The American Book Of The Dead | Simulacra And Simulation | Tout Va Bien

A few thoughts

The book and film are deep dives on Baudrillard's ideas on simulacra and simulation, "the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture and media involved in constructing an understanding of shared existence."

Baudrillard’s ideas on simulacrum are threaded throughout the film, but they truly erupt when a toxic airbourne event is handled by SIMUVAC, who are using the catastrophe as a simulation to see how well they perform. You don't need to be versed in '60s era French philosophy to enjoy the film, but it helps. The absurdity of the world DeLillo (and Baumbach) creates is recognizable as a satire, whether or not you have read all the prerequisites.

White Noise can be seen as a highly academic exercise in illustrating the ideas of Baudrillard, Adorno, Foucault, Derrida, Barthes, semiotics, structuralism, post-structuralism, and a whole host of other college seminar subjects. It does, after all, take place at a college called "College On The Hill," a signifier containing the signified, so as to construct a humorous redundancy.

The movie is a successful interpretation of the book and adds aspects that are not possible in literature. There is a sense of timing that only movies can provide. There is also the spectacle of the imagery. Adam Driver stands beneath an ominous black cloud as a Shell Oil sign shines through the blackness like a haunted moon. There are also passages in the book that do not translate well into imagery. One of my favourite parts of the book is when the main character goes to see The Most Photographed Barn in America. He discusses with a friend how no one can see the barn now that it has become The Most Photographed Barn in America. It has become a hollow icon that can no longer be seen for what it is. He looks at the assembled crowd of tourists and says, "They are taking pictures of pictures."

Just as the book does, the film transforms about halfway through and becomes something closer to a thriller. It's an awkward transition where laughter gives way to tension, but it is an opportunity to peek behind the spectacle of consumerism and signs and see the gritty fears that drive us all. Although it never occurred to me when reading the book, the movie caused me to think about Woody Allen's films. Allen translates the harsh existential angst he saw in Bergman's films into something more personal and contemporary, people obsessed with death and addicted to the only distraction that helps: sex. In White Noise noise: tv and shopping and drugs.

DeLillo’s main character is equally obsessed with death, but instead of seeking escape through sex, he seeks a kind of intellectual ecstasy by decoding pop culture and imbuing it with transcendent meaning. He and his wife are desperately seeking salvation in the splashy, multi-colored fantasies of consumerism, capitalism, abundance, and dizzy, Disney-esque happiness. White Noise is not a timeless critique of western culture or capitalism, however, that does not mean it has no relation to where we are now. "The Airborne Toxic Event" which causes emergency evacuations, lockdowns, and mask-wearing in the film has obvious resonance with the recent pandemic. There was no internet in 1985, no cell phones, and no Trump, but DeLillo’s insights into the American psyche are still revealing and relevant.

Artificial events (television, commercialization of shopping, any simulated situation) are not considered unreal, but "realer-than real" or "hyperreal". "SIMUVAC", the simulation, replaces the real event. Spectacle replaces Reality (Guy Debord).

The 1980's ushered in a decade of culture industry and one-dimensional experience that supported the status quo by fostering a position of passive consumerism. Image replaced print. By the 1980's the TV became a primal force in the American home. The TV commodified everything. The empirical world of the American household became mixed, mingled and unified with the different worlds projected by the TV; the "real", "empirical" world becomes only one of the various imaginary unreal worlds of the TV. The TV and consumer products were (and still are) real functioning characters, not merely objects, and these characters are destructive.

Reaganism in the 1980s was dominated by Reagan, the actor, and George H.W. Bush, the former CIA director, a coalition that did not promote democracy, but rather led to politico-historical amnesia, and to the claim of the end of history. Pop culture (Elvis) replaced history (Hitler) and television became the new textbook. Television was and still is the Airborne Toxic Event transforming reality into collective cultural myth. revalence of myth in White Noise is not limited to television; the radio and grocery store and shopping mall serve as vast repositories of myth motivated by advertisement.