Codes and Messages

Spaces resonate with “psychic data” in White Noise. As Murray tells Jack, “Everything is concealed in symbolism, hidden by veils of mystery and layers of cultural material” (37). The psychic data is everywhere, but is it intelligible? In the midst of a busy supermarket, Jack Gladney imagines that there exists “over it all, or under it all, a dull and unlocatable roar, as of some form of swarming life just outside the range of human apprehension” (36). For this week’s blog, spend some time in a similar crowded, noisy space and observe the background hum. And try, as Jack and Murray do, to interpret the “codes and messages” that abound in the mundane.