A definitive collection of stories from the unrivaled master of twentieth-century horror in a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition with cover art by Travis Louie Pero nos encontramos más a gusto protegidos por el ensordecedor ruido de fondo que nos impide oír lo que no queremos escuchar. Esa marea de productos y de información que ahoga nuestros sentidos no es sino una espesa cortina tras la que ocultar la angustia que nos produce nuestra mortalidad, siempre al acecho. Aunque quizá la propia muerte es ruido de fondo absoluto, un estado de eterna indefinición. En todo caso, ¿significa eso que el miedo a morir está justificado o que, por el contrario, no hay nada que temer? What if death is nothing but sound....electrical noise….you hear it forever…sound all around…uniform, white.” Desde aquel infausto día a principios del siglo XX en que a un humilde emigrante judío de origen austriaco afincado en los Estados Unidos llamado Edward Bernays se le ocurrió aplicar las novedosas teorías de su tío —un tal Freud— al mundo de la publicidad, el consumismo se ha convertido en rasgo principal de la sociedad occidental.

The compere senses the arrival of Southpaw’s opponent and looks nervously at Jav. He lifts the microphone to his lips… Deadly Don (speaking over his shoulder on the way to his corner): Can you hear them now? The networks, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies. Si todo es falso, si es imposible conocer la verdad, y además nos da pavor descubrirla y que se trate de una revelación terrible, solo nos queda conectar los puntos —acontecimientos, imágenes, fechas, datos aleatorios— con la esperanza de que aparezca un dibujo que desvele el sentido, si no de la vida, al menos de la información con que nos bombardean los medios. Do you want to know why this is one of the most important books of the 20th century? Because it's a good example of the postmodern simulacra, absurdist philosophy that plagued the latter half of the 20th century and still plagues us today. I felt bleak and empty for several days after reading this book, and I'm still recovering. To become a crowd is to keep out death. To break off from a crowd is to risk death as an individual, to face dying alone. Crowds came for this reason above all others. They were there to be a crowd.’If you need help in deciding, read White Noise. It is about death, the fear of dying, the meaningless white noise in our lives. And Hitler. What ‘White Noise’ tells me is that I have to begin reading DeLillo pre-‘Underworld’ to understand him better. And that writers are not obligated to write anything to necessarily please (or placate) their readers. DeLillo has been remarkably steadfast and uncompromising in following and being true to his Muse. Starkey recognized, too, a truth that has always lain at the center of Miller’s own approach to theater and the public world it shadows: A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America’s most enduring authors, in a commemorative hardcover edition

There is an "airborne toxic event" caused by a train accident that forces the Gladneys to evacuate their home for a short period. According to the book flap, this was supposed to be a central event in the novel, but this novel has no center. It just sort of meanders on, a supposdedly razor-sharp satire of our consumer-driven culture. Nor was the parallel a product of Miller’s fanciful imagination. In 1948 Congressman George A. Dondero, in the House debate on the Mundt-Nixon bill, to “protect the United States against Un-American and subversive activities,” observed that “the world is dividing into two camps, freedom versus Communism, Christian civilization versus paganism.” More directly Judge Irving Kaufman, who presided over the Rosenberg espionage trial in 1951, accused those before him of “diabolical conspiracy” and “denial of God.” Interestingly, on the night the Rosenbergs were executed, the cast and audience of The Crucible stood in silence as a gesture of respect.

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My hesitation with reviewing this book comes from the inevitable fear that I've missed the entire point. This book is well-regarded and has been well-reviewed. Maybe I'm what's wrong, and not White Noise. Considering it was written by the Great DeLillo, this is quite possible. I think I do get it, though. It's a postmodern critique of our culture, with freshman philosophy masquerading as deep insight. For Classroom Study: Visit Penguin Random House Education to search for our newest Penguin Classics or dive deeper into our catalogs.