How Realistic is Libra?

Throughout Libra we see the group of former CIA agents constantly adapting and improvising the plan as the situation changes. I think this is one of the most realistic parts of the story. In real life it would be nearly impossible for a small group of people to have a perfect plan that would pan out exactly as they expected. Also, I think the entire premise of having any borderline omniscient and all powerful "secret society" so to speak is a bit ridiculous, a surprisingly wide spread idea among conspirators. DeLillo makes a much more believable atmosphere, with uncertainty and other groups all sort of competing to kill the president. This uncertainty in how this will all play out makes the story much more chaotic, but a lot more realistic.

However, the chaotic nature of the plot also makes it seem as if DeLillo is just trying to make things make sense with historical facts. With all this uncertainty it makes the plan to coerce Lee into attempting to kill the president on his own accord seem all the more unlikely, and similarly with Jack Ruby killing Lee. Events sort of just happen to fall into place, almost like DeLillo started the main event, Kennedy's assassination, and worked backwards to the beginning to make everything make sense. In a way this also makes Libra is much more believable than Ragtime where Doctorow makes the novel blatantly fictional. DeLillo deliberately makes every plot point lead up towards the assassination where as Doctorow seems to just have random events happening purely for the fun of it. Having a central event makes everything have meaning and consequence, where as with other books, such as with even with Mumbo Jumbo, do not have that one distinct link to reality. 

Now is DeLillo's narrative more believable than the Warren Commission's conclusion? I think it is a bit more believable. The Zapruder film makes it really look like the president is hit from a different direction than the first shot that hits him. His head looks like it gets hit from the side, which would not make sense if Lee was in the book depository almost directly behind the motorcade, however I am not a ballistics specialist. The concept of a lone gunman in a way makes sense, however with so many people having motives to kill the president, a bit unlikely and also depressing to think about. In the end we will never know for sure who killed the president or why they did it, there will always be multiple narratives that have just as much merit as the next.

Comments

  1. JanakiMay 31, 2022 at 1:14 PM

    I do agree that Libra is definitely more believable than whatever Doctorow was doing with Ragtime, in part because the core of Libra centers around trying to make sense of a historical event that actually happened and everyone accepts took place (although people disagree how). While I do agree that the Warren Commission's conclusion feels overly simplistic considering how complex the whole situation is, DeLillo draws much of the details from the Warren Commission because it is so extensive. I think that the concept of the lone gunman is accepted (and disputed) because it feels comforting in a sense but I agree that there are different stories, all of which have their own merits as you say. Nice post :)

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