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)...
Date: 1/13/2014
ReplyDeleteI also absolutely love how random the plot is. I like that Doctorow can throw out all the unnecessary fluff and disregard writing conventions or logic in order to really get to the meat of the story. I think, if you can get past how unconventional the narrative is, it makes Ragtime a more easy and rewarding read because you don't really have to wade through boring parts and long descriptions. This is true especially in Doctorow's portrayal of the time period, which is something we've mentioned in class, which is that it seems like he is merely mentioning that these things happened (another example of his detachment) rather that trying to immerse the reader in the time period. In this way he is more aware of the reader, and the novel is less self-contained, and rather a more obvious communication between the author and the reader. Then there's his (more than) mention of Houdini and Freud, which would be of interest to late 20th century readers-- I think one of my favorite parts of the book so far is the image of Freud and Jung sitting together on a love boat.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing this, I hadn't read ahead of the first 2 pages of chapter 5, so I didn't know that Houdini was a main character...
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