Technology & Alienation in White Noise
Techn
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Technology, as a means toward the reduction of certain kinds of human labor and effort, can either benefit or damage human beings, depending upon such conditions as the degree to which technology itself is controlled and harnessed to positive ends and outcomes and the extent to which technology serves rather than dominates human endeavor. To explore this thesis û that technology is both a boon and a potential source of dread, and that various factors that may be beyond the control of individuals determine which effect technology will produce û this essay will draw upon a novel written and published in 1985 by Don DeLillo titled White Noise. The novel depicts, in brief, the events taking place in the life of a university scholar and his family and friends in the aftermath of a lethal black chemical cloud (an ôairborne toxic eventö) that signals the coming dominance of the ôwhite noiseö produced by electronic machines and technologies. In White Noise, Don DeLillo (p. 325) paints a picture of technology gone mad, leading his protagonist to say that he is ôàafraid of the imaging block. Afraid of its magnetic fields, its computerized nuclear pulse. Afraid of what it knows about me.ö The world described by the author embraces technology as a benefit in terms of what it can assist man in accomplishing, but also as a ôdaily seeping falsehearted death (p. 22). The definition of technology thus presented in the novel is not a positive one; despite the fact that the prota
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humans. Mainly it was rats growing urgent lumps (p. 311).ö In this instance, it is perfectly clear that technology for its own sake has taken over manÆs rational thought processes and created a product that is capable of destroying human life or damaging it in a manner that cannot be repaired.
The ôblack billowing cloudö formerly known as a ôfeathery plumeö is the visible harbinger of the doom that descends on the residents of Blacksmith, the college community in which the novel is set. The transformation of a plume into a cloud is an example of processing û a system by means of which one thing is transformed into something different. There are numerous examples of processing in the novel. For example, one of GladneyÆs earlier wives is a contract operative for the CIA. She goes to work when she ôgets a phone call from Brazil. That activates her (p. 48).ö
Other forms or processing occur automatically, as in the case of computer generated marketing surveys ôaimed at determining current levels of consumer desire (p. 48).ö Such intrusions into the lives of people are taken for granted and accepted as part of being connected to the world through an electronic medium. Information obtained from such surveys is ôproces
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2359
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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