How Conspiracies Work in Libra

    Don DeLillo seems to have a pretty skeptical view of conspiracy theories in Libra, not that he doesn't think they happen, just that they don't often go to plan. Clearly he seems to think the Kennedy assassination went a little deeper than just a lone shooter, but DeLillo doesn't seem to think that conspiracies like this are meticulously thought out operations, and more that they start with a plot but then evolve through a series of coincidences and miscommunications. At one point Nicholas Branch even comes to the conclusion that "the conspiracy against the President was a rambling affair that succeeded in the short term due mainly to chance" (DeLillo 441). While Win Everett's original plan did position him as a sort of "puppet master" carefully planning out every detail and covering his tracks, he has lost all control by the end and seems to have just taken the position of a spectator. I think it's also interesting how DeLillo seems to be using Branch almost as a representation of himself as he was compiling evidence and looking into the assassination. The only difference is that eventually DeLillo stopped sorting through evidence long enough to actually write his version of the history.

    The way that Win Everett slowly loses control over the plot also parallels how it starts to develop a life of it's own and by then end there's no one person who actually knows how exactly it happened, not even Branch. Win becomes so detached that he only learns of new developments through Parmenter and he eventually comes to the realization that Mackey has taken the plot to Kennedy's death. Even when he does try to control the plan and create a new identity for Lee, he still goes and does all of these things on his own. Lee's unpredictability alone causes so many issues with Win's original plan, from his disappearances to his aliases and guns. Up to the day of the assassination they're still not 100% sure he'll actually pull the trigger, though by this point Mackey only really cares that Kennedy dies.

    Something else that throws a bit of a wrench into the plan is the involvement of Alpha 66 and the discovery of another plot in Chicago. Considering how many enemies Kennedy seems to have in Libra, it does kind of make sense that another plot would turn up, even if it didn't go through. Though even with just Alpha 66's involvement the plan got so much more complicated to the point where even today we're still talking about the possibility of a second shooter. And while Lee's death seemed inevitable given how much he knew, Jack Ruby's motivations still are not clear. DeLillo seems to think that Lee almost would have survived if Jack wasn't manipulated into killing him by the mob. Lee inadvertently ruins the plan to kill him when he shoots the police officer drawing so much attention to him, which also shows how nothing goes to plan with Lee, even his own death. His action caused pretty much the entire plot to go awry because they couldn't control him, and the conspiracy never even got close to Win's original vision.

Postmodernism in Kindred

    Compared to the other books we've read so far, Kindred is much more restrained in its use of postmodernism. In general it seems like Butler is more interested in the characters and specifically in Dana's experiences than just in postmodernism. She uses it as more of a tool than a subject. The most obvious way she uses it here is the time travel, which while it's just a sci-fi trope, here it lets butler put Dana into situations it would be impossible to otherwise, and it forces her to reflect on the history of America and it's connection to 1970s America. Butler pretty much sidesteps most questions about the details of how the time travel works, probably because it's already the source of many of Dana's motivations and Butler is much more interested in how she reacts to 1800's Maryland than how she reacts to the time travel. I think that's also why Butler reveals so quickly that Rufus is the one pulling Dana into the past, since it clears up enough questions about the time travel to move on to more interesting questions.

    Another effect of Butler's use of postmodernism is that it also puts some focus on the more ontological questions that she's asking about 1970s America, and whether we've ever really moved on from the past. By bringing these worlds much closer together Butler raises the question of how far has America actually come? The fact that Dana's perspective get's slowly warped by the past, as well as her resemblance to Alice, also shows how the past still looms over the present. If Dana can't escape it than it seems unlikely that the everyone else has. The irony of having everything come to a head on the bicentennial anniversary also brings attention to our relationship to the past, since to Dana, it wouldn't really seem worth celebrating. It seems Butler's suggesting more that we should try to better understand and reconcile with the past than just blindly celebrate it.

    It's also interesting how different Butler's use of postmodernism is from E.L. Doctorow's in Ragtime. Here the focus is much more on Dana as a character, unlike how in Ragtime the characters are more like figures that represent either some archetype of the time, or the history that they originate from. I think Butler is still using Dana as a figure representing more of 1970s American culture, but it's more to to show the contrasts between her world and 1800s Maryland. Butler also does something similar with most of the people on the plantation, outside of Tom Weylin. They could just be representations of the institution they represent, but Butler is more interested in what happens to these characters when they interact with Dana. One way Butler's use of Postmodernism is similar to Doctorow's though, is how they both sidestep most questions about the actual plausibility of the narrative. Butler just doesn't bother to explain, and Doctorow tries to make up potential holes in history that could validate it. They're both much more interested in just seeing what happens when you create these situations, and in these cases especially, that is a much more interesting question.

References to the Future in Mumbo Jumbo

    While I think Ishmael Reed is mostly focusing on the Harlem Renaissance in Mumbo Jumbo, in many ways he also alludes to things from the 1970s and seems to be making predictions of future years. He seems to be tracking the Jes Grew, as well as Atonism, from ancient Egypt to the present, which in this case is the 1970s. I think when he was writing this he had the Black Arts movement in mind, and in a lot of ways this book is a work of the Black Arts movement. I think that at some point we talked about how it reads kind of like jazz poetry, and it uses a lot of collage earlier in the book. There's some multivocality as well, and even though it mostly seems to be narrated by Reed himself, sometimes he will insert comments from himself and he often quotes other people. There are also a lot ways he goes against the traditional structure of a novel, like having the first chapter before the title page, having 2 chapter 52s, and constantly switching perspectives at some points.

    Another reference to present when Reed is writing is Abdul Sufi Hamid, who is both a reference to Malcolm X, as well as to Sufi Abdul Hamid, who was one of the first African American people to convert to Islam. Much like Malcolm X, Abdul started reading in prison and learned a lot of things that weren't taught in schools. He also mentions that in the future "someone is coming...He might even have the red hair of a conjure man but he won't be one", which is a reference to one of Malcolm's early nicknames, "Detroit Red" (39). One other similarity is that they were both killed with at least somewhat religious motivations, though I'm not sure if Atonism is more of a religion or an ideology. I think part of the reason Reed includes Abdul is just to show that the Jes Grew was coming back in the 1970s. Even though Abdul opposed it, it was that figures like him were reemerging and it was all starting to make a resurgence.

    While Reed does seem to be implying that Jes Grew is coming back in the '70s, he also implies that it will continue to come back in the future. We talked about how he was kind of anticipating hip hop as another outbreak of Jes Grew, and I think he was definitely anticipating something like it. He says in the last few sentences that "In the 20s they knew. And the 20s were back again...Time is a pendulum. Not a river" (218). This seems like Reed knew that something was about to happen he just wasn't sure what. Maybe the Black Arts movement had created a new text, or Mumbo Jumbo is the text, and that would allow Jes Grew to take hold this time. In some ways it kind of has, but I think that today we're at a point where something like Jes Grew could come back. Reed definitely could not have predicted the internet, but it seems like that's probably where the next form of Jes Grew will originate, if it does return again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_Abdul_Hamid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X

Younger Brother's Motives as a Revolutionary

    When Younger Brother joins with Coalhouse his reasons for doing so aren't exactly clear. He becomes radicalized after talking to Emma Goldman but it seems like he kind of just attaches himself to Coalhouse's struggles without really understanding him. Doctorow makes it unclear whether he's actually committed to his cause or just falls in the archetype of the young white college student who doesn't really understand the movement but wants to be part of revolutionary action. It seems like part 4 of Ragtime somewhat answers that when Younger Brother goes and joins Emiliano Zapata in the Mexican revolution (Doctorow 305). Zapata was a southern populist leader who mostly cared about land redistribution, and he also had a role in the Mexican revolution though he never really got many of his reforms implemented (Wikipedia).

    I think that Younger Brother leaving New York and joining Zapata is Doctorow implying that he kind of does fall into that category where he cares more about being a revolutionary than the actual cause. Coalhouse and Zapata have pretty much nothing in common and are in different countries, however Younger Brother still joins them. I think the main reason he chose the Zapatistas is just because he heard about in one of Emma Goldman's speeches, and since Coalhouse was done he needed something else to be a part of (Doctorow 168). I think it's also interesting how he tells Zapata pretty much the exact same thing he told Coalhouse about being able to make bombs, which also makes me think that part of it is that he just likes exploding things, so much so that he goes deaf (Doctorow 305). The other thing that I think is interesting is that Doctorow's irony seems pretty much gone when talking about Younger Brother at this point, which would imply that he's taking him more seriously because of his motives, or because he's getting involved in an actual historical event.

    The other thing that I think is important about Younger Brother here is his level of commitment to the cause. While I do think Doctorow's trying to imply that he's not a real revolutionary, he is actually useful to them, just like with Coalhouse. It's also important that he went to Zapata specifically with his skills and didn't really help any of the other generals. He's so committed to the Zapatistas that he died for them (Doctorow 305). I also think the fact that this was a real event makes him seem more legitimate, since Doctorow is basically saying that he was an important enough revolutionary to have had an actual historical role. It's clear that he was committed to the Zapatistas, but it's not clear if that was because he wanted land redistribution or if it's just because Emma Goldman told him they were important.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Zapata

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Elements of the Ten-Point Program in Poems of the Black Arts Movement

        The elements of the Ten-Point Program are expressed in many poems from the Black Arts Movement. The demand for self-determination is probably the most prevalent, and while it's present in all of these, I think it's especially so in "Malcolm" by Lucille Clifton. "It Must Be Deep" expresses the point about education that reflects the true history of black people, in the role college has played in the narrators life. The communist elements of the Ten-Point Program appear more in "a/coltrane/poem" by Sonia Sanchez, and are used as a sort of a call to action.

        Lucille Clifton's "Malcolm" starts by evoking imagery of war in a similar way the Black Panther Party does when it's talking about and end to police brutality and exemption from military service. I think the first line "nobody mentioned war" is referencing the attempts at peaceful protests mostly championed by MLK, and the poem is showing the aftermath of that and saying that it wasn't really enough. The Black Panther Party was much more militant than MLK, and in the Ten-Point Program they mention war and self defense multiple times. This poem also seems to reference the ideas of freedom and self-determination the Ten-Point Program mentioned. I think the second line "but doors were closed" is referencing segregation and it seems like that oppression is the main reason for the preparations for war the rest of the poem is describing. The poem also seems like a usurpation of white institutions in how it describes "black eagles...screaming through the streets", and how there's a sense of importance to what's happening.

        The main elements of the Ten-Point Program that's expressed in "It Must Be Deep" by Carolyn Dodgers are the ones about self determination and education. It's from going to college and evidently learning more about the history of black people that the narrator becomes disillusioned with America and existing institutions. Here it's mostly religion and it's similar to how Beneatha feels about it in "A Raisin in the Sun", and I think that pushing back on blind acceptance of religion is also a way of trying to achieve self-determination. I think this may also be part of the meaning of the misspellings that permeate this poem. I think it's trying to push back on what's considered the traditional/correct way of writing English, which was more or less created by white people.

        "a/coltrane/poem" by Sonia Sanchez is much more focused on capitalism, and has similar opinions as the Black Panther Party. The Ten-Point Program mentions taking the means of production from the "businessman" as well as turning housing owned by landlords in public cooperatives. Sanchez is more directly attacking the elites who, "KILL US WITH THEY CAPITALISM/18% OWNERSHIP OF THE WORLD." She specifically mentions Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Mellon, and Ford, and says "GIT em. PUSHem/PUNCHem/STOMPem. THEN LIGHT A FIRE TO THEY pilgrim asses." They're both focused on the use of capitalism as a tool of oppression, it's just that Sanchez seems to be looking for more immediate revolutionary action while the Black Panthers aren't as explicit about it. 

How "Down by the Riverside" Shows the Struggle Against Racism

“Down by the Riverside'' by Richard Wright shows how the experience of black people in racist america is a constant struggle. Considering Mann’s name, I’m assuming that he’s being used as a stand-in for black people in general, though I think Wright is also implying that racism is bad for everyone as well. One way he shows this is when Mann gets to the hospital after rowing through the flood and getting in a gunfight, only to learn that his wife is dead, and his only consolation for coming that far is a sandwich and more work. Another thing that shows this is how this all seems to be hurting his mental state as he has to go longer and longer without water and rest, and is continually forced to work. And finally his death is interesting as even in his final moments Mann is struggling against the racist system constantly trying to push him down and kill him.

The first scene I want to look at is when he finally arrives at the hospital only to find out his wife is dead. There are a few things in this scene that are interesting here: one is that even in a crisis where the hospital is presumably being overwhelmed with injured and sick people, the same segregation as normal still applies, which seems ridiculous at this point. Another interesting thing about this is how little the doctor and nurses seem to care or respect Lulu. I imagine they’ve probably seen a lot of this by now, but the doctor seems pretty unapologetic, and they just take her away at the end of it without any kind of consolation. It seems like a pretty ruthless example of the systemic racism and lack of respect black people received, especially during times of crisis, which is how Wright is showing that there is need for change.

Something else I want to look at is how it seems like Mann’s mental state deteriorates over the course of the story. I don’t think he ever gets any water or any rest and is almost constantly enduring some kind of physical exertion, so it would make sense for Mann to find it hard to think straight. One example is when he finds the Heartfields and rescues them while contemplating killing them, seeming like his consciousness is almost disconnected from his actions. He just describes what he wants to do and then gets dragged back to reality, where he realizes he doesn’t have it in him to kill someone. Mann basically lives in a world where everything, even his own mind, is working against him. It could be some kind of reference to double consciousness, but I think it’s probably just trying to show the toll that the racist system takes on his mind.

The last passage I want to look at is Mann’s death. This is the final depiction of Mann struggling against the world and white supremacy. His attempt to kill himself is his last act of defiance, and since this entire story has been a struggle for him, it makes sense that his death would be too. I think that the way the scene is drawn out at the end where he’s constantly in motion away from the soldiers, even after he dies, is Wright showing how even when putting his entire existence into trying to escape white supremacy, he fails. Another thing I find interesting about this is how he’s trying to move in the direction of the water, and it’s almost representing freedom here. It’s like he would rather drown in the flood and let nature take him then be killed by the white supremacists, but he doesn’t even get that consolation since he dies and rolls down the hill stopping just before the water. What all this is showing is that a racist society drives people to take any measure to escape it, even death, and that it’s a system where with any amount of running such a death can be unavoidable.