(A song to listen to as you read this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gd5SXN-YDc)
Since we are
arriving at the end of a lovely semester full of meta-fictional postmodern
drama, I thought it would be nice to have a concluding blog post reflecting on my
opinions of the interesting books we have read this semester.
Just in case
you have forgotten, this semester we read Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, Mumbo
Jumbo by Ishmael Reed, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Kindred
by Octavia Butler, and Libra by Don DeLillo.
As usual, it
is practically impossible to pick a favorite out of all these novels, but if I
had to, I would choose either Ragtime or Slaughterhouse-Five. These
two are sort of unique compared to the others in that the characters are (1)
not involved in any conspiracy theories and (2) people who live in the time-period
of the novel, not characters like Dana, from Kindred, who travel from
the 1970s to the 1800s. Of course, in Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim
is technically traveling in time, but he is living through moments that he as a
person is part of, not moments that he wouldn’t have otherwise been a part of
(does that make sense?). Reading the novel from the perspective of a character
who is actually living in that time-period seems well, more natural, than
having the perspective of a time traveler does, which allows me to focus more
on the metafictional aspects of both stories.
In addition,
I’ve always preferred a more traditional, or modern, style of writing, which
made Ragtime very nice. It had a traditional plot line, rather normal
characters, and the main aspect of post-modernism was based on twisting and
making up facts to fulfill stories.
Another
thing which makes me like Slaughterhouse-Five is that its plot was
extended by our very own Betsy Ruckman, who wrote a short story about how Billy’s
son and grandson dealt with their movement through time (You should all ask her
to read it, it’s really great😊). It would be interesting to read an extension of one of the other books
we read, sure, but I don’t think it would be as effective to read, for example,
about the lives of Mother and Baron Ashkenazy after the ending of Ragtime,
or a modern life story of what happened to the characters of Libra after
the end of the novel[1].
During the novel, we are already told that various main characters such as
Everett die before the time of Branch’s investigation and we are living through
the time after that. A continuation of the plot would likely not have a lot of
content and does not sound very interesting.
Anyway,
though, these two novels were probably my favorites. It wasn’t that I didn’t
like Mumbo Jumbo, Kindred, and Libra, but they didn’t
attract my attention as much. I do love the conspiracy aspect of Libra
and there was a very interesting emotional aspect to Kindred, but I admit
many of the smaller points of Mumbo Jumbo went over my head. Nonetheless,
they were all enjoyable reads, and I’m definitely glad I did not drop this
class for poetry! 😊
[1]
I haven’t actually finished Libra yet, so I don’t know how it ends, but
I assume the timing of the ending is somewhere around the time when Oswald is
killed.
