This blog is an attempt to discuss and to put across some final thoughts about the novel “White Noise” by Don DeLillo. We have discussed and explored many ideas and themes about this fiction work in great detail such as the idea that this novel “is about secret obsessions or the idea that sister Marie is an evil character in the novel”. Regarding the comment of the evil character one of our class mates responded that it is “the symbol of disconnection for not feeling the human emotion.” Indeed we discussed great ideas and the eternal debate of the human soul. I feel that there are many interesting topics or great lines in the novel that we did not talk about due to time issues.
In this blog I would like to write about Don DeLillo’s notebooks from the list of possible titles that in the end he titled it White Noise. We already explored and discussed what the significance of the title is, but I think is very interesting that the Art of dying or a Guide to dying is handwritten in the list. They are not circled probably because of obvious reasons. After all one of the main topics of his novel is about death. On chapter 37 Jack and Murray took a “Socratic walk” where they engage in a series of deep conversations about dying:”I believe, Jack, there are two kinds of people in the world. Killers and diers. Most of us are diers. We don’t have the disposition, the rage or whatever it takes to be a killer” (277), said Murray. I think this philosophical conversation between the two major characters in the novel stand as an illustration or the connective idea that how the novel as a whole is about the “art of dying or a guide to dying.” These possible titles effectively contribute to the creation of Jack’s and Murray’s characters or how each one of them perceived death. For Murray, “most of us are diers”. “We let death happen.”