The blur between history and fiction in Doctorow's Ragtime.
The blur between history and fiction in Doctorow's Ragtime. Doctorow's Ragtime is a story which has you often asking the question "Did this really happen?". The answer most of the time is maybe. Doctorow finds multiple pockets throughout history, where it's hard to tell exactly if something really happened or not. For example Harry Houdini suddenly crashing his car at the same time a kid was thinking about his idol/ role model Harry Houdini. Later on you see him entering their house and chilling with their family before leaving and carrying on with his own business. In history there are many moments like these where something could've happened or it could've not happened and this is all possible due to Houdini's day to day life not being recorded in history. Doctorow loves to exploit these spaces in history where there are gaps, even if those gaps are small and seem to be insignificant on a larger scale in history, they help him fabricate his...