Poor Old Derby

Today in class we discussed the impact of “poor old” Edgar Derby standing up to Campbell

with his motivational speech, and its impact.  In his “finest moment,” he stands up to

Campbell with a speech about american morals, and “spoke movingly about the American

form of government.” He also said there “wasn't a man there who wouldn't gladly die for

those ideals.”  There are a few ironic moments that I want to expand on from class.

First, this book was published in 1969. This was only two years after the first well known

Napalm and Anti-War protests took hold in Madison, Wisconsin. The anti-war movement

was gaining storm, and the novel is just one manifestation of this movement. But for this

scene specifically, it calls on poor old Derby to carry the irony. Derby is the teacher who is

“too old to be fighting,” but he does it anyway out of his love for his country. “All of the real

soldiers are dead,” but Derby continues on. He loves his country, which is a funny idea to the

protestors reading this anti-war labeled novel.

Another part of this was how Vonnegut doesn't even write out the meaningful speech. I

felt at first like this was a critique at literature. Like, he talks to the reader about how “old

Derby was a character now.” And we’re like, wait, no other ‘character’ in this novel has felt

strongly about anything. We’re thrown in supposedly high action war scenarios, and Billy

just says “go ahead without me.” So I don’t really understand this critique, but maybe it’s

part of the whole weird storyline, flow of consciousness vibe of the book. The plot is set up as

a given, the ending is a given, it’s just how it happens that makes it readable. I like it, and it’s

hard to pinpoint what makes this part so interesting.

Another part is something we brought up in class. Derby’s speech is supposedly meaningful and moving and all that, but none of the men react really at all. So it brings to question, how moving can it be? It really pulls together the anti-war theme of the novel. No matter what Derby does, it shows the downside. To me, when I first read this passage, I first thought Derby was going to join Campbell and the Nazis. We noticed that whether Derby was or wasn't going to join the Nazis it would have a similar effect. It’s could be a patriotic teacher - who’s too old to fight who goes to war to fight for his country- who eventually gives up on everything he’s supposed to fight for a little bit of nourishment. This would show how the values and ideals of the soldiers are so broken down that they end up going to the other side. An anti-war message. If Derby stands up and gives a moving motivational speech to no avail and reaction, it has a similar outcome. It shows the lack of heart in the soldiers, and how it’s barely even their battle. They are tired and sipping on syrup all day long. These soldiers have lost. Not the battle, but their heart. Another anti-war message. So when Derby stood up, no matter what he says shows the anti-war purpose of the book.

These are just a few thoughts about Derby’s big speech and the importance of having a
character. I’m still kind of at a loss about the character thing, so if you have any thoughts
feel free to say something in the comments.

The Authors Are Messing With Us (Part 2)

I wrote my last blog mainly about what I expected of the author’s in the books we will read

throughout the rest of the semester. There were a few themes I mentioned. Mainly, the themes the

books encompass, and how the authors continue to mess with the reader. One of the main themes of

Mumbo Jumbo was how the Wallflower Order and the Atonists aimed to hold back and get rid of Jes

Grew. In essence, this was a white versus black social battle. The Atonists fight to hold down African
American culture and keep it out of culture. The very end of the book reminds me a lot of

Ragtime, and makes me think that this is a common theme of history as fiction novels. The novel

ends with the narrative, “Time is pendulum, Not a river. More akin to what goes around comes

around.” (218). This immediately reminded me of how we talked about how the Black Panthers were

transported through time and dropped into the Ragtime narrative with Coalhouse Walker’s crew. The

social issues presented in each book’s narrative directly related to the time period the novel was

published. Both of these novels were published not too long after the civil rights era, so it makes

sense to have these socially relevant topics. I don’t know if this is a part of history as fiction, but

judging what I already know about Slaughterhouse Five, I think it might be. By “this,” I mean using

history in fiction to depict social criticisms of both the time period of the book but also the time

period it was published. In short, Ragtime shows that Black Panther-esque characters and fighting

for civil rights can be applied to both the 1910s and the 1960s. The racism of Conklin is still relevant

to people of the 1970s who just had to fight against racism for civil rights in the 1960s. For Mumbo

Jumbo, I notice that the theme is about racism in a similar way. Abdul is murdered in a racist fashion

by Vampton. Vampton spends much of the novel working to using black people as an object to

destroy black culture. I think that as our novels are published in different times the social issues they

tackle will be going with the time accordingly. I already know some about Slaughterhouse Five, so I

think you guys should be looking out for the social issue presented in the novel. There are lots of

parallels between the two novels we have read so far, both dealing with issues of race. As far as the

author messing with us, we talked about how the text is supposed to be in kind of vernacular, but

what I think was the important part of how he messed with us was how he ordered the story. PaPa

LaBas knew the outcome of the story with many pages to go, and we only learned how it would turn

out toward the very end. So the detective aspect of the story is a little different. I’m curious about

how the authors will play with us for the rest of the class.