(A toxic text) The Cohesion between consum and death in DeLillo`s "White Noise"

In Don DeLillo`s „White Noise“ the supermarket becomes an important location for the characters of the novel. Murray and Jack meet at the supermarket as often as on campus. One time Jack says that he likes to be at the supermarket because it does not change except for the better. Furthermore it is well stocked with good and it is melodic and brightly. For Jack it is a place of peace.

When Murray and Jack ones meets at the supermarket, Murray tells Jack that he looks old and fragile without his robe and the sunglasses he normally wears on campus. After that Jack falls into a shopping fever whereby he wants to avoid to age prematurely and may become insignificant. This displays that shopping creates a feeling of peace and safety for Jack Gladney.

But DeLillo also often draws a line between consum and necrophobia. On the way to the Boy Scout Camp for example, Jack associates the toxic cloud with a commercial for death. And for the old Mr. Treadwell and his sister shopping becomes a traumtaic experience when they strayed in the giant shopping mall for four days so that the old woman even dies as a result of this occurance. In this case the shoppingcenter and consum are linked with confusion and death.  

(Critical Junkyard) Environmental lies in automobile industry

In modern times climate protection becomes increasingly more important. Thus even the automobile industry has to join in for selling their products. For this they usually make use of well-known car fairs on which they can utilize the effect of greenwashing.

During the presentation of their e-cars and hybrid cars they give it a totally ecofriendly image.

But Greenpeace and experts already calculated a worse environmental balance for e-cars than for cars with a gasonline or diesel engine. Only when the current will come from renewable energies the balance might become positiv. Even the production of the rechargeable batteries is extremely environmentally harmful.

Nevertheless the automobile industry wants to make the consumers believe that e-cars are ecofriendly due to the fact that they do not emit exhaust gases. But the exhaust gases accrues during the generation of current.    

(Critical Junkyard) *monocultures of the mind*

In chapter 8 (pg. 163) of Ecocriticism, Garrard talks about globalisation and the affects it could have on other cultures around the world. He states, "for some, [globalisation] represents homogenisation in which diverse local cultures are supplanted by monocultures of the mind," referring to the influence that regions such as North America, Japan and Western Europe will have.

I find this important for out topic concerning toxicity because when other countries take on the mindset that our culture has toward consumerism and waste, then the world will become an even more toxic place, filled with more waste than anyone knows what to do with. Instead of other cultures taking on the poorer aspects of our culture, we should be allowing ourselves to be more easily influenced by less wasteful cultures.

(Critical Junkyard) *Simulacrum*

So I'm finding it especially easy to find words and phrases from 'The China Syndrome' article that I don't understand. (I'm right there with you Elisa.)

According to Google's dictionary function, simulacrum is "an image or representation of someone or something" or "an unsatisfactory imitation of substitute."

So what does that mean in relation to toxic discourse? I'm thinking of the media's constant struggle in The China Syndrome to accurately represent the issues unfolding or in White Noise, the SIMUVAC people aren't actually meant to do real evacuations, they're only supposed to train people what to do, so that in the case of an actual evacuation situation the people will know what to do.

When I see the word simulacrum, I think of simulation and that ties in well with toxic discourse because of all of the uncertainty involved in toxic events. It is difficult to pinpoint whether people become sick due to a toxic substance or if they were sick before the event. The only hard science is the simulations scientists can do, but in the field, once an event actually occurs, there is very little that goes as it would in a simulation.

(Critical Junkyard) Parousia

I found this term in the ever-so-strange Baudrillard essay about China Syndrome.

Dictionary.com says, Parousia-"the presence in any thing of the idea after which it was formed"


This freak occurrence of parousia is not only an interesting element of China Syndrome vs its real counterpart the 3 Mile Island disaster, but can also be seen in White Noise. During the Airborne Toxic Event, Steffie and Denise (And later even Babette) only get the symptoms mentioned by the radio until they have already been exposed to hearing about it. Sure, we can say that there aren't any real effects because they are sort of mentally induced, but it still happens this way.

(A Toxic Text) WALL-E

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/

WALL-E is a Disney-Pixar film, in which humans have given in to every consumer desire and the world then becomes so full of their waste that WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load-Lifter, Earth-class), a computerized robot is left alone, with his only companion, a cockroach, to clean up all the trash. The human population lives on a ship, travelling through space, subsisting off of a liquid diet and never leaving the chairs in which they sit. They are so many generations removed from their forefathers who created the mess on Earth that they don't even know what Earth looks like and have completely lost their sense of the culture they had on Earth, as well.

Earth, as it is portrayed in this film, is a prime example of Buell's Virgilian mode. In the end, the human population returns to Earth, sees the destruction and devastation that their lifestyle can cause, and that their previous generations did cause. The Kafkaesque image of Earth that they see before them encourages them all to try to begin to clean up the mess and have a fresh start on the planet.

(A Toxic Text) Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104254/

Fern Gully: The Last Rain Forest is about a race of fairies and sprites in a rainforest who fight to keep humans from cutting down all of the trees. The massive tree cutting machine is occupied by an evil oil-like creature, which thrives off of t

he pollution coming out of the machine in order to gain strength. The movie portrays Man as the ultimate enemy of nature.

The forest is naturally illustrated as a picturesque Eden being destroyed by big business. During a few shots in the film, the audience sees the area which has already been eliminated of trees, giving the viewer a very ominous feeling of what could come if Man isn't stopped.

I felt this film exemplifies aspects of all of 4 of Buell's Toxic Topoi. Hexxus, who is an ever present threat in the film, represents the inescapability of the toxin. The idea that Man is facing off against the rainforest, and for most of the film, is winning the battle, represents the David and Goliath myth. Eden (the forest) is betrayed by man, in that a fairly large expanse has already been chopped down and burned to char. Once it is all burned and the whole screen shot is just charred, black land where once stood an Eden-like rainforest, represents Buell's Virgilian/gothicized squalor.