4016 Fall07 Questions and Discussion 13

From Studyplace

This week's class question:
What is white noise as a metaphor in White Noise? In what way does All in the Family, according to Gitlin, keep things all in the family?

This week's respondent:Beth Donenfeld and Harry Lopez

The motif of white noise in DeLillo’s White Noise is the manifestation of the extreme information overload--a complete immersion in marketing imagery and media stimuli-- that defines the “hyperreality” of postmodernism. For protagonist Jack Gladney, behind this white noise, death lurks menacingly in the background.

In White Noise, we can see the development of some of the ideas we encountered earlier in the semester, specifically:

== Simulacra and the tension between reality and artifice ==

DeLillo takes an archetypal postmodern idea, that “Simulacra” (or simulations) have replaced reality, and applies it throughout White Noise. The most obvious example is the simulated evacuation, SIMUVAC. Even though the “run-through” in chapter 21 is for an actual emergency, SIMUVAC sees it as practice for an actual simulation. Essentially, its status as a simulation takes precedence over its use for a real emergency.

The other primary example of simulacra in White Noise occurs when Jack and Murray visit what signs say is "the most photographed barn" in America. As Murray notes, people pay more attention to the signs than to the actual barn-- they are wrapped in the simulated idea of the barn more than the real barn. Jack laments throughout White Noise that he feels like a fake— because he can’t speak German, for example. But in the barn scene artifice is not necessarily inferior to reality. Murray argues that the barn itself isn’t intrinsically significant. However, the fact that masses of tourists have come to visit gives the place meaning and value. Every time a tourist comes to admire this essentially empty and meaningless structure, he or she adds to the “aura” surrounding the barn. The barn becomes relevant because so many people have invested in the image of the barn.

Murray notes that the observers cannot escape the "aura" of the barn—this object has taken on an aura of authority that controls the observers. Similarly, De Lillo emphasizes throughout White Noise the ways in which the media controls reality-- even to the extreme that people ignore our own senses; take Jack’s daughters, who experience persistent symptoms of Nyodene D exposure only after the radio informs them of what the symptoms are.

“Aura” is a key term in the barn chapter. The term is borrowed from Baudrillard's Simulacrum and Simulation. In this seminal work of postmodern literature, Baudrillard introduces the concept of the Simulacra-- a reproduced simulation that has replaced the original reality. In Baudrillard's most famous example of Simulacra, he argues that Disneyland, a simulated fantasy environment, is somehow more “real" to us than "reality." In White Noise, Murray makes the same point about the barn— the only reason it is the “most photographed barn” is because the signage underlines the "aura" of its being photographed. These signs are Baudrillard’s simulacra: symbols that have come to dictate and even replace reality. The roadside tourists are not able to see the "real" barn anymore-- only the simulated, photographed barn, and this is the barn that is real to them. Baudrillard himself was very much influenced by Marshall McLuhan, especially his theories on the impact of different forms of communication in society.

[edit] In what way does "All in the Family," according to Gitlin, keep things all in the family?

Michael J. Arlen once pointed out… One alluring subtext of Lear’s show (“All in the Family”) was that a family could hold together despite everything pressing on it from outside; the family could encompass the social conflicts that had seemed to be tearing the country apart. In other word the family can looking pass the outside social conflicts and really keep it all in the family.

All in the Family," making its network debut in 1971 was different from previous shows because it social issues into the center of his plots and through these plot development through each episode characters on the show developed. Character development for adult characters was something new because it was usually saved for the younger characters (children) in a family series. This development lead to a character living under the settings of growing social conflicts of the 1960’s and 1970’s (Vietnam war, racism, drugs) started to show up on television something that the sitcoms of the 1950s stayed away from… By the 1970s family-series on TV started to not only show the problems of the world and how it affected the families on TV but also how to cope with… The list of shows that used this type of formula were "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Father Knows Best" to "All in the Family" and "The Jefferson’s"

Gitlin also mentioned how, “… earlier, Norman Lear's archetypal "All in the Family" was unusual among network broadcasts in sometimes ending obliquely, softly, or ironically, on the curvature of a question mark, thus acknowledging that the Bunkers (family in the show “All in the Family”) could not solve a problem whose genesis was outside their household. This was a very big observation because it just gave strength to the fact that sometimes outside conflicts were too big for a small family like the Bunkers to deal with. The family would acknowledge that there was a problem but they did not have the capacity to do something about it… The Bunkers were part of society but their family rules or their family inner circle came first to that of societies circle.

This formula of keeping it all in the family was much more than it seemed because the views expressed on the show not only catered to one point of view but too opposing points of view as well… The idea of a show being on a major television network is to speak simultaneously to a diverse audience. This is easy to do when you have neutral topics but not when talking about race, politics, and social class. According to Gitlin, "All in the Family in 1971 may well have broken through to ratings success precisely because they directly and ingeniously broached the divisive social issues of race and political culture.” “All in the Family,” used two major characters and their difference in generations (not class and power) to fine that common ground for the viewer, older conservatives rooted for Archie, while younger liberals for Mike (Vidmar and Rokeach 1974).

Taking this approach of using characters to cater to all viewers was a great approach but the icing on the cake was the use of comedy. By the use of comedy it somehow enclosed the fact that the show touched upon social and political aspects but according to Gitlin, “The comedy form allowed white racists to indulge themselves in Archie's rationalizations without seeing that the joke was on them.”

Now the symbolic view of how Gitlin expresses that things are kept all in the family is founded on the definition of hegemony. Hegemony is defined as a collaborative system where people collaborate unconsciously. “All in the family” was defined as a show that broke barriers and records because it spoke about social issues, which was not done before, but in reality it was the CEO’s of the networks that saw that there was an audience for this type of entertainment, which in turn converts into dollar signs. So even though barriers were broken according to the types of shows viewed in the 1950’s, it was nothing different than how things have changed from the 1970’s until now… It was all in part of the systematic change that was going on, which was decided by the elite.