In the final analysis, the key to understanding what this distinctive novel is about lies in the final chapter. Chapter Eight is unique—and ironic—in that it is the only chapter in which the proprietor of the Universal Baseball Association, J. Henry Waugh, does not appear as the facilitator in charge of bringing its players to life. In Chapter Eight, the players for the first time are presented as entities existing independently of the novel’s protagonist, Henry—which is the whole point.
A critical, scholarly and academic appreciation of Coover’s work will include understanding how it operates as a sophisticated religious allegory. (J. Waugh is an inversion of sorts of Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God.) That’s all fine and dandy for those planning on writing a dissertation on the book, but for the average reader, what it’s really all about is an affirmation of the power of fiction to intrude upon the real. The final chapter takes place on a day of observance and commemoration called Damonsday. As with any other holiday, the celebration includes rituals and, as with some holidays, these take the form of a rite of re-enactment.
The centerpiece of Damonsday is a ritual re-enactment of the duel between Damon Rutherford and Jock Casey which made a martyr of Rutherford. This ritual is not unlike the passion plays dramatically staged in many churches on Easter Sunday. Nor, for that matter, is it unlike people dressing up in uniforms of blue and grey to recreate the Battle of Gettysburg. Most importantly, perhaps, is that this recreation of the single most pivotal moment in the history of the Universal Baseball Association is not unlike the June 16 observation of “Bloomsday” every year in which fans of the James Joyce novel Ulysses commemorate the date on which the novel’s protagonist Leopold Bloom goes on his initial outing with the woman he will marry.
Damonsday is like a cosplay recreation of the showdown between young Anakin Skywalker and Ben Kenobi. Or a live-action roleplaying event which recreates Frodo’s journey to get rid of that dang ring. Even more importantly, Damonsday is exactly like a cruise which attempts to recreate the voyage of the Titanic up to the moment it hit the iceberg or a cruise in which passengers dress up to recreate the romance of Jack and Rose from the movie Titanic. It is that final example which really explains the novel’s intent. In the first instance, actual historical events are being ritualized. In the second, within the larger context of a single historical event, the ritual is about recreating a fiction.
The disappearance of the creator of the Universal Baseball Association in the final chapter and the fact that the lives of those creations have continuing going and that fictional events created by him have become mythologized to the point of celebration is what the entire story leads to. The title of the book doesn’t end with Universal Baseball Association by design. It is significant that the league is established right in the title as belonging to one specific person. He is the creator of the fiction. And, like so much fiction, the creator loses his grip and releases his hold on his story and characters until it passes into the public domain. Once in the public domain, simple fiction can almost magically transform into the level of myth. Once something has become myth, everything is open for possibilities.
Including the treatment of that original fiction as it were irrefutable historical fact. Such is the power of fiction, the author is insisting. More than that, he is also suggesting that historical fact—even that which is taken on faith by some as irrefutable—may also be, quite possibly, a complete fiction. Those wanting to write that dissertation about the religious allegory constructed as a thematic foundation of the story can do what they will with that idea.
