Sympathy for Lee?

Following the life of Lee in Libra gives us a unique insight into his life. Rarely do we read a book that gives us someone’s entire story, from their early childhood until their death. For me, this changed how I view Lee Harvey Oswald as a person.

As I’m sure many of you have as well, I found myself comparing events in my life to Lee’s throughout the book. DeLillo did a really good job of humanizing him and making him into someone I could relate to. Even when I couldn’t personally relate to something Lee went through, I often felt sorry for him. Take, for instance, his childhood. DeLillo described how his father was dead, how he and his mother constantly moved around, and how he had lived in orphanages for parts of his life. 

Another way DeLillo made me sympathize for Lee was through the portrayal of Lee never fitting in. This is exemplified both in his childhood and in his adulthood as he travels to Russia and Japan. For instance, in the Bronx when he runs into two kids from his school, one says “But what kind of name is Lee? That’s a girl’s name or what?” (7). Other kids made fun of his accent. Lee never seeming to fit in no matter where he went made me feel bad for him, and I could somewhat relate. Everyone, including me has felt excluded at some point in their life.

Although I mostly sympathized with Lee through the beginning of the book, the end of the book reminded me of all the bad things he did. First, there was hitting Marina. And the big one, of course, was shooting the president. On the way to the movie theatre, he shot a policeman, too. I agree with what James said today in class: shooting the policeman made me lose all sympathy for Lee at the end of the book. Even if you could somewhat justify shooting the president with his confusion and the rest of the conspiracy as we discussed in class, shooting the policeman was something he did on his own and there is no excuse for it.

Though I still think Lee Harvey Oswald did many bad things, reading Libra did teach me more about his life and how he had legitimate struggles. I have not changed my mind about him, but DeLillo has made me see a depth to his character. DeLillo reminds us that he is a person who went through hardships in life, which we often forget when we know him as the man who shot JFK.

Tensions in Kindred

Last week my group gave a panel presentation on an article called “‘Do I look like someone you can come home to from where you may be going?’: Re-Mapping Interracial Anxiety in Octavia Butler's Kindred,” by Guy Mark Foster. We didn’t get to discuss all of our questions in much depth so I’d like to present an important argument to you now. For those of you who weren’t there, I will give a very short summary of what the author argued. One of the biggest points made by the author is that, as a result of reading other books that deal with the topic of racial oppression, we automatically assume that we need to read Kindred in this context as well, because of the characters it deals with. Because of this, we pay little attention to the relatively equal relationship between Kevin and Dana, unless it is under the lens of racial oppression. Foster also claims that many of the anxieties throughout the book come from societal and familial opposition to Kevin and Dana’s interracial relationship. This tension is one that Kevin and Dana hesitate to address, and the author also points out that this mirrors the silence around the subject that was present of the whole nation during major movements regarding racial equality.

We talked in class about the first part of the argument, so I will try to focus on the other points. I definitely think the point the author makes about societal and familial views placing a stress on Dana and Kevin’s relationship is valid. When they tell their respective families that they are going to marry, both families object. In “The Fight” Kevin recounts his conversation with his sister to Dana, and she said: “That she didn’t want to meet you, wouldn’t have you in her house, or me either if I married you.” This seems to introduce a different air of conversation, as Kevin tries to defend and distance himself from his sister and Dana responds dryly. Dana’s description of her uncle’s reaction to Kevin adds even more tension: “He wants me to marry someone like him—someone who looks like him. A black man.” To which Kevin responds with a sad “Oh.” To me, this scene just felt very awkward, and they didn’t seem to be very in sync as a couple.

To illustrate societal opposition to their relationship, Foster brings up the scene in the auto-parts warehouse where Buz asks Dana “You gonna write some poor-nography together!” And later when Kevin is also present he mutters “Chocolate and vanilla porn!” During this scene, it is clear to me that Dana and Kevin are both aware of the situation but refuse to discuss it. First, only Dana hears Buz’s comment, but she does not talk about it when Kevin is confused. After Buz makes another comment, Kevin says that he heard what he said. And that is the end of it. In this chapter, Dana makes her feelings clear to the readers, but she never tells Kevin about them or asks him what he is thinking. 

Overall, I can definitely see the point Foster is making, since both of these scenes made me a little uncomfortable and I think that Dana and Kevin were not communicating with each other very well. It also makes sense that these examples are used to show how the relationship reflects the attitudes of the nation. Even now, there is a silence around the topic of racial equality as many try to not to acknowledge some of the problems that exist in our society.

Kevin in Kindred

Through our reading of Kindred, the character I am constantly changing my mind about is Kevin.  When Dana is in the hospital at the beginning of the book, I was mostly just interested in reading further in the book to find out how the incident of losing her arm had happened, but I also took notice that Kevin was there comforting her. When Dana starts traveling back in time, however, there were some details in the book that made me a little uneasy about how Kevin would turn out as a character. For instance, her description of his eyes being similar to those of Tom Weylin’s, a very racist and cruel man, seemed like foreshadowing. Similarly, Dana mistaking Kevin for the patroller who beats her, and Kevin then asking her about it seems too specific to just be a random detail. I was also worried about their relationship in 1976 when Kevin became angry that Dana wouldn’t type things for him.

Another thing that makes it easy to doubt Kevin’s character is the amount of control he has over Dana as a result of the situation they are put in when they travel in time. Because of Kevin’s skin color and his role of being Dana’s owner, he has so much control over everything that happens to them. Dana spends a lot of time contemplating how easy it is to accept slavery and how her and Kevin fit into their roles so easily. Because Kevin isn’t in the same role as Dana and doesn’t have to change how he acts as much, it seems much easier for him to just brush off the awful things happening to the slaves. Kevin doesn’t have to change who he is as much. Dana, on the other hand, has to take up the role of a slave and be careful with every word she says, or she might get whipped. For instance, when he expresses excitement about being in a different time period and being able to travel, he does not seem to consider how Dana must feel about being put in a time period where she is treated as less than human. At this point of the book, I was not a big fan of Kevin as a character.

In class, we also talked about how Kevin is not intentionally acting racist or numb to what Dana is feeling, but just doesn’t always articulate things the way he should. When he and Dana discuss the whippings, Kevin, as Dana points out, minimizes the wrong that is being done even though he doesn’t mean to: “One is too many, yes, but still, this place isn’t what I would have imagined. No overseer. No more work than the people can manage…” (100). Even though it’s hard for him to understand Dana’s experience, we see evidence that Kevin isn’t actually racist. He still got into trouble for “not being able to tell the difference between black and white,” and when he remained in 1819 without Dana, he moved to the north where there is more equality. 

Even though I know that there is support in the book for Kevin’s lack of racism, I was again worried when Dana traveled back to 1976 without him. When they were united again, I was curious to see how much he would change and if he would have become more racist as a result of conforming to society. When Kevin and Dana returned home, seeing Kevin’s anger made me anxious, but I was also comforted by the fact that while he was away he had tried to help black people. So, although there are definitely things about his character that I don’t like, I am comforted in knowing that at the end of the book he will be supportive of Dana in the hospital, and I am eager to see Kevin and Dana’s interactions for the rest of the book.

Billy's "Transformation"

Slaughterhouse-5 is very different from most fictional books I read. Usually there is a main character who develops or solves a conflict throughout the story. For the most part of Slaughterhouse-5, this is not the case. In fact, Billy Pilgrim seems to be the opposite what you would expect out of a main character in a war novel. He seems completely neutral about everything, and other people even have to tell him what to do. Really, he is more of a bystander during the war scenes. Part of this could be because of his unique situation of being unstuck in time. You could argue that it’s impossible for him to have any character development, since he already knows everything that will happen in his life. Vonnegut has reasons other than this, making Billy’s detachment dare readers to shrug off all the deaths as well, and seeing the evils of war more clearly.

Despite his typical neutrality, Billy has an experience in chapter 8 that makes him self-conscious about his past. Seeing the  barbershop quartet sing at his wedding anniversary celebration shakes Billy, and he recalls the memory of seeing the four German guards after the bombing of Dresden, standing together with their mouths agape. This realization of past trauma shows more self awareness in Billy than has been shown in the rest of the book. Furthermore, it’s interesting that when he remembers this trauma, he doesn’t travel in time, but stays rooted in the present. This moment is one of Billy’s sanest moments, since he is remembering something that actually happened, rather than taking the choice of traveling in time, which might make the memory seem less realistic to some readers. Realizing the lives lost in the war helps Billy grieve more openly and discuss it with Montana Wildhack. In contrast, earlier in the book Billy was not able to talk about his war experience to his wife on their wedding night. Now, understanding his own experience, he is able to talk about it to others. So, even though Billy is still not the quintessential war hero, he still changes somewhat during Vonnegut’s story.

So I guess the real question is, why does Vonnegut choose to portray Billy this way after making him seem so detached the rest of the novel?

Questions Explained

In my last blog post, I expressed my confusion after reading the first few chapters of Mumbo Jumbo. Well, I can’t say that I understand it perfectly after finishing it, but I do think that the rest of the book does a good job of explaining some things that I didn’t fully understand initially, and also revealing some of the points the author conveys through the story. 

One thing that bothered me at the beginning was how the book begins with Reed seeming to purposefully confuse the readers by jumping around so much. One reason he does this could be to deviate from western convention. In class, we discussed how the book starts like a movie, with the “credits” or publication info coming after the first chapter. The end of the book is also different than that of a typical fictional novel, with the bibliography making it seem as though it is a scholarly book. There are also pictures, footnotes, and a hand-written letter. All of these make Mumbo Jumbo stand out from other novels. Other things I mentioned in my last post were the author’s use of numbers, commas, and quotation marks, all of which are very different from books I typically read. The most obvious reason for Reed’s stray from western convention is that he tries to mirror what Jes Grew is doing throughout his book. Jes Grew is very new to the western norms, and the book serves to show how the culture of Jes Grew developed and how people tried to stop it from spreading.

In my last post, I also expressed confusion regarding the frequent use of typos. In one chapter, Reed mentions that “Their writings were banished, added to the Index of Forbidden Books or sprinkled with typos as a way of undermining their credibility…” (I don’t remember what page this is on, but looking up the quote on Google Books gives you page 47). This gives us an answer to my question, that people inserted typos into Mumbo Jumbo so it would have less credibility, probably because of some of the ideas conveyed.

Speaking of controversial ideas, one thing I realized from reading Mumbo Jumbo is that Reed, like Doctorow, has a clear bias in his writing. Reed seems to portray those that are against Jes Grew in a negative way. This can be seen in those that try to lock up culture in the museum, or “Center for Art Detention.” Reed’s depiction of this as a sort of prison makes me see the people who lock up the culture in a bad way, and those who are trying to release it in a better light. To give another example, Reed also portrays PaPa LaBas, a supporter of Jes Grew, as a warm and relaxed person, which makes me see the African culture positively.

So, while I’m still a little confused about some parts of the book, I have realized a few new things. I also think that in the future, rereading this book would be very interesting because I think I’d understand everything much better from the very beginning.

Mumbo Jumbo Indeed

In the past few days, our class has started to become acquainted with Mumbo Jumbo and all the confusion that comes with it. After the first reading in particular, no matter how many times I reread the sentences, I couldn’t understand what was really going on. This is mainly because Reed’s writing is very incoherent, and jumps around so much. The first few chapters include so many different scenes, and the only thing they had in common was “Jes Grew.” This made it even more confusing, because initially I didn’t really have any conception of what that was. I don’t know why Reed chose to confuse everyone through reading the opening chapters, but I’m sure he had a reason, since he definitely could have made it a lot easier on us.

There are some things I’ve noticed in the first few readings, but I’d like to make clear that I have no idea if these details have any importance. I’m simply listing them in the hopes that later I’ll look back on this post and be able to say that I finally understand it. First, there are no quotation marks when people talk. This also happens in Ragtime, so I noticed it right away. The next thing that caught my eye was that there are many typos throughout the book. At first, I saw “Jew Grew” (17) and thought there was a special meaning to it, but it was later pointed out to me in class that there are many other misspellings of this nature. There may still be a meaning to it, but like I said, I guess we’ll just have to find out. Another thing I noticed was that the author never spells out his numbers. Now I understand that if you are writing bigger numbers, but he even uses it like “1 hand supports her head…” (25) or “2 mysterious bodies” (25), both of which most people would write out as “one” and “two.” These details were really interesting to me, so I hope I’ll be able to understand them soon.

The biggest mystery of the first part of the book, of course, is the enigma of Jes Grew. As we’ve read farther in the book, my current understanding of it is a form of black culture or dance. This makes sense as I read over the first chapter again. People with Jes Grew are described as “wriggling like fish…doing the ‘Sassy Bump’” (4). Today in class, we discussed it having to do with jazz, since this word used to be spelled “jass.” I’d also like to propose the idea that it sounds like “just grew,” which makes sense to me since it makes it seem like a spontaneous thing. This could also be supported in the text, with people being in a “state of ‘Uncontrollable Frenzy’” (4). Today in class, we also talked about how this makes sense, since people sometimes feel like they lose control of their body when they hear music. This certainly makes sense, since Jes Grew being compared to an illness also reminds me of songs describing dance as some kind of virus. Reed shows this in an interesting way when he quotes Louis Armstrong (Reed’s own opinion in italics of course): “Once the band starts, everybody starts swaying from one side of the street to the other…The spirit hits them and they follow” (7).

So, here are some of my thoughts on Mumbo Jumbo so far. Let me know if you have any insights to help me make more sense of this!

Doctorow's Portrayal of History

Out of our class discussions, I was most interested when we talked about Doctorow’s portrayal of history and how it shapes our view of the past. He inserts his own fictional characters and the thoughts of the historical characters into history, which makes us as readers pay more attention.

One of the first examples of this is in chapter six, where Doctorow addresses Freud’s comment that “America is a mistake” (39). Doctorow makes statements about the state of employment at that time, but in an ironic way to draw the readers in. At one point, he talks about child laborers, calling them “happy elves” (39). Despite the clear irony here, the tone he uses is very factual, and this lack of sympathy towards people who are working in these awful circumstances emphasizes the inhumane situations people were put in at this point in time. I think that in this way, Doctorow aims to let us view the past social norms in a more negative light so that we can try to change the way we treat people in the present.

The same goes for his portrayal of Evelyn Nesbit. I have to admit that, at first, her character wasn’t interesting to me at all. She was just a sex symbol without any substance. Even with the characters who were real people, Doctorow manages to draw the readers in. With most of the historical characters, we already know about their achievements, but the “unheard of” stories written by Doctorow add more significance to the person in the book. With Evelyn, her secret trips to visit Tateh and the Little Girl, although arguably creepy, show her helping people of the lower class. Doctorow makes her trips anonymous, which make her seem a lot less shallow than those rich people who get tons of recognition for every little charitable thing they do. I think that after reading this story, Doctorow wants the readers to think about the importance of the people of the upper class helping those who are less fortunate.

In class, we also spent a lot of time talking about Coalhouse Walker Jr. and his incident. Coalhouse's character is written very realistically. Sarah and Coulhouse are the only two fictional characters who have real names and not just nicknames, and I think this is meant to draw our attention to their story. Today, we discussed how at the beginning of chapter 23 Doctorow describes the inner thoughts of Coalhouse less than he does with most characters in the book. This can be seen in lines such as “Walker may have realized this was probably the maximum support he could expect from a policeman” (177), where the author doesn’t give us a definite explanation. Perhaps Doctorow keeps his distance in order to get us to realize the seriousness of the situation. For most of the book, the author’s tone has a sort of humor to it. By portraying Coalhouse in this way, he makes sure that the readers don’t find the scene funny, and he lets us form our own opinions about the story rather than just giving us the answers.

Doctorow also uses Father’s attitude towards the situation to emphasize the racism here. Father thinks that Coalhouse should have just paid the $25 when he was stopped by the firemen in the first place. He also says “any lawyer who loves justice will do” (180). These examples alone show Father’s ignorance of the real issue at hand, and draws readers’ attention to the blatant racism. 

So, through his own version of history, Doctorow tries to get the readers to realize the mistakes we as a society have made in the past, so we can attempt to learn from them now. I look forward to seeing if some of these trends continue throughout the book. Let me know what you think!