Plot within a Plot within a Plot

In class, we discussed the alternating threads of Libra, the parts which follow Lee Harvey Oswald's life, and the sections which follow the conception of an attempt on the president's life by ex CIA agents (the "plot plot"). I would argue there's a third story being told here, a third message Delillo is trying to convey. As someone writing about a topic (and presenting a view on said topic) that is commonly considered the realm of crazy conspiracy theorists, he also has to convince the reader to take his novel seriously. I think he so far has accomplished that goal very well, using a number of tactics.

First, is his portrayal of Oswald. He doesn't just seem like the kind of crazy guy who would try to shoot the president (though he does very very much seem like that guy) he also seems like the kind of guy who would be susceptible to suggestion. In his early years, Lee's obsession with Marxist literature makes me see him as someone desperately searching for a group to identify with. He loves the "idea" of Russia, not just the vastness of it. He looks around himself in New Orleans and doesn't see anyone he connects with, but then he reads his Marx and believes he's found someone with a similar way of thinking, a similar intellect. Whether or not he would get along with Marx is besides the point, its just important that Lee is looking for a cause and a group he can be a part of. We see this later in Japan when he's finally found somewhere he feels comfortable and is so relieved he tries to maim himself to stay there. Also in Japan, we meet Konno, who introduces us to the idea that when a smart, older man listens to Lee and talks to him about politics, Lee will be very receptive. He might even be willing to betray his country to that older man's association, which could be of use later.

Second, in the other narrative, Delillo works to paint the CIA agents as real people with legitimate motives, not the vague, unnamed members of organizations with somber names like "CIA", "FBI" and "Illuminati". I think Delillo distances his story from conspiracy theories by subverting those tropes we associate with such theories. He doesn't portray the CIA acting unanimously, he gives us Win Everett, a man with a wife and daughter resenting his forced retirement. He gives us T-Jay Mackey, a man who may have PTSD from the Bay of Pigs, who felt personally abandoned by his government there. He gives us Laurence "Larry" Parmenter, who "hummed something that amused him". These are people. And we see their (not unreasonable) plot build from the ground up.

Mildly Incestuous Undertones

Dana and Rufus officially have the most complicated relationship in history. The competition is over, folks. I've given up trying to characterize it because it changes throughout the book. But, adding a level of complication to that, while the transitions in their relationship must seem gradual and organic to Rufus, Dana probably has whiplash, trying to understand the child she met a few days ago as the adult standing in front of her.
On the one hand, one of the first things we learn about Rufus is that he's her ancestor, her great great [ad continuum] grandfather. Which makes the mother figure role she starts to occupy funny; the family tree actually goes the other way around. It makes sense that Rufus sees her this way: she shows up when he's in trouble, she reads to him, she takes care of him when he is sick. She even chides him the way a mother might, gently correcting him when he is a child. Obviously the situation cannot be read straight this way; Rufus sees Dana as racially inferior and occasionally tells her what to do in a way (I hope) most of us never do to our moms, but I think the evidence is there. For example, Margaret actually gets jealous of Dana when Rufus clearly prefers her reading.
The older Rufus gets, though, the less I see this mother-child dynamic. I suppose this makes sense as Rufus and Dana no longer have very disparate ages, but I am still SUPER creeped out by what this dynamic is being replaced with. Rufus, especially after the death of Tom Weylin, starts to see Dana as a wife figure. To where we have read he doesn't seem interested in "consummating" this "marriage", thank God, but rather he sees her as his "emotional" wife and Alice as his "physical" one. This idea is discussed by Dana explicitly after he calls them two halves of the same woman. If their physical appearances have maintained as similar as they were described early in the book, I would imagine this would be an even easier view to have. Its as if Rufus replaces the mutual wanting and loving he wanted with Alice, with Dana, who does actually love him in some way. He even tries to separate her from her real husband, Kevin, by refusing to mail Dana's letters to him.
It is difficult to picture all of these types of relating with another person into one relationship. Admittedly, its probably easier for Rufus. He doesn't know Dana is his own kin. He doesn't think of Dana as someone he grew up knowing, as she constantly disappeared for years on end. But from Dana's perspective, Rufus shares her gene pool and was a young child like two months ago. Ick.
I think this says more about how complicated long term time travel makes relationships than anything else. Additionally, it may say something about a culture in which a man's relationship with his mother might be similar in nature to that with his wife and that with his slave. All of a slave master's relationships are equally one sided and based in control. Maybe that's why Rufus doesn't find any of this as uncomfortable as I do.