All posts from now on are for history as fiction

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Afrofuturism in Mumbo Jumbo

Though I enjoyed reading Mumbo Jumbo, I think every member of our class can agree that the narrative was confusing at times. The inclusion of graphs, spontaneous lists of words, and lack of upfront exposition threw me for a bit of a loop when I first began reading it, and though I eventually got more used to the style of the book, it still was unlike any other novel I’ve ever read. However, the element of Mumbo Jumbo that was the most bewildering for me was its usage of time. The plot of Mumbo Jumbo doesn’t exactly progress linearly, instead, it swings back and forth between the main storyline of Jes Grew in the 1920s and other points in history, such as the 1970s,  though the time spent in these different time periods is usually brief, and provides context or some connection to the 1920s story. The 52 chapters are the culmination of these time period switches, where Papa Le Bas spends two chapters recounting the history of Jes Grew and the Atonists, starting with Ancient Egyptian ...
Read more

Nicholas Branch and the Futility of Evidence

     In Libra ’s plot, Nicholas Branch takes the role of a parallel character, who looks back on the main storyline we live through with Oswald and Everett, except he does it through artifacts and evidence. When we first meet him, Branch has been trying to write a secret history of JFK’s assassination for the CIA for over 15 years. As the reader moves through Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and Win Everett’s plan with the CIA, they watch the events leading up to the assassination unfold to create a narrative explanation for Oswald’s involvement in President Kennedy’s death. While the reader goes through these plots, they also get flashes of Nicholas Branch’s current state as he tries to understand the events by working backwards through evidence. However, at the end of the book, while the reader finally comes to understand the story behind the assassination, Branch descends further into a hole of confusion, surrounded by piles upon piles of evidence, none of which reveals the tr...
Read more

Rufus: "Her Little Jackass"

  The main focus of Kindred is Dana and Rufus, and the evolving yet also stagnant relationship they share throughout the novel. The story is told through Dana’s first person perspective, so as readers, we get to hear her inner monologue. However, we do not get the same viewpoint with Rufus, and we only see him through Dana’s eyes. While Rufus’s personality is objectively different from other white characters in the 18th century setting such as his father Tom Weylin, Dana’s characterization of Rufus is heavily affected by her unique familial ties with him, and it blurs the lines of Rufus’s true motivations and limits.   At the beginning of Kindred when Rufus is still a child, he’s a generally sympathetic character. The racist standards of the time are made apparent by his usage of the n word, however, he also listens to Dana when she tells him not to use it, shows interest and excitement towards Dana’s relationship with Kevin, and seems to have respect for her. With the added k...
Read more