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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   919 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 29, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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White Noise by Don DeLillo. Been wanting to read it ever since I saw the movie a while back, and it's pretty much what I hoped it would be as a book. Thus far (the airborne toxic event has just concluded for the curious), I'm impressed at how well the movie hews to the overall book, especially in tone.

God, I hated White Noise. "Wow, supermarkets are kind of weird and alienating huh?" Yes, Don, I suppose so. I don't think you needed to devote a quarter of your novel to making that point.

Really? I love supermarkets.

I love supermarkets, but I get DeLillo's point that they can be a bit weird if you approach them from a virgin point of view. But this point should have been made once.

People I knew who experienced western supermarkets with truly virgin eyes (coming e.g. from the USSR) seemed to not be alienated either.

Yeah, AFAICT people feel strongly about White Noise one way or the other. Me, I'm adoring it for the constant bloviating and overall absurdity, just as I did the movie. Probably doesn't hurt being old enough to actually remember the Eighties, either.

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