The 'new social novel' Tom Wolfe described in "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast" is an effort to address contemporary social issues while presenting them in a true-to-life context. Wolfe decried the absence of realism he saw in modern fiction and the increasing popularity of non-linear, self-reflexive narratives. In addition, he claimed that modern writers have abandoned their 'material' -- in other words, the teeming, modern metropolis -- in favor of pointless literary games and inane subject matter. While American society is certainly becoming more complex and fragmented, Wolfe argued that the basics are still the same: life is "no more or less chaotic, random, discontinuous, or absurd" than it was several hundred years ago. "It is merely more varied and complicated and harder to define" (51). According to Wolfe, many modern writers have deserted their responsibility of directly addressing social issues and have potentially harmed their readers by reinforcing the unhealthy perceptions of fragmentation, alienation and triviality, just to name a few.
In reading White Noise, I was impressed with the idea that DeLillo was deeply concerned with valid contemporary issues, especially those relating to how people 'perceive' themselves in relation to their environment. In DeLillo's fictional world, his characters' sense of identity is heavily dependent on their general environment. There are several essential aspects of the environment DeLillo describes, including mass consumerism, the constant bombardment of information and technological innovations. In confronting daily challenges and their own fear, DeLillo's characters illuminate the increasing levels of confusion faced by people whose environment is rapidly changing. The men in Mylex suits, for example, are at first a disconcerting presence in the novel; but, through their continual reappearance, it becomes clear that they are now a 'normal' part of the scenery. DeLillo seems to be saying, 'get used to it ... we are going to have to adjust to new threats to our individual security and sense of normalcy.' While Jack and Babette both seem to remain on the outer limits of these changes, painfully aware of how they haven't been able to maintain control of their world, their post-modern children move freely and almost fearlessly through the shopping malls and industrial spills. Some of Jack's colleagues, especially Murray, are like Jack in that they recognize the effects of mass culture; however, they are unlike Jack in that they enthusiastically embrace the vast ambiguity of social change. As Murray explains:
"You could put your faith in technology. It got you here, it can get you out. This is the whole point of technology. It creates an appetite for immortality on the one hand. It threatens universal extinction on the other ... It's what we invented to conceal the terrible secret of our decaying bodies. But it's also life, isn't it? It prolongs life, it provides new organs for those that wear out. New devices, new techniques every day" (285).
In their small world, these characters are facing the most important questions of life and death.
In this sense, Wolfe was shortsighted when he blamed the new fiction for failing to address important social questions. From DeLillo and some other modern writers' perspectives, Wolfe has failed to accept the true extent of social change. The "rich, big slices of contemporary life" he describes mainly deal with basic, causal relationships in a static society. While Wolfe agrees that society itself has become more complex, he seems to reject the notion that our perceptions of what is 'real' and 'important' is dependent on our contextual setting. If he did accept this notion, he would realize that there is no way to satisfactorily pin down a single, coherent "slice of life" without recognizing that the logical structures used to assemble an argument are themselves ambiguous and potentially inadequate.
If nothing else, White Noise shows the weakness of our human perceptions in coming to a rational understanding of our own mass-mediated environment. Jack, Babette, and each of the other characters 'choose' how they will approach -- or will attempt to escape -- their rapidly-changing world (which did not have to be a metropolis in order to be vast; technology itself has narrowed geographical boundaries), and each, to varying degrees, recognize the inadequacy of their own attempts to describe or explain it. Jack and Babette's attempts to find a comfortable, secure spot in their environment are unsuccesful because the spot doesn't exist. However, according to the husband and wife, that spot has to exist. This is why religion and sacred imagery are often alluded to in the book, even though none of the characters are religious. In the scene with the nuns, Jack encounters the all-to-valid fears that underpin human belief. As one nun tells him:
Our pretense is a dedication. Someone must appear to believe. Our lives are no less serious than if we professed real faith, real belief. As belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe ... There is no truth without fools (319).
Wolfe, in a sense, is a 'true believer' because he cannot accept the idea of chaos and alternative versions of reality. He emphasizes "documentation" and "material" as weapons in an effort to combat the ambiguity and complexity of modern society. Jack and Babette can also be seen as true believers, whose fear of a world they cannot fully comprehend leads them to seek refuge in the soothing Dylar and other forms of mass-mediated escape. DeLillo's portrayal of these characters clearly addresses some of the most fundamental questions faced by individual members of society.