Doctorow’s writing style

In general, I like Doctorow’s subtle and ironic writing style and narration. While many readers in our class are not really in favor of his different ways of both the manipulation of his characters and the awkward tone, I find it rather amusing. For example, Doctorow’s portrayal of Ford is a demonstration of the manner in which Doctorow sees the inventor in his eyes: “He allotted sixty seconds on his pocket watch for a display of sentiment (Doctorow 136).” While it is true that this may be Doctorow just justifying on Ford’s attitude or nature, I feed that this is Doctorow laughing at Ford, describing his frenkle sense of humanity. Although the narration is vague at times, it does bring for a variety of viewpoints, which I find very intriguing.

Amazingly enough however, I am not content (I don’t know how to phrase this- I don’t really like it?) with the way in which Doctorow talks about his fictional characters when trying to “prove” they are real. On page 183, when Doctorow is talking about Coalhouse Walker Jr.’s background, I was rather annoyed when he said “ Here, given subsequent events, it is important to mention what little is known about Coalhouse walker Jr. Apparently he was a native of St. Louis, Missouri....There were never located any of his school records in St. louis and it still is not known how he acquired his vocabulary and his manner of speaking. Perhaps by an act of will.” Maybe this botheration came to me because Doctorow is no longer fictionalizing historical characters but trying to create history using fictional characters. The “apparently” here is the center of the paragraph: with every character in the book, Doctorow takes their place by saying things like “he allotted...for a display of sentiment,” instead of apparently. The same is true with J.P. Morgan. I don’t know what Doctorow is trying to do by staying apart from this character and giving us a negative connotation of him.

I understand that this weirdness is probably due to intensification in the historical fiction genre which is now showing its true colors, trying to express a fictional character seem real by providing vague details of his past and twisting with our brains. I guess we’ll  just have to keep reading to find out more!

Has Tateh bought into Capitalism?

1/18/2014 

In class, the question was brought up: did Tateh buy into capitalism? I feel that that is indeed a very interesting question-- while it is true that Tateh does agree to sign the contract to have his flipbooks mass produced, that isn’t his ‘true nature’. In those terms, he is similar to Houdini, who starts as a low class jewish immigrant (precisely like Tateh) and using his art, grows and rises high in society, even though he is unwilling and doesn’t like the idea of being bought. Similarly, Tateh did not have that much money (with only 60 dollars to begin with, and most of it was spent in transportation), so, he does need the money, not only for himself, but also his daughter.

Additionally, the way I read it, Tateh didn’t even know that the manager would like his flipbooks, yet alone mass produce them-- Tateh was just hoping to get a couple of extra dollars on the side to literally be able to live: “ Tateh removed his hat and spoke to a man in a striped shirt with sleeve garters who came forward to meet them. The man was amiable. Sure, he said, let’s see it. Tateh took the girl’s satchel, put it on the counter and, opening it, withdrew the book of the skater. Standing next to the proprietor he held the book at arm’s length and expertly flipped the pages” (Doctorow 132). It is clear that Tateh’s intentions were not to seek profits from capitalism. When he was presented the offer, he decided to take it because he had to. Let’s talk realistically: here’s a guy offering you money on the spot for your talent. Sure Tateh does profit from it, but he doesn’t seem to be thinking from a capitalistic point of view. Once again, he is doing this to keep both his daughter and himself alive. At the end of chapter 17, for example: “For purposes of the contract they were called movie books. Come, Tateh said to his child, we'll find a boardinghouse in a good neighborhood and then we'll have ourselves a meal and a hot bath” (133). These words are not those of someone who is embracing capitalism for his benefits, but rather, of someone simply trying to survive.

Ragtime: First Impressions

In the class discussion on Ragtime( and outside of class, mostly), several people mentioned that they didn't really like the ‘detached’ tone of the book, at times; but I didn’t mind that, in fact, that is what I love about this book. I think that the tone totally fits the style of the book by giving a really unbiased (as of now, at least) view of the situations, that is, telling situations without taking a stand on it. There are moments, however, when the narrative suggests something without saying anything specifically, which I guess is the type of writing you often encounter in novels.

In terms of plot, (and this is my main point; I love this book because of this as well) all I can say is that at times certain events seem totally random and quite meaningless. For example, the mirror scene in the jail between Thaw and Houdini seemed significant, in tonight’s reading, but I failed to draw anything from it (perhaps a connection from the Houdini scene when his car broke down in front of the house?). What’s even better is how the author mentions himself “the unexpected visit [of Harry Houdini]” at the beginning of the third chapter, accepting this arbitrary plot.  The randomness can be seen even from the beginning of the book with “[h]er underpants were white” ( though that too may be a connection to the previously mentioned phrase “everyone wore white”). The best example, though, has to be Theodore Dreiser towards the end of the fourth chapter- his ‘experiment’ to try to align his chair in just the right manner is just so meaningless (I don’t think another connection comes up, unlike the others), which is actually, what I like about this book. I feel that that brings much needed humor to the sometimes dull tone.

Another thing about the plot is that there doesn't actually seem to be one cohesive plot; rather, there seems to be many different plots, each majorly concerning a few limited characters at a time, and these plots tend (as of now) to stay separate from each other. In any case, I think it will be quite fascinating to see how each of these small stories blend into each other, hopefully making for sense(that is not to say that separately they don’t look, they are fun to read, but together might be a different story altogether)...