n focusing his lens on Mink, his vision clears in vivid detail, and Mink’s features are easily ascertainable. And then, for Gladney, the white noise sets in; the connection in his mind becomes loosed and all that is left is mind-numbing static. Other examples of DeLillo’s television language in this scene are as follows: “Things glowed, a secret life rising out of them … The intensity of the noise in the room was the same at all frequencies … I was in the network of meanings … [I] saw it in terms of the dominant wavelength … something large and grand and scenic” [Italics mine] (311-4). Both Jack and Mink are protected from the act of violence due to language of DeLillo. One cannot really kill or be killed in the safe realm provided by television and consequently DeLillo’s words. Instead of a grotesque and disillusioning blood bath, Jack experiences an epiphany as a thrill-seeking murderer and as a savior. In that same realm, Mink finds salvation as a repentant and punished sinner. On television and in the novel, harmlessness always prevails.By coding his novel, White Noise, as if it were a television show, DeLillo comments on the state of affairs in our modern culture. DeLillo demonstrates our society’s codependency on what was originally only intended to be a medium of communication. By showing the benevolence of the medium as it translates into the lives of his characters, DeLillo is saying that maybe our dependence on television, even as blood bath entertainment is not as bad as generally perceived. ...
