White Noise is Don DeLillo’s National Book Award-winning novel from 1984 that was turned into a Netflix movie in 2023 starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, and Don Cheadle. The main question we will tackle in our reading group will be: why now? This is a deeply ironic story about a family trying to navigate the relatively petty challenges and distractions of consumeristic modern life in a small middle-American college town. All-of-a-sudden, they and their community are faced with an environmental disaster caused by an industrial accident. We will discuss how DeLillo’s juxtaposition of mundane-normalcy with tragedy and trauma in the early ‘80s might have special relevance for us in today’s post-COVID, climate-change addled, internet-saturated world. We will also discuss what DeLillo might be critiquing about academia that might be interesting to consider as you begin your journey at UT-Austin. BONUS FEATURE: Dr. Lang will draw on Don DeLillo’s archive—which resides at UT’s Harry Ransom Center—to bring direct evidence from the author’s creative process into our discussion!