(41) Arnold Weinstein, Nobody's Home. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press 1993, p. 298 (my italics). BACK
(42) Don DeLillo, White Noise. New York: Penguin 1986, p. 50. Again, all page references are given in parenthesis behind the quoted passages. BACK
(43) Weinstein, p. 299. BACK
(44) cf. Weinstein. p. 298. BACK
(45) Weinstein, p. 298. BACK
(46) All quotes from Tom LeClair, "Interview with Don DeLillo". In: Tom LeClair/Larry McCaffery (ed.): Anything Can Happen. Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983, p. 79-90. Here p. 87. BACK
(47) Examples: p. 18, 28, 29, 56, 61, 95, 96, 178. BACK
(48) Regarding the lack of explanations as to the nature of the airborne toxic event in the media Jack remarks: "Air time is valuable. They can't go into long tortured descriptions." (p. 111) BACK
(49) The ambiguous ontological status of Babette's televisual image is further explored in chapter 3.2.2, the importance of outer appearance for a semblance of authority is investigated in more detail in chapter 3.2.3. BACK
(50) cf. Sklovskij, p. 15: "Tolstoj gebraucht immer wieder die Methode der Verfremdung. In einem der Fälle werden die Ereignisse von einem Pferd erzählt und die Dinge nicht durch unsere Wahrnehmung, sondern durch die des Pferdes verfremdet." BACK
(51) Weinstein, p. 300. BACK
(52) Simmons, p. 46. BACK
(53) Martin Klepper, Pynchon, Auster, DeLillo. Die amerikanische Postmoderne zwischen Spiel und Rekonstruktion. Frankfurt/New York: Campus 1996, p. 322. BACK
(54) ibid. BACK
(55) John Frow, "The Last Things Before the Last: Notes on White Noise". In: Frank Lentricchia (ed.): Introducing Don DeLillo. Durham and London: Duke University Press 1991, p. 175-191. Here p. 179. BACK
(56) cf. Klepper, p. 323. BACK
(57) ibid. BACK
(58) Again Sklovskij's remarks on colloquial language are useful here as it works in the same manner as TV. Like colloquial language, TV tries to express the most with the least effort, i.e. to address the most people in the shortest time. The smallest common denominators have to be found to entertain and inform very different people. This leads to the development of a fine grid of typicalizations: stock figures and explanations for complex events (e.g. "faulty wiring", "death through smoke inhalation" in the case of a fire), simple structures for shows and movies. BACK
(59) N. H. Reeve/Richard Kerridge, "Toxic Events: Postmodernism and DeLillo's White Noise". The Cambridge Quarterly 23:4 (1994), p. 303-323. Here p. 311. BACK
(60) Reeve/Kerridge, p. 311. BACK
(61) ibid. BACK
(62) ibid. BACK
(63) Simmons, p. 60. BACK
(64) Other important examples are discussed in other chapters: Heinrich's speech on the effects of Nyodene D. in chapter 3.2.3, and the wordy "showdown" between Jack and Willie Mink in chapter 3.1.2. BACK
(65) Klepper, p. 325. BACK
(66) From: dtv-Lexikon. München 1976. BACK
(67) Examples: pp. 125, 133, 151, 162. BACK
(68) Reeve/Kerridge, p. 321. BACK
(69) Klepper, p. 361. BACK