Reading Mumbo Jumbo
In the clip from the end of Videodrome that we watched in class today, Max says exhaustedly to the television screen from which Nicki speaks to him, "I don't know where I am now. I'm having trouble...finding my way around." It seems like several of the texts we have looked at this semester have a way of willfully disorienting us, so that like Max, we don't know where we are and have trouble finding our way around.
Mumbo Jumbo might also seem like one of these texts, because of its sudden shifts in language and context, and its refusal to settle into a straightforward narrative. Think about what this text does to you and your process of reading. What does it mean to read "mumbo jumbo"--texts like "The Cyborg Manifesto," Videodrome and Mumbo Jumbo--that seem to deliberately defy logical comprehension, yet (I hope) still stimulate and fascinate? The American Heritage Dictionary defines the phrase "mumbo jumbo" as follows:
- Unintelligible or incomprehensible language; gibberish.
- Language or ritualistic activity intended to confuse.
- A complicated or obscure ritual.
- An object believed to have supernatural powers; a fetish.
Also be sure to go back and read other people's comments about passages picked from Cyborg Manifesto--this great material for your final essay.
posted by Irene Chien @ 12:00 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
For white males who cannot dance, “Jes Grew” is called an epidemic, while others call it a non-epidemic. Do white males just label it an epidemic because it is something they cannot control? Are they just threatened that they cannot participate in another culture’s happiness and find it unfathomable? How much of this difference in points of view is impacted by one’s understanding of the subject? White financiar Walter Mellon pays for dance lessons while white presidential candidate Harding calls it “Wiggle and Wobble”. With this in mind, my discussion question is this: In this case with Jes Grew, why is it that while the African-American culture believes that their dancing is not an epidemic (that it brings about laughter and happiness), but white males are quick to label it an epidemic? How much does lack of control and understanding of this phenomena attribute to this conclusion, or is this quick label just a “cover-up” for an idiosyncratic cultural movement they are intrigued by but feel is too subject to one race and secluded?
I’m not going to lie – quite bluntly, reading and watching “mumbo jumbo” can be very difficult, frustrating, and discouraging. I probably re-read the same passage of “The Cyborg Manifesto” for about an hour, putting down the text feeling more confused than when I started. I walked out of the screening of Videodrome with mixed emotions mostly because I was confused yet again. And finally, as I constantly re-read the chapters of Mumbo Jumbo, I can roughly understand the idea and plot of the sketchy narrative, but for the most part, I am, again, quite confused. “Mumbo jumbo” contains this kind of enticing power and magic that can take hold of the reader. Most people are so obsessed with being able to read into texts and analyzing their very last details that when they are given a piece that is so obscure that it takes multiple re-reads to comprehend, they can’t sit around being confused. “Mumbo jumbo” pokes at readers’ egos, taunting them and making them feel inferior, challenging them and enticing them to look deeper into the story. Inadequacy compels people to work longer and harder to accomplish their goals, thus contributing to the fascination with seemingly-indecipherable gibberishy readings.
Besides contributing to the difficulty of the reading, why else did Reed make as many allusions and references to historical figures as he did throughout his novel? Did this have to do with the kind of audience he wanted to attract to read his book?
Mumbo Jumbo, Videodrome, and Cyborg Manifesto are very abstract and confusing texts. I’m absolutely unsure of what I’ve read and what I’ve seen so far. Mumbo Jumbo and Cyborg Manifesto use complex language to communicate their message. In addition to the use of language, Mumbo Jumbo jumps around so much, throwing in millions of names and references, my head is still spinning. I guess the reason is to make the reader work harder in drawing its message out. The author isn’t going to simply bullet point his message and have the reader simply accept it. Rather he wants the reader to struggle and interpret the text’s meaning for ourselves and form our own opinions.
We’ve established the jes grew movement as a dancing craze that’s got the nation bumping and grinding, and feeling happier and healthier. However, does the jes grew craze serve other functions? Is it meant to overthrow preexisting values and institutions?
Amidst the very jumpy chapters and millions of references I found an interesting topic in Mumbo Jumbo. From my reading I feel that Reed is speaking of the struggle that African culture must overcome in order to be recognized by the West and its inhabitants. Reed mentions that the Wallflower Order tried to suppress African culture thinking it was just a “fad.” PaPa LaBas says that Jes Grew is yearning for the Work of its Word, “it must find its Speaking or strangle upon its own ineloquence.”
This leads me to wonder, who does Jes Grew have to defend itself against? Why was the Wallflower Order so sure that it could successfully put an end to African culture? Do unpopular cultures have to modify themselves to be more palatable to the West’ taste in order to be respected and recognized?
Mumbo Jumbo is definitely a disorienting text because there are so many characters, subplots, and seemingly random articles and passsages. However, the very way that Ishmael Reed writes and constructs the plot seems to correlate with the jus grew epidemic. Jus grew is supposedly very wild. It doesn't really have a definite center or leader, just as the book doesn't have a main character. Not only is the style of writing confusing, but there are many aspects of the story which are unexplained. I don't completely understand the role of certain characters, like Buddy Jackson, and how they relate to jus grew.
How is Mu'tafikah related to jus grew and does it contribute to its spread? Also, what will happen to both the white and black community if jus grew is "quarantined" and put to a stop?
This is definitely a very tough and complicated text. I found myself constantly looking things up on the internet and even then I still didn’t understand. It’s strange that “Jes’ Grew” is called an epidemic despite what seems to be very positive symptoms. It seems that the White folks see this as a plague due to the fact that their way of life is threatened. White traditions are undercut by the “Jes Grew” phenomena; the Africans pursue to discover their heritage. Whites misunderstand other cultures and traditions, and so they see it as a plague to society. It seems that they want the blacks to feel inferior.
My question is: If the movement were successful, what would it mean to society? Would Africans just instantly have the mindset that they are just as good as the Whites? Despite knowing of their heritage, many Africans today still feel inferior and are not able to rise above the existing institution. Rap, Hip-hop, as well as many others linked to African Heritage are at constant struggle with today’s institution. They are constantly being rejected, and so it seems this struggle is an eternal one. Various cultures are always in struggle with one another, and so is it really possible to obtain this Utopia Reed speaks off?
Those three texts of mumbo jumbo, videodrome and the cyborg manifesto were all very confusing and different but that is what it takes to draw people into something. It has to be different to catch people's attention and all three texts does that. The videodrome hits the "fetish" part of the definition of mumbo jumbo i feel. they go to the deepest parts of people's wants and desires and that makes it fascinating enough not to look away from it but yet still not associate with it. I think mumbo jumbo is not gibberish but very confusing. it makes many jumps and is at times incoherent but still different and talking about a very interesting subject but a very challenging read. my question: what is the main point of jes grew. what real purpose does it have. having fun dancing is great but i cant figure out what it really is trying to let the people see. what is the main function?
As someone whose come from a limited palette of cultures (so to speak), part of my learning experience at Berkeley has been becoming more acquainted with the dynamics of race relations, and the reason I raised the questions below is because I have grown to think that one of the reasons for the average reduced quality of black life is an insistence on distrusting white people and modified behavior patterns that white people in turn don’t understand. While this divide is shrinking, it’s still rather significant. And in Mumbo Jumbo, Reed’s satirist rhetoric is really a living embodiment of this binary. I don’t really agree with his politics, but I found a good deal of his commentary interesting, and sadly relevant to my life. I’ve had a good deal of trouble identifying with rap, get your booty on behavior, low pants, and what not with black culture, and these differences ingrained a natural feeling of oddness, separation, and difference from blacks as a child and teenager (skin color was never an issue) – so I can put myself in the shoes of President Harding. The book really brings this cultural divide to life for me, and it’s fascinating.
Reed paints a rich and exaggerated picture of Black culture in the 1920’s (Jes Grew). Based on Mumbo Jumbo, what do you think Reed would say about the diminishing line between black and white culture today? If such an integration meant improving the social and economic condition of black people today, would he then completely decry the deconstruction of black culture and consider that the work of the “Knights Templar”? If the existence of Jes Grew is causing a rift between black and white cultural understanding and that reduces the possibilities for black advancement, is Jes Grew worth sacrificing (not only from Reed’s view, but from your view as well)?
Who (or what groups or organizations) today or in the past would you consider to be the Hinckle Von Vampton and Papa LaBas in the cultural war? What other cultural differences can you cite in society (past or present), and how do they compare with the cultural war between Jes Grew and the stuffy white establishment?
"who comes from"
Terrible grammar mistake. My apologies.
Mumbo Jumbo is perfectly titled because Ishmael Reed does confuse the reader. Not only is the language largely incomprehensible, but the story and how it unfolds is also incoherent. I had to read almost every sentence twice to understand what was being said, and on numerous occasions I had to flip back to remember who a certain character is in the story. Reed could have written the book in a more coherent order and either explained or eliminated many of the references he uses. But he didn't, and the publishers still published the book despite the confusion readers would obviously experience. And so my question is: what can be gained by writing the book this way? When half of the references are lost on most readers, why did Reed purposely include them? Is the success of the book due to the deliberate confusion or would the book be just as successful if Mumbo Jumbo was an easily understood story?
The most basic question to ask regarding the confusing nature of both the film and text is "why" the director and author have chosen to make it that way. In each example, the audience is constantly on their toes and actively thinking through the plot for the very reason that it does not make sense. It is risky, in that some audiences will be instinctively turned off by the confusion, though. How do the director and author mitigate that effect?
The question that keeps running through my head is "What are loas?" I looked it up in the dictionary and it said it was "a genus of African filarial worms that infect the subcutaneous tissues and blood of humans, include the eye worm causing Calabar swellings, are transmitted by the bite of flies of the genus Chrysops, and are associated with some allergic manifestations (as hives)." However, I am still confused as to how it applies to the text. In Mumbo Jumbo, this loa is supposed to be fed and it is on trays. That is the part that confuses me and the question that I think might be good to discuss in class.
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