In Ch. 3, Murray (the pop culture professor who wants to establish Elvis Studies in the same way Jack’s formed Hitler Studies) takes Jack to THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. He explains:
“We’re not here to capture an image, we’re here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies” (12).
And:
“They are taking pictures of taking pictures” (13).
How does this scene shape the novel at large, and what is DeLillo saying about postmodern life through this scene?
In this scene, and for the rest of the novel, DeLillo demonstrates how the hype surrounding an image can lessen the real meaning and significance of the actual attraction. In this case, he shows how the hype plays so heavily in the tourists’ imagination that it prevents the members from actually seeing what they had set out to view. “No one sees the barn.” Here, we see the tourists being so captivated by the “thought” of how awe inspiring something is, or “should be,” than the physical object itself. DeLillo is pointing out that the barn in itself isn’t all that significant, but it’s the fact that the signs and large volumes of people that visits this monumental existence that gives it meaning and adds to its significance. The only reason why the “barn becomes the most photographed barn” is because so many people have pre-invested in the image surrounding it. Through this scene, DeLillo captures postmodern life and the advertising surrounding our media-saturated society. By being so deeply exposed to the image beforehand, we get the feeling that we have already experienced what’s being portrayed in the advertisements (or “photographs”). It’s the media campaigns, the broadcasts, and the “signs,” that depletes the value of reality, causing us to never fully experience our mental images of America’s most electrifying “barn.”
ReplyDeleteDanielle Rainwater
ReplyDeletePeople are taking pictures of the most photographed barn in America because it is the most photographed. It gives an excuse to photograph it. Like all tourist attractions it has to have a catch. Somebody might want to take a picture of a random barn in America, but it still wouldn’t hold the same “special sense” of the MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. Just the same as Disney World is tagged with “THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH,” the barn has been given the same affect. There might be a lot of happy people running around Disney World because they see other people whom are happy because it’s given the name to be the happiest place on earth. The aura of happiness in Disney World consumes the tourist, just like the aura of the most photographed barn in America consumes it’s tourist into thinking that there is something so artistically special about this barn. However, it seems to only have this affect because others have partaken in it almost like a chain reaction. I feel like what DeLillo is trying to get across is the affect of advertisement on people and how people become so caught up in the “hype” of things versus just appreciating them for what they are. Murray even says how once you’ve seen the signs about the barn you can no longer see the barn.
Catherine Rabalais
ReplyDeleteThe Most Photographed Barn is a symbol for cultural belonging. Pop culture in general gives people a pathway to which they can live vicariously through different symbolic people, places, or things. In the novel, it seems that the characters are not living their lives realistic. Instead, they each have a façade they hide behind: Jack Gladney with his new name “J.A.K.” and his wife Babette, who denies taking other medication for her failing memory. The story as a whole applies to how society is absorbed in pop culture and relies on it’s “excitement” in order to live every day life. This fake lifestyle has a similar parallel to society today. Although there are some people who still value life for virtue, others turn towards objects in order to seek happiness in their lives. The artificial happiness can be short-lived, therefore, forcing the person to purchase more items in order to retain their happiness in life. Postmodern life lacks the “family-oriented” values and focuses more on the competition among people to see who has the most of whatever they have. I think DeLillo is trying to show his readers that people should live their lives without thinking about how much materials they can acquire in life, but the overall value of their lives with or without their material possessions.
The most photographed barn in America would not be the most photographed barn in America if people did not photograph it. The only reason there is any hype at all about the barn is because someone decided to put up signs saying it was the most photographed barn. This type of hype represents how “sheep-like” our culture is now. DeLillo uses this symbol throughout the entire book. Even as the book progresses like in chapter 4 when Babette decides to make watching TV a family thing in order to make TV less destructive, we see how things that should not be valued are valued higher and are tried to be made into something special. That’s exactly what is happened with the barn. People would not usually care about a barn so much, but someone decided to take a picture of it, edit it, and put up signs saying it was the most photographed barn in America. The honor of this barn has been fabricated so that someone could make money or claim the fame of owning the barn. It’s a scheme that the culture has played many a times. A tourist trap. It symbolizes the idiocy of people and how simple people’s minds really are and how anything that is over-exaggerated and made glamorous will instantly attract people whether it’s a TV show or the broadside of a barn.
ReplyDeleteDeLillo describes a concept that I often ponder. Can you see something clearly and they way it was intended and can you ever see something again, but with news fresh eyes. Here we are reminded of how jaded we are and how scathed our memories are before we make them. The barn is the most photographed barn, but does that mean that it accepts the fact that it may no longer be a barn. Perhaps it is photographed symbolically as the most typical American barn, but it's not that anymore. It is a barn that has road signs and hype. It's not an old hidden away barn, its a tourist attraction. DeLillo sets up a scene fore this and the whole book, and asks us the question "Can we really see what's there?" Can we see a fresh image of something and it symbolize it's true meaning.
ReplyDeleteAn example of this within the novel, is our main character’s wife Babette. She has this look to her, her crazy hair, that with her size doesn’t make her too cute, or innocent, but makes her a serious woman. When she is introduced to Murray though, she comes across as this beautiful strong woman, a woman any man would be lucky to have. So, a man who is married to her sees her this one way, sees her crying about a child’s broken arm as not a characteristic of a strong woman, but Murray sees a woman who is so passionate for children it makes her more beautiful that she fell apart at the child’s injury. This makes me question whether it is possible to look at a person you’ve been married to for years with new eyes, and fall for them again.
In this scene in the novel, Jack and Murray go to visit the “most famous barn in America.” This scene obviously relates to the rest of the novel in the idea of commercialization and the materialism of the postmodern world. In chapter 2, DeLillo comments that mankind has become so materialistic that it has lost even the most basic characteristic of mortality-death, “Maybe there is no death as we know it. Just documents changing hands. In the barn scene, DeLillo is commenting on how the modern man has even commercialized true beauty.
ReplyDeleteI believe DeLillo is making another more subtle point in this scene as well. When they first arrive, Murray says, “Once you’ve seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn.” Here I think DeLillo is commenting on academia. Just as people think the barn is beautiful because others say it is beautiful, students are told what works are important and beautiful. The barn scene shows how people accept things like beauty because they are told something is beautiful. By placing this scene within the backdrop of the academic setting, DeLillo is pointing out how students are herded through learning like cattle. Instead of being taught how to make decisions for themselves, they are told what is a good work and in what particular ways to analyze pieces of literature. DeLillo is showing how almost everything has become streamlined and commercialized.
Leah Bourgeois
ReplyDeleteMurray’s constant habit of analyzing everything, to me at least, is when the underlying mood of the novel appears, even just for that split second, that there is always something more. The narrative so far is just a plain event after another plain event, until someone comes in and gives us an extremely in-depth analysis on simple everyday things like non-brand name products, on people just taking pictures of a pretty barn, or even the rain.
Regular people would have just gone up and taken a picture and marveled at its beauty or the fact that so many people come to see and take pictures of it, but not Murray. He of course goes into another analysis of what he sees. Murray says, “We’re not here to capture an image, we’re here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack?” What Murray meant was that all the people that were there taking a picture could be compared to people feeding into trends like this every day. Murray’s interpretation of this scene was DeLillo’s way of inserting his own opinion about postmodern life. This was DeLillo’s way of saying that in society, all anyone does is follow and conform. All everyone did was feed into the already formed stereotypes of the world, in this case taking a picture of an otherwise ordinary barn except the fact that a lot of people have taken a picture of it. Or cutting your hair a certain way because everyone does it, or wear a certain brand because everyone else does, etc. DeLillo’s insertion of Murray’s interpretation of what he was experiencing at the barn was his own way of inserting how he feels in real life.
Furthermore, this scene shaped the novel by inserting the tone that there is always something more. There is always another reason why or another force making certain things happen or making certain things important. There is always more than meets the eye, especially in everyday life, as inevitably displayed in this novel.
Courtnay Griffith
ReplyDeleteThe barn scene in Chapter 3 sets up the biggest question encountered in the novel so far. What makes things in society significant? We do. The barn holds no special significance whatsoever, but the only reason people go there is because of the power society gives it. The people could not even see the barn, but to them there was still this special power to it.
Also we infer that postmodern life is all about the effect of consumerism and the effect of the masses. We can see that through how the people are constantly searching for definition and meaning through people's obsession with what they see on television. They mention television it as the "primal force in the American home." The novel is centrally focused on famous people, mostly Hitler and Elvis. Their lives play a significant role in the novel. They even have a department at the college called the popular culture department, also known as American environment. Also Chapter 17 ends with Jack on a shopping spree buying things he says he doesn't even need.
These examples show how people are so concerned the questions of life. And they define their life by the trends of society.
Vanessa Hernandez
ReplyDeleteThe most photographed barn in America shapes this novel at large because, I don’t think anyone really cares what the barn looks like, because there is nothing special about it. It’s just a barn that is famous because everyone goes to it, and everyone will keep on going to it, until they see it for themselves. The quote “We’re not here to captured an image, we’re here to maintain one.” Seems to be used as something like people keep taking these pictures so that the barn will get more famous. The aura of this place is so big because people need to see this incredibly famous barn for their selves.
What DeLillo is saying about postmodern life through this scene is, that people are so interested in something simple. Instead of going crazy over useful/important things that were happening at that time, people are more excited over a barn. It seems sort of like people are worshipping this barn through this scene. It’s just a barn, and not Disney World. I think that what he is trying to say is that people need to see something this famous, even if they don’t want to. They need to feel like they’re a part of something big.
In this part of the novel Jack and Murray visit the Most Photographed Barn in America. While their Murray explains the aura of the barn and how it being labeled as the "most photographed" plays a large part in its aura. If it weren't for the label given would it be continuously photographed as much as it is now? Though it might be located in a scenic landscape what makes this barn better than any other? It is because it has been given this title that more come to photograph it only reinforcing the name. The ridiculousness of the hype is similar to that of the ridiculous praise Jack receives for founding a study of Hitler. Much like the barn which is only exalted because of it's name, studying the master mind of mass genocide seems a bit absurd. Dedicating a study to him is like giving praise to him or honoring him. And like all the people that go to the barn and never seem to wonder why it's so special no one seems to think that dedicating a study to Hitler is preposterous. Perhaps it is the era of new times, though, that radical views are not frowned upon and dedicated studies on deranged man are acceptable. And it is in this era of acceptability of ridiculous things that a barn can be elevated among other barns and be glorified in a sense. After all, it is just a barn...
ReplyDeleteCraig Naccari
ReplyDeleteThe most photographed barn in America illustrates the stereotypes used in modern America to digest the vast amount of knowledge bombarding the citizenry. With exponentially increasing information being broadcast to average people without an increase in mental capacity to aid in digestion, heuristics must be employed to utilize information efficiently.
The most photographed barn in America contains information without the necessity to explore it. Its information is intrinsic. What is seen is what is expected. Throughout White Noise, the distinction between what is expected and what is seen excites Murray. Murray prides himself on exploring the world around him but does so through the limited visibility of pre-conceived notions. When Murray meets JAK’s wife, he immediately assumes much about her personality from her physical appearance. He uses past experiences to understand his current situation. JAKs wife falls apart in family crises, but Murray assumed because of her large stature that she would be a pillar of strength.
Even the reader is exploited for their use of shortcuts in the case of JAK’s quirky children. Heinrich explores the scientific principles around him and attempts to examine the world objectively; he is the only one who does so.
Even historical events are satirized in similar fashion: Hitler, with a Charlie Chaplin moustache and greasy thin hair is the most diabolical villain in recent history. And, to compound his characterization, the study of this villain is a small American University’s claim to fame. A deviation between what is expected and seen, known and unknown.
Seth Pottle
ReplyDeleteDeLillo portrays the American peoples’ reliance on the media and its word. “The Most Photographed Barn in America” could not have been anything too special, unless it is complete with built in roller coasters and fast food joints. Otherwise, it is nothing more than any other barn made of wood and a few nails. However, Murray, overly enthused with the barn’s unseen greatness, excitedly comments to Jack about the “aura” of the ever popular barn. Of course, everyone including Murray, is caught up thinking about how great the barn is, overlooking the fact that nothing really seems to stand out.
DeLillo’s point is that the media in America can make almost anything popular by portraying it in a positive, sometimes even negative, light. If the media gives it too much attention, Americans will too. It can make the simplest things seem so much more significant than they really are, for example, a barn. So who is DeLillo mocking here? The media by advertising “The Most Photographed Barn in America?” Or the American people who are gullible enough to believe that this barn must really be something special for everyone to seem so awestruck by it. If it were not for the multitudes of people flocking to take pictures of the barn, it would be exactly what it is without all the fame.
Once Murray and Jack were at the barn, Murray realizes that there was nothing special about it whatsoever. He didn’t know why they were there except for the purpose of keeping up the barn’s reputation. They weren’t actually seeing and admiring the barn, but looking at it deeper and asking why it was “the most photographed barn in America.” The fact that they were there and everyone else that was there at the time was simply upholding the barn’s status.
ReplyDeleteAdvertisements are the same way because they often deliver a misleading message to the consumer. The consumer buys this product, not because they know everything about it and think it will better them, but maybe because the ad sounded convincing or because everyone else uses the product. This is also true for some one hit wonder stars or reality TV stars; we don’t know why they are famous but we follow them and are infatuated with them simply because they are famous. In turn, this upholds their reputation. I believe this is the message that DeLillo is trying to convey to the reader about postmodern society and also to shape the novel as a whole.