White Noise Versions of Reality Quotes

When Murray Siskind takes Jack on a day trip to see "The Most Photographed Barn in America," he shows Jack something more than just a famous barn. He shows Jack how little of a grasp on reality people have. For Murray, it's impossible to see the barn objectively as a barn because you can't get anywhere near the thing without passing a half-dozen signs that advertise it as the most photographed barn in America. The point is that once you know this, you can never just see a barn. You can only see a barn that you know thousands of other people have seen a certain way, and you can't help but join them in seeing it from a specific mental angle. 

It's not just any one camera that makes the most photographed barn in America what it is. Every person who stops and takes a picture contributes to the "aura" of the barn. In this way, the "aura" is like an invisible residue that builds up on the barn more and more as each person comes to snap a picture. Each photo, says Murray, turns the barn into something more than just a barn. Each photo turns it into something that only exists for the sake of being looked at. 

Jack doesn't feel all that secure as a professor. After all, the guy became one of the best pros in his field by… inventing his own field. That's kind of a sneaky way to become the best at something, and another example of how people tend to invent their own reality rather than see the world objectively. Jack's so concerned with keeping up a certain image that he wears hipster glasses and uses his initials J.A.K. instead of Jack in academic settings. As he says in this line, though, he never for a moment thinks of himself as genuine. He's just a character that he made up, not the real Jack Gladney.