In
recent discussions of Mumbo Jumbo the question of whether or not Mumbo Jumbo is
the “text” that Papa LaBas and the Wallflower Order are searching for was
brought up. Papa LaBas was looking for the text as a way to help Jes Grew,
while the Wallflower Order and Atonists in general wanted the text as a way to
destroy Jes Grew—which function does the actual novel Mumbo Jumbo support?
On
one hand, Mumbo Jumbo seems like it could be a manifestation of the Jes Grew
movement. It definitely spreads awareness of it, and gives a whole historical
background of how it came to be. Additionally, the way the book is written
challenges Western ideals as Jes Grew itself does. For example, “one” is
written “1”, there are blatant typos and inconsistencies, random pictures and
pieces of information, and the first chapter is before the chapter of the book.
All of these things symbolize the postmodern (anti-Atonist!) way of breaking
rules. Another thing to consider is that Reed seems to have written the novel
with the intent of supporting the Jes Grew side, not the Atonist side which
makes it seem possible that he wrote it to be another of the texts that
surround Jes Grew.
However,
does the fact that Mumbo Jumbo takes Jes Grew and constrains it into a novel
(albeit a strange one) make it Atonist? Novels are generally Atonist and the
consumers are also Atonist which means that the story and context would be
misrepresented and misunderstood which would most likely undermine the purpose
of Jes Grew. We also talked about how Reed’s not having a “point” at the end of
the novel is actually him making a point, and this kind of categorizing and
analyzing is against what Jes Grew means.
Honestly
I can’t decide whether I think Mumbo Jumbo is one of Jes Grew’s texts or not so
what do you guys think? Leave a comment below!
This is an interesting post and deals a lot with what Max and I gave our panel presentation on. I would say that the book is non-atonist (contrary to what I might've said in class) despite some adherence to Atonist conventions (being a novel, and having a point because it doesn't have a point, so it has a point with the point being and/or without a point, point, pointing, pointer). I say this because it deliberately and quite in-our-facedly breaks conventions - so even if Reed can't throw off all Atonist conventions he still shows us that he's deliberately trying to. As far as it being another one of the Jes Grew texts, I've been wondering that myself. Can it function as a Jes Grew text? I would have to look more into the ways the Book of Thoth itself enables Jes Grew to know whether or not Mumbo Jumbo can be a text. I certainly think it's possible. I feel like the book itself is a manifestation of Jes Grew - for some reason I have this image in my mind that the book itself "just grew," unrestrained from Atonist conventions, which explains the typos, pictures, random statistics, etc. What do other readers think? I checked the "notify me" button so that I can hear your thoughts!!
ReplyDeleteOk I take back a tiny little bit of this. I think the book is certainly a manifestation of Jes Grew. However, I don't think we are supposed to necessarily feel like the book "just grew" because Ishmael Reed leaves plenty of evidence that there is an author behind it. He writes footnotes, initials quotes, etc. Or maybe, the book just grew with Reed's supervision, explaining the typos and pictures, etc. Does this complicate things for anyone else?
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