shadrack's house (p. 61); Eva's dive out of the window, missing the flaming Hannah by twelve feet (pp. 75-76); Sula's deathbed scene (pp. 148-49); the deaths in the tunnel on National Suicide Day (pp. 160-162); and Nel's visit to the cemetery (pp. 173-74).
--Morrison's work has been placed in the tradition of magic realism (see the stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, studied earlier in the term): "Like her Latin American colleagues, her work is almost epic in scope, chronicling as it does the history of a people over five decades, for it begins in medias res and then looks back to the antebellum period when the first blacks settled in the area that was to be known as Medallion. This small Ohio town and the three generations of the Peace matriarchy that inhabit the house at 7 Carpenter's Road write in microcosm the struggle of the African-American down from the bottom, thus critiquing the myth of the American dream, the legend of 'up from slavery.'  In addition, faithful to the dictates of the genre, Morrison paints the small town landscape, portrays almost every African-American character, represents linguist and cultural idiosyncrasies with an almost surreal/super-real clarity; and yet at the core of this descriptive fidelity is the incongruent, the illogical, the intuitive, the magical."
--Among the themes considered in Sula were those of deception and false promises (the old  "appearance vs. reality" theme--beginning with the "nigger joke" of the Bottom itself), scapegoating (as first Hannah and then Sula are used as scapegoats by the towns people), the disempowerment of African-American males (from Boy Boy to Ajax), the nature of female friendships (including the possible interpretation of Nel and Sula's adolescent  relationship as a lesbian one), and the contaminating power of racism (so that even the victims of racist attitudes may be influenced by those attitudes--as Rena observed).
--Unfortunately, some of the links to Sula-related articles on our RESOURCES page have already gone dead.  However, additional information about Morrison and her second novel can be found at the Sula web site, created for the Oakland Unified School District.  Brief descriptions of Morrison's other novels appear online at this African American Literature Book Club site.
--At the end of class, we agreed to identify a particular passage in Sula (distinct from the images discussed today in class) and (in an e-mail sent to Nordquist by Sunday evening) comment concisely on the significance of the language and our response to the meaning of that passage. 

PREVIEW: 24 October 2002 (Thursday)
-- We'll continue our discussion of Sula.

NOTES ARCHIVES
archive 6 (Oct. 24 - Nov. 14)
archive 5 (Oct. 15 - Oct. 24)
archive 4 (Oct. 3 - Oct. 8)
archive 3 (Sep. 24 - Oct. 1)
archive 2 (Sep. 5 - 19)
archive 1 (Aug. 20 - Sep. 3)

English 2100H is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
University Hall 297D
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991
e-mail: nordqudi@mail.armstrong.edu           

 
14 November 2002

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