Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Judit Ágnes Kádár: 'Kleenex-View' and Cultural Devaluation: Merchandise as Ontology in Don DeLillo's White Noise (1985)

society. The family members hear the news about the toxic cloud from the radio there in the kitchen, too, and decide what to believe and how to react. The dinner table is the place where they talk to the kids and discuss family matters as well, presenting a confusion of the private and the social spheres. The switch from the kitchen-setting to Murray's home is quick: here we find a room which is 'a container of thought' next to an insane asylum, which is expected to give strange noises... Murray is engaged in his communication theory referred to above. Both the supermarket and the suburban kitchen scene stand for the notion of conformism. I believe that the original idea of conformism apparently got loaded with negative connotations. Texts like DeLillo's writing criticize manipulation strategies in a satirical voice and focus on standardized man ('massive nothing'); the standardized environment ('suburbia'); or routine activities (senseless and emptiedout social reflexes, e.g. when Babette reads, because the old fellow needs his 'weekly dose of culture myths'). "We moved into the generic food area... (36)" says our narrator-guide and starts his list of language and culture trash: bins, filmy bags, machines, nameless systems, roars and cries, altogether WHITE NOISE in Supermarketterms stressing the superficial order of all things around them, the chaos and unnaturalness as dehumanizing forces. Here 'merchandise as ontology' is explained through the idea: "Here we don't die, we shop (36)." Then a superficial dialogue follows that leaves us in suspicious again: Baba is discovered to use a drug that has sideeffects. From this point we can't help searching for underlying reasons for that and it enables the reader 'to see double': to see the causes and effects together. We learn that all the family members have some kind of escapist redirection activity as a defense against outside forces, for instance Baba taking drugs; the ex-wife at the ashram; Denise and the green visor which offers her "wholeness and identity (7);" Heinrich and the chess party; Jack wearing a black gown on campus; and even Wilder, the defenseless innocent little kid, who cries for hours. These self-defense strategies provide them with a 'Kleenex-view' of the world similarly to the paperback books on the shelves of the supermarket that suggest made-up stories about cult mysteries and heroes. The end of the novel underlines this idea: "The tales of the 193