Developing a Conspiracy: Forwards and Backwards

Coming out of Kindred and into Libra, I wasn't too sure how Libra would strike me. However, over the past week I've come to really enjoy Libra. Theory crafting and conspiracies are my thing as I've come to realize. While I'm not intimately acquainted with the deepest parts of theories on the JFK assassination, I think that helps this novel and makes it more interesting. We are revealed information on the matter in an unpredictable way comparable to how the events unfold in the novel or even how they happened in the past. As interesting as it is to see DeLillo reconstruct Lee Harvey Oswald's life from what we know about him, I find it quite intriguing how DeLillo takes the unexplainable and makes a new theory that combines various other theories on the assassination and tries to connect them into a, still bizarre, but mildly coherent theory in itself. We're able to connect dots and make our own theories as DeLillo has Win, Parmenter, and Banister enact their devious plans.

In itself this isn't anything particularly special, but akin to Kindred, our knowledge of the end of the matter influences how we perceive the events happening in the moment. We understand that Lee Harvey Oswald will be heavily involved in the conspiracy, JFK will be killed, and the USA does not enact essentially another attempt at Castro's life after. This leaves us in a position similar to the conspirators, assuming it works but not knowing how the process will play out. They try to connect the dots towards a goal, gathering information as they come by it, start to finish. We try to connect the dots from the result, discovering the process, finish to start.

There's still plenty of the novel left for the plan to come together in one form or another, so we still have plenty of time to work it out for ourselves. I can only imagine just how deep the conspiracy goes.

Contemplating Perception

Plenty of discussion we've had has been about the effects of the Antebellum South on the people who are already living in the time period, Dana and Kevin from the 20th century, and ourselves from the 21st century. Gradually the conversations have built upon one another as Dana has traveled to and returned from the 19th century, becoming ever more involved with how we may have dealt with the situations that Dana has been put in. Rather, we've talked about how we can't really understand the situations we read about in the same way Dana is experiencing them or easily think about how characters like Rufus would act in a 20th or 21st century environment.

Frankly, it's almost infuriating to me that, unless we've gone through a similar experience (as wholly awful that would be), we can't fully connect with the characters or understand the motivations of characters like Rufus. Not justifying any actions taken, it's both confusing and sometime appalling just how those from the Antebellum South act, even though we know that the actions are based off of them living their entire lives in that environment. Because of this, I somehow can't find myself to totally despise Rufus, but I'm still leaning over the edge of hating him for a multitude of obvious reasons. In a similar vein, though not in a negative way, it's becoming more and more apparent how Alice seems to be acting like Dana, except from a different time (which brings up even more quandaries in my mind when it comes to the situation Dana is in). Really our lack of being able to perceive the world in the same way Dana does or experience it the same way either, works better for us as readers. We can experience a similar sense of disgust and shock without having to personally experience it. We just need to gut it out with Dana through her experiences.