The End Is Near. . .

(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. 

On the other hand, Slaughterhouse-Five appeals to me more because of its untraditional plot style. It is incredibly difficult to keep track of the timeline in the story (as Betsy can attest), but that only adds to the sense of being in a different time, especially because Billy doesn’t seem at all bothered by it.

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.