Libra is I'm assuming going to end with a different take on the Kennedy assassination, one of many hundred alternate theories a quick google search and youll be spending hours, or even days pouring through accounts of what "really happened".
Why is this so appealing to us, why are there entire communities that debate the trajectory of a single bullet for months on end? To me it's largely a comforting fact to feel like you understand a travesty such as the JFK assassination.
In class 9-11 was brought up as well. 9-11 is arguably one of the worst events in American history. Those who propose conspiracy theories are simply trying to forward their understanding. It's comforting to think that theres more to a massacre than a body count.
I can't help but think of Slaughter-House Five as I type that. It's odd the matter of factness with which death is treated by Vonnuget. It's unnerving to think that you can actually understand why something such as the Dresden firebombing or JFK assassination happened. Because to understand why something like that was or would be done, equates a certain level of your thinking with those who perpetrated the crime. And a conspiracy theory is just a way to push that understanding off another level putting another level of disconnect between you and the human being you're trying not to understand.
This is why Libra is so intriguing to me right now. Lee is presented as a person with hopes and aspirations the same as you or me, not some maniacal murdering pawn that got caught up in conspiracy. I hope the novel continues down this path as the ideas behind what could drive Lee to shoot a man, let alone the president of the united states is endlessly fascinating to me.
I'd say that the possibility of an underlying conspiracy (for JFK, 9/11, whatever) is simultaneously appealing/comforting and deeply unnerving: in some sense, the idea that there IS a master plan, however evil, underlying surface chaos suggests a kind of underlying coherence to life itself, and maybe at times that is more comforting than the idea of total randomness and coincidence. At the same time, the idea that shadowy forces are capable of altering reality to suit their agenda--especially at the supposedly most secure levels of American government or civic life--is pretty scary.
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