Don Delillos White Noise TV Reality
... The media and pop-culture is portrayed in White Noise as an avenue for humans to hide from reality---from who we are. ... In order for his life to seem significant, Jack creates his own reality based on pop culture. ... Rather than living a “real“ life, the characters in White Noise exist in a media-construed sitcom. In Jack’s reality, the black cloud of Nyocene D won‘t hurt them, his wife is endlessly happy and keeps no secrets; Jack doesn’t expect life to be anything more than what is scripted and expected. ... Did you ever see a college professor rowing a boat down his own street in one of those TV floods? ... These things don‘t happen in places like Blacksmith. (115)" And thus according to Jack, life‘s limits are defined by what is seen on TV. If something happens a certain way on TV, then that is also the way that life will happen. TV is reality. Yet the illusion of security and control that TV and pop culture lends slowly begins to break down in DeLillo’s novel.