(Mumbo Jumbo) Jes Grew Lives On
Jes Grew Lives On
In his novel Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed illustrates the conflict between Jes Grew and the Atonist Path during the Harlem Renaissance (1920s). But, where is Jes Grew now? Has the Atonist Path obliterated it from history as it intended? Or, as PaPa LaBas states, is Jes Grew "life" with "no end and no beginning" (Reed)? Is it hidden behind a veil of obscurity and censure, waiting for a new Text to bring it into the limelight? To understand the present state of Jes Grew, we must first define the widespread cultural phenomenon and the underlying significance of its conflict with the Atonist Path before exploring its relation to our current society.
Viewed as a disastrous pandemic by Western critics and Atonist followers, Jes Grew holds distinct parallels to jazz and the Harlem Renaissance movement in promoting Afrocentric music and art popular among youth. Reed strengthens this positive nuance while challenging the Atonist's pathological denunciation, writing, "Terrible plagues were due to God's wrath; but Jes Grew is the delight of the gods" (Reed). In this declaration, Reed highlights the VooDoo loas' delightful intentions behind Jes Grew while satirically criticizing the Atonists' Catholic God for initiating devastating plagues in the past. Additionally, Reed mentions the syncopated nature of Jes Grew's tunes, illustrating the music's tendency to instigate (vulgar) dances from all of its enjoyers. Like jazz during the Harlem Renaissance, Jes Grew revitalizes Afrocentricism in Reed's world of Mumbo Jumbo, popularizing Black music across the United States. In the end, both Jes Grew and the Harlem Renaissance grant Blacks greater freedom over their unified cultural representation. Essentially, the two Afrocentric movements are nearly identical in form, expansion, and outcome.
After he provides a lengthy contextual backstory in Chapters 52, Reed implicitly discloses the overarching conflict encompassing Jes Grew and the Atonist Path, the battle between Afrocentrism and Western cultural suppression. The Mu'tafikah exhibit this fight as they steal and repatriate international art from Western museums. Notably, Reed labels the Metropolitan Museum of Art a "Center for Art Detention" and equates art curators with cops and wardens, displaying how the West suppresses and polices all other cultures by seizing foreign artifacts and presenting them in European museums (Reed). In addition to Reed's clever naming, Hinckle Von Vampton and the Wallflower Order's Talking Android ploy show uncanny similarities to Carle Van Vechten's inadvertent appropriation of the culture of the Harlem Renaissance through his whitewashed Harlem-style publication. From these Western and Afrocentric parallels, we can bring the conflict between Jes Grew and the Atonist Path into the real world. In our current reality, Reed's conflict between the Atonist Path and Jes Grew can be viewed as a media agent of Western civilization attempting to undermine and uproot Afrocentric representation.
Afrocentric expression like Jes Grew continues to thrive presently, relying on its new "Texts." Jes Grew sought jazz in the previous generation, but the genre lost popularity as its creators and listeners grew old and out of fashion. In opposition, the youth created contemporary "Texts," including Hip-Hop, R&B, and rap. These "Texts" popularized Jes Grew again but garnered objection from the present Atonist Path in the media. During the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, Beyoncé joined Coldplay and Bruno Mars and sang her new single "Formation." Their syncopated performance celebrated the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, and African-American identity but received immediate criticism from Atonists like Republican Congressman Peter King of New York, who said on Facebook, "her pro-Black Panther and anti-cop video 'Formation' and her Super Bowl appearance is just one more example of how acceptable it has become to be anti-police" (Beyonce's Super Bowl show brings praise and criticism). Although King's advocated aversion to Beyoncé's performance seemed solitary, right-wing reporters led coordinated censures against her, vilifying her for spoiling a paramount American event. In this way, the Atonist Path continues to disenfranchise Jes Grew; however, in agreement with PaPa LaBas' view of Jes Grew's perpetuality, Jes Grew lives on, sustained by the inspired "Texts" of the new and impending generations.
- Max Bolton
Really great post! You have some awesome ideas here. I definitely think that the way we perceive Jes Grew is important to its health. What I mean is how we perceive Hip Hop and how we perceive Jazz in our current time has some indication as to how well it has maintained its youngness or energy. We still see Hip Hop as rebellious and culturally 'new,' but now we tag Jazz music as more 'classical' or 'boring.' I think this idea is central to how Mumbo Jumbo portrays the death and persistence of different Jes Grews.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good post! I like how you spoke about jes grew finding its new texts in new generations, and how that keeps jes grew alive. And the criticisms of beyonces performance were definitely similar to those seen in Mumbo Jumbo. Great job!
ReplyDeleteMax, this is a fascinating post marveling on the current condition of Jes Grew not only within the constraints of Mumbo Jumbo but as introspective thoughts of the real world. Certainly, Jes Grew was a fabricated movement within Reed's novel, but the historical events and cultural uprisings founding the movement did actually happen. It's interesting to try and find examples of Jes Grew in the real world not only as a physical epidemic of dancing and singing but a social construct of imagination and the birth of new ideas.
ReplyDeleteGreat job analyzing the complexities of Jes Grew, I really liked how you formed a strong juxtaposition between western culture (Atonism) and Afrocentrism (Jes Grew). Your emphasis of the proliferation of R&B, hip-hop, and rap stood out to me. Prior to reading this post I had considered hip-hop to be the only recent form of Jes Grew, but you made me realize that Jes Grew has taken multiple new (albeit adjacent) forms in the 20th and 21st century.
ReplyDeleteIt's still so nutty (and so revealing) to me that so many of these reactionary critics who objected to Beyonce's performance had no doubt whatsoever that it was unambiguously "anti-cop." It's as if any expression of Black pride is somehow anti-police, even if there are no references to police anywhere in the performance (did you see something that I missed?). I think it's quite revealing, in a "the lady doth protest too much" vein, that so many law-enforcement advocates are so triggered. Why do they think it's "about them"? Why do they assume anything about this performance is even thinking of them? And what would a boycott of her concerts actually DO in terms of addressing these issues? There will be increased respect for the work of law enforcement after they throw a fit and refuse to do their jobs providing security for a public event? They will somehow "rebut" the performance itself? Which wasn't really about cops in the first place?
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