Summary and Response to a Critical Article

Tom Le Clair is a teacher at the University of Cincinnati who is also a writer for many prestigious papers and periodicals. He wrote "Closing the Loop: White Noise" as an analysis of White Noise. He discusses many aspects of the piece, including, how the story is circular. Meaning, it loops continuously throughout the three parts. He says it is a disaster novel, a college novel and a around the house and in the yard novel all at once. In each of the different parts of piece, there are elements of the three different types of novels shown. He also describes DeLillo's writing style. He writes in choppy, short and fragmented sentences that do not always flow well. He spends some time discussing the different strategies that Jack and Babette use for dealing with the fear of death as that is one of the major themes of White Noise. Throughout the critic, he gives examples of how the piece "closes the loop."

This analysis was somewhat confusing to me at first, but after further review it begin to shed some new light on White Noise for me. I liked the idea of knowing why DeLillo wrote in such an unfamiliar manner. To read that the use of fragmented sentences is actually a style of writing. That was something that I had no idea existed until I read Le Clair's piece. I also liked hearing that White Noise could be considered to be part of three different styles of novel. The fear of death theme is very present throughout the piece and it was interesting and enlightening to hear Le Clair's take on it. I think that there are many aspects of Le Clair's critique that I can use when writing my own essay.

Delillo, Don. White Noise, Text And Criticism. New York, NY: Penguin Group USA, 1998. 

LeClair, Tom. Closing the Loop: White Noise. New York, NY: Penguin Group USA, 1986. 387-411

Mid-Term Check In

Ms. Cline,

First of all I want to say that I have enjoyed the technology aspect of this course. I decided to take English online because I have two jobs and also go to school full time. When I enrolled in the course I expected to have some boring, old fashioned class with essays due every other week. I was surprised and liked the way you introduce this course. I would have to say that the biggest challenge I came across so far was the making of our introductory video. I could not for the life of me figure out how to make it a video/slide show; but after playing with it on YouTube for a few minutes I realized it was actually easier than I thought.

I feel like so far our analyses have helped me become a better reader. Before this course I would never bother to go back and re-read, but now I realize that it actually helps to do so in order to get a better understanding of the piece. Analysis is different from anything I’ve done in any other course because it helps you understand the real meaning of the piece. Before this course all my writings would be in the form of a summary. I now realize that is why I would always run out of things to say because I did not actually analyze the writings.  

So far the course has been challenging yet rewarding. My goal for the second half of the semester is to further improve my reading and writing skills. I would like to learn new and different things to become a better writer so that one day I can apply these skills to my field of education. Finally and most importantly I would like to earn a good grade for the course.