The History as Fiction in Libra

        For the final blog post, I wanted to take a look at the class as a whole and how Libra fits into it. In many ways, Libra feels like the finale to the idea of history as fiction. There’s so much evidence yet so much mystery, so many different interpretations. Libra feels grounded in reality. And yet, it is still undoubtedly fiction.

        Based on the articles we read in our course packet, my personal understanding of the phrase “history as fiction” is something that best tries to explain the history of the world through a more playful lens that says “maybe this happened, maybe it didn’t”. The other books we have read thus far have been rather focused on this “maybe it happened” aspect of the story. The stories are ridiculous, have made up characters, made up events, and made up histories. Sure, Ragtime uses real characters, but Doctorow makes up personalities and events. And yet, all these things could have happened given the historical context. Mumbo Jumbo is almost completely fictional. And yet, it uses real mythology and tries to explain the spread of Jazz. Kindred is also almost completely fictional. And yet, it brings us into the world of the slavery that occurred between the 17th to 19th century.

        Now, Libra certainly doesn’t shy away from the fictional aspect of “history as fiction”. In fact, it might seem very similar to Ragtime at first. Delillo makes up characters, makes up events, but still includes real characters in the mix. Basically the same as Ragtime, right? Well, I think what sets this story apart from all the others we have read this semester is that it is focused on the explaining part of “history as fiction”. All the fictional aspects of the story are there to explain a real event: the assassination of JFK. The entire novel is essentially a conspiracy theory. None of the other books are conspiracy theories (unless you count an unnecessarily convoluted and totally unrealistic explanation of the spread of Jazz as a conspiracy theory… actually, I guess that kind of counts too).

        Of course, Libra’s focus on the explaining aspect wouldn’t have been possible without the fact that the events surrounding JFK’s assasination is a mystery itself. There is evidence but they are just bits and pieces scattered here and there. I think that makes for an incredibly interesting story topic and Delillo certainly uses it to his advantage. We have evidence that Oswald traveled to Russia for some years but we don’t know what exactly happened there. We have evidence that Oswald went to Cuba as well but we don’t know what exactly happened there. Delillo tries to link the bits and pieces we have together to form a cohesive conspiracy theory that is not totally outlandish like some of the other books we have read this semester. And, he has obviously done a ton of research on the event, evident by both the historical accuracy of the main events and also the number of small but true details in his story. Delillo even went over the events that occurred within the mere minutes that Jack Ruby took to go in and kill Oswald. It’s surprising how historically accurate and yet fictional the book is.

        In the end, Libra’s focus on both the fictional and explanatory of “history as fiction” leads me to think that Libra just embodies the idea of “history as fiction”. History can never be completely factual. They can only seek to explain events as best as they can. And, Libra and the conspiracies surrounding the death of JFK do just that. I honestly cannot think of a better book to end the class. It just feels like such a perfect accumulation of all we have learned over this semester, and I absolutely love it.