In Doctorow’s Ragtime, Harry Houdini is in a constant search for a higher meaning in his life. Houdini feels that his petty shows and escape acts do not have any actual significance in the world, and he desires to make something of his life that will be remembered as something real. “There was a kind of act that used the real world for its stage. He couldn’t touch it. For all his achievements he was a trickster, an illusionist, a mere magician. What was the sense of his life if people walked out of the theater and forgot him? The headlines on the newsstand said Peary had reached the Pole. The real-world act was what got into the history books” (99). Houdini’s purchase of the Voisin marks his turn search for historical renown to the skies. “He was tremendously proud of his aeroplane. He wanted to make flying history” (103). In reality, Houdini’s Voisin aircraft did make flying history, setting a flight distance record for European aircraft soon after the time of its invention. However, the Voisin’s record only reflects Houdini’s failure to be remembered for anything other than petty shows and entertainment value. Doctorow is saying that American society places too much importance on the creation rather than the creator, and while the Wright Brothers are remembered for inventing the airplane, few people can name the men who invented the Jet engine, or the first man to fly across the United States. At the same time, Doctorow uses his story about Houdini’s flying to show the lack of fairness in the choice of who becomes famous and who is relegated to the back stage of history. Houdini’s life goal is to do something more than just a show, to “put on a show using the real world as his stage” in order to secure his position in history. However, Houdini is not remembered for his adventures through the air, but rather, to his infinite dismay, as a “trickster, and illusionist…” and a general showman. On the other hand, the observer of his flying, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, will forever be remembered as the man who sparked the Great War while on a car ride through Sarajevo in 1913. In Ragtime, Doctorow paints a picture of Ferdinand as a dumb oaf: “The Archduke was dressed in the uniform of a field marshal of the Austrian Army. He held in the crook of his arm a plumed helmet. His hair was cut very short and flat on top, like a brush. He had large waxed mustaches that curled upward and he gazed at Houdini with stupid heavy-lidded eyes” (105). Doctorow uses a transferred epithet in describing the “stupid eyes” of the Ferdinand. While his eyes are heavy lidded, the adjective stupid applies not only to the appearance of Ferdinand’s eyes, but also to his overall character. In addition, the description of Ferdinand’s hairstyle furthers his oafish look and appearance. While Doctorow never says the Archduke’s hair looks dumb, he described it as a “brush.” This comparison to a household object degrades the man's military sharpness and apparently royal appearance. Doctorow’s description of Ferdinand work towards his portrayal of the man as an idiot, which he was known to be in real life. However, the idiot Ferdinand is in every history book across the world as the man who sparked World War I simply by being shot by an assassin. Meanwhile, Houdini is forgotten, and when remembered, thought of only as a showman, a trickster, and an illusionist. In other words, despite the fact that Houdini dedicated his life to accomplishing something worthy of history, and Ferdinand spent his whole life living in vast wealth not caring about anything at all, Ferdinand is the more remembered of the two men by the common historian. Houdini’s appearance in chapter 13 of Ragtime critiques not only the modern ideals of production and machines, but also the selective memory of history, which prefers to keep in mind those who are a part of something important by chance, and those who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of higher meaning are left in the dust.
By Jack Shumway
Bibliography:
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Silverman, Kenneth. Houdini! : the Career of Ehrich Weiss : American
Self-Liberator, Europe's Eclipsing Sensation, World's Handcuff King &
Prison Breaker. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Print.
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