I’d never known too much about the Kennedy Assassination before watching the documentary “JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America” in history class. I was quite intrigued by the documentary and it prompted me to look further into the details surrounding the assassination, which in turn led me to the wide array of conspiracy theories people have come up with over the years. I enjoy conspiracy theories quite a bit and I think part of the reason I, and many people, are attracted to conspiracies is the feeling of being a part of a select group that knows more than the rest. However, as with all conspiracies, there must be some reason it is recognized as a theory rather than the truth. This is usually the result of a lack of cold, hard facts.
I am really enjoying Libra so far. Libra, while not being purely factual, does an excellent job of tying in many small details to the narrative to give it a sense of realism. For example, DeLillo subtly ties the name “Hidell” into the story which is known to be the the name under which Oswald ordered the rifle that he used to assassinate Kennedy. There are many more situations where DeLillo manages to incorporate obscure facts into the story and while the reader may not know that by simply looking through, if you take a step back and look up the details that DeLillo mentions, it makes the story and theory all the more compelling. Furthermore, the depth at which DeLillo presents his characters provides an additional level of outlandish reality that a reader may interpret as too specific to be fake. In addition to this, DeLillo introduces an interesting perspective on the story with a dual narrative approach, one focused on the Oswald himself, and the other focused on the greater development of the ruse by government officials. Of course, the narrative must involve Oswald as he was the one that actually did the killing, but by utilizing the second narrative to give greater context to the assassination, DeLillo makes it seem more reasonable; a planned out act rather than some lunatic lone gunman that somehow assassinated the President of the United States.
All together, I think that DeLillo has provided a compelling start to the narrative of the conspiracy theory. However, we have only just began to delve into Libra and as conspiracy theories unravel, it is oftentimes the case that the holes in the story become ever more common and evident as the lack of factual backing to the narrative shows itself. I am looking forward to seeing whether or not DeLillo's narrative style continues to provide a compelling story.
It is interesting how DeLillo puts obscure facts into the story. I think it adds a level of complexity to the story as we can understand how some of these conspiracy theorists think in terms of how they imagine the relationships between pieces of information and other motive that may not be know as clearly. DeLillo does a really good job of incorporating these facts and it adds to the plausibility of his story as well.
ReplyDeleteI also found the depth of the characterizations and the level of detail (especially obscure details) very interesting in the story. They really serve to make the fictional parts more believable because some of the facts that DeLillo inserts are even more unbelievable than the fiction he creates. I am very impressed with the amount of research that DeLillo must have done to write this book and I appreciate how hard he is working to create a maximally realistic narrative.
ReplyDeleteYou tap into an interesting and rarely discussed appeal of the conspiracy theory here: that feeling of knowing (or believing one knows) the "real" story, the story-behind-the-story that everyone else is missing, the sense of peeling back the curtain and seeing the actual workings of history, not falling for official propaganda, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's a short hop from this feeling of smug, secure knowledge to utter paranoia, but I do like to remind people that the basic act of working out a conspiracy theory--when taken seriously--isn't all that different from conventional historical reconstruction: a plot is sorted out and takes shape from the available evidence. We'll see how satisfying you find DeLillo's efforts to trace a coherent narrative amid the tangle of facts surrounding JFK.
Hide the L in Lee.
ReplyDelete