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Oswald's Mental Health

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  Libra portrays Oswald in quite an odd way. I felt sympathetic for him lots of the time, kind of admired him at times, but also really didn’t like him some of the time. Before reading Libra, the only things I knew about the JFK assassination were that JFK was shot and that there were lots of conspiracies about it. I hear some people say that Oswald was just a wannabe historical figure, that he was an awful person, some say that he was set up and innocent, and many other things. But, what if he’s just mentally ill? Mental illness is sometimes used as a scapegoat for stupidity or immorality. I myself have used mental illness as a scapegoat on multiple occasions, but when is it actually okay to use it- when is it not a scapegoat? I love this topic especially because of Kanye West, Hitler, my mental hospital homies, and pop culture psychology. When looking at Oswald, I’d like to explore some different perspectives of his actions. One way to look at Oswald is as a troubled mentally ill...
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What to make of Rufus???

I hate this book. A large part of my reading experience of this book was full of uncomfortability and shock. Many times throughout my reading experience, I thought that the book had reached its peak in terms of craziness and disgustingness, and then I turned to another page and an even more disgusting scenario was there. I’m quite a sensitive individual which may explain my reaction partly, however I do think most people would agree that this book has an above average amount of crazy shit, and would also agree that Octavia Butler must have had some demons or something in order to write a lot of the content of this absurd book. While I do hate the disgusting nature of much of this book, I also love it because Butler doesn’t care that it's disgusting and prioritizes accuracy of portrayal. Making a traditionally one dimensional hated bad guy into a complex one is a common trope, however Butler creates complexities in characters that make me much more uncomfortable than usual ones an...
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Music by Black people > music by white people? If yes, why?

Because of reading and discussing Ragtime and Coalhouse Walker's piano skills and reading and discussing Jes Grew's spread in Mumbo Jumbo I have had many, many thoughts about why I and many others tend to love music made by black people more than music made by white people. Have you ever felt like music created by black people tends to elicit much greater feelings of goodness and love? If so I completely relate, if not I will explain. Since I was a kid (and recently for some of em) I remember loving songs like September by Earth Wind and Fire, Let's Groove by Earth Wind and Fire, Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio, Hypnotize by Biggie, so many songs by Kanye West, Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z, etc etc. I've always wondered why some people liked certain music and certain people liked other music, and especially why I liked certain races' music.    The obvious answer that comes up is that it's a cultural thing- it's about how you were raised, what kind of peopl...
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Narrator in Ragtime

  What does the narrator think? How does doctorow express his views on historical events with his formation of the narrator? These are some of the questions that I wish to answer with this blog. The character of the narrator was one of the most intriguing and interesting elements of the book to me; the layers of irony were at times annoying, but definitely satisfying to peel back and examine.  First I'll look at chapter one of the book, specifically the first paragraph in which Doctorow boldly exerts his striking writing style and throws an avalanche of stuff at the reader. Just the first paragraph of this book deserves a long and thorough blog post, but for this blog I’ll focus on the narrator element and keep it brief. Doctorow starts by describing the family’s house, then the season, the culture of the early 1900’s, the entertainment scene, a few of the family members, a description of the Evelyn Nesbit’s scandal and those involved in it, and a confession from the narrator....
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