Postmodern Ramblings

Yesterday Erin and I threw out a set of questions to chew on after class: does Reed's sexism subvert his postmodern intentions? That is, does the overwhelming masculinity in Mumbo Jumbo limit its postmodern deconstructions and criticisms of Western society? Does your interpretation of Mumbo Jumbo change when you consider the gender politics of the novel? They're purposefully confusing and hard to answer questions. I will admit right now that I myself can't answer them, and I read the article they came from/were inspired by. So this blog post is less of an answer and more of a speculative journey you may accompany me on, if you so choose. To some extent, it seems that Reed's sexism, misogyny, and lack of women in Mumbo Jumbo doesn't matter. There's already so much going in this book that you might skip right over it and never see it. I definitely didn't notice the glaring lack of female characters in Mumbo Jumbo until Erin and I found our article for the ...

We're only a few days into Mumbo Jumbo , but it's already a wild and confusing ride. Ishmael Reed shoves us into uncomfortable territory by breaking every convention he possibly can. He's got random sections in italics, no quotation marks, then suddenly quotation marks, and most notably, puts the first chapter of the book before the publication and title pages. Through this odd choice of ordering, he forces us to recognize that Mumbo Jumbo is a book. We consciously have to flip the pages, noticing the copyright and the ironic disclaimer that all of Reed's characters are fictional -- any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. We actually read the epigraphs for the first time because they're shoved into our faces. "This is a book," Reed says. "Think about how it is a book. It is not real." Or is that what he's saying? We're not very far into Mumbo Jumbo , so I can't honestly say. ...