physical stature (Gladney admires heavy people, be-
lieving that bulk staves off death) cannot insulate
him from the inevitable.
Television is yet another of Gladney’s evasions;
the set is constantly on, and the house is awash in
commercial jingles, lines from comedies and various
talking heads, and volumes of misinformation. Much
of the novel’s abundant comedy emerges from fam-
ily debates in which one erroneous “fact” is traded
for another with smug assurance by each of the
conversants. The family especially enjoys watching
news coverage of catastrophes, gaining a false sense
of power because of their seeming immunity from
such perils. However, once Gladney is exposed to
toxins, the sense of dread has a definable identity.
The novel’s title emphasizes that the characters
are surrounded by unseen or unrecognized forces,
the most obvious of which are the waves of radio
transmission and the radiation from television and
other sources. Even the toxic event is “airborne,” a
cloud that is perceptible but the contamination and
effects of which are hidden. Just as the characters are
surrounded by noise and one another, they are sur-
rounded by the inevitability of death, which Gladney
grudgingly comes to terms with at the novel’s close
when he witnesses his infant son’s miraculous escape
from an auto accident. Gladney lacks the comfort of
religion but struggles to find some replacement for
faith in order to face his mortality.
Impact White Noise, Don DeLillo’s eighth novel, be-
came an instant popular and critical success and
won the National Book Award in 1985. Since its pub-
lication, the novel has been a mainstay in university
literature courses and the subject of considerable
scholarly research. Reassessments of DeLillo’s oeuvre
now rank him as one of America’s foremost novel-
ists.
Further Reading
Bloom, Harold, ed.Don DeLillo. Philadelphia:
Chelsea House, 2003.
Kavadlo, Jesse.Don DeLillo: Balance at the Edge of Belief.
New York: Peter Lang, 2004.
Lentricchia, Frank, ed.Introducing Don DeLillo. Dur-
ham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991.
David W. MaddenSee also Air pollution; Book publishing; Consum-
erism; Literature in the United States.Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Identification American film
Director Robert Zemeckis (1952- )
Date Released June 24, 1988
The first full-length movie to feature live actors and ani-
mated characters throughout, this Disney production also
featured cartoon characters from a variety of competing
studios.
Who Framed Roger Rabbitwas the most expensive mo-
tion picture ever made when it was released. It also
was the first full-length film effectively to combine
animation and live action for its entire length, the
first partnership of Disney and Warner Bros., and
the first teaming of familiar cartoon characters from
different studios. One example was the first and only
teaming of Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, seen per-
forming a wild piano duet.
The 103-minute film earned considerable critical
praise, and a sizable box office, in its original theatri-
cal release, more than doubling its reported cost of
$70 million. “Where else in the Eighties can you do
this?” asked director Robert Zemeckis in RollingThe Eighties in America Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1045
Don DeLillo.(Thomas Victor)