Nicholas Branch is an Unnecessary Part of Libra

I brought this point up in class the other day; this idea that the whole Nicholas Branch part of Libra  is a really unnecessary aspect of the book. Now, maybe this idea stems from the fact that even after having finished the novel, I STILL don't understand what Branch was up to and in fact found all of his parts extremely confusing, but from what I do understand about Branch and his story, they don't seem to be an integral part of the novel.

That sentence was long. Let me try again.

What I'm trying to say is that I think Libra could've succeeded as a story without Branch and his parts. Like, to me it seemed Branch was put in to give the novel that "meta" aspect we've talked about so much in class. But I feel like Libra itself already had that aspect to it. I mean, just looking at the JFK assassination from a different perspective and under different circumstances causes us to rethink and reshape our thoughts on what really happened and why and the consequences of that. We don't need a character in the book to help channel those thoughts because just by simply reading, we are having them. (Hope that made more sense.)

The thing is, Branch didn't really add anything to the story, at least not for me. He was more of an annoyance than anything else. I'd be smack dab in the middle of Lee's story, and then all of a sudden I'm reading about Branch, and I'm like, "Hold up. What's this? What's going on?" It'd get so confusing, simply because I was so wrapped up in the Lee story that I had forgotten about the Branch part of it. And I think that's when you can tell if a character or if a part of a story is unnecessary.

I encountered the same thing with my short story project. I had used a frame narrative couple for meta purposes and to ease my way into my main story. The frame narrative couple basically stood as bookmarks for the main novel couple. But that didn't work. As my peer edit told me, "I had completely forgotten about your other couple, and so when they came in I was like 'Whoa, who are these people?' and had to go searching to find where they had been before." (Or, well, he said something like that.) The point is, there was no use for my frame narrative couple. What I wanted to use them for worked out fine without them. My story stood without them, and the messages I wanted conveyed were conveyed. And that's why I feel like Nicholas Branch and his story is unnecessary,

But hey. It's ok, Branch. You can go hang with my frame narrative couple.

Lee at the Hands of Fate

In my last post, I asked what makes Lee so easily manipulated? Why is it that he goes along so willingly with other people's plans and ideas? I stated it was because of him wanting to find himself and find a place to belong. However, I now offer up a different answer. Fate and astrology.

Libra plays on these two main themes; the idea that Lee has a certain fate that can not be avoided and is essentially linked to his astrological sign, which of course, is Libra. As a Libra, and especially if we're looking at the negative aspects of that astrological sign, Lee is unsteady and impulsive. We see these traits appear several times in the novel, for example when Lee shot himself or when he planned the assassination of General Walker. However, the main thing about Lee being a Libra that leads into his unavoidable fate, is the fact that he is, "easily, easily, easily influenced." Because of how Lee is, he's able to be easily manipulated by other people, thus explaining his entire part in the JFK assassination. Lee can not avoid his astrological sign, which means he can not avoid being so easily influenced and manipulated. He truly is a victim of fate. It was Lee's fate to be a Libra, and being that Libra is the reason why he got involved int he JFK assassination.

But it goes further than that. See, I used to think that the whole assassination plot was Ferrie's thing. He was the evil mastermind that developed the whole scheme, and was the one who personally manipulated Lee into getting involved in it. In my eyes, he planned the entire thing. But I know that's just not so. Ferrie admits himself that JFK coming to Dallas where Lee just happens to be and his car taking a route that goes right by the building where Lee works is something he could never arrange and I believe that. Those things are not just mere coincidences. It's fate. Lee is somehow meant to assassinate the president, and it seems to be some sort of astrological destiny.

It really makes you think differently about Lee. He's a victim of fate. What can you do? Do we still blame him, if the only reason he acted was because of outside forces out of anyone's control that controlled him? Do we put the blame on him because his astrological sign caused so much trouble? I mean, can you even do that? Someone's astrological sign is a part of him, so in effect, can you blame someone for doing something bad if it's in their blood, if they can't help it at all?

This all makes me very nervous and confused. Especially since I'm a Libra.

Why is Lee So Easily Manipulated?

In Libra, Lee becomes a pawn in this secret plan to "assassinate" and miss the President. From my point of view, he's being manipulated this entire time. He never really knows what's going on, but he goes along with it. Why, I ask you? What makes Lee so easily malleable? Why is it that everyone can control him. to an extent of course, but still. Lee moves from place to place, sometimes on his own accord, but sometimes based on the talk of others. He let's people tell him what to do, or at least takes their suggestions and follows through with it. Why?

I think it's because Lee is desperate to fit in somewhere and make a name for himself. From his childhood, he was always displaced. No matter where he lived, people made fun of him. Lee just wanted to be liked and accepted by them, but he was turned away. So, in an effort to find himself and find his place, Lee turned away from the U.S. and headed off to Russia. But even there, he wasn't a part of anything. He thought he was, but in truth, he still didn't find who Lee was and where he fit in the world. So when he comes back to the U.S., a different man but still a man who doesn't quite know who he is, he's easily taken under anybody's wing.

Lee just needs to find himself and his niche. We've seen him try several different things, a military man, a U.S. citizen, a Russian citizen, Pro-Castro, communist, socialist, assassin, etc. The list just goes on and on. I really think that Libra is about Lee trying to find himself and where he belongs, but because he's so desperate to find all this, he'll take on any role and go anywhere and do anything, because it just might end up being what he needs. And for that, I feel sorry for him. You know, Lee really wants this, and he tries so hard to get it. He goes through not only emotional pain but physical as well. Those shots he fired at himself? A cry for attention, yes, a cry for something because to Lee, without knowing who he is or where he belongs, he doesn't have anything. And that's what I feel is so sad about his character; that he's such a lost soul that he will go to the ends of the earth by any means necessary to find who he is and where he truly belongs.

Assassins

My mind is just filled with too many musicals.

Since starting Libra, all I can think about is the musical by Stephen Sondheim, "Assassins," which tells the stories of the people who both succeeded and failed in assassinating a president. Each of the assassins stories, called ballads, are narrated/sung by a balladeer, who later is revealed to be Lee Harvey Oswald. In the song, "Take a Look, Lee" the ghosts or spirits or whatever of previous and future presidential assassins convince Lee to kill JFK instead of taking is own life. They tell how his name will leave on for years and years, and how he helps them live again. Together, they create history.

It's a powerful song, and with all this talk in class about the various theories surrounding JFK's assassination, I feel I should bring this one up. After all, it's all I've been hearing in my head as we've been reading. That, and the song that directly follows this one, "Something Just Broke," which is about everybody's feelings after JFK has been assassinated. It's the "where I was, what I was doing" song.

You know, it is an interesting theory to think about. The spirits of assassins led Lee to commit murder. Fits right in with all the other theories. However, it does kind of reinforce the idea that Lee was nothing more than a crazed crackpot. Yet, the lines of "Take a Look, Lee" are really powerful. I mean, the assassins aren't wrong. Sometimes the names that live in infamy live longer than the ones that once reveled in fame. It's true that Lee will live on forever, and become a part of history along with John Wilkes Booth and Leon Czolgosz and Charles Guiteau and yes, even John Hinckley. Indeed, Lee, through killing JFK, shapes history more than he thinks. JFK becomes a president forever immortalized as a great man who did wonderful things for his country. Almost all negative views of him are pushed away, such as how any negative views of Abraham Lincoln were wiped away when he was assassinated by Booth. The assassination changes people's perceptions of their presidents, and we can see, from "Something Just Broke," that that perception will have a lasting impact on the entire country.

A Different Time, A Different Life

There's still one question that lingers in my mind after reading Kindred. If Rufus and Alice lived in a different time, say 1976 like Dana and Kevin, would they have been able to have a real relationship? I completely believe that time and environment have a major effect on society. Can a white man and a black woman have a relationship, be in love with one another, marry? Yes, absolutely! But it hasn't always been seen that way. That's not to say that interracial couples didn't exist at certain points in history, it's just that they were looked down upon on society, seen as immoral or wrong. So, because of that, to an extent I feel like Rufus and Alice could've had a fine relationship in a different time. Perhaps Rufus wouldn't treat her as badly because he wouldn't have been brought up in a racist household. Perhaps the relationship would've been less abusive. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...but some people would disagree with all of my "perhaps." They would argue that to see if the relationship could work in a different time, you have to examine it outside of time.

 By looking at Rufus and Alice's relationship outside of time, we see them as people, and only that. They're not products of nature or products of nurture. We simply see who they are and how they interact. Theoretically, by looking at purely their relationship and love interests, we could set them down in any time and expect the same results.

So. Rufus and Alice outside of time. What do we see?

Well, for starters, it is clear that Alice's heart lies elsewhere. She chose a man other than Rufus: Isaac. Alice and Isaac were in love, and had even gotten married. Alice chose and went to Isaac completely on her own free will, and when she was with him, it never seemed like anything was wrong between the two of them. That relationship seemed to be an equal and loving one. Rufus and Alice on the other hand..the love is forced. Rufus obviously cares for Alice, but doesn't know how to show it, and indeed he never truly learns how to express his affection for her. Alice, in turn, feels out of place in the relationship. There is definite tension between the two, and whether that comes from unresolved feelings or forced romance is anyone's guess. Though Rufus and Alice may have been close friends when they were younger, it is clear that their feelings changed as they grew older.

And yet, I still can't help but think that even if we look at Rufus and Alice outside of time, we're still seeing the effects of their society. For instance, does Rufus not know how to show Alice that he loves her simply because he's never seen a white man express love for a black woman? The entire idea is so unthinkable and socially repugnant to him that it ends up being a very confusing experience for him? And maybe that divide in childhood stemmed from their racial, and thus social, differences. Who's to say that in another time, they would've remained just as close as adults as they had been as children?

Trying to get thoughts like these out makes my head hurt. It's so difficult to separate people from their society, culture, and time period, that I am quite clear of. Whether or not Rufus and Alice could have a successful relationship in another time? That question remains unanswered.

Why Does Everybody Hate Kevin?

Seriously, why?

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who actually liked Kevin. True, he had his faults, but who doesn't? I just felt like everybody was focusing far too much on his negative qualities and weren't looking at Kevin at a whole.

For instance, everbody kept insinuating that deep down Kevin was a racist, that he and Dana had a bad (possibly abusive) relationship, and that that all surfaced when he and Dana traveled to the past. I don't deny that Kevin said some rude things that could be taken as racist, buthe only really said those after living in the past for quite some time. His environment definitely had some sort of an impact on him. I mean, when you hang around a white man's plantation for a while, some things are bound to pass on and stick. I'm not saying that Kevin shouldn't take responsibility for some of his words and actions, but I don't think we should slander him as an inherently bad person and a racist. I mean, even when the guy was trapped back in the 1800's, he still managed to cling on to his 20th-century values, and was able to help lead slaves to freedom. I think that the changes we see in Kevin came about through his interactions with the historical environment and not from some deeply repressed self.

As for his relationship with Dana, I'm sorry, but no. Just no. Their relationship is anything but abusive and I don't really see anything wrong with it. They're a normal couple, and a normal couple has fights, like the one that surrounded Dana typing Kevin's manuscripts. It's little things like that that people just went nitpicky crazy on, trying to use what little evidence they had to insinuate that Dana and Kevin's relationship had never been a good one. But think about it. Think about what Dana and Kevin go through in Kindred. We're not exactly seeing the couple in a normal situation. True, we got a glimpse or two of their normal lives, but for the most part, they're trying to live and cope in an unimaginable scenario. What would you do if your loved one suddenly dissapeared, then reappeared in a different area seconds later, possibly beaten? The travels are certainly a stressor on their relationship, but as I said before with the racism accusations, I thinnk it comes about more from the environment and the situation rather than from some underlying factor. I mean, we never see the couple voluntarily split. True, Dana pushes Kevin away from her, but that's more for his own safety. Neither Dana nor Kevin simply walk away from each other, thinking that this whole thing and the other person is too much to handle. Indeed, even when they are split up, they do everything they can to try and find one another again. Dana and Kevin are clearly devoted to each other, and we see them rushing to each other's  side and trying to do anything they can to help the other in times of trouble. I'll concede and say their relationship isn't perfect, but really, whose is?

To make a long blog post short, LEAVE KEVIN ALONE.

Looking Back

When dealing with historical novels, we are faced with the process of looking back. That is, going back into the past, even if it is only through literary measures, and remembering events, experiencing them even if we had not. It's supposed to be a good thing, right? Even if something in the past is bad, we have to look back on it and remember it so that we can not only get past it but we can also learn about for the future. Isn't that the way it should be? Both Slaughterhouse-Five and Kindred dealt with this topic of looking back,  but their view on it isn't entirely positive or optimistic.

Slaughterhouse-Five directly contradicts the view that we must look back, even on exceedingly painful memories, if we ever want to be healed and able to move on through the view of the Tralfamadorians. They say that instead of looking back on bad times, one should just ignore them and focus only on the good times. There will always be bad moments, they say, so looking back on bad experiences to learn form them and be better off in the future is a waste of time. We also get a sense from the beginning of the book that looking back has serious consequences.We read a brief passage about Lot's wife looking back and turning to a pillar of salt. From this, we get the feeling that maybe it is not such a good thing to look back. Perhaps the past brings about memories that are too painful to be experienced, and that in fact by looking back we lose ourselves and become, well, pillars of salt.

The same idea comes about in Kindred; the idea that looking back is a painful experience and one can sometimes lose themselves in the past. Dana knows this all to well as she literally lost her arm due to her time travel. In fact, a piece of her is stuck back in the 1800's. This powerful symbolism is hard to look over. Again, the idea comes across that even if certain times are important, such as the time of slavery in the U.S, looking back on them is terrible and can often cause more harm than good. We see this for both Dana and Kevin who, besides being emotionally affected by their time travels, are also physically affected, and often for the worse. Kevin has aged five years, though he has only "really" been gone for a couple of days, and has a massive scar on his face to boot. Dana, however, is the more physically affected, from welts and scars on her back from beatings to the loss of her left arm. By looking back into the past, both Dana and Kevin had serious painful encounters, and the experience was such a trying one that it did not let them go. Parts of them were left behind, be it an arm or simply their presence. Once they were there, and then they weren't. Poof. And yet the affect is still the same. And in lookng at the severity of their injuries, it seems that for Dana, whose racial and personal connections to the Weylin past are greater than Kevin's, the experience has a far more lasting impact. Perhaps that means that for those of us who go looking into our own personal past and history, something we have a connection to, we may not like what we find. We may be faced with a harsh truth that is painful to understand, and in trying to understand, we lose ourselves.