I like Houdini
For my first blog post I wanted to analyze how Doctorow shows his skillful writing through Houdini as a character. Houdini adds a lot to the novel and has been really interesting for me to read.
One of the first instances of Doctorow showing his power as a postmodernist author happens early in the novel, when the boy is basically daydreaming about how much he loves Houdini, and Houdini comes driving down his street and crashes in front of his house. I think it's a pleasant surprise for the reader, too. He may have been a slightly more recent memory for people who had read it closer to 1975 when it was published, but in my eyes Houdini is probably one of the only names from the early 1900's I would recognize and have literally any interest in as a character. I speak for myself here, but I'm sure someone else would agree.
Houdini exemplifies how Doctorow often uses real and fictional elements in tandem to build his characters and narratives. He creates a narrative about Houdini's dissatisfaction with his historical importance as an entertainer using this strategy. A really quick Google search (the kind where you only look at the link titles and don't actually click any of them) shows Houdini really purchased an aeroplane during his lifetime due to simple interest for the craft. Doctorow takes this activity and uses it in his novel to solidify Houdini's insecurity in his occupation as an entertainer, as the Archduke Franz Ferdinand sees him flying and "didn’t seem to know who Houdini was. He congratulated him on the invention of the aeroplane" (p. 105), seeming to push him further towards the idea that being an entertainer was a meaningless job.
Doctorow also uses fictional events to build around his historical characters. When Houdini visits Father's household and strikes up conversation, Father mentions his trip to the arctic with Peary, and Houdini instantly becomes "voluble," talking about "the Pole! he said. Now that’s something. You must be pretty good to get picked for that." Doctorow again shows Houdini's respect for the explorers and innovators of the world, this time with a fictional character. Even if such an insecurity did really exist in Houdini about his occupation, Doctorow illustrates it in full color and uses it to affect the narrative skillfully.
I'm excited to see what other early 1900's famous people Doctorow can invent/reinvent. Thanks for visiting my blog, see ya next time.
I agree, out of all the characters that we have been introduced to, Houdini really sticks out as a recognizable and interesting historical character.
ReplyDeleteHoudini thinks of his work as an entertainer as "meaningless", but fast-forward to the future, we can see that he is still very well known to this day for his entertainment! I wonder why Doctorow decided to include Houdini in this novel – maybe he is commenting that "less important" people still have an impact in history, where Houdini is just as recognizable as Ford.
Great job on this blog! I didn't know that Houdini actually liked flying
This was a really interesting post! I think you get at a lot of the reasons Doctorow uses Houdini as a reflection of American society: he's kind of the quintessential "self-made" entrepreneur, who rises up to success through his own inventiveness, and whose humble background makes him likeable. I do think it's interesting that Doctorow shows him unraveling in the second half of the book, and I think he's making a point about the limitations of this mindset by showing its dark side. In this case, I think he particularly uses Houdini's desperate attempts to communicate with his dead mother as an ironic way of showing how Houdini's success has made him think that he can overcome even impossible obstacles, if he only tries hard enough.
ReplyDeleteI like the evolution of him throughout the book too. His fascination with learning how to get out of a grave after being buried alive was very interesting to me. As was his deteriorating mental health after his mother died. I think there are a lot of threads you can follow with Houdini which easily makes him one of the most entertaining characters in the novel. And at the end, it looks like his insecurity has gone away as he tells a passerby "up yours" when being jeered in a way he might have felt silly at the beginning.
ReplyDeletefor some reason when i opened this up first i thought this was written in french. i think it's getting a bit much too late. ANYWAYS, hello fellow houdini enjoyer! i almost think that the author is projecting into the little boy. Imean, the characters and stuff are almost named form his perspective. (Mother, Father). The author's fascination with houdini certainly shows through, much like the little boy's. doctorow creates an interesting character with houdini, his childlike curiousity almost with houdini's escape routes and his fasciniation with the airplane. your post was enjoyable for sure aha!
ReplyDeleteI can't say I agree. I don't love Houdini, to be honest. I didn't feel like his character was as well developed as a lot of the other characters, and he just wasn't all that interesting to me. I much preferred Emma and Evelyn as the historical characters go. Although maybe the incest plot line has something to do with my dislike of him. That was extremely weird, I have to say. I kept thinking Doctorow would just let it go, but I should have known better (it's Doctorow) because he kept on bringing it back up.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, I loved the addition of Houdini as a character. Houdini is a really clear way of showing how Doctorow manipulates history, drawing out the conclusion that Houdini is unsatisfied with his work as an entertainer (I haven't read anything that says this so I'm going to assume it was a Doctorow thing). It's interesting that Houdini actually did buy an aeroplane (as you say, another clear example of Doctorow going wild).
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