20th Century Fall 2018

NOTE: All post after this post will be for 20th Century Novel class for Fall 2018.

Post-assassination: Lee Harvey Oswald

We have finally reached the climax of Libra, when the assassination of JFK is laid out. With this major event spanning many pages and from many perspectives, we see a turning point in how the author depicts Lee.

Previously, the matter of how DeLillo refers to Lee was discussed in class. At the beginning of the novel, we meet young, troubled teenager Lee. Then we meet Marine Ozzie the Rabbit, defector Comrade Oswald (aka Alek), Hidell, and O.H. Lee, among his many other aliases. Finally, after the assassination, as DeLillo brings us back to Lee's point of view as he sits in his cell and contemplates his future, we see DeLillo finally refer to Lee using the familiar three names of "Lee Harvey Oswald." Like earlier in the novel, DeLillo calling Lee by a new name signifies a change in Lee's life, mentality, and place in history.

At the same time, although Lee has become the notorious Lee Harvey Oswald who is known for assassinating JFK, we still see that Lee Harvey Oswald is the familiar, bumbling Lee whose short life we have followed through the novel. Sitting on his cot in the jail cell, Lee reaches one of his strange epiphanies again. He realizes that he now has a place in history as the man who murdered JFK, and that he will be known as Lee Harvey Oswald. Only, this epiphany is actually not a delusional one - Lee is right for once.

Finally, when Lee himself is shot and killed by Jack Ruby, he seems to make a final impression on history as he stares right at the camera and observes his death. DeLillo finally allows poor Lee to get a stab at making another mark in history, right as he dies.

Delusional Lee

We see early on in Libra that Lee is incredibly interested in Communism. He devotes painstaking effort in reading Das Kaptial, The Communist Manifesto, going word by word, believing that "the tougher the book, the more firmly he fixed a distance between himself and others." And it does set a distance between him and everyone else - he's a Communist in a capitalist nation, and he acknowledges it. But he doesn't seem to fully understand what that entails.

Lee is young - a teenager, barely brushing his twenties as we follow his story - and still holds fantasies in which he joins a Communist pod and goes on missions leaping roof to roof like a spy in an action movie. It's not that we don't understand Lee's fantasies, but he seems to be overly immersed in him fantasies and expectations, not really seeing the world around him for what it is. Yes, Lee sees that he is a Communist among a bunch of anti-Communist capitalists, but he still brags and is visibly proud of his Communist beliefs without realizing the consequences. Rather, he does consider the consequences, but utterly romanticizes them. Jail? Great! I'll just be like Stalin and Lenin, thinking deep thoughts in my jail cell and having an old wise man teach me life lessons!

As a child, these fantasies are simply fantasies. The problem is once Lee has become a young man and is in the Marines. His ramblings about Communism may not be able to be written off as simply a child with a new hobby. His fantasies also have a possibility of becoming a reality. As a legal adult, he is capable of making his own decisions - like finding a Russian tutor and having her help him defect to the USSR. But he needs to get more information on the U-2 spy plane, which could land him in big trouble if he is caught. He's so blinded by his delusions and the promises of Communism which he read in Das Kapital and other texts that he's willing to take the risk he doesn't fully realize exists.

We know that Lee will eventually return from the USSR when his delusions are broken after being sent to work in a factory. But, I wonder to what extent he has woken up from his fantasies. Seeing the direction that DeLillo is going, the character Lee most likely ends up shooting JFK because he still holds on to some of those delusions. But what delusions does he still hold on to? What exactly broke through to reality, and how? Thoughts?

Dana and Rufus

Starting in 'The Fight,' Rufus does many things, such as systematically raping Alice, that we modern people would consider despicable. Dana thinks similarly to us, but she cannot completely hate him for his actions. Dana's relationship to Rufus is complex - she is his descendant and is also somewhat of a mother figure to him, yet Rufus does not consider her an equal because of her skin color. This problem only grows as the novel progresses and Rufus gets older and more tainted by the norms of his time. 

It seems that Dana is not able to completely understand that Rufus is unable to see her as an equal, even if she is from the future and repeatedly saved his life. Dana continues to trust him, saying that he wouldn't do such and such things, yet when it comes down to it he betrays her trust. When these moments happen, Dana's attitude towards Rufus is like a mother toward her child - chiding and disappointed. For instance, when Dana confronts Rufus about not mailing out the letters, she asks him why, and forgives him yet again upon realizing how much he confides in her and needs her. 

However, as Rufus grows up, his attitude towards her gets increasingly worse. Blackmailing her to convince her to send Alice to him to get raped, ordering her around like a slave, and sending her to the fields as punishment for not saving his father. And Dana starts to realize that Rufus is a product of his environment. He was raised being taught that whites were better than blacks, and that blacks were essentially sub-human -- they were tools. Although Rufus is slightly detached from his time for 'loving' a black woman and 'doting' on their children, he still is very much a privileged white man who is used to getting what he wants. When he doesn't get what he wants, the punishment is harsh. It gets bad enough that Dana harms herself to go back to her own time. 

I have a feeling that Dana and Rufus' relationship is going to continue going downhill. Although I doubt that it will get to a point like Rufus and Alice's relationship as Dana cares for Rufus like a mother would and Rufus has some semblance of the emotion of a son towards a parent, after Rufus hits Dana at the end of 'The Storm,' a link of trust between them is severed, and it would be difficult to repair. Thoughts?

Billy, the Enlightened Idiot

We've debated in our discussions of Slaughterhouse-Five about the Billy's character. He's definitely not the stereotypical war hero, dashing out gallantly to defeat enemies and save the day. Nope, wishy-washy "so it goes" Billy Pilgrim is the complete opposite of that. He doesn't even try to save his life - he even gives snipers a second shot since they missed the first one. But is Billy a plain idiot, or is he actually an enlightened human being that manages to see the true beauty of the world?

There are many references to the Bible in Billy's story. There's the whole thing with the captain's shiny golden boots, in which Billy sees Adam and Eve, the symbols of mankind's lost essential innocence, and the androgynous pretty German boy, who is referred to as "a blond angel." Also, after Billy gets pushed into a shrub for the sake of a reenactment of the capture of the Americans, he keeps seeing something like St Elmo's fire around everyone's head, like a halo of light. And Billy seems to be a sincerely nice person - after all, he wants to share the news of the Tralfamadorians with everyone, to share their opinions of death and time, that because people will always be alive at some point, you don't have to be too sad when they die. Perhaps Billy sees the world through a purer lens (because of the Tralfamadorian influence?) and is able to kick back and enjoy the world since he already know what is happening has always happened and always will happen, no matter what he does. So while everyone around him is worrying about their fate, Billy can enjoy the little things in life and just float along, letting life take him where it wants to go.

Which really, really, ticks off everyone, since they're trying to survive while this bumbling fool is just enjoying the scenery, not caring if he dies or not.

Furthermore, Billy's last name, Pilgrim, could suggest a march to find a spiritual end. And there's also how Billy even got involved with the war. He was supposed to be a chaplain's assistant, which is a religious job.

What are your opinions? Is Billy a plain idiot, overly influenced by his time on Tralfamador (or his imagination - does Tralfamador only exist in Billy's mind?), or has he managed to transcend to a different plain of existence in comparison to his human counterparts and see things in a new light?

The Book of Thoth -- Important?

In our panel presentation, we touched briefly upon the topic of the Book of Thoth being the 'key' of Mumbo Jumbo, the 'final evidence' for the conspiracy surrounding Von Vampton and the Wallflower Order. We know that the Book of Thoth is important to the plot; Papa LaBas mentions throughout the book that Jes Grew is searching for "its Text," which is revealed to be the Book of Thoth. But how much impact does it actually have, besides being the Text that Jes Grew needs?

Say that the Book of Thoth still existed in the box the Papa LaBas brought. The rest of history afterwards would probably have changed drastically. For instance, because the Book was never proven to have existed, Papa LaBas' influence in the future is merely that of a yearly speaker for Jes Grew Day. He is considered "an eccentric old character from the 20s who thrills us with his tales about those golden times and his role in bringing about the holiday we are celebrating today," as a certain professor so aptly put it. But if Papa LaBas revealed the actual Book, in the best case scenario, he would have been hailed as a hero who brought the wrongs of the Atonists to light, instead of a talkative old man with very...interesting...ideas in an Atonist environment.

And as hinted at in the previous paragraph, that existence of the Book of Thoth could cause the mainstream Atonist worldview to wither away, and the 'true' African worldview to regain its prominence. We know that without the Book, the Atonists still held control of the world and had brainwashed even more Africans and African-Americans to hold those views as the years progressed. If it was proven that loas and the dances and Jes Grew were real things that influenced people, not just in terms of logic and scientific analysis, then perhaps more people would go back to the traditional ways and see the 'loa,' not 'a nervous breakdown.'

Thoughts?

Typos

We've barely started Mumbo Jumbo, and Ishmael Reed has straightaway thrown convention-breaking text at us: a distinct lack of quotation marks; the use of 1 in place of one; and Chapter 1 before the title page and everything else that usually comes before the story begins. However, the most subtle broken convention, yet the most startling when you notice it, are the typos scattered in the text.

Usually, if there's a typo within a published text, there will only be one or two, maybe three if the editing staff was really sleepy. But Mumbo Jumbo has a quite a few (four in the first sixty pages, by my count). Some of them are quite unfortunate - a "Jew Grew" rather than "Jes Grew" on page 17, for one - but with so many typos sprinkled throughout the text, I started to seriously question whether these were mere mistakes or if Reed had intentionally placed them there.

What tipped me off was a passage on page 47, when Reed is describing the sort of Dirty Work the Wallflower Order does to people who threaten the Atonist Path. He writes,

"Their writings were banished, added to the Index of Forbidden Books or sprinkled with typos as a way of undermining their credibility."

Since the Wallflower Order seems to be protecting all things Western and Mumbo Jumbo is a book with voodoo and African culture in it, Reed sprinkling his book with typos makes his book seem like a 'banished' book that had undergone edits by the Order,  a way of making his fictional Wallflower Order come to life. But this is pure speculation on my part.