Psychological Disorders in White Noise

My friend and classmate, Vanessa Bergeron, explores mental disorders in Don Delillo's novel White Noise. She argues that these mental disorders are caused by the rapid tehnological and social changes which took place in the western world in the 1980s. Here is a summary of her essay:

Don Delillo’s novel White Noise, which takes place in the mid-eighties in the fictional Midwestern town of Blacksmith, encapsulates the mental anguish caused by such change, a state for which American writer and futurist philosopher Alvin Toffler has coined the term “future shock.” Delillo has said that his novel “is about fear, death, and technology. A comedy, of course." (This is a great insight into the postmodern Black humour that pervades the novel). “Fear, death, and technology” cause most of the adult characters to suffer from mental disorders. By referring to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association, mental diagnoses can be made of the characters. While technology acts as a gateway to schizophrenic behaviour for Jack, Murray’s concerns about urbanization are reflected in his various sexual disorders. Babette’s fear of death and upcoming loss of her identity as a mother trigger dependence related and amnestic disorders and the mental illness observed in other minor characters help in painting a bigger picture of collective mental illness experienced in adulthood.

             The most obvious mental disorder in White Noise is thanataphobia or fear of death, a phobia which stands at the very basis of the novel’s plot. In fact, white noise refers to Jack and Babette’s theory that death may be “nothing but sound,” an electrical, uniform, white noise that you hear forever and from all directions, a notion they find terrifying.  It also refers to the incomprehensible buzz of advertisements, media outlets, pointless conversations, in short the background noise of postmodern American culture which forms the backdrop of the novel.

 For an overview of these characters, visit this site.

Jack Gladney, the narrator of the novel

Paranoid Schizophrenia, which is characterized by hallucinations and fear of being watched or secretly manipulated by others.

-                                  Hallucinations: he sees floating spots at stressful moments and feels the television and radio are communicating with him

-                                   Fear of being watched/influenced: he feels that television has a “narcotic undertow and eerie diseased brain-sucking power,” “where the outer torment lurks, causing fears and secret desires.”

Murray Siskind, a professor at the College-on-the-Hill, where Jack also teaches

Sexual disorders

              One of the first things Murray tells Jack about himself is that he has run away from urban life so that he could free himself from the “the heat of food and sex”, “sexual entanglements” and “situation,” leaving the reader with the impression that sex is as much a source of torment for him as technological advancement is for Jack.

- Paraphilias is defined as: Any of a group of psychosexual disorders characterized by sexual fantasies, feelings, or activities involving a nonhuman object, a nonconsenting partner such as a child, or pain or humiliation of oneself or one's partner. Also called sexual deviation.

Examples: The way in which Murray is aroused by a woman “wearing stockings”, or by a woman “in spike heels and a slit skirt, with high-impact accessories” demonstrate how, despite his saying that he is mainly attracted to women’s minds, his sexual arousal also highly depends on the presence of certain objects.

- Fetishist = “fetish object is required or strongly preferred for sexual excitement”  

Example: he reads the magazine "American Transvestite," which reveals a transvestite fetishism.

- Necrophilia = sexual arousal stimulated by a dead body

              Example: He tells Jack that some writers he knows only have one topic of conversation: Sex and death. The two are therefore interlinked in his mind. He pays a prostitute to pretend to be choking so that he can perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on her...to act like she’s dying.

           

Babette, Jack's wife

Anxiety disorders caused by thanataphobia and gerascophobia, the  fear of aging

-                                Substance Dependence Disorder: She's addiction to nicotine, caffeine, chewing gum, and call-in radio shows)

-                               Generalized Anxiety Disorder: She says she feels “keyed-up or on the edge.”

-                              Amnestic Disorder = “unable to recall previously learned information, or “new information” 

                Examples: She has “difficulty concentrating without her mind going blank.” She asks “What is...” about common things mentioned in conversation. She tells Jack that she forgets “names, faces, phone numbers, addresses, appointments, instructions, directions.” Other things she forgets: her children’s names, how her children want to be called, she dials a number and forgets who she’s calling, goes to the store and forgets what she came to buy, having to repeatedly ask the same information.  She says, “I forget where I’ve parked the car and then for a long, long moment I forget what the car looks like.”

           

Minor characters

Tweedy, one of Jack's ex-wives.

                Hypochondriac: she wears gloves, eyeshades and socks because she believes that sunlight, air, food, water, and sex are all carcinogenic

                Shared Psychotic Disorder: She shares Jack’s schizophrenic tendencies. 

Dunlop, Jack's German teacher

We know little about this character but from these statements: he never comes out of his room, which is described as a “dark crowded room” in which he accumulates objects “against the walls and windows," we can conclude that he probably has a social disorder and is also prone to compulsive hoarding (which may be a type of OCD) 

Winnie Richards, works at the College-on-the-Hill with Jack

            Agoraphobia = Phobia of open spaces

               Extreme shyness

             White Noise indicates that most adults find themselves unable to adapt to a world that they perceive to be transforming at an unsettling pace. They thus gradually lose touch with reality, leading to a form of collective mental illness that affects “hundreds and thousands of people.” As Babette’s father says before leaving, “the mind goes before the body”, an undeniable fact which establishes a certain kinship and strong empathic bond or “odd affection” between the elderly, the mentally ill and aging parents. The slowly approaching sunset at the end of their lives is contemplated with either “wonder or dread” and while “[s]ome people are scared by the sunsets, some determined to be elated” but until the time comes, they will all keep “trying to figure out the pattern, discern the underlying logic” of an ever-changing world.


There is an interesting review of this work here:
http://www.hipsterbookclub.com/reviews/copy/0210/white_noise_don_delillo.html

Buy White Noise here:

The Oedipus Complex applied to Canada and Quebec in Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes

                 A review of Hugh MacLennan’s novels led literary critic T.D. MacLulich to declare that “all of MacLennan’s novels exhibit oedipal motifs."  MacLennan’s fascination with the Oedipus complex, shorthand for the Freudian theory of the child’s (usually male) fondness for the parent of the opposite sex and the subsequent jealousy and animosity towards the parent of the same sex, stems from his relationship with his parents. Whereas he developed a close friendship with his mother, his attempts at being accepted by his father were futile. Dr. Samuel MacLennan, a third-generation Canadian descended from Calvinist highland Scots, was a severe man; in fact, many family members remember being “terrified” of him. Having achieved the dreams his father had set out for him, Hugh finally rebelled against his father as a twenty-five year old man, disillusioned with the path he had taken in order to please his father. As he wrote late in life, upon reflection of his youth, he considered his rebellion to be the “slaying of a father-image."  MacLennan’s relationship with his father led to his interest in the Oedipus complex, which he applied to the characters of Athanase and his son Marius Tallard in his novel Two Solitudes, in which this Freudian concept is also applied to the relationship between federalist and nationalist Quebeckers.

Like Hugh and Samuel, Athanase and Marius have a strained relationship. Their rupture occurs when Marius becomes aware that Athanase makes love to Kathleen in a hospital room while his wife and Marius’ mother, Marie-Adèle, dies. In Freudian oedipal theory, this moment is the “primal scene” in which the son realizes that his father’s relationship with his mother is sexual. In their case, the mother-figure is not Marius’ biological mother, but his youthful step-mother who is not much older than him. Consistent to the framework of the Oedipus complex, Marius feels a sexual attraction towards a maternal figure. When Marius feels “sick from shame” after lusting after Kathleen’s “lush body," he recovers by focusing on the “virginal face” of his mother which is like a “nun’s."  Thus, he considers his own mother to be sexless, but Kathleen, his step-mother, to be a sexual being. A latent rivalry develops between Athanase and Marius as they position themselves as Kathleen’s lover. Hence their relationship echoes the oedipal myth which is based on sexual tensions within family triangles. Since the root cause of the animosity Marius develops towards Athanese is not vocalized or acknowledged, it reveals itself in the secondary political dissention of the nationalist son and his federalist father.

The political debate surrounds the decision for the Canadian parliament to force conscription on Quebeckers during the First World War. Athanase, a parliamentarian, supports the bill, but only in an effort to improve the perception that English-Canadians have of Quebeckers. He reasons that the English-speaking provinces would force conscription on French-Canadians no matter how he votes, but by voting with the other provinces Quebec appears willing to cooperate in the war effort. However, Marius reacts against his father and his political position, without trying to understand the reasons behind Athanase’s federalist leanings. After speaking at an anti-conscription rally, punching an English-Canadian soldier, and then fleeing from the scene, Marius “felt wonderful. He felt as if he had broken all the chains that had held him all his life." He is thus an Oedipus overthrowing his father’s ideology. As his neighbour Yardley reflects, “Marius is the mathematical product of conflict within the country and also within his own family." Their troubled father-son relationship magnifies the federalist and nationalist debate in Canada.

Marius’ desire to bring about the demise of his father is based on misunderstanding. His father is not advocating the colonization of the French, but rather a unified country. Until Canadians came to view each province as an equal partner, rifts between the French and the English would continue to surface. Yet, at the time of the First World War, Canada had not yet adopted a flag, how could it be expected to have forged an identity based on the views of ten equal provinces? The epigraph that MacLennan chose for his novel suggests that until the “two solitudes” come together to “protect, and touch, and greet each other,” Oedipus would attempt to overturn the father, King Laius. In the last moments of Athanase’s life Marius reconciles with his father. He is relieved that as he lies dying, he calls out for Marius’ mother, the religious Marie-Adèle, and also hints of a desire to return to Catholicism. Athanase is thus re-baptised into the faith and into his son’s favour. In fact, Athanase dies in a similar way to MacLennan’s father, Samuel. Both die from complications of high blood pressure. Both sons arrive at the deathbed in the final moments to hear the Cheyne-Stokes breathing that announces the end of life is near. For MacLennan the oedipal struggle is over, as inscribed on his father’s gravestone, in “Peace, Perfect Peace," but for Marius his struggle continues as he now places his efforts on convincing his half-brother to follow nationalist ideals instead of the more moderate position Athanase had hoped for him. Such is Quebec’s continued struggle for a national identity within Canada.

Biographical information taken from Elspeth Cameron's book Hugh MacLennan: A Writer’s Life. She has provided a short biography here:  Hugh MacLennan: Biocritical Essay 

Information about the Oedipus complex from T.D. MacLulich's Oedipus and Eve: The Novels of Hugh MacLennan.

ImagiNation: The Morrin Centre's Literary Festival

From April 7-11 I enjoyed readings, concerts, videos, plays, wine and cheese tastings all at the Morrin Centre in the Old City of Quebec.  It was all part of the ImagiNation Writers' Series.


On Wednesday I heard Karolyn Smardz-Frost and Lawrence Hill read from their novels about fugitive slaves and their relationship to Canada.  Smardz-Frost, by trade an archeologist, explained how her book, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, came into being.  She never set out to be a writer, but found stumbled upon a story that had to be told.  In 1985 she was leading school students in an archeological dig in Toronto. To facilitate the day (bathrooms, cafeteria, etc...nearby) she focussed on schoolyards that may have an interesting past.  She found that the oldest school in Toronto had been owned by a Mr. Thorton Blackburn in the 1830s. On the census he was listed as "coloured," leading her to suspect he had been a fugitive slave.  Her research confirmed her suspicions and led her to the miraculous story of the Blackburns' escape from slavery in Kentucky. In fact, the schoolyard had housed the last stop along the Underground Railroad, as Thorton and his wife Lucie aided escaped slaves to integrate into Canadian society.  Read a summary of their lives here.


Then Lawrence Hill read from his novel, The Book of Negroes, which won the 2009 edition of Canada Reads.  It recounts the true tale of fugitive slaves who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War.  Even though the British  were defeated, they kept their promise to these ex-slaves to take them out of the United States.  Most of these families moved to Nova Scotia.  They remained there several years, but many felt badly received by the Nova Scotians, so the British government agreed to send those that met certain requirements back to Africa.  So Africans that had been born in Africa, captured, sent to the Americas, became slaves, escaped from slavery, fought in the Revolutionary War, were then relocated to Nova Scotia, finally returned to their native continent!  What a story!  And it's true!  I loved hearing Hill read from his novel. He became the old woman that was speaking.  I could see her before me.


On Thursday I heard Neil Bissoondath, a creative writing professor from Université Laval, speak about his writing process.  For him, writing is character-driven, not plot-driven.  He has a flash about a character and starts writing not knowing what will occur throughout the pages. While writing the first page, the second page is still a mystery. He advised us to trust the characters to unveil themselves. 


Last, I attended Alistair MacLeod’s presentation of his novel No Great Mischief: A Novel, for which he received the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1999. Because the novel is based on several narrative levels of history, as well as the immediate story, MacLeod explained the historical background so that the audience would better understand the passages he read. It was very interesting to hear about the Highland Scots, their involvement in battles for Scottish independence from Britain, their immigration to Eastern Canada and their participation in the Battle of the Plaines d’Abraham. Throughout the narrative MacLeod refers to music, especially as an integral part of Gaelic culture. One of the highlights of the evening was to hear Gaelic songs performed by artists. The similarity between French-Canadian airs and Gaelic airs could be heard, a comparison that is made in the novel to show that there are many resemblances between the two seemingly disparate cultures.


The three evenings that I attended the writers’ series were enriching. I understood No Great Mischief to a much deeper degree and Alistair MacLeod’s presentation has given me the desire to read the entire novel. I am also looking forward to reading Karolyn Smardz-Frost’s and Lawrence Hill’s novels during the summer. Although I may not seek out Neil Bissoondath’s novels or short stories, his advice to aspiring writers will continue to guide my creative writing process. I am already looking forward to next year’s writing series and wish that I could have attended all of the events this year.

The Great Gatsby’s Empire State of Mind

     For Jay Gatsby of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby and the persona of Alicia Keys's song "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down," New York City represents the fulfillment of the American Dream. For Gatsby's companion, however, the Midwesterner Nick Carraway, New York City causes anxiety. For instance, Keys notes that "[t]here's nothing you can't do / Now you're in New York" while Carraway anxiously remarks that "[a]nything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge" from Long Island to New York City, "anything at all." Carraway refers to the Queensboro Bridge which crosses the East River connecting Long Island to the borough of Manhattan whereas Keys mentions the Brooklyn Bridge which also spans the East River although connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Hence, Keys's persona is leaving Manhattan, while Carraway is entering it. The fact that Carraway is leaving the relative comfort of quiet, middle-class, mostly white, Long Island by crossing the bridge, readers see the city through his lens of wonder, especially as he recounts his astonishment at seeing a limousine with three Black youths driven by a White chauffeur. Such a cultural race reversal would be far from common only a few miles away on Long Island. For Keys however her starting place is Harlem, a Manhattan neighbourhood renowned for its slums, high crime rates and poverty levels. Therefore, the Brooklyn Bridge, leading to a comparatively safer part of the city, thus indicates a "going up" of the social ladder for her, while for Carraway the Queensboro Bridge leads to an area of diminished social standing, as revealed by his racially insensitive references to "the tragic eyes and short upper lips of southeastern Europe," "three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl," and Meyer Wolfsheim, a "flat-nosed Jew" with "tiny eyes."
     On the same trip to the city that Nick Carraway recounts, Gatsby seems to agree with the persona of "Empire State of Mind" that the American Dream can be realized in New York City "by any means." First, he avoids a traffic ticket by flaunting the Christmas card that the police commissioner sends him. The police officer goes beyond not giving him a traffic violation by excusing himself for having stopped Gatsby and promising that he will be sure not to do it again. This action reminds Carraway once again that Gatsby is not "just some nobody"; he has social connections which place him above the law. Second, Gatsby meets with his associate Meyer Wolfsheim, a gambler and a bootlegger. Both Gatsby and he are wealthy men that have built their riches on illegal activities. Like Gatsby's outdoing the traffic ticket which he rightfully deserved, Wolfsheim has outsmarted the legal forces that have evidence that he fixed the World Series of 1919 for his own financial benefit. He has yet to be punished for his crime and openly profits from his illegal earnings. Gatsby reasons that Wolfsheim did nothing other than seize "the opportunity" that capitalist America afforded him.
     New York City is this mythical land of opportunities where, in Key's words, "dreams are made." The rags-to-riches mentality is clearly stated in her song: "Some will sleep tonight with a hunger for more than an empty fridge." Presumably the "hunger" pertains to "seeing [their] face in lights [...] down on Broadway." Additionally, the persona has a "pocketful of dreams," implying that her pockets are empty, yet she is confident of future riches and fame. Gatsby also embodies this ideal. He moves east to Long Island and works in the city to make enough money to win his socially-superior former love, Daisy Buchanan. He contacts Daisy through his friend Nick Carraway when he feels that he has recreated himself to the extent that she will now accept him. He has a fine home, a Rolls-Royce, eight servants, and moves in chic social circles. He is even acquaintanced with the movie moguls that make the "movie scenes" to which Keys refers. Perhaps he does not "[see] his face in lights" per say, but his reputation and fame draw crowds to his parties every weekend. Nick reflects that Gatsby must have felt that "his dream [was] so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." This desire for refashioning is echoed in Keys's lyrics "[t]hese streets will make you feel brand new." Yet his efforts prove to be futile as Daisy ultimately decides to stay in her marriage. Nick suggests that Gatsby regrets having "paid a high price for living too long with a single dream," that of wooing Daisy Buchanan.
     The myth of New York City as the place where "[t]here's nothing you can't do," leads to a feeling of invincibility. When Tom Buchanan heads towards the city to see his mistress, Myrtle, he does not consider that his wife Daisy may leave him because of his affair. He enjoys both the loyal wife, as well as the illicit lover. Yet his belief in his own invincibility is only an illusion; the novel ends tragically as Daisy hits Myrtle with Gatsby's car, killing her. Myrtle's husband then kills Gatsby in revenge, thinking he was at fault, and then he commits suicide. Gatsby, the man who had surrounded himself with socialites, has few mourners at his funeral; not even Wolfensheim makes the effort to attend and Daisy does not even send a card or flowers. At his funeral, readers learn that his father had great hopes for his son. He commemorates Gatsby as a potentially "great man" if he had lived longer, having "a big future before him," and one who could have "helped build up the country." Mr. Gatz, as well as Jay Gatsby, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan believed their American Dream would be realized through another person. For Mr. Gatz, achievement would have come through his son's successes. For Gatsby, it would have been fulfilled in a relationship with Daisy. Likewise, Daisy married Tom in hopes of attaining her dream "of love, of money." And for Tom, he desired the independence of sexual relationships with women, such as Myrtle. For each, their American Dream becomes "the dead dream." Ironically, the unravelling of their individual dreams starts in the heart of New York City at the Plaza Hotel. It is here that Daisy definitively refuses Gatsby's proposition that she leave Tom because she has learned of Gatsby's illegal dealings with Wolfsheim. On the way home from the city, the tragic accident will occur and then the subsequent murder-suicide, demolishing each dream. Leaving the city, Carraway drives "on toward death" crossing over "the dark bridge."

Listen and Watch Alicia Keys sing the song here:

QUEUC (Quebec Universities English Undergraduate Conference)

I just got back from a wonderful weekend at Bishop's University.  It was the first annual undergraduate conference for English literature students in Quebec (QUEUC).  I went with five other students from Université Laval to present a paper on Frederick Douglass (see a summary at my blogpost here).  There were a large range of topics presented from students from Concordia, McGill, U. of Montreal, U. of Sherbrooke, as well as from Bishop's. Of course there were the standard Shakespeare papers read, but also works from more obscure authors.  As there were 55 presenters, I did not have the opportunity to hear all the papers, but those I did were excellent.  The conference was divided into 14 panels separated thematically.  The panel I was apart of was entitled "Patriarchy, Parenting, and Personas."  There was a comparison of the use of blues music in Langston Hughes' poem "The Weary Blues" with bebop in Jack Kerouac's San Francisco Blues.  Having read both Hughes and Kerouac this semester in my American novel class, her exploration of how music was central to their poetry was interesting.

The other three presentations were by students from Bishop's who commented upon Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard: A Novel (Delta Fiction).  The first presenter reviewed the role of patriarchy in the life of the main character, Janie, of Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Janie is a young black woman who had been raised by her grandmother.  After being "put on the marriage auction block" at the age of sixteen by her grandmother, she reluctantly marries Logan, an older man.  He expects her to do heavy work on his farm, seeing her more as a farmhand than a wife, so she runs off with Jody.  Once again she finds herself in a patriarchal relationship; Jody, the newly elected town mayor, wants her to be a trophy wife.  After being widowed, she falls in love with a vagabond, "Tea Cake" and finally finds an equal, although imperfect, marriage.

The second applied the framework of feminist psychoanalyst Nancy Chodorow to both Hurston's and Vonnegut's novels.  Based on Freud's Oedipus Complex, Chodorow expands the theory so that for both girls and boys the mother is the first love.  Hence, for males, the love for the mother is therefore replaced by the love for the wife, but for women, they can never truly love a man, so their love for the mother is replaced by the love of a child.  The presenter then revealed the how this theory was upheld in the novels and also how it was unreliable.

Lastly, the third of these presentations concerned autobiography's importance in the novel.  In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the narrative is orally transmitted to the protagonist's best friend, Pheoby, whereas Vonnegut writes Bluebeard as the fictional autobiography of the fictional painter, Rabo Karabekian.  In Bluebeard the writing style is affected as he experiences the events he writes about.  The presentation explored the differences in style and influence that these fictional "pretending to be" autobiographies had.

   

One of the other students from Laval spoke about murder in Hamlet and MacBeth.  The other four students from Laval spoke on American works.  Jonathan considered the change of Henry Fleming's identity throughout Stephen Crane's novel The Red Badge of Courage.  Simon revealed how "Ragged Dick" denied his true selfhood while pursing American Dream in Horatio Alger's children's book Ragged Dick.  And Jenny spoke on Nathaniel Hawthorn's transcendental tendencies (rather than the common Puritan beliefs of his era) in his own life and in his novel The Scarlet Letter.  Lastly Kathleen used PowerPoint slides to show Jacob Riis' influence on modern-day photojournalism, especially through his work How the Other Half Lives (referring to the poor of New York City).

   

Although, as you can tell, it was a very intellectual weekend (Jenny called it the most intellectual weekend in her life), we had soooo much fun!  It was great getting to know each other better.

Spring Thankfulness

My soul touches e.e. cummings' today:

i thank you God for most this amazing

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I found a beautiful Wordle of this one too (yeah, I know I'm Wordle obsessed this week!)

Wordle

My good friend Jill (whose well-written blog is here) told me about a creative and free tool on the net: Wordle.

You can create word clouds by typing in related words, and retyping the words that you want to be the largest.  Or, as I experimented with, you can have the program scan a blog or webpage to create a word cloud.  I guess I write a lot about racism, huh!


(click for larger image)

I like the idea that this tool could create poetry or word artwork.  I'm going to play around with it for sure!

Here's how I see God:

 

Here's someone else's Wordle of the first chapter of "The Scarlet Letter."  
I love how "virgin" is by itself and "human" and "prison" meet up. 
And also that "beetle-browed" is one of the main words!