Libra an eye opener

Libra has been an eye opening book for me in many aspects. For one, I hadn't realized the magnitude and importance of the Kennedy assassination to people alive in the US before we started talking about the book in class. Obviously it's a huge deal because we lost a president but I didn't think it could compare to something like the 9/11 attacks.  In class we talked about how people who lived through the time can recall where they were and what they were doing when it took place (even if it was a pretty normal day). Anyhow, until now, I hadn't considered the Kennedy assassination to be as big of a deal as 9/11 probably because I wasn't alive when it took place.

Secondly, I never learned about the attack in very much detail. On the first day of class, Mr. Mitchell gave us a few choices and took a poll to see what form we thought the assassination took. As much as I wanted to answer the question, I wasn't able to because I didn't know enough about what happened to have much of an opinion. One option was that Lee Harvey Oswalt was a crazy, disturbed man and killed the president by himself. The second option was that there was a larger conspiracy theory. Before starting to read this book, I knew that Kennedy was assassinated by someone named Lee Harvey Oswald but I didn't realize that there might have been much more to it.

Lastly, as a young child I've always had a positive view towards the CIA and FBI. I've always seen them as being a morally good group fighting off "bad guys" within the country and overseas as well. I never imagined them to be an organization with their own selfish purposes and goals, trying to change the country's course of action. This year in US history class with Mr. Sutton, we learned about several terrible things the CIA has done in the past. In 1953, the CIA tried to destabilize Iran by hiring street thugs to fight in the street and cause a ruckus which led the Iranian leader to flee the country. He was replaced by the Shah of Iran. In Guatamala, in an effort to expel the nationalist leader, Arbenz the CIA got 400 Guatemalans to train and start a revolution against Arbenz. They Set up a fake radio station broadcasting fake revolution news. Arbenz understandably freaked out. The CIA even put  speakers on top of the embassy while “lightly bombing” the capital to make the revolt seem real.

Point is, the CIA is known for doing terrible things and this book portrays the CIA (or at least some semiretired members of the CIA) as selfish and focused on coming  up with a plan they hope can galvanize the country into taking some kind of major action against Cuba. 

A Breath of Fresh Air

So far, I have loved Kindred. It has been the easiest and quickest read of all the books I have read in this class this semester. Slaughterhouse-Five is still my favorite so far this semester, but Kindred ranks up there as a close second. The writing style isn't nearly as unique and complex as Mumbo Jumbo which makes it easier to comprehend and more enjoyable for me personally. The characters are developed in a very logical and straightforward way which makes them easy to follow and get to know. Kindred is a very plot driven novel and the plot is very different from any book I have ever read. So far this semester, we have been introduced to various books that play with our understanding of time and place. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut jumps from one time or event in his life back to another with flashbacks and flash-forwards. He may be taking a nap on a train someplace in Europe during World War II and then suddenly he's back in the States as a young child. In Kindred our notion of time and place is further complicated with the "time travel" that Dana and Kevin experience as they go back more than a hundred years to a pre civil war Maryland plantation. 

The time travel dynamic is very interesting and I personally feel like it really goes along well with the   class title; History as Fiction. Someone in class raised the point that this book is less historical fiction than any of the other books we've read so far this semester. I forget this persons entire argument for saying that but I remember it had something to do with how much this book felt like any other novel they might have read in a normal english class. Anyhow, I happen to disagree. The Antebellum South and slavery as a whole is a very important topic in most U.S History classes. It's obvious that Butler had to do a lot of research to make sure she depicted the slave/owner dynamics accurately. In a way, reading this book would be a great history lesson because of how much it shows the intersection of power, gender, and race issues of the time period. The fiction part has to do with the "time travel" and the obvious reality that the characters aren't real and that there is no way Dana could possibly be trapped in this time.