I found Don DeLillo’s list for other possible titles of White Noise to be extremely interesting. Although I do enjoy White Noise as a title for the book and I agree with DeLillo that it was the best choice, I thought there were several other possible titles that would have been a good fit as well. I also think that having access to this list allows readers to get a better understanding of where DeLillo’s focus was when he wrote the book, as well as certain themes that he wanted to be emphasized. I also found the “handwritten” and “circled” labels to be very interesting — it was as though we were seeing the “finalists” for the titles (the ones that were circled), as well as which ones were immediately eliminated, which would be the ones that were crossed out (the only one being Donald Duck).
The first possible title that stood out to me was Dying Words. The reason this title caught my eye was because of the several conversations that took place between Jack and Babette that addressed death and dying and who would die first. It seemed like a constant battle between the two of them, even though they were not always being honest about their feelings. It also seemed that death surrounded them constantly, be it Jack being informed that he was destined to die due to exposure, Babette’s immense fear of death, or Steffie’s constant urge to recreate death through bizarre simulations. The fact that death was a constant topic of conversation throughout the novel would make Dying Words a strong choice for the title, in my opinion.
Another possible title that caught my eye was Dylar. I felt that although Dylar and the effects it had on Babette and the rest of the family was such a strong theme throughout the novel, it does not stand out as much as it should. It seemed that Dylar caused a significant amount of problems between Jack and Babette in many ways, making it one of the most important parts of the book. I thought it would have been interesting to see if readers would have been more focused on the drug had it been the title, rather than on the airborne toxic event, which was obviously made more prominent by the title.
The last possible title that stood out to me was The Airborne Toxic Event, for many of the same reasons that Dylar did. Because the entire book was about the actual toxic event, this title would be very fitting as well.