Virtual Reality and White Noise
Tom Wolfe describes social documentation as essential for the continuation of the new
social novel in his manifesto, "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast." In the Don Delillo's
novel White Noise and William Gibson's novel Neuromancer, both authors document
society and create characters that are products of their environment. The characters from
White Noise serve as the predecessors to Neuromancer's Molly and Case in the projection of the future under technology's influence. In White Noise the characters' relate to
technology as a virtual world, in that the components of it are something they cannot
understand and therefore are not real to them. The Gladneys become terrorized by the
encroaching effects of technology on their small college town and struggle with the
constant simulacra which creates a new world for them.
With the exception of the television the Gladneys come into very little contact with
machines and seem to make a conscious effort to keep their world and that of the
mechanized separate. When Jack goes to the ATM machine he feels as though he has
reticulated with the machine and that through an unspoken language has been able to fuse
with the machine. Jack's fear of the machine is evident when he says: "But we were in
accord, at least for now. The networks, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies.(47) His
use of the phrase "at least for now' implies that the machine and he may come into conflict
in the future.
The family is both drawn to and repelled from the simulacra that places them in to
an artificial reality. Steffie enters into her own virtual reality when she participates in the
SIMUVAC simulation. Just like watching disasters on television is a form of virtual
reality for the rest of the family, Steffie feels that if she experiences a "virtual" disaster
then she will be mentally and physically prepared for a real one. In opposition to Steffie,
Wilder sees only things in terms of reality and the concrete. When he sees his mother on
television he cannot understand her virtual presence and the experience is emotionally
unsettling for him.
The Gladneys potential use of virtual reality as an escape from the world seems at first
ridiculous because they are so removed from the technical world, but at a second glance
they are exactly the type of people who would use it to run from their fears imposed upon
them from the modern world.
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