DOCSLIB.ORG

The Dizzying Mystery of JFK's Assassin Libra

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Dizzying Mystery of JFK's Assassin Libra USA TODAY - FRIDAY, JULY 29,1988,. Vt. The dizzying mystery of JFK's assassin Libra REVIEW way) who seems a man with- By Don DeLillo out a core, a re-actor fascinat- Viking, 456 pp., $19.95 ed with himself, and with oth- plots — and plot-filled back- ers' impressions of him (even grounds — of a group of CIA his wife realizes that she sees By Bruce Allen operatives disgusted by the him "from a slight distance ... Special for USA TODAY Bay of Pigs Incident and con- He was never really there"). vinced that an "electrifying Libra's unique achievement Of all the novelists who've event" is required to mobilize is its detailed and complex de- emerged during the '70s and both American paranoia about piction of the lives (including '80s, it may be Don DeLillo C.astro's Cuba and opposition to the inner lives), of its many fic- whose works best qualify for international communism. tional creations, and of real inclusion in a time capsule. His Their leader, the chillingly people about whom we've as- detailed (even learned) explo- rendered Win Everett, con- sumed we know a great deal: rations of contemporary Amer- ceives a plan: to fake a failed Marina Oswald's fretful love ican experience focus on the assassination of the president, for her husband disciplines and techniques that and fear of and throw suspicion onto the what he may have become; his define our culture. He has dis- Cuban Secret Service. Then, mother's whiny, convoluted sected the worlds of advertis- unbeknownst to his colleagues, self-justifications; Jack Ruby's ing (Americana). college foot- Everett devises an even more eccentric combination of patri- ball (End Zone), rock music intricate scheme ... otism and degeneracy; Os- (Great Jones Street), and astro- There are the musings and wald's own "inward-spinning physics and theoretical mathe- recollections of Nicholas self," an idealism run lethally matics Star). (Ratner's Branch, a retired CIA analyst amok. As fully as these and More recently, DeLillo has "hired on contract to write the many others are created, they concerned himself with the un- secret history" of the assassina- also remain, in a dramatic settling presence all around us tion and its aftermath. This sat- sense, satisfyingly unconven- of that which threatens our urnine eminence is our contact tional and inexplicable. daydreamy complacency: ter- By Joyce Ravi with the syndrome of possibili- The nerve-tingling construc- rorism in Players and Running DON DELILLO: 'Libra' weaves fact and fiction into a fascinating ty and speculation that has bur- tion gives every scene immedi- Dog; international intrigue and novel about Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK's assassination. geoned in the years since 1963 acy and consequence; though espionage in The Names; and, — the larger-world's view of we know the outcome, we're In the award-winning White produced is a historical novel Corps service; then his trip to those events that we're witness- impatient to learn how these Noise, information overload that might as justly be called a Moscow and attempt to defect ing„ close up, in the novel's CIA widespread parts will cohere. and manipulation of public re- meditation on the reality of the and attain Soviet citizenship; fi- and Oswald stories. Libra operates at a dizzyingly sponse by various media. president's murder and on the nally his return "home" with a This mirroring structure high level of intensity through- Now in Libra, his richest and idea of Oswald. Russian wife and with a pas- powerfully emphasizes DeLll- out; it's that true fictional rarity perhaps best novel, DeLillo has The plot has three major sionate belief in the criminal lo's point: that despite the pro- — a novel of admirable depth turned to the ultimate assault strands. It follows Oswald's life folly of U.S. foreign policy and fusion of motive and collusion and relevance that's also a ter- on our postwar society's sense chronologically, first with his the need for "Fair Play for and explication, what remains rific page-turner. of security: the assassination of infuriating mother Marguerite Cuba." is a mystery. This is clearest in President Kennedy by Lee in a succession of rooming It weaves backward and for- Oswald himself (a Libran, Bruce Allen is a writer in Harvey Oswald. What he has houses; then during his Marine ward in time, following the whose scales may tip either KittervMaine. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Living and Writing on the Edge in Don Delillo's Libra
    LIVING AND WRITING ON THE EDGE IN DON DELILLO’S LIBRA RALUCA LUCIA CÎMPEAN* Abstract More than fifty years after his tragic death, John F. Kennedy continues to fascinate and incite the interest of a large public. The American Camelot endures, despite numerous and various revisionist historiography evaluations of JFK’s presidency and personal life. Conspiracy thinking underlies both the idealistic and the unflattering views of the Kennedy image and has proved to be a considerable factor in the proliferation of this cultural construct. However, very little has been written on the psychological, social and cultural mechanism which keeps the JFK flame burning. Don DeLillo is the only American novelist who transcends the mere sensationalist side of the Kennedy assassination toward a personal, yet historically informed, fictional analysis of November 22nd 1963 and its aftermath, in his 1988 novel Libra. Keywords John F. Kennedy, historiography, truth, revisionism, conspiracy thinking, imagination, public opinion, Modernism vs. Postmodernism. For over half a century, John F. Kennedy’s memory has been the subject of numerous inquiries, historical and fictional, and has attracted a great amount of controversy, which only speaks of the wide interest in possibly the most iconic American public figure to date. Few have attempted to understand and further explain this popular fascination with the Kennedy image and even fewer have interrogated its roots and the forces which propelled the 35th president of the United States to mythological status. Don DeLillo is the only American novelist who has tackled the Kennedy assassination beyond the readily available sensationalist angle and with the end in view to expose the intricate process of mythmaking and the role of the imagination and personal representation for individual and national narratives.
    [Show full text]
  • The Polis Artist: Don Delillo's Cosmopolis and the Politics of Literature
    Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship Political Science 2016 The oliP s Artist: Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis and the Politics of Literature Joel Alden Schlosser Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/polisci_pubs Part of the Philosophy Commons, and the Political Theory Commons Custom Citation J. Schlosser, “The oP lis Artist: Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis and Politics of Literature.” Theory & Event 19.1 (2016). This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/polisci_pubs/32 For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1/30/2016 Project MUSE - Theory & Event - The Polis Artist: Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis and the Politics of Literature Access provided by Bryn Mawr College [Change] Browse > Philosophy > Political Philosophy > Theory & Event > Volume 19, Issue 1, 2016 The Polis Artist: Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis and the Politics of Literature Joel Alden Schlosser (bio) Abstract Recent work on literature and political theory has focused on reading literature as a reflection of the damaged conditions of contemporary political life. Examining Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, this essay develops an alternative approach to the politics of literature that attends to the style and form of the novel. The form and style of Cosmopolis emphasize the novel’s own dissonance with the world it criticizes; they moreover suggest a politics of poetic world­making intent on eliciting collective agency over the commonness of language.
    [Show full text]
  • Ordinary Madness: Don Delillo's Subject from Underworld to Point Omega
    Ordinary Madness: Don DeLillo’s Subject from Underworld to Point Omega Alexander Dunst ABSTRACT This article contends that Don DeLillo’s novels from Underworld to Point Omega are cen- trally concerned with changes in the structure of subjectivity under contemporary capitalism. The essay analyzes these developments from a late Lacanian perspective: as a shift from a dominant neurosis to what Jacques-Alain Miller has called “ordinary psychosis”. Over the years, a few of DeLillo’s critics have problematized a standard account of his characters as postmodern, sug- gesting that the author was in the process of crafting “a new kind of subjectivity”. However, none of these scholars have taken the prominence of psychotic protagonists in his novels as a starting point to analyze DeLillo’s fiction. Madness thus plays an important but overlooked role in the author’s oeuvre. After briefly considering DeLillo’s earlier writing, the discussion concentrates on three representative novels: Underworld, The Body Artist and Point Omega. Where Under- world focuses on paranoia, The Body Artist moves ordinary psychosis to the center of DeLillo’s imagination, a development whose social impact is explored further in the final novel. The article counters traditional conceptions of insanity as irrational and pathological with an emphasis on the structural role madness plays in DeLillo. This reassessment counters a critical tradition that often views insanity as a sign of deep-seated illness, or opposes pathology by naively romanticizing it. The conclusion situates the analysis in the broader framework of the medical humanities. Point Omega, Don DeLillo’s latest novel, is haunted by the breakdown of social relations.1 Framed by the evocation of Douglas Gordon’s video 24 Hour Psycho, the book follows Richard Elster, a retired intellectual hired to provide justification for the Iraq War (28).
    [Show full text]
  • Don Delillo and 9/11: a Question of Response
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English English, Department of 5-2010 Don DeLillo and 9/11: A Question of Response Michael Jamieson University of Nebraska at Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Jamieson, Michael, "Don DeLillo and 9/11: A Question of Response" (2010). Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English. 28. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss/28 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. DON DELILLO AND 9/11: A QUESTION OF RESPONSE by Michael A. Jamieson A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Major: English Under the Supervision of Professor Marco Abel Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2010 DON DELILLO AND 9/11: A QUESTION OF RESPONSE Michael Jamieson, M.A. University of Nebraska, 2010 Advisor: Marco Abel In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, many artists struggled with how to respond to the horror. In literature, Don DeLillo was one of the first authors to pose a significant, fictionalized investigation of the day. In this thesis, Michael Jamieson argues that DeLillo’s post-9/11 work constitutes a new form of response to the tragedy.
    [Show full text]
  • Postwar Media Manifestations and Don Delillo Joshua Adam Boldt Eastern Kentucky University
    Eastern Kentucky University Encompass Online Theses and Dissertations Student Scholarship 2011 Postwar Media Manifestations and Don DeLillo Joshua Adam Boldt Eastern Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: https://encompass.eku.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Boldt, Joshua Adam, "Postwar Media Manifestations and Don DeLillo" (2011). Online Theses and Dissertations. 09. https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/09 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Encompass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Online Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Encompass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Postwar Media Manifestations and Don DeLillo By Joshua Boldt Master of Arts Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky 2011 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Eastern Kentucky University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts May, 2011 Copyright © Joshua Boldt 2011 All rights reserved ii Table of Contents Introduction: The Hyperreal, Hypercommodified American Identity 1 Chapter One: Postwar Advertising, Mass Consumption, and the 14 Construction of the Consumer Identity Chapter Two: News Media and American Complicity 34 Chapter Three: The Art of the Copy: Mechanical Reproductions and 50 Media Simulations Works Cited 68 iii Introduction: The Hyperreal, Hypercommodified American Identity This study examines the relationship between American media, advertising, and the construction of a postwar American identity. American media manifests itself in several different forms, all of which impact the consciousness of the American people, and the postwar rise to power of the advertising industry helped to mold identity in ways that are often not even recognized.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Little Terrors'
    Don DeLillo’s Promiscuous Fictions: The Adulterous Triangle of Sex, Space, and Language Diana Marie Jenkins A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of English University of NSW, December 2005 This thesis is dedicated to the loving memory of a wonderful grandfather, and a beautiful niece. I wish they were here to see me finish what both saw me start. Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Chapter One 26 The Space of the Hotel/Motel Room Chapter Two 81 Described Space and Sexual Transgression Chapter Three 124 The Reciprocal Space of the Journey and the Image Chapter Four 171 The Space of the Secret Conclusion 232 Reference List 238 Abstract This thesis takes up J. G. Ballard’s contention, that ‘the act of intercourse is now always a model for something else,’ to show that Don DeLillo uses a particular sexual, cultural economy of adultery, understood in its many loaded cultural and literary contexts, as a model for semantic reproduction. I contend that DeLillo’s fiction evinces a promiscuous model of language that structurally reflects the myth of the adulterous triangle. The thesis makes a significant intervention into DeLillo scholarship by challenging Paul Maltby’s suggestion that DeLillo’s linguistic model is Romantic and pure. My analysis of the narrative operations of adultery in his work reveals the alternative promiscuous model. I discuss ten DeLillo novels and one play – Americana, Players, The Names, White Noise, Libra, Mao II, Underworld, the play Valparaiso, The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, and the pseudonymous Amazons – that feature adultery narratives.
    [Show full text]
  • Review: Paul Giaimo, Appreciating Don Delillo
    Paul Giaimo, Appreciating Don DeLillo, Praeger, Santa Barbara, 2011; pp.188; RRP US$44.95 hardback. Paul Giaimo’s Appreciating Don DeLillo: The Moral Force of a Writer’s Work is a study of morality and religion in Don DeLillo’s oeuvre of fiction. Giaimo continues Amy Hungerford and John Paul Russo’s insights into the trope of religion, but vitally fleshes it out into a book-length examination of DeLillo’s Jesuit influences. As Giaimo states in the preface, his purpose centres on the ‘underlying moral lessons of DeLillo’s work’ (p.v). Such an investigation into the novelist’s religious roots and consequential literary influences is well overdue in DeLillo scholarship. With the book divided into seven chapters, I now give attention to each turn. In Chapter 1, ‘Don DeLillo and the Novel – Neither Modern nor Postmodern’, Giaimo makes the case that ‘DeLillo’s tendency is to show some elements of mimetic realism as well as those features of modernism and postmodernism’ (p.1). He begins by rightly noting that the defining trend of DeLillo criticism is to align his works with postmodernism, and he deviates from this through a discussion of the unflattering presentation of postmodern theorists in DeLillo’s works. He states clearly that ‘[n]either modernism nor postmodernism really applies as a label for DeLillo’s work’ (p.16), and shows how DeLillo’s characters’ self- destruction and lack of morality are detrimental to their lives, although hope continues as a ‘potent moral force’ (p.21). Chapter 2 delves into fascinating examples of morality presented in DeLillo’s early novels, Americana, Great Jones Street, Ratner’s Star, Running Dog, and Players.
    [Show full text]
  • Weekend Warriors: Delillo's “The
    orbit. Delillo Special Issue How to Cite: Luter, M 2016 Weekend Warriors: DeLillo’s “The Uniforms,” Players, and Film-to-Page Reappearance. Orbit: Writing around Pynchon, 4(2): 2, pp. 1–20, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/orbit.134 Published: 31 May 2016 Peer Review: This article was peer-reviewed internally by the guest editor and by a member of the Orbit editorial team. Copyright: © 2016 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distri- bution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Open Access: Orbit: Writing around Pynchon is a peer-reviewed open access journal. Digital Preservation: The Open Library of Humanities and all its journals are digitally preserved in the CLOCKSS scholarly archive service. The Open Library of Humanities is an open access non-profit publisher of scholarly articles and monographs. Matthew Luter, ‘Weekend Warriors: DeLillo’s “The Uniforms,” Players, and Film-to-Page Reappearance’ (2016) 4(2): 2, Orbit: Writing . orbit around Pynchon, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/orbit.134 DELILLO SPECIAL ISSUE Weekend Warriors: DeLillo’s “The Uniforms,” Players, and Film-to-Page Reappearance Matthew Luter Webb School of Knoxville Knoxville, TN [email protected] This article argues that what DeLillo refers to as the “radical intent” attached to the early short story “The Uniforms” does not point to political radicalism but instead to a new way of thinking about adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • An Examination of Conspiracy and Terror in the Works of Don Delillo
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English Spring 5-7-2011 For the Future: An Examination of Conspiracy and Terror in the Works of Don Delillo Ashleigh Whelan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Whelan, Ashleigh, "For the Future: An Examination of Conspiracy and Terror in the Works of Don Delillo." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/104 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FOR THE FUTURE: AN EXAMINATION OF CONSPIRACY AND TERROR IN THE WORKS OF DON DELILLO by ASHLEIGH WHELAN Under the Direction of Dr. Christopher Kocela ABSTRACT This thesis is divided into two chapters, the first being an examination of conspiracy and paranoia in Libra, while the second focuses on the relationship between art and terror in Mao II, “In the Ruins of the Future,” Falling Man, and Point Omega. The study traces how DeLillo’s works have evolved over the years, focusing on the creation of counternarratives. Readers are given a glimpse of American culture and shown the power of narrative, ultimately shedding light on the future of our collective consciousness. INDEX
    [Show full text]
  • Tion of Don Delillo
    ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Delirious USA: the representation of capital in the fic- tion of Don DeLillo https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40479/ Version: Full Version Citation: Travers, Thomas William Lynn (2020) Delirious USA: the repre- sentation of capital in the fiction of Don DeLillo. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Birkbeck, University of London Delirious USA: The Representation of Capital in the Fiction of Don DeLillo Thomas William Lynn Travers Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 1 Declaration I, Thomas William Lynn Travers, declare that this thesis is my own work. Where I have drawn upon the work of other researchers, this has been fully acknowledged. 2 Abstract In this thesis I offer a new reading of Don DeLillo’s fiction through an engagement with contemporary Marxist literary theory and political economy. Beginning in the 1960s, the thesis traces the launch, expansion, and shattering of DeLillo’s narrative apparatus as it recomposes itself across the genres of the short story, the conspiratorial thriller, the historical novel, and the novel of time. Developing on theories of the novel as a capitalist epic, the thesis takes the insistent appearance of surplus populations in DeLillo’s work as an opportunity to reflect on, but also to revise and reconceptualise, Marxist accounts of the novel and its philosophy of history.
    [Show full text]
  • AP English Literature Summer Reading (Libra by Don Delillo) 2020
    Don Delillo: Libra AP English Literature Summer Reading 2020-2021 "This was the year he rode on the subway to the ends of the city, two hundred miles of track. He liked to stand at the front of the first car, hands flat against the glass. The train smashed through the dark. People stood on the local platforms staring nowhere, a look they'd been practicing for years. He kind of wondered, speeding past, who they really were." AP English Literature Summer Reading Assignment 2020-2021 Students enrolled in AP English Literature for the 2020-2021 school year are required to actively read and complete a series of journal entries on the novel Libra by Don Delillo. This assignment will comprise a major portion of the first quarter grade. The journal will comprise two test grades, and a conventional test on the book will also be given the day of journal collection. Furthermore, much of September will be devoted to study and discussion of Libra, and it will continually be referenced throughout the year. Your efforts on this assignment will have far-reaching consequences, so please put in your strongest effort. Below are some specifics about Libra and the accompanying journals. A scoring guide for each journal entry is attached. Libra Don DeLillo (1936—) was born and raised in an Italian-American neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City, the son of a coal miner and an ex-schoolteacher. After graduating from Fordham University, he worked for five years as a copywriter for an advertising agency, before quitting to pursue writing seriously in 1964.
    [Show full text]
  • Counternarratives and Double Vision in Don Delillo's 'Falling Man'
    "The days after" and "the ordinary run of hours": counternarratives and double vision in Don DeLillo's 'Falling Man' Article Published Version Brauner, D. (2009) "The days after" and "the ordinary run of hours": counternarratives and double vision in Don DeLillo's 'Falling Man'. Review of International America Studies, 3/4 (3/1). pp. 72-81. ISSN 1991-2773 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/22038/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . Published version at: http://www.iasaweb.org/publications/rias.html Publisher: International American Studies Association All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online Review of International American Studies ‘THE days after’ and ‘THE ordinary run of Hours’: counternarratives and double vision in Don DELillo’S FALLING MAN David Brauner The University of Reading The publication in 2007 of Don DeLillo’s fourteenth novel, Falling Man, was keenly anti- cipated and then indifferently received. As many reviewers observed, DeLillo had already dealt in previous novels with the issues that 9/11 seemed to crystallize: inter- national terrorism, the global impact of American politics and culture, the relationship between the media television—in particular—and the events on which it reports. Cit- ing a number of examples (the Happy Valley Farm Commune in Great Jones Street (1973), the Radical Matrix in Running Dog (1978), Ta Onómata in The Names (1982)), John Leon- ard points out that terrorist groups are ubiquitous in DeLillo and argues that ‘some kind of 9/11 was always implicit’ in his work (Leonard, 2007: 1).
    [Show full text]