For my panel presentation I found an article that blew me away. It took everything I had been thinking and moved it up another level. ("The Dislocation of Agency in Don DeLillo's Libra" by Michael James Rizza)
In particular it talks about the control that the plotters have. It attributes the role of mastermind behind the plot to chance. No-ones really in charge but a series of coincidences. Thinking about this shed new light on history. It really is a tide, as we said in class. It's a tide though that we somehow manage to project our desires onto, attributing the various crashes of the wave upon the shore to our own actions.
Lee embodies this the most. He sees himself in third person, he views his life in terms of how people view him and acts on it. What he projects on the outside is what history picks up, but what he feels on the inside is what Delillo can only guess at.
These guesses are the basis of the unknown elements of history, what we perceive to be coincidence. Rizza mentions a multitude of Dellilo's other work in showing this theme, and it is truly fascinating. I look forward to presenting it in class.
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