White Noise: (Penguin Orange Collection)NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • An “eerie, brilliant, and touching” (The New York Times) modern classic about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology. “Tremendously funny . . . A stunning performance from one of our most intelligent novelists.”—The New Republic The inspiration for the award-winning major motion picture starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig Jack Gladney teaches Hitler Studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in “American magic and dread.” Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an “airborne toxic event” unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the “white noise” engulfing the Gladney family—radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings—pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous. Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 5 |
Section 3 | 9 |
Section 4 | 14 |
Section 5 | 22 |
Section 6 | 27 |
Section 7 | 31 |
Section 8 | 35 |
Section 18 | 98 |
Section 19 | 159 |
Section 20 | 170 |
Section 21 | 175 |
Section 22 | 181 |
Section 23 | 194 |
Section 24 | 202 |
Section 25 | 209 |
Section 9 | 41 |
Section 10 | 54 |
Section 11 | 59 |
Section 12 | 61 |
Section 13 | 70 |
Section 14 | 75 |
Section 15 | 80 |
Section 16 | 85 |
Section 17 | 94 |
Section 26 | 213 |
Section 27 | 220 |
Section 28 | 226 |
Section 29 | 245 |
Section 30 | 251 |
Section 31 | 282 |
Section 32 | 290 |
Section 33 | 306 |
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Common terms and phrases
aisle ambulettes arms Attila the Hun Baba Babette began believe body called cloud crash crowd crying dark dead death Denise doctor DON DELILLO door drove Dylar edge entered eyes face fear feel felt führerbunker German Glassboro Grappa Gray hair hand happen head Heinrich Hitler Iron City Jack kids kind kitchen knew Lasher light listen live looked Mein Kampf mind Mink motel mother moved movie Murray Mylex night noise numbers Nyodene Orest person radio running seemed sense Shroud of Turin snow someone sound speak spoke station wagons Steffie stood street supermarket sweatsuit tablets talk tell There's things thought told took town toxic event Treadwell trying turned voice waiting walked watched wear White Noise Wilder window woman women wonder words Zumwalt