Ambient and Out-of-Nowhere Comments in Don DeLillo’s “White Noise”

In my previous post I discussed two rhetorical figures, congeries and pysma, in Don DeLillo’s White Noise. In this post I want to look at another rhetorical figure in White Noise—a figure that (so far as I know) has never been named. Sometimes a writer will invent and deploy a figure for a specific purpose; such a specialized figure is unlikely to become common, so there would be little point in naming and listing such a device in a handbook. In White Noise I find such a figure, which I will call Irrelevant Intrusive Comment. This device has two subtypes, Ambient Comments and Out-of-Nowhere Comments, though there is some overlap.

In an Ambient Comment the text includes a bit of ambient speech, often something overheard by the narrator, with no connection to whatever is going on. In the following example, the narrator of the novel, Jack Gladney, is learning German because he is hosting an academic conference on Hitler Studies:

            “Later I sat up in bed in my bathrobe, studying German. I muttered words to myself and wondered whether I’d be able to restrict my German-speaking at the spring conference to brief opening remarks or whether the other participants would expect the language to be used throughout, in lectures, at meals, in small talk, as a mark of our seriousness, our uniqueness in world scholarship.
            “The TV said: ‘And other trends that could dramatically impact your portfolio.’”
            Denise came in and sprawled across the foot of the bed, her head resting on her folded arms, facing away from me.” (p. 61)

Here’s another example:

“Some of the other people were in the kitchen preparing the meal, some had gone upstairs to investigate their gifts in private. The TV said: ‘This creature has developed a complicated stomach in keeping with its leafy diet.’” (p. 95)

And another:

            ‘The mild rebuke made her happy. She liked me best when I was dry, derisive and cutting, a natural talent she believed I’d forfeited through long association with children.
            “The TV said: ‘Now we will put the little feelers on the butterfly.’” (p. 96)

And another:

            “Her voice broke when she said these words. She raised the comforter over her head. I could only stare at the hilly terrain. A man on talk radio said, ‘I was getting mixed messages about my sexuality.’ I stroked her head and body over the quilted bedspread.” (p. 201)

I count about twenty of these Ambient Comments. I suppose they represent the constant stream of meaningless chatter that surrounds us, especially from the radio and television. In the following passage Jack and his son Heinrich and Heinrich’s friend Orest are talking about Orest’s plan to sit in a cage filled with poisonous snakes; Jack says that snakes are slimy, but Heinrich corrects him:

            “‘The famous sliminess is a myth,’ Heinrich said. ‘He’s getting into a cage with Gabon vipers with two-inch fangs. Maybe a dozen mambas. The mamba happens to be the fastest -moving land snake in the world. Isn’t sliminess a little besides the point?’

            “‘That’s my argument exactly. Fangs. Snakebite. Fifty thousand people a year die of snakebite. It was on television last night.’

            “‘Everything was on television last night,’ Orest said.” (268)

Everything and nothing.

Ambient Comments are overheard by the narrator, but Out-of-Nowhere Comments are just dropped into the text with no explanation. Here’s an example:

            “It was drizzling as we walked home, my arm around her waist. The streets were empty. Along Elm all the stores were dark, the two banks were dimly lit, the neon spectacles in the window of the optical shop cast a gimmicky light on the sidewalk.
            “Dacron, Orlon, Lycra Spandex.
            “‘I know I forget things,’ she said, ‘but I didn’t know it was so obvious.’” (p. 52)

There’s no sense here that the narrator speaks or hears the words “Dacron, Orlon, Lycra Spandex.” They just come out of nowhere, with no connection to anything that’s going on in the story. Are we even sure that they should be attributed to the narrator? Perhaps the person responsible for these words is the author rather than the narrator. I don’t know, and I don’t know how one would decide.

It’s worth looking at what kinds of words appear in these intrusive comments. Here’s a partial list: Kleenex Softique (39); Toyota Celica (155); Dristan Ultra (167); leaded, unleaded, super unleaded (199); Clorets, Velamints, Freedent (229); Panasonic (241); and so on. Most of these are brand names, or other markers of consumer products, but some reference other aspects of our culture: “Random Access Memory, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Mutual Assured Destruction.” (303)

I class Ambient Comments and Out-of-Nowhere Comments as two varieties of Irrelevant Intrusive Comments: an Ambient Comment is overheard, while an Out-of-Nowhere Comment is simply inserted into the text. A few instances seem to combine the two types:

“I sat on the front steps alone, waiting for a sense of ease and peace to settle in the air around me.
            “A woman passing on the street said, ‘A decongestant, an antihistamine, a cough suppressant, a pain reliever.’” (262; see also pp. 36 and 39.)

This comment seems to come from an advertisement; it is ambient, but it could have come out of nowhere.

Most Irrelevant Intrusive Comments of both types are short, usually a sentence or a sentence fragment, but a few are longer. This paragraph comes at the very beginning of Chapter 31, with nothing to link it to anything that is happening or to anything anyone is saying:

“Did you remember: 1) to make out your check to Waveform Dynamics? 2) to write your account number on your check? 3) to sign your check? 4) to send payment in full, as we do not accept partial payment? 5) to enclose your original payment document, not a reproduced copy? 6) to enclose your document in such a way that the address appears in the window? 7) to detach the green portion of your document along the dotted line to retain in your records? 8) to supply your correct address and zip code? 9) to inform us at least three weeks before you plan to move? 10) to secure the envelope flap? 11) to place a stamp on the envelope, as the post office will not deliver without postage? 12) to mail the envelope at least three days before the date entered in the blue box?” (213)

This paragraph is then followed by four fragments, all in caps and centered in the line:

“CABLE HEALTH. CABLE WEATHER. CABLE NEWS. CABLE NATURE”

There is a similar extended irrelevant paragraph at the very end of Chapter 37: “PLEASE NOTE: In several days your new automated banking card will arrive in the mail. If it is a red card with a silver stripe, your secret code will be the same as it is now.” And so on, ending : “Reveal your code to no one. Only your code allows you to enter the system.” (294–95)

Irrelevant Intrusive Comments are a notable feature of White Noise. I have never seen anything similar elsewhere; DeLillo seems to have invented them just for this novel. I don’t think they are hard to understand, though it may be difficult to put an interpretation into words. Part of the point of literature is to find verbal forms to convey meanings which cannot be expressed directly. Translation of literary meaning into the statement of “themes” often feels insufficient or even false to the subtlety of the meanings. With that qualification I will do my best to indicate some of the meaning of these Irrelevant Intrusive Comments.

First, I would suggest that many of these comments are funny. White Noise is a very funny book, at least in a rather dark ironic manner, and these comments are part of the humour. Sometimes we take literature too seriously. Second, some of these comments, especially the Out-of-Nowhere brand names, are related to DeLillo’s critique of consumer culture. We find this critique also in many of the congeries. Third, the Ambient Comments represent and bring into our awareness the constant chatter of disconnected and fragmentary language which surrounds us. But ultimately literary meaning defeats paraphrase. That’s why literature matters. If we could translate novels into propositions, we could just keep the propositions and throw the novels away.