Libra is perfect
to read as the last book this semester for many reasons. Most obviously: it's
the one with the chronologically latest setting (except for parts of Kindred), and the most recently
published. Besides that, it feels like DeLillo is combining elements from
different books we've read so far. The overall writing style is most similar to
Ragtime: there are long, occasionally
confusing descriptive passages that get deep into characters' heads. The point
of view is third person omniscient, so we get to see events from many different
perspectives. The narrator, perhaps DeLillo himself, has a slightly snarky
voice at points.
If we continue this comparison, then the
character Lee is most similar to is Coalhouse Walker. If you look at them both
without passing any kind of moral judgment, then they are more alike than they
seem. Both Lee and Coalhouse are revolutionaries of varying degrees of success
(Coalhouse more successful than Lee, of course) and believe in using extreme tactics
to further their ideals. It's not really a very good comparison, because
Coalhouse has seemingly more concrete reasons for his anger, and comes across
as more justifiable than Lee.
In many ways, Libra reminds me even more of Slaughterhouse-Five.
Maybe it's just the part of the book we're in right now, with Lee in the Navy
and interacting with his army buddies (buddies? tormentors? inferior human
specimens? how does Lee really see them?). Lee's character is also a little
similar to Billy Pilgrim - the quiet, somewhat pathetic figure in the middle of
a war who nobody quite takes seriously. However, Lee is the polar opposite of
Billy in terms of passivity - he has a very definite plan for his life that he
tries desperately to achieve, while Billy just sort of wanders aimlessly
through everything. While Billy doesn't care about anything, Lee cares
passionately about his ideals, even though his ideals often contradict
themselves.
Even more notably, the structure of
Libra parallels that of Slaughterhouse-Five. While it sticks to
a conventional linear timeline from its characters' point of view, the plot is
constantly coming unstuck in time between various points in Lee's life and the
months leading up the the JFK assassination. Both novels center around one
climactic event that the reader anticipates from the beginning: the
assassination, Dresden. There's a sense of a countdown. In both books, there's
also a character who's ostensibly looking in on the story after the fact,
trying to make sense of it all: Vonnegut, Nicholas Branch. An interesting
structural difference is that in Slaughterhouse-Five,
the focal event takes place before most of the book, chronologically speaking,
and the scattered segments of Billy's life take place (from a linear
perspective) after he has experienced Dresden. However, in Libra, the main
event happens at the end of Lee's life, and the scattered scenes take place as
backstory.
I find your comparison between Lee and Coalhouse very interesting and it makes me question how we would perceive Lee if we didn't already know him as the man who shot JFK. Coalhouse is a generally sympathetic character to us, but would we see him as "the crazy man who blew up the president" if he had succeeded in his plot? How would that change Ragtime? I also can definitely see the parallels that you present between S5 and Libra. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comparison of Libra and Ragtime. The style of trying to get into the heads of some of the characters sways how we view the characters even if we know how they will turn out in the end as is the case for Lee. I would say that Lee and Coalhouse are a little similar, but there are definitely more differences. Lee seems to be what he is doing just to get some sort of attention and prove he is better than his peers rather than having a real revolutionary agenda.
ReplyDeleteThe character that's closest to Lee in _Ragtime_, to my mind, would be Younger Brother--the alienated white idealist who pins his identity the idea of social revolution (think of Lee getting beat up for quietly protesting segregated buses in N.O.). There's a similar ambiguity to both characters--we can't tell how "for real" they are, and they both have these potentially dangerous, violent undercurrents (Lee's interest in guns, YB's explosives). They both are eager for a chance to merge with the flow of history, to make some massive impact on the world.
ReplyDeleteAnd remember, Emma Goldman says that YB reminds her of Czoglosz, the man who assassinated McKinley.