Status Updates From ضوضاء بيضاء

This is the part where I say I don’t want and I don’t even know the stuff this is the part wehere I break free and I can’t even do no more

“Once I almost asked her to put on legwarmers before we made love. But it seemed a request more deeply rooted in pathos than an aberrant sexuality and I thought it might make her suspect that something was wrong”

Jack wakes in the grip of a death sweat. The clock reads 3:51. Jack questions whether death is odd-numbered. He's about to turn 51. He and Babette go to Murray's for dinner. Murray talks about TV. He tells his students they are already too old to figure in the making of society, becoming less recognisable and targetable by the minute. Babette can't remember whether she's taking anything. Everyone is forgetting.

Denise and Steffie argue with Babette about chewing gum. Jack asks Heinrich about the murder he plays chess with. School has closed due to strange goings on; people speaking different languages and getting sick. One of the Mylex-suited men inspecting the problem collapsed and died. There is noise under everything.

The two girls, Jack, Babette and Wilder bump into Murray at the supermarket again. Murray speaks about how the supermarket is like a Tibetan ideal of purgatory. Denise always wears a green visor.

Steffie was holding my hand in a way I'd come to realize, over a period of time, was not meant to be gently possessive, as I'd thought at first, but reassuring.

Jack is ashamed of the fact he can’t speak German. He is taking secret lessons. He needs to learn it in time for next spring’s Hitler conference.

Thoroughly enjoying its style and sense of humor.

Jack is preoccupied with but does not speak aloud of death. He has twice now wondered who will die first? Him or Babette? He loves her very much and they spend the night reading erotic stories from adult magazines. Relatable dialogue about pleasing to please.