Blog Post
During our last class, we delved into the idea of Oswald knowing that we were having these discussions about Libra. Many people said that Oswald would be entertained, would be happy, or this would boost his ego. However I think that these people were not correct.
What genre is Libra? As much as some people might not want to accept it, Libra is fiction. This is why I think the question about whether or not Oswald would enjoy the fact that such a book exists and we are learning about it in a high school classroom has a bad foundation. Anyone that reads Libra can admit that it is impressive that DeLillo could write such a book, grounded in facts. However, any reader can also willingly admit that it is a piece of fiction. Not at any point in reading this book did I even consider that it could be a correct account of the fact, though it was very fun to play around with DeLillo’s ideas.
Additionally, the way that the book paints Oswald is less than cryptic. He is directly depicted as arrogant and easily manipulatable, not to mention that he abused his wife. Others around him think he thinks he is smarter than he is. Oswald is largely described as a bad person in almost every way. I don’t think that Oswald would be appreciative of this description.
On the other hand, he may have enjoyed the legacy that his supposed conspiracy has left on the world, assuming DeLillo’s description of him being cocky and self-absorbed is accurate. He always looked at himself in a historical context. He pictured himself as being seen as a political revolutionary, and the existence of a conspiracy around these events only proves him right. The conspiracy theories are so widespread that almost anyone you ask knows the name Lee Harvey Oswald. Maybe in the greater context, it doesn’t even matter that books like Libra, that belittle Oswald, exist.
Great post Roberts, Ethan Samuel! I agree with you that we cannot use this novel as a source to understand a factual explanation of what happened and the motive for Oswald's actions. Although, I do think there is merit to discussing how Oswald would feel about his legacy though since we are not trying to come to a factual conclusion, but rather a pondering of how he may have felt.
ReplyDeleteYour post made a laugh a little (nah not really) about the way that everyone discussed this book in class. DeLillo did such a good job of blending history and fiction together that everyone was treating this book and talking about it like it was a historical record of what happened. In fact, many of us - at least I was - had our view of the real Oswald somewhat changed by this novel, as if it represented who he really was. You're right, this book IS fiction - but it does its job really well. Great post, Roberts! You brought me back to reality.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that you pointed out that at the end of the day, Libra is a work of fiction because a lot of the connections are what DeLillo put together in his head. For some reason, I treated Libra like a biography and authoritative history of Lee Harvey Oswald's life and involvement in the Kennedy assassination and that's definitely not what this book is. However, it is a conspiracy sense in a way and I think that conspiracy theories do try to tell or at least resemble the truth in one way or the other. Libra is definitely fiction but I think it also raises the question: can fiction be the truth if we don't know what the full truth is? Nice post though!
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of your ideas, but I still believe that Libra is more of a historical fiction or even a biographical fiction (biographical since it details so much of Oswald’s life). We shouldn’t use this book as a representation of history or a factual representation of what happened, but it still can be a historical fiction. Delillo does a great job of merging history and fiction, creating a fictional story inside his head that blends very well with the historical facts we know. Oswald’s motivations and backstory stem in part from fiction but can still be explanations for the murder of JFK. I support your idea that Oswald would like the infamy and the conspiracy theories that arose from the murder of JFK as he is largely depicted as attention-seeking in the novel. Oswald likes to keep people away from the truth and by doing this, people make assumptions about what really happened, spurring a wave of competing evidence and even more attention for Oswald. This post brings up a lot of great questions about what we really know and don’t know. Great job!
ReplyDeleteDeLillo does such a great job with this book that it's hard not to accept Libra as reality. When I talk about Harvey Lee Oswald and picture what his personality was like, I immediately think of how he is depicted in this book. Although Libra is very believable, we have to keep in mind that it is fiction. Great job!
ReplyDeleteDeLillo's characterization of Lee Oswald hews VERY close to the pretty extensive historical record, and for a guy whose history is so full of confusing details and apparent contradictions, the author does an incredible job of drawing a coherent and very plausible character for him. If you want to get a sense of how closely DeLillo's fictional Lee fits with the historical Lee, check out Norman Mailer's extensive nonfiction biography _Oswald's Story_, published in 1995 (after _Libra_). Mailer draws on all of the available information on Lee, including a ton of interviews with people who knew him well or encountered him briefly (including a bunch of his friends in Minsk, the tour guide who led him around Moscow, the people in the CIA office in Mexico City, etc.). And Mailer concludes that there is no larger conspiracy and Lee acted alone--he has pretty clear contempt for Oswald throughout the book. But I think you'll find that DeLillo's version of Lee is VERY recognizable in Mailer's book, and the fact that we talk about Oswald to this day doesn't only rely on this work of historical fiction. There's a good amount of nonfiction on Oswald, and maybe you'd find that a more legit "foundation" for analyzing his character--the way novelists do.
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