An interesting passage from the reading a couple nights ago:
"It occurred to Oswald that everyone called the prisoner by his first name. The Soviet press, local TV, the BBC, the Voices of America, the interrogators, etc. Once you did something notorious, they tagged you with an extra name, a middle name that was ordinarily never used. You were officially marked, a chapter in the history of the state. Francis Gary Powers. In just these few days the name had taken on a resonance, a sense of fateful event. It already sounded historic." (page 198, my edition).
It's pretty clear that Delillo is emphasizing the media's title for this man due to its similarity to the name Lee takes on after the assassination: Lee Harvey Oswald. First, middle, and last, very official.
The passage makes it seem like maybe Lee would be kind of pleased with how his image has been treated by the American public. People despise him, and in the story, it's not even his own actions or character which earn him his infamy, but we use all three names, and everyone knows them. It goes along with the smiling while he's being punched thing: it's unpleasant, but it's attention--a way to have some place in a society which has otherwise rejected him at every opportunity.
We briefly covered Delillo's names for Lee in class: how using the first name makes us sympathize and see him as a character, rather than a crazy assassin or political pawn. Mr. Mitchell pointed out that historical texts generally use last names, and novels tend to use first names. This passage makes it seem like, on top of familiarizing Lee, using his first name kind of denies him his historical significance. He's just Lee; not even really behind the assassination, just a lonely dude. Which is sad. I feel like Lee deserves the grandiose name at least... not that he got it in an acceptable way at all (and not that anything he's doing at this point in the book is acceptable).
I just found a Slate article on the three-name assassin phenomenon. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/01/why_do_so_many_assassins_have_three_names.html
It's a little lengthy so I'll summarize. Basically it points out all the famous American assassins who go by their middle names (James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth, Lee, and apparently six others in the top twenty famous assassins). It proposes that maybe we use the middle name to avoid besmirching the other Lee Oswalds out there, but then goes on to point out that some of them went by their middle names before they became famous. Apparently Lee Harvey Oswald was introduced with his middle name on a talkshow before Kennedy's assassination. So the author proposes something that fits with Delillo's point very well:
"Would-be assassins might embellish their own names to sound more grandiose. (Middle names were a point of pride when they first became popular in the United States in the 19thcentury.)"
Can I just point out that the author of this article and I (inspired by Delillo's observation) both independently chose the word 'grandiose' to describe the three-name style. I love it when people are on the same page with weird little theories like this.
Any thoughts on names and-the-like? Also, does anyone know how to switch back to normal font without undoing all of your formatting when you copy-paste something? I feel like Blogger is lacking in some fundamental word-processing abilities like this. I've seen other blog posts struggle with it too.
Wow, I feel like what you are analyzing is really... important? Even though it's just about names? It's a commonly held belief that bullies and even just "problem children" are insecure, and want attention. The way kids are told to combat this insecurity complex is to ignore hurtful comment and actions from the bully, and try to be generally nice to them. I feel like Oswald definitely wants attention, and the 3rd name phenomena reflects that, in him and other assassins as you say. It would be very interest to see if you could target people who "need help" in society, (potential criminals) through their use of 3 names, or even a more prominent name- change of name?
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of middle names, it really annoys me when standardized forms don't give me room to include both of my middle names. Argh. If I ever gain notoriety, I'm afraid that the great three-name formula won't fit. Anyway -- I totally agree with you that Lee (at least, the character DeLillo has given us) would be so happy with his public reputation. Even though we know things don't end well for him, and his whole story is pretty sad, he does seem to get what he wants, in the end: Everyone in America knows his name, he's part of history. As for the importance of names in general, the power of a name is all around (the first character that comes to my mind is Lord Voldemort) -- whether or not someone decides to use a "grandiose" version of their name or a diminutive nickname says so much about a person.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, Lee kind of achieves success in his original goals. He becomes famous. At the same time, though, I think that Lee's motivations have shifted just a little as he grows and develops. Now that he's actually gotten attention from all these government agencies, he seems to want them to leave him alone--just look at the end of In Mexico City or the start of his conversation with Ferrie. Lee doesn't want to stand out as the lone shooter. He wants to be a man of history, yes, but he seems to want to do it as a part of something larger than himself. Wanting to be a spy (someone who by definition is unknown). Wanting to be part of the Soviet Union. Wanting to be part of Cuba. When Lee takes his shot at Kennedy, I think he'll be influenced more by Ferrie's promise to get him to Havana (where he'll be _wanted,_ imagine that!) than a desire to become known purely as the guy who shot someone important.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the three-part name phenomenon is interesting, but why, fundamentally, is the three-part name so much more "grandiose" and eye-catching than using two or one name? Is it just because people only regularly use up to two names to call someone in daily life, or maybe something that phonetically makes the three-part name jump out? I do think that "Lee Harvey Oswald" rolls off the tongue pretty smoothly...but I did notice that this phenomenon can only really apply to American/European assassins. Some country's don't give middle names to their kids...
ReplyDeleteI do find this phenomenon very interesting. Lee himself found it weird that people were referring to him using his middle name, until he realized how important it made him sound. Using three names for someone is most likely just for the purpose of not confusing them with others, but I do think it also makes them stand out since we rarely refer to people with all three of their names.
ReplyDelete