James Bond and the Greater Forces in Life

After the scene where Lee becomes associated with the Fair Play Committee and reunites with David Ferrie, Don DeLillo immediately follows with a passage describing Lee fitting in with the rest of the men involved in the Committee. DeLillo sets up the dynamic between Ferrie/Banister and Lee, and he also describes portions of Lee’s thoughts. Particularly, he focuses on Lee thinking over the multitude of connections between himself and President Kennedy. The connections seem a little odd, forced, and more like actions that Lee takes up just to match Kennnedy. Lee describes the similarity in how both the First Lady and Marina are pregnant, but also how he reads material of Mao just like Kennedy, and how he reads James Bond novels just like Kennedy.

The similarity that Lee thinks of that catches my attention the most is the reading of James Bond novels, because one random fact that I had heard of before watching the documentary and reading Libra is that JFK and his assassin (Oswald) were reading the same James Bond novel the night before the assassination. The cool little addition to Libra of mentioning James Bond novels actually first caught my attention in an earlier scene, when TJ Mackey is searching Lee’s apartment. Mackey needs a sample of Lee’s handwriting so he searches through his apartment, and while he is there, he sees objects that tell of Oswald’s personality. To close the scene, DeLillo writes, “The last thing Mackey saw, leaving the apartment, was a James Bond novel on a table by the door” (180). At the time I read this, I immediately though of the little fact I am familiar with. I also thought of the effectiveness in writing a historical fiction that the sentence entails, because all successful historical fiction novels have infinite background details filling in the setting for the plot and narrative to occur. DeLillo’s inclusion of the Bond novels is, at least on one level, an example of his basic strength in writing historical fiction. I like to note this simply because this idea ties in directly to my thoughts when I was working on the semester project. During those times, I considered the process of writing “good” historical fiction and what it is composed of, and providing little details to fit the time period was something that came to mind. I also recall talking about this sort of support detail as a class when the “walking races” were mentioned. It was suggested that anyone writing about the early 1900s had the freedom to include a detail about those races as a side note, even if it were not the main subject, just to strengthen the short story.

Throughout the novel, DeLillo writes about the idea of coincidence, thereby providing his own reasoning for the overlap of interests between Oswald and Kennedy. Often times, he does so through the voice of David Ferrie. When talking with Tony Astorina at one point, Ferrie says, “We don’t know what to call it, so we say coincidence. It goes deeper…There’s a hidden principle. Every process contains its own outcome. Sometimes we tap in.” Later, Ferrie says to Lee, “Think of two parallel lines…One is the life of Lee H. Oswald. One is the conspiracy to kill the President. What bridges the space between them?...There is a third line…It puts a man on the path of his destiny.” Basically, DeLillo is saying that coincidence is not substantial explanation for anything, and that everything happens with definite reason. The reason may be unknown, but there is some outside force moving it all along. Destiny is created and paths are meant to cross by the direction of this outside force, according to the outside force. Even when Ferrie was talking about other matters, such as the instances from the quotes, he manages to give an explanation of why Lee and Kennedy reading James Bond concurrently is significant.

Just before Lee is described as making the connection between himself and Kennedy, DeLillo describes how Banister’s secretary calls him Leon on accident. Ferrie however picks up the name anyway and uses it after the Marxist Trotsky. DeLillo then writes “Mistakes have this way of finding a sweet meaning.” So directly in the passage regarding the connection Lee and JFK, DeLillo does make indication to the theme that things happen for a reason due to that “hidden principle.”