One of the main things about the book that struck me was the desire for individuality and individual strength in a world where the individual does and does not matter. Oswald’s background is marked by this dichotomy—a perpetual dropout and semi-malcontent who always seems to get into fights, Oswald is marked by a desire for greatness and difference from those around him. There seems to be a fascination with movie stars (the scene with John Wayne)–and his notably stilted conversation with the radar operator Bushnell after Oswald shot himself suggests the pervasive influence of outside factors. I just kept thinking of common movie tropes (like the power of the individual, black and white morality, big masculine heroes always getting the girl) and how they influence everyone, not just Oswald. He is struggling with desperateness to be something, to, in spite of Oswald’s almost unending mediocrity, mean something.
In contrast to this, Libra also sets up the idea of an overwhelming societal force/web of connections that dominates the flow of events—a young Oswald and Ferrie talking about a .22 caliber rifle, the passing discussions of Jack Ruby haunting New Orleans before he shows up in Dallas, and so on. Following a conversation between Parmenter and (um, the guy with the crazy ass name. George de blahblahblah), Parmenter goes on one of his mystic rants about how we're all linked in coincidence and suspicion. Later, when Banister discusses why he doesn’t like Kennedy, part of his dislike seems to stem from how much of an idealized individual that Kennedy is. It is Bannister that refers to forces in the air that drive society, and indeed that seems to be true for large sections of the novel—with the increasing dovetailing between the fictionalized assassin Lee Harvey Oswald that Everett and his group are looking for and the actual Lee Harvey Oswald—that suggests the primacy of coincidences, to the point where coincidences dominate and may replace reality. However, the last lines of the book suggest that Lee Harvey Oswald did have his impact—that his name, for better or worse, will live on in history, and in a world where the individual seems to have simultaneously less and more power in the web of coincidences. It's daunting, how many interpretations can stem from the plot of this novel. But I guess that's just like the real assassination.
Monday, May 14, 2012
kennedy assassination + media
There's no arguing that the Kennedy assassination changed the political landscape of the United States. What I had never really considered before was how the aftermath changed the media landscape of the world.
Zapruder sold the publication rights to his film images to Life magazine, which ran the jarring, graphic still frames in its next issue a week later. The sequence was not shown as a film clip on network television until 1975. Where were the TV cameras? They were in studios. I guess most television cameras of the time were still bulky and barely mobile, the size of refrigerators. The president of the United States was not yet under constant video watch (imagine Obama ever being left alone for 2 minutes). The era of compact TV cameras and anywhere-hookups, even for professionals, was still in the future. (Hundreds of witnesses carrying video-ready smartphones? Even further into the future.)
But what was on television that November weekend was the return of Kennedy’s coffin to Washington, D.C., the funeral, the burial, and the various processions linking these events. That and, of course, the live onscreen killing of Lee Harvey Oswald in the Dallas police headquarters.
It was a harbinger of the media world to come. Transoceanic satellite links were new and expensive, but this was a story of such unexpectedness, such importance and such personal drama that TV pulled out all the stops.
The weekend’s events were watched in grief, shock and horror by millions around the world. The Kennedy assassination and funeral were a founding instance of the global village, a media experience shared in real time across borders and continents.
Zapruder sold the publication rights to his film images to Life magazine, which ran the jarring, graphic still frames in its next issue a week later. The sequence was not shown as a film clip on network television until 1975. Where were the TV cameras? They were in studios. I guess most television cameras of the time were still bulky and barely mobile, the size of refrigerators. The president of the United States was not yet under constant video watch (imagine Obama ever being left alone for 2 minutes). The era of compact TV cameras and anywhere-hookups, even for professionals, was still in the future. (Hundreds of witnesses carrying video-ready smartphones? Even further into the future.)
But what was on television that November weekend was the return of Kennedy’s coffin to Washington, D.C., the funeral, the burial, and the various processions linking these events. That and, of course, the live onscreen killing of Lee Harvey Oswald in the Dallas police headquarters.
It was a harbinger of the media world to come. Transoceanic satellite links were new and expensive, but this was a story of such unexpectedness, such importance and such personal drama that TV pulled out all the stops.
The weekend’s events were watched in grief, shock and horror by millions around the world. The Kennedy assassination and funeral were a founding instance of the global village, a media experience shared in real time across borders and continents.
on conspiracy theories
Well, I finally caught up and finished the book. I had a really hard time reading it, not just because it's a hard book to read but I just disapprove of the subject matter. Disapprove isn't the word I want but, I just feel like I'm wasting my time reading conspiracy theories, and Libra is well written enough to make me way more interested in those theories than I ever wanted to be. The book offers a good deal of new material on how conspiracy theories can be viewed. Specifically, there are several sections that stand out as emphasizing ideas already discussed or bringing new material to light. One of the first is a discussion of the decentralization of information and knowledge away from the leaders in power. In a world where knowledge is danger, ignorance an asset (not the exact quote, can't find it in the book) conspiracy can thrive. When leaders strive to shield themselves through ignorance, the operational workings of the government are beyond their control. For the public, the idea that this is possible is alarming, because it means that no one is in control. This is particularly damaging in a democratic republic, where the voting process gives the illusion of some measure of control.
Conversely, there is the idea of too much control. If leaders yielding their knowledge allows for secret operations to exist from those lower down the power chain, then the idea that leaders can be keeping information from us is also present. When Ferrie tells Lee that Kennedy and Castro are talking to each other, this is precisely the idea that he is striving for. It is a unique situation where the men in power are to be feared if they know too much information but also if they know too little. The prevalence of conspiracy theories can be blamed upon the existence of these two ideas working in constant tandem.
The constant threat of conspiracy requires people to find some way to defend themselves. Win's daughter (Susie?), is fearful that her parents may not be who they say they are. Therefore, she hides a pair of Little Figures, and even though that didn't really seem too significant I think in large part, this represents the loss of control that people necessarily must go through. They cannot trust their leaders, yet they must be prepared to defend themselves against either possibility: that the leader is keeping secrets from them, or secrets are being kept from the leader. The defense against the conspiracy is the Little Figures, but as the girl does not describe exactly what the Little Figures actually do, they are nearly useless. The truth of the matter is that she had absolutely no control over the possibility of the conspiracy, but the existence of the Little Figures gives her some illusion of protection. As long as they remain hidden, she can remain separate from the conspiracy, and not be dragged into the center of it. Thus do Americans attempt to believe that they cannot be duped or tricked by the conspiracy, but the power of the Little Figures is purely illusory.
Conversely, there is the idea of too much control. If leaders yielding their knowledge allows for secret operations to exist from those lower down the power chain, then the idea that leaders can be keeping information from us is also present. When Ferrie tells Lee that Kennedy and Castro are talking to each other, this is precisely the idea that he is striving for. It is a unique situation where the men in power are to be feared if they know too much information but also if they know too little. The prevalence of conspiracy theories can be blamed upon the existence of these two ideas working in constant tandem.
The constant threat of conspiracy requires people to find some way to defend themselves. Win's daughter (Susie?), is fearful that her parents may not be who they say they are. Therefore, she hides a pair of Little Figures, and even though that didn't really seem too significant I think in large part, this represents the loss of control that people necessarily must go through. They cannot trust their leaders, yet they must be prepared to defend themselves against either possibility: that the leader is keeping secrets from them, or secrets are being kept from the leader. The defense against the conspiracy is the Little Figures, but as the girl does not describe exactly what the Little Figures actually do, they are nearly useless. The truth of the matter is that she had absolutely no control over the possibility of the conspiracy, but the existence of the Little Figures gives her some illusion of protection. As long as they remain hidden, she can remain separate from the conspiracy, and not be dragged into the center of it. Thus do Americans attempt to believe that they cannot be duped or tricked by the conspiracy, but the power of the Little Figures is purely illusory.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)