Chapters 52??
(This post is inspired by this notebook prompt: https://historyasfiction2022.blogspot.com/2022/03/notebook-prompt-what-do-we-do-with.html)
I think pretty much everyone would agree that Chapters 52 (and 52) are a stark contrast to the rest of Mumbo Jumbo, as well as the way we think that the history of the world works. The chapters have so much information in them, probably more than the entire rest of the book combined. I would argue that for most of the book, Ishmael Reed spends his time dancing around the truth, almost writing a sort of mystery narrative where we don't know a lot, and the characters of the book clearly are much more in the know than we are as readers. Reading Mumbo Jumbo can be difficult because you spend your time wondering, what exactly is Jes Grew? who are Atonists? what the heck is as Talking Android? a text?? While reading the rest of the book I often just had to accept holes in my knowledge or try in vain to fill in the blanks.
So, when reading chapters 52 I almost had to do a double-take because it was surprising how explicitly and thoroughly everything was being explained. Papa La Bas explains the history, of well, everything I suppose, in incredible detail, not withholding anything, which was a bit surprising after getting used to not understanding everything perfectly in the previous 51 chapters.
The next thing to grapple with is that we get all this detail and history, but it's not the history we know. At first, you might think, oh there's so much information everything will make sense now, but then you're immediately faced with the issue of the actual information being given. We all have a pretty commonly accepted idea of history and the stories that have shaped our world, and Mumbo Jumbo shows up to completely throw that aside and suggest an alternative. We see Moses going on adventures that are completely different and conflicting with the story we are told in our society, and are overall provided with a completely alternative history.
So, is this version wrong? Is it historical, or completely fictional? I guess we can't truly say. Many people would jump to say it's completely wrong, but how exactly do we know that our story is right. We know it and have been taught it for years, but still, it could be wrong. We can't be sure that the things in Papa La Bas's story didn't in fact happen, and perhaps our story is wrong. It's a weird thing to grapple with because we're not used to being told our entire history is wrong, but there's no way we can actually prove either way.
I like your analysis of the last couple chapters of Mumbo Jumbo. The way Ishmael Reed suddenly decides to have Papa LaBas monologue a very specific, Afro-centered history is definitely unexpected and in stark contrast to the rest of the book. And you're right -- we can't say for sure that the history that Papa LaBas gave is "wrong," per se, though some parts are quite fantastical. It is technically possible that today's dominant European culture is just an outgrowth of some other marginalized group that no one knows about, and that no one will ever know about.
ReplyDeleteHello Anya, I really enjoyed your post. These chapters really stuck out to me as well for obvious reasons. The contrast of these chapters were a bit shocking, but I found them quite enjoyable to read because of how well everything was explained. Also, I like your point about how Papa La Bas's interpretation of history cannot be disproven. There are so many uncertainties in even the historical narratives we are taught today. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about your point that the intention of Chapters 52 -- to tell a concise and clear history -- are very different from the rest of the book, but I agree with you. But I think what you brought up about uncertainty around the history and the impossibility of proving/disproving it does allow it to have an air of mystery as well, albeit in a different form.
ReplyDeleteSorry to reply to my reply, but I forgot to add that the tone of Chapters 52 is also strange because it's Papa LaBas taking on the role of narrator, not for a few lines but for multiple chapters. Although those chapters weren't totally transparent themselves, when compared to the rest, I'm starting to wonder whether I'd prefer Papa LaBas to have narrated the whole novel? Ok I'm getting off topic
DeleteI totally agree with your post. I like how you describe the book up until chapter 52 as a sort of mystery that we're trying to not get lost in -- that's certainly what it felt like when I was reading it. Chapter 52 is definitely the climatic "reveal" moment we waited for (or expected eventually) and offered quite a lot of clarification. It certainly felt like a breath of fresh air. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi! I totally agree when you say that these chapters were written in a way that's much different from the rest of the book. Personally, I found it the easiest couples chapters to read because even though it contained a lot of information it had a clear focus point. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Anya! I agree that Mumbo Jumbo was a bizarre read, and chapter 52 was one of those things that made the novel even weirder. For most of the book, Reed made readers struggle with figuring out what exactly he was trying to say. When chapter 52 came along, I was also surprised at the sudden change of pace and concise writing. However, like you said, the weird part is that the new direct style of writing really did not help readers much. We are given a brief summary that tries to neatly tie the ends of the story together, but we then realize that none of the summary makes sense based on the history we have learned growing up. As readers, this leaves us in a weird place, but I guess that was the point of the novel all along. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThe way the book is written does make some confusion for readers. I think that Reed focuses more on developing the plot and the idea of Jes Grews rather than the characters themselves. I think this is because in a sense, the characters are minor in the grand scheme of things. Your blog brings up good discussion points and interesting topics.
ReplyDeleteHi Anya, This blog post was really cool because the two Chapter 52s confused me as well but your analysis made a good point about how distinct the style in the two chapters was from the rest of the book. Papa LaBas sort of has a monologue in which he gives so much information about Jes Grew and the text that's really murky during most of the novel. It did feel a bit weird since Reed gives a much different perspective than the traditional Eurocentric history we're taught in schools but Reed definitely wants to make the readers feel uncomfortable (in a good way). Nice job!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your description of Reed as finally explaining everything after "dancing around the truth" for much of the novel! I think one thing that made this section particularly stand out to me is just how focused it is—for a change, we pretty much directly follow the thread of the story from its beginning to its impact on the present. It's almost as though all the fractured storylines and snippets of events that Reed's thrown at us throughout the story are finally beginning to come together, like a collage, to create a single concrete thesis.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I found it interesting that Reed left his readers in the dark about Jes Grew in some ways, and then decided to infodump about mindboggling accounts of history far different from the history we are taught. This begs the question of which is the "correct" historical account or if both could even be falsified. Your post reminds me of the discussions we had during eighth hour regarding if *any* history even true. How do we know none of it is altered by Atonists and western culture? Reed does a good job at bringing confusion to the reader as they attempt to grapple with contradictory forms of history, a concept you did a good job at explaining in your post.
ReplyDeleteI think it's cool how you made the connection between the sudden doubly-numbered chapters and the fact that Reed is actually giving us information for the first time. It sort of makes the double chapter make sense, since the 2 chapters are so similar to each other and different from the rest of the book that they have the be the same chapter while still being different chapters. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t actually thought about what a departure the chapter 52s are from the style of the rest of the book, but you make a great point and I can’t not see it now. It’s like, leading up to these two chapters, Reed was challenging our knowledge of
ReplyDeletehistory in more subtle and discreet ways - more metaphorically and confusing. In the 52s, he stops trying to hide at all, and just throws it in your face. This is his version of history that he’s been hinting at the entire book. Also, before the backstory of Set and Osiris and Moses, you could kind of call the entire novel an allegory or metaphor for things actually happening at the time - but the whole mythology Reed introduces really throws that off-balance, because it no longer fits into making a specific allegory and it’s more just Reed going wild with his alternate history in whatever ways he wants.
I agree that in some ways the enlightening chapters 52 were more confusing than helpful. I was excited to finally understand everything, because like you said, for much fo the book we are kept out of the know, but PaPa LaBas's story didn't do much to clear thing up. We talked about why Reed made the choices he did with his writing style, but I agree that this story is something different from the jumble of the rest of the book. It brings up the debate of history vs. fiction, and whether we can really call this speech a story or an education on history, or maybe even both.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right here that the shift in chapters 52 is drastic when compared to the rest of the book. They were my favorite chapters to read... mainly because they sounded like when you have a fully fledged conspiracy theory to share that just sprawls and sprawls and sprawls but connects amazingly at the end. Also probably because they were the easiest to read and actually understand. These chapters really make you ponder about what is "real" and what is legend in this story. They're quite out of the box, but honestly the rest of the book makes them seem normal. Which I think is quite funny.
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