White Noise

With the Hitler conference only a few months away, Jack increases the frequency of his German lessons with Howard Dunlop. Meanwhile, men in Mylex suits continue to roam the town with German shepherds, measuring toxicity levels. Heinrich dismisses concerns over chemical spills, arguing that the low but pervasive doses of radiation from TVs, radios, and microwaves are far more dangerous. While most of the potential symptoms of Nyodene D have subsided, deja vu remains prevalent within Blacksmith. Murray believes that when people experience deja vu, they are remembering premonitions of the future that their brains had repressed.

While attempting to fix the bathroom radiator, Jack discovers a bottle of Dylar taped to its underside. There are four pills left. Rather than confront Babette, Jack informs Denise of his discovery. Denise says none of the local pharmacies are familiar with Dylar. Jack calls Babette’s physician, Dr. Hookstratten, who says he has never heard of the drug and chastises Jack for calling him at home after 10 p.m. Jack tells Denise that he will take one of the pills to a colleague in the chemistry department for analysis.

Jack gives the Dylar pill to Winnie Richards, a highly respected yet habitually evasive research neuro-chemist at College-on-the-Hill. Winnie tells him she will have results in 48 hours. Back at home, Jack is worried about Babette, who frequently gazes vacantly out their bedroom window. Jack admits that he found the Dylar, but Babette denies having any knowledge of the drug and offers to have sex with Jack in an effort to change the subject.

All week long, Jack tries to track down Winnie, who has a habit of avoiding others whenever possible. When he finally catches up to her, she explains that Dylar is an advanced drug delivery system that is far more precise than a tablet or a capsule. It delivers a psychopharmaceutical chemical to a distant part of the brain’s cortex . Because the chemical is not on the market and doesn’t match any known brain-receptor drugs, she cannot say what it’s purpose is.

Jack once again confronts Babette about Dylar, only this time she tells him the truth. She confesses to becoming obsessed with her own death over the past year and a half. She tried everything to alleviate it, from holy men to books of the occult. One day she responded to a tabloid ad asking for volunteers to participate in a study on alleviating fear of death. For months, she underwent tests conducted by a company she calls “Gray Research,” refusing to reveal its real name. A project manager Babette refers to as “Mr. Gray” believes that by isolating the part of the brain that fears death, Dylar can relieve this fear. But when Gray Research’s lawyers deemed it too risky to conduct human trials, Mr. Gray and Babette agreed to perform their own tests in secret. In return for allowing her to be the test subject, Babette has sex with Mr. Gray on regular occasions in a grubby motel room. Babette also details some of Dylar’s potential side effects, one of which includes becoming convinced she is dying when she hears trigger phrases like “[f]alling plane.”

While Babette says that Dylar provided some relief at first, it has since stopping working. Mr. Gray cut off the study, apologizing and saying that Babette is not the right test subject. The bottle under the radiator is the last of Babette’s Dylar.

Jack is devastated, in part by Babette’s infidelity but mostly because he relies on his wife’s strength in the face of death. He feels he can no longer face death, knowing that his wife fears it as much as he does. Jack also feels betrayed because unlike his ex-wives, Babette never showed a tendency toward conspiracy and plotting until now. Jack asks her, “Is this why I married Babette? So she would conceal the truth from me, conceal objects from me, join in a sexual conspiracy at my expense? All plots move in one direction” (189).

At the end of the chapter, Jack reveals to Babette what the computer technician told him about his Nyodene D exposure. She cries and beats him on the chest before finally falling asleep. Later in the night, Jack checks for the Dylar bottle under the radiator, but it is missing.