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 story into something that could benefit his plot or theme in the book.
Another example in the story when Doctorow uses these pockets in history is when Houdini meets Harry K Thaw in prison while attempting to do one of his famous tricks of escaping a prison. Doctorow uses this meeting to advance his plot and to push the idea of Houdini coming to the realization that he wants to be accepted as someone with a talent instead of a freak to entertain rich people. This meeting seems like something that did not happen especially when you consider who the characters are, one being a magician and the other being a serial killer. This is the genius of Doctorow because you can't prove it didn't happen because anything could've happened.
Lastly Evelyn Nesbit's meetings with Tateh and his daughter were written in a way that you couldn't know if it actually happened or not. It all starts off when Evelyn decides on a whim to tell her driver to take a turn and keep exploring instead of heading straight back on her normal route. She then happens to meet Tateh and his daughter and becomes obsessed specifically with Tateh's daughter and continued to meet them for a while. Doctorow then uses a rally meeting led by Emma Goldman where Evelyn gets exposed for who she is and Tateh disappears from Evelyn forever. The gaps that Doctorow finds and exploits for the purpose of his story help him carefully craft a story based off of historical events and allows him to blur those historical people and moments with his own fictional ideas of what could have happened during those moments and uses that for the purpose of his story. In this case the purpose of having Evelyn with Tateh and his daughter was for her not only to find a purpose in life with Tateh's daughter but for her to also understand/ get exposed to the political movement that Emma Goldman was leading. Overall Doctorow cleverly blends history and fiction together so he can manipulate history to benefit his story and shape the story into something he wants.
By Leor
The last line, where you describe how Doctorow's blend of history and fiction as a means of "[manipulating] history to benefit his story" is a spot-on way of summarizing his motive. You address the question of why historical fiction is beneficial as a genre effectively through specific instances within the text.
ReplyDeleteYou do an nice job of blending history and fiction to demonstrate Doctorow's motivation. Similar to what you stated about manipulating history for the purpose of the story, the examples provided demonstrate how history was utilized to aid in the creation of the narrative.
ReplyDeleteYour post analyzes and examines the gaps Doctorow uses to further his story very effectively. The examples you provide further help the reader understand. My personal favorite example is Houdini in the prison, as it almost certainly never happened, yet provides a unique and creative way to explain why certain events occurred in the way they did, furthering the plot and drawing the reader in further. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the lines are vey blurred and I also had a hard time distinguishing history from fiction. I found it especially hard, when the fictional characters such as Father was interacting with characters such as Robert Peary because it makes you question whether Doctorow is actually relaying historical fact or is he trying to make a different point.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely incredible work Leor. I completely agree that it does sound very unreal when Houdini crashed his car and suddenly entered the story after the kid just talked about him. Another example of Doctorow taking advantage of the gaps in history is with Goldman and MYB when Goldman radicalized MYB, enabling him to get involved in the Coalhouse scene later on. These gaps are very interesting and this was a fun read. Superb work as always!
ReplyDeleteI probably didn't manage to articulate this idea in class, but for me, one of the significant features of that first Houdini scene, where the "coincidence" is flaunted to an implausible degree, is a kind of "metafictional" aspect, with Doctorow the author essentially saying "look what I can do! I'm in control of every aspect of this narrative!" When he opens the next chapter with "As it happened," he is reminding us conspicuously that NONE of this is actually "as it happened," and none of it "happened" at all. Except within the NOVEL, which for our concerns is the only "happening" that matters. This ties up the history-as-fiction idea in a nutshell, as the fictional "happening" takes precedence over any actual history, with the author flaunting the fact that he can make anything "happen" that he chooses.
ReplyDeleteNice work, Leor! I think that this blending of history and fiction to the point of questioning what is real is the main charm of this book, as it inspires curiosity about the neglected period of the early 20th century. It also reveals the meticulous, masterful writing Doctorow put into this book as he incorporates the most preposterous fictional events in a way that can't be argued against because it "could have happened".
ReplyDeleteI think it's particularly interesting that Doctorow views these moments of "fiction" as perfectly valid historical events. By finding "pockets" in history (as you mentioned in your blog) and utilizing lesser known historical figures and events, Doctorow spins a convincing tale of historical fiction, such that few readers could easily distinguish the truth from the exaggerations. This insuperability is heightened by the fact that Doctorow views it as history, that he himself could not easily decipher the historical facts in Ragtime from his own synthesized narratives (as stated in an interview).
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