What is History in Mumbo Jumbo?
It is clear from the beginning of Mumbo Jumbo that Reed is skeptical of the institutionalized historical narrative that is broadly taught as “true.” Instead, his depiction of history is anchored not in its literal truth, but instead in the ways that it permeates the present. Much of the conflict in the novel is centered around two dueling conceptions of history with distinctly different motives.
First, there’s the mainstream historical narrative that we’re all familiar with—the one that says, for example, that Warren G. Harding’s sudden death was due to heart failure. Reed situates this history as a deliberate misrepresentation of reality that is dispersed by official institutions to serve the Atonist cause. He also makes a point to show how this version of events continues in the present day to be cemented into the historical record, with forces like the New York Sun manipulating the public understanding of current events in favor of the Atonist agenda.
In contrast, there’s the narrative that PaPa LaBas lays out in chapters 52, which, unlike the Atonist version of history, is presented as an organic, fluid story. In many ways, it’s closer to a piece of folklore than a traditional historical account—it exists outside of the realm of the Atonists’ “credible” historical authority, instead surviving by word of mouth. We also see that, in contrast to the Atonist history, which positions itself as the single objective truth, this narrative revels in its constructed, improvisational nature. It’s introduced as a frame tale, with the premise that PaPa LaBas is unveiling the truth about Von Vampton to an audience, and it’s full of interjections and embellishments from LaBas and Reed himself (at one point we’re told that the Egyptian god Set “yearned for the old days when he went out to tell people to ‘Move that chariot to the side of the road, O.K. where’s your license,’ you know, stuff like that.”). Indeed, the ancient Egyptian storyline is punctuated throughout with modern slang (as another example, the Osirians who bribe the prisoner guards with jewels are described as giving them “ice”), reminding the reader constantly that these thousands-of-years-old events are being filtered through the lens of a 1920s narrator.
Not unlike the Atonist conception of history, these additions make it clear that LaBas’s story is not, in the strictest sense, true. The essential distinguishing factor between these two types of historical revisionism, however, is their objective in the present day. The primary purpose of the Atonists’ misrepresentation is to obscure the oppression of Black people and cheapen the vibrancy of African and African American culture, allowing them to extinguish the oppositional force that is Jes Grew. In contrast, LaBas’s and Reed’s embellishments contextualize the dynamics and the events of the past within the present day, and the liberties they take serve to convey the essence of a real phenomenon, rather than to conceal its existence.
First, there’s the mainstream historical narrative that we’re all familiar with—the one that says, for example, that Warren G. Harding’s sudden death was due to heart failure. Reed situates this history as a deliberate misrepresentation of reality that is dispersed by official institutions to serve the Atonist cause. He also makes a point to show how this version of events continues in the present day to be cemented into the historical record, with forces like the New York Sun manipulating the public understanding of current events in favor of the Atonist agenda.
In contrast, there’s the narrative that PaPa LaBas lays out in chapters 52, which, unlike the Atonist version of history, is presented as an organic, fluid story. In many ways, it’s closer to a piece of folklore than a traditional historical account—it exists outside of the realm of the Atonists’ “credible” historical authority, instead surviving by word of mouth. We also see that, in contrast to the Atonist history, which positions itself as the single objective truth, this narrative revels in its constructed, improvisational nature. It’s introduced as a frame tale, with the premise that PaPa LaBas is unveiling the truth about Von Vampton to an audience, and it’s full of interjections and embellishments from LaBas and Reed himself (at one point we’re told that the Egyptian god Set “yearned for the old days when he went out to tell people to ‘Move that chariot to the side of the road, O.K. where’s your license,’ you know, stuff like that.”). Indeed, the ancient Egyptian storyline is punctuated throughout with modern slang (as another example, the Osirians who bribe the prisoner guards with jewels are described as giving them “ice”), reminding the reader constantly that these thousands-of-years-old events are being filtered through the lens of a 1920s narrator.
Not unlike the Atonist conception of history, these additions make it clear that LaBas’s story is not, in the strictest sense, true. The essential distinguishing factor between these two types of historical revisionism, however, is their objective in the present day. The primary purpose of the Atonists’ misrepresentation is to obscure the oppression of Black people and cheapen the vibrancy of African and African American culture, allowing them to extinguish the oppositional force that is Jes Grew. In contrast, LaBas’s and Reed’s embellishments contextualize the dynamics and the events of the past within the present day, and the liberties they take serve to convey the essence of a real phenomenon, rather than to conceal its existence.
Jokes like describing Set as an early LAPD traffic cop definitely work to render this "historical/mythical" narrative more "fictional" or playful/satirical--but even apparent throwaway jokes like this (or like when Moses tosses "dollars" to Jethro for "royalties" for the music he's stealing from him) suggest and assert some real connections between the ancient world and the present-day world. Reed is suggesting that the same repressive forces in modern-day policing originate as part of this cultural struggle, where non-Atonist cultural expressions are "policed" so relentlessly by Set's people. Reed proposes a clear parallel between the ancient story and the cultural hullaballoo over jazz culture, and he also connects it to power relations and policing in the present day.
ReplyDeleteHello! I also thought that the juxtaposition of these two seemingly unrelated plotlines in the novel was very interesting. The history of early 20th century America and the changes going on during that time period has almost nothing to do with Atonist Egypt in most cases. However, Reed makes it work. He throws his readers for a loop, but really looking at the novel, you can see that he has put much thought into making everything weave together to create a story that combines the two different plot lines together. We know that the actual story is blatantly false, but Reed succeeds in providing an accurate commentary of life during the 1900s. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteThe PaPa LaBas style of telling history reminds me of the prompt we had way back about what postmodernist history would look like. Though you said his interjections make the story less "true," whether credibility-wise or just plain misciting of facts, it has a lot of the benefits that we talked about before. Though it does set up a huge metanarrative, which is inconsistent with what we learned about postmodernism, it gives up the typical history-book structure we're used to seeing in favor of modern metaphors and slang that help us to understand how the phenomena of our lives intersect with ancient times in a way that pure "facts" as we think of it may not.
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