1 DeLillo 3

2 Surface and Depth The characters of White Noise continually search for depths in apparently superficial places. P 50: TV is “close to mystical.”

Toyota Celica P 148-9 Even when Jack becomes aware that his daughter's words are “Toyota Celica,” he still think that they have sacred and 'ritual' meaning. Even in modernity, myth persists.

Sacred Commodities It is not merely that Jack happens to find commodities sacred. In WN, commodites are the source of the sacred, of ritual, and meaning.

5 Diasasters and Class Jack does not believe that he is vulnerable because of his class position. Jack is part of the dominant class, and he knows it. P 112

6 The End of History? Jack does not believe that he lives in an historical moment. History happens in other places, in other times—but not in middle class, suburban USA Francis Fukuyama

7 Disaster as history The disaster threatens to cut through this attitude. P 118-9.

Media and Disaster P 155: The Airborne Toxic Event does not make the news. Compare P 152 What does this say about news? And why are they so keen for news coverage?

9 Symptoms Are the symptoms experienced by Steffie real? P 122.

1010 The Sublime In Kant's The Critique of Judgement, the sublime is a natural event which is so vast and powerful as to exceed our attempts to understand it (the stars, the planets, the ocean, Niagara Falls). But in White Noise, this event is technological P 124

Technology In White Noise, even death is mediated by technology. 1111 Technology In White Noise, even death is mediated by technology. What does this mean for nature? Does nature exist? Or is everything always already technological? P 136-7 P 162

Education and Knowledge Knowledge has the status of misremembered and unimportant facts P 168. Education merely transmits facts—cf Freire's “banking concept” of education. What is knowledge? What is education?