Zapruder Film. Yet again.

At the end of class today, there was a question asked by Mary (blogpost at: http://angonokas.blogspot.com/) about the Zapruder film. I don’t remember the exact wordings, but it was somewhere along the lines of “So it seems that everyone is in agreement that the Zapruder film has just brought up more controversies and conspiracies. Does anyone think that it is good that the Zapruder film is there?” Now I know the question wasn’t that but that’s how I interpreted it (haha that’s why I said “somewhere along the lines of..”) and that’s the question I will talk about during this blog. Now I wasn’t able to give a nice smartass response because of lack of time and my mentioning of the Zapruder film on IMDB (more on that below. If you don’t want to ready my awesome zestful points which show why I am right (and y’all are wrong, just kidding lol), then just skip to the bottom, with no zest).

Conspiracy theories. Lots of those, right, over the JFK assassination? Yes, that’s true. But do you think there were none before the Zapruder film? Of course there were. There were eyewitnesses, the Warren Commision. Even when the Warren Commision came out, the majority of people did not think it was the full story, and this was before the introduction of the Zapruder film to the general public. After the introduction of the film, many theories such as the theory of only one bullet, or even more, where the president was hit, and such things were debated. Sure, the Zapruder film is the root of most conspiracy theories nowadays, but it has helped solve some mysteries too. And on the subject of multiple theories: do you expect there to be no theories? Does that ever happen with ANY assassination? And there should be many more theories for this, because there is a reason it is called as the most horrific 26 seconds of the 20th century. Whether it be actually true, or theories simply put out to confuse others ( or blaming other opposition countries etc), it doesn’t mean that the Zapruder film is bad or shouldn’t have been there.

Moreover, keeping aside the conspiracy theories, the Zapruder film is one that shows the assassination of the United States President. Considering that the United States considers itself as an omnipotent power, this comes to a shock of not only the American public, but also the world. Writings and narratives can only show you so much. Even with bad pixelation, no sound, and being really old, it brings the truth. No one, and this is important, says that Frame 313 is fake. No one. Because every single eyewitness remembers that scene vividly. It’s just like 9/11 for people that were alive and paying attention (more on that on Mary’s blog). That brings me to my final point, the one you’ve all been waiting for. IMDB.

For a while I’ve been trying to bring this up in class, but I just didn’t find the right time. So, today, I decided to talk about it. Yes, its true. With a rating of 7.9/10 (anything on IMDB that is 8+ rating is by definition a must watch awesome piece of artwork; that doesn’t mean those below it aren’t, they are also good (obviously, the higher the ranking, the better)) and casting JFK and Jackie Kennedy and winner of the national film registry award, IMDB has some cool facts and trivia attached to the Zapruder film. For example, when watching the Zapruder film, we see Jackie Kennedy jumping on the trunk of the car, and I thought she was doing that for self-protection. IMDB says “When the film was released publicly in 1975 many people assumed that Mrs. Kennedy jumped on the trunk after the shooting because she was frightened and trying to get out of the way. Some years later the secret service that jumped onto the bumper revealed that she was actually trying to retrieve a piece of the president's head that had landed on the back of the car” and  that “Although Abraham Zapruder made a profit from selling the film, he was so disturbed by the nightmare he had filmed that he did not keep a copy. He never owned or used another camera again.” See it for yourself at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131658/.

The last thing I would like to say. Earlier, I posted a post with a video of Jackie Kennedy’s letters from CNN. And now, I came to know, as a subscriber of Time Magazine, that there is going be an issue all on her, releasing on May 30th, 2014, her 20th death anniversary. Lee will probably be mentioned on numerous occasions. Looks like his goal of being in TIME has been once again achieved.  

What A F---ing Coincidence

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Today, in class, we discussed coincidence vs. free will and the importance of coincidence in the jfk assassination plot. I would like to take some time to talk about that now. Many people were in agreement that coincidence plays a big role, but I don't think it does-- it's just being over dramatized. The truth is that coincidence is the word often used by people who are unable to look at the entire picture (thereby ignorant!). Words such as coincidence, synchronicity, (black) magic, sorcery, etc are often used to describe things or events that cannot be explained by human beings through typical conventional science and technology.

Let’s get into the fancy details: the physics definition of coincidence is “The presence of ionizing particles or other objects in two or more detectors simultaneously, or of two or more signals simultaneously in a circuit (OED).” From that, it grew to the conventionally used term of today, where “a remarkable concurrence of [two or more] events or circumstances without apparent causal connection” take place (OED). You can see for yourself how the term grew up. I shall use a multitude of examples to relay my point, and then sum it up in general. If you’re in a hurry stop reading, if not, well what a coincidence, you can keep reading.  Now, imagine that you’re in your living room reading this article and thinking about your favorite TV show. Then you open the television out of boredom and voila, that very TV show is coming on. “What a coincidence,” you must think. The truth is that that TV channel is already on the TV from when you watched it last night, and since it’s a hit TV show they are doing a re-run or something. Whatever the case maybe, its hardly coincidence. But we never stop and think about these things. We open the TV, say “What a coincidence”, and start to enjoy the show after a tiresome day. So what does this tell us? It tells us that coincidence, in general, is rare, like very rare.

Another example: when students have been given monetary indulges towards their grades, as in, rewards for an A and such in schools, those schools’ (Data from Freakonomics, worldwide best selling novel; reputable and factual source) overall student performance has a tremendous jump. Coincidence? No. This is research, fact: incentives attract people.

Ruth Paine, a friend of his family's in Dallas alerted Lee of a job opening at the Texas School Book Depository about a month and a half before the assassination. Coincidence? No, because Lee was a looking for a job (ignoring the Libra plot streamline, for a moment) anyways. Roy Truly, the building superintendent, hired Oswald and assigned him to the fifth and sixth floors of the building. Coincidence? No, because those were the floors that needed someone assigned to. There’s a reason that Ruth Paine and Roy Truly are never considered to be part of the plot. They had no evidence, no relationships, no connections to anyone bad or of even slightly suspectful people but Oswald. JFK’s car conveniently passes by the building Lee works in. Coincidence? No, because JFK’s car passed a whole lot of buildings, not just the one Lee was shooting from (you see, Lee get’s himself caught, it didn’t help that he shot from that window as it didn’t not raise suspicion of Lee shooting from that window. He could have just as well shot from anywhere he wanted by getting into the building as a guest, janitor, or worker of some sort.) The thing is, you can analyse these things from any angle you want-- there is NO coincidence involved. When people can’t explain things right, or want to quickly get their point across, they use the word coincidence, because that just has this psychological effect on us, accepting their narrative, be it true, false, a conspiracy, whatever it may be.

If you think that I am wrong in any way, or you have more things related to coincidence, such as specific scenes or things related to Lee’s life and the JFK assassination, please leave it in the comments below, because I would have lots of fun putting forth my arguments during the summer. Blog comment war anybody?            

Here’s something to crunch over, if you have time for philosophical things. Let's go back to the coconut analogy. When a coconut falls from its tree into the ocean (so the tree lets go of its fruit), then which river it will go in, which land the fruit will be planted on to pulp a new tree (and even if it is lucky enough to survive), is completely dependent on the fruit and its destiny. That was the analogy I had used previously to give a demonstration of what destiny was and now I will attempt to clarify coincidence. When it falls, where it lands and if it breaks (that is, if there is a low tide than it will break, if there is a high tide, then it will land on the water. Or maybe the coconut breaks after hitting the water anyways.) is it coincidence? Or just something that happened? On another note, suppose I just got three yahtzees (anybody still play board games?) in a row (when all five dice have the same face value in one turn=yahtzee). You would probably say “Wow, what a coincidence!” slightly amazed and perplexed (considering that you have a roughly .08% chance of getting a yahtzee, and one in a million, for three yahtzees in a row). Now what if I told you that I have been trying that since the beginning of the day? The week? As the time frame grows, of when I tell you since when I have been trying this, your excited expression would probably turn into a sighing “Oh. Good job,” or “Cool story, bro,” or a combination or something similar.

Assassination Footage of JFK

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

In class, a few days back (was it this week? I forget; nevertheless, whenever it happened) we were shown the Kennedy assassination footage. It was the first time that I was seeing this footage (keep in mind, I had already read Delillo's narrative at this point). From Kennedy’s initial wave to the public, the first shot, and the bloody head shot, everything was so unexpected. I was prepared for to see it, I thought, but I was wrong. Dellio was spot on about the narration. He narrated it exactly like the Zapruder film. Everytime it replayed, I kept rooting for Kennedy to duck down or something and miss getting hit. Every single time, even though I knew nothing could change it, still. Here’s the difference between Delillo’s work: when I was reading Delillo, I wanted Lee to not miss. I was rooting for Lee to get that anti-Castro, and no longer be a bird. And this is the what I hate about the Zapruder film: I’m in no man’s land now. I don’t know who to root for and why (make sure to help me out with that in the comments below guys, if you’re still reading). Video games used to be fun when I got awesome headshots. But when I saw an actual one, it shook me back to reality completely.

Mr. Mitchell mentioned in class the effect of Frame 313 and how it’s the key frame and cause of debate in the conspiracy theories; I totally understand why that Frame was hidden from the public for over a decade after the assasination. That is the scene where the blood from Kennedy’s head comes rushing out, a really horrifying seen. I let out a little gasp, I remember vividly, everytime I saw that Frame-- it just has that aura to it. And Delillo has been trying to build (not even trying, just saying has built would be correct, I think) this aura from the beginning of the book, with the dated and placed chapters (may I add, yes I will, I never knew Lee had traveled so far internationally like that (isn’t that rare for that time period?)).  

Meanwhile and interestingly, in other news, I just came across this CNN video relating to letters from Jackie Kennedy (it’s interesting, I have found stuff relating to the books that we have read all semester in some way on the recent headlines on CNN. Coincedence, or is the damn NSA?

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/05/13/lead-dnt-foreman-jackie-kennedy-letters.cnn.html