Leebra

I've been wondering for a while why the name of this book is Libra, and now it's finally clear why, so that's cool. Today in discussion we kind of compared Lee's qualities to the supposed qualities of a Libra, and I figured it'd be fun to think about it some more.

According to http://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com/zodiac-signs/libra/ :

"People born under the sign of Libra are peaceful and fair, and they hate being alone. Partnership is very important for Libra -born, and with their victorious mentality and cooperation, they cannot stand to be alone."

When I first read this I disagreed, since the Lee we've seen likes to be different and weird, but I guess you could say that Lee wanting partnership makes sense since he does all of these different and weird things to try and get people's attention. Additionally, he always wants to move around since he thinks he'll be better accepted in other places. A few contrasting points: Lee has partnership in Marina but he doesn't seem to want to be her companion, despite the fact that they're married. I think that Lee has a hard time listening to others and prioritizing, since he only really thinks about himself, which is why he always wants to move, even though he probably should be thinking about his wife and child who he is unable to support. Also I wouldn't say he's peaceful, considering one night with his old friend he decided he wanted to murder someone. 

"The Libra is an Air sign, with expressed intellect and a keen mind. They can be inspired by good books, insurmountable discussions and interesting people."

I would say that Lee was pretty inspired by Das Kapital, and that led to a lot of what's happened in the book. He's almost too influenced by these communist figures, it's taken over his life, and like I said earlier, he always wants to move around to find a place where his ideals will be praised and he will be lauded for his beliefs. I would say that Lee is fairly intelligent, but he's so easily manipulated or influenced that it causes problems.

"The ruling planet of Libra is Venus, who is a lover of beautiful things, so the quality is always more important than the quantity for people born under the Libra sign. They are often surrounded by art, music and beautiful places. They are cooperative by nature, so they often work in teams."

Eh, questionable.

"Libra is fascinated by the balance and symmetry. Libra-born prefer justice and equality, and they cannot tolerate injustice. They avoid indulging in all types of conflicts and prefer to keep the peace, where this is possible. They like to do everything in pairs and not alone."

I find the last part of that quote to be interesting because Lee attempted to kill Walker with Dupard, not by himself. Along with that, I suppose that Lee could consider all his fairly violent acts as being "just". To be fair, Walker was a terrible person. While Lee probably didn't try to shoot Walker for that reason, but rather, for his own personal gain, the argument could be made that he believes his actions are to uphold justice. 

"The biggest problem for Libra-born, is when they are forced to choose sides, because they are very indecisive and sometimes they forget that they have their own opinion."

It seems like Lee has tried to be very different and individualistic throughout this whole novel, so I'm not sure about the indecisive or forgetting that he has his own opinion part, BUT I think this does fit, since we've seen how easily Lee can be influenced or manipulated. This is the only weakness that this website gave me for Libras, but I still think we can get a decent amount of character from these descriptions (surprisingly). He definitely doesn't completely fit this image, but I think it's interesting how Lee and Libras line up.

Lee has made quite the transformation since my last blog post, which talked about how sympathetic I found him to be, especially when considering his upbringing. Now his character is definitely more complex, and I guess that can kind of be seen when thinking about Lee as a Libra.

Little Lee

At this point in Libra, Lee Harvey Oswald is just Lee. He's not referred to by his full name, he's not an assassin, he's just Lee. Does this make him more of a sympathetic character? We talked in class today about how Lee kind of seems like a normal kid, kind of seems weird, and kind of seems like an asshole. I guess in order to figure out this character, we have to consider his circumstances.

He hasn't had a perfect upbringing. His mother didn't get a good settlement from her divorce with Mr. Ekdahl, which means he constantly has to move around, and he doesn't have a lot of friends and is a loner. I do kind of feel bad for him because he and his mother have struggled, and it can't be easy as a 13 year old to be so unstable. This might have to do with how he actually acts. He's rude to his mother and appears to look for trouble (he smirks when talking about how he got punched in the face. Not something that a lot of people would do). Perhaps one of the things that we've found to be most unusual about Lee is that he enjoys reading communist and Marxist propaganda as a young teenager. This might be something else that can be explained by his upbringing. I think what Aja said in class today was really interesting: while he may just be carrying around Das Kapital to show off to people how smart he is and to be a poser, it's definitely plausible that he might like this idea. A capitalist society hasn't benefited him or his mother, and the idea that there's a possibility for a change or something different might be appealing. I think with this background, DeLillo is able to make this character appear to be somewhat sympathetic, and if you don't consider the name Lee Harvey Oswald, the person he's describing could be anyone. It is still kind of weird that someone so young would want to read all of this Marxist literature, and that he bought a gun, but I don't know, Lee still isn't what I expected. He isn't painted like a villain, he isn't written like "Lee Harvey Oswald."

I wouldn't say that I entirely sympathize with Lee at this point because I still find him to be rude and he doesn't have the greatest personality, but it's certainly interesting how DeLillo has painted Lee Harvey Oswald from the history books as just a kind of weird kid in his teens. I'm interested to see him transform as he gets a little older (if he transforms at all?) What do you think about Lee?

A Tale of Unrequited Something

This post is going to be a collection of thoughts about Rufus, and will probably be filled with a bunch of different ideas all jumbled together. Rufus is an interesting character. We've seen him at various points in life and he's incredibly different every time Dana travels back to see him. So I can't quite figure out what I think about him because he's almost a different person every chapter. I have to admit that I have been sympathetic towards him at some points in the novel, but it changes every time I blink, so I don't really know what to say about his character. Moving on then.

In class we talked about whether Rufus and Alice's relationship (or whatever you want to call it) is like an unrequited love, and I think this is a difficult question to answer because I'm not sure if Rufus knows what love is. Was that an exaggeration? Maybe. But I think that Rufus' life experiences have really skewed his idea about love. We talked in class today about how Rufus seems to only have unstable relationships in his life. His mother, who did seem to love him unconditionally, horrible as she was, abandoned the family. His father thinks he's an idiot and is incredibly harsh. You could say that Dana is one of his friends but he's conditioned to see her as a slave and she keeps leaving too. So not a whole lot of love here. I don't deny that Rufus doesn't have the capability to understand feelings, but with this kind of upbringing I'm sure it's very confusing for him, and that might explain why his love for Alice is so...unconventional. We talked in class about how this has made him more forceful, and we can definitely see that in his "relationship" with Alice. He exercises extreme control in this relationship because it seems to be the only one that he has any control over in the first place. Maybe considering Rufus' situation, we can call this an unrequited love. We'd have to twist the definition of the word "love" a little bit though.

While I think this "love" is really quite pathetic, it does make Rufus more human. At least the feelings for Alice part, raping her makes him more despicable, and once again, I don't know how to feel about Rufus because I understand he's been shaped by his environment but at the same time I don't want to condone his actions at all. So, unrequited love? Or at least unrequited something? What do you think about Rufus' relationships and his version of love?

Anti Anti-War Hero?

What would it be like to be in Billy's place? What would it be to be unstuck in time? Well I have no idea. I don't know if I'd be like Billy, who is basically just a bystander throughout the entire book, especially if I had the knowledge about time/the lack of free will, etc. that he had.

A few days ago we talked about Billy's position in the wars scenes and how he seems very passive. When we see him in the war, all he does is stand around and miraculously not get killed, despite being probably one of the worst people you could have behind enemy lines. So is he an anti-hero? Or maybe even an anti-war hero? Eh, I'm not so sure about that. Like we discussed in class, Billy isn't necessarily being malicious or evil in any way, so he probably can't exactly be considered an anti-hero. He's the protagonist in this novel, which is an anti-war novel, so maybe he's an anti-war hero, but it's not like he's done anything that exactly goes against war besides being a useless protagonist in Vonnegut's novel? I don't know, I'm not really sure how to classify Billy. I want him to be more active in his life, not just stand in the background and watch it go by him. But at the same time, I don't know if I can blame him.

An idea that was drilled into his head by the Tralfalmadorians was that there is no free will. Billy's life is already decided, nothing he does will change anything, he will always get the same outcomes. Plus, with being unstuck in time, it's not like anything is a surprise. He knows what's going to become of his life. So maybe standing around while the war is literally happening right before his eyes isn't irresponsible. Maybe not working more to stay safe isn't a flaw. He knows he's going to live through it, so technically, doesn't he have nothing to worry about? If it were me, I would probably be more relaxed about the whole thing too (although maybe not quite to the degree that Billy is). While I don't think that he should be so passive about the rest of his life (his marriage, etc.), I can see why this would be the case during World War II.

Billy's a strange character with a strange story, and some of his actions definitely annoy me, but with is unique situation, I guess some of it makes sense. Do you see him as an anti/anti-war/anti anti-war hero? Or is he just a reasonable guy?

Why Didn't You Just Say That in the First Place

Chapter 52 and Chapter 52 were kind of really weird and sort of confusing, but they made the novel make so much more sense to me. As ridiculous as PaPa LaBas' story was, that background definitely helped me to understand Jes Grew more, plus it was interesting, even though I found it to be kind of convoluted. So that's good. However, I can't help but wish that Reed had put these chapters earlier in the novel. As soon as we started Mumbo Jumbo, we established that this book is unique in its setup, since it can be compared to a movie. I know we talked about it weeks ago, but after reading the chapter 52s, I can definitely see how the book is like a movie. But seriously, if he had put them earlier in the book, it would've made our lives so much easier. I feel like I understand what's going on in this novel now, which is something I was unable to say for the first 51 chapters. But that's okay, because now I am using the necessary backstory to create a full picture in my mind and everything is working out. Now let's talk about the backstory itself.

I thought that the backstory was interesting, especially because Reed kind of mixed religions/belief systems together. Let's see who we have:
1) Osiris, Set, and Isis (Thoth as well?)-- Egyptian gods
2) Dionysus -- Greek god
3) Moses -- Bible

There's probably more, but you probably get the idea. Plus there's also mention of other people in these chapters, like Thermuthis, daughter of Tutankhamen, who adopted Moses, Jesus, some more pharaohs, etc. I thought it was interesting that Reed used elements from both polytheistic and monotheistic religions to create this story. I have two ideas about why he would do so. I'm inclined to believe that doing so allows him to make a commentary on monotheistic religions, since it seems like that's what he's been doing throughout the novel, especially since he uses a lot of aspects from voodoo and loas. On the other hand, maybe he used all of these characters as a way to relate Jes Grew to everyone. The Book of Thoth and dancing isn't contained into just one religion, it's more universal, and as we've seen, it can impact everyone, so maybe this story adds to the background of Jes Grew.

I don't know, I feel like I'm getting this completely wrong, but that's just what I gathered, my first impression, whatever you want to call it. I definitely want to analyze these scenes more closely because I think there's a lot of interesting information that can reveal more about the book as a whole.

The Baron

Note: I haven't read past chapter 35, so if everything goes to hell in the next few chapters, keep that in mind while reading this post.

With that being said, I was so happy when it was revealed that the Baron Ashkenazy was Tateh. It was really surprising because everyone so far has had really shit luck. Evelyn (who isn't even in the novel anymore) seems to have lost her drive long ago. Houdini's mother died and he's dealing with an insane amount of grief. The family had to leave New Rochelle due to Coalhouse's terrorism as an aftermath of Sarah's death and Mother's Younger Brother, whose had a lot of bad luck throughout the novel, has left them to help Coalhouse (although they don't know about this at the moment). Basically a lot has happened. The last time we saw Tateh, he had sold his flipbook, so he was having a bit of good luck but I definitely didn't expect it to continue.

Part of the reason I find this to be so unexpected is because throughout the novel we've seen that Doctorow has had quite a negative view of the American Dream. In the beginning of the book, he spends a lot of time describing the living conditions of immigrants and the terrible opportunities they have. At one point, Doctorow writes that someone who is "born to extreme wealth" and is able to "multiply the family fortune till it is out of sight" is a true American hero. With all the depictions of Tateh's unsuccessful attempts at establishing himself in a union in Lawrence alongside J.P. Morgan and Ford's success, it's kind of nice to see Tateh is able to find a good job in film, especially since we've followed him around and seen.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if Tateh's great success is Doctorow's way of poking fun at the American Dream. I know Tateh is a fictional character but even then, his outcome is just so unrealistic. He just happens to be able to work with the Franklin Novelty Company and rise to the top after spending so much time struggling in the Lower East Side. It's great what happened to him, but it seems like the perfection of Tateh's story is to make the reader question the reality of the situation. After all, we're very aware of the conditions that other immigrants live in, and we know how different Tateh's life was before. Is Tateh's story another way for Doctorow to point out the unrealistic expectations of the American Dream? Is this Doctorow's way of making the reader realize the ridiculous chance of this scenario actually playing out? I want to believe that it's just Doctorow giving him and the little girl a happy ending, but I'm getting the feeling that there's more to the story. In any case, I really hope their luck continues.

Kim K.

 

Ok so this blog post is in fact not about Kim Kardashian West. For my first post of the semester, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on Evelyn Nesbit. We talked about her a lot in class and I'm going to try to figure out what I think about her because at this point, I'm really not sure. She definitely reminded me of Kim Kardashian, though. A public figure who is viewed as a sex symbol and constantly scrutinized, even if she isn't even doing anything (similarly to Kim). Evelyn's "scandal" has made her quite famous and obviously alters the public's views of her (once again, think of Kim), and I think it's important that we view her story in this context. Her life isn't "normal" (whatever normal means), and I think she very badly needed to meet Tateh and little girl and get away from the limelight and be herself.

The way that Doctorow depicts Evelyn is so interesting to me. Everybody knows who she is and we often forget that famous people are still people. Doctorow seems to use this idea and gives Evelyn's character depth. We learn a lot about her and follow her on her trips to the Lower East Side, and I have to say that seeing an upper class woman who is often in the spotlight like this really makes me appreciate her as a character. Knowing what her life is like also makes me think that her excursions in the slums are ok. I don't think it's wrong for her to want an escape. Her life is hectic, and at least her escape is somewhat productive (at least in my eyes). She really does love being with Tateh and the little girl, and although she does want to give them charity, she truly cares about them, so I wouldn't say that she's being selfish and wanting only to fill a void in herself by doing so or rude by very clearly going against Tateh's wishes.

Although I see a lot of positive qualities in Evelyn, I can definitely see why some people think she's a creep. While I was reading I thought it was great that she wanted so badly to help Tateh and the little girl, but looking more closely at the book, it does seem really strange. I mean a lot of the scenarios in Doctorow's book seem strange, but I'll admit that thinking about this does kind of paint Evelyn as a stalker. We also mentioned that Evelyn's character, though frivolous on the surface, has depth and a political consciousness. But at the same time, it mentions that when she donates to charities, magazines, and other things that Emma Goldman introduced to her, but she feels no joy when doing this. I think it's nice that Evelyn is more aware, but her lack of passion sort of brings me back to the upper class persona that she shows the world, since she's essentially just throwing money around at these organizations and funds. Side note: I think it's really weird how she gets together with Younger Brother, especially considering how they met and looking forward to how she seemed to grow bored of him very quickly. 

I like Evelyn overall, but it does seem like as the story continues, her character becomes less interesting. In the earlier chapters where she is with Tateh and little girl, I really like her and I don't think she's as problematic as some people think she is, but as the story goes on, I think she loses her depth and goes back to being superficial. What are your thoughts on Evelyn?