Jes Grew IRL???

Both Mumbo Jumbo and Ragtime use history to add to the realness of their texts. In Ragtime, Doctorow uses "false documents" that likely aren't true but for the most part can't be disproven to fill in the gaps of real history used in his book. For instance, he depicts J. P. Morgan talking to a seagull in a bout of loneliness, something that cannot be proven nor disproven. Moments like this make Ragtime feel real. Mumbo Jumbo takes place around the ragtime period as well, and during the Harlem Renaissance. Jes Grew is an anti-plague that spreads dancing and liveliness, a metaphor for the spread of black culture. The novel identifies things like ragtime and jazz as elements of Jes Grew, but Jes Grew's origins go back thousands of years. Reed uses what I presume to be (mostly) real Egyptian mythology and mumbo jumbo lore as actual history in Mumbo Jumbo. By using African history/mythology to set the novel, Reed accomplishes multiple things: he creates an Afrocentric novel that "verifies" African history and he paints a vivid picture of the history of Jes Grew. As someone who is unfamiliar with Egyptian mythology, I didn't know what parts of chapters 52 originated from the mythology and what parts were thought up by Reed, but that also added to the "realness" of the book. 
I found it interesting that the Atonists had battled against Jes Grew for millennia. Whenever and wherever Jes Grew popped up in history, Atonists appeared to minimize the spread of it. In class we took this idea and applied it to real life, and saw that Jes Grew could also more broadly symbolize youth culture and the Atonists in real life are generally (non-politically but also often politically) conservative, opposed to any changes. One example of this that came to mind for me were the climate change deniers vs. climate activists. As we have become increasingly aware of our impact on the planet, we have begun to question traditional practices in fuel consumption, water use, etc., and that upsets climate deniers because it often means a loss of wealth for them. I'm sure there are plenty other examples, so feel free to add others or extrapolate this one in the comments.

Comments

  1. The Jes Grew and Atonist movements are certainly analogous to real life - as you mentioned, climate change deniers vs climate activists are one core group that represents this hostility. Another one I can think of are doctors and the anti-vaxx campaign - a battle that aligns with the antagonism embedded within Mumbo Jumbo.

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  2. The connection between the fight of the Atonists and Jes Grew believers and climate change deniers versus climate actvists is really interesting to think about. Another example I can think of is the fight between those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice.

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  3. This blog post does a really good job at connecting Jes Grew and the Atonists to real life. I really liked how you took it outside of the in-class discussion and compared it to an even bigger movement. Overall great post!!

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  4. I like how you not only compare Mumbo Jumbo to Ragtime in their depiction of the 20th century, but also apply the concept of Jes Grew to real life! This explanation of Jes Grew shows that it's not just representative of jazz in the 1920s, as it is in Mumbo Jumbo, but to many other things as well, which really articulates PaPa LaBas' statements on how Jes Grew is a force that has no beginning or end and will return again.

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  5. I like your various comparisons in this post! Mumbo Jumbo and Ragtime both definitely share similarities in their depictions of the 20th century and during the Harlem Renaissance and ragtime period. I also enjoyed your comparison of Jew Grew to real life. I think Reed definitely intended Jew Grew to provide a deeper meaning to real life and the fight for African Culture to thrive.

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  6. I agree that the Atonists and the spread of Jes Grew can be seen in society, and also that Reed's use of history in his novel add an aspect of realness, even if all of the historical documents aren't necessarily real. The connection you made between Ragtime and Mumbo Jumbo also shows the use of "history".

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  7. I completely agree with how both Ragtime and Mumbo Jumbo use history to boost the realness of their narratives. Blending real and imagined elements in Ragtime with the use of those false documents and African history/mythology in Mumbo Jumbo truly make both novels feel more realistic. Great work.

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  8. I liked how you talked about how both Ragtime and Mumbo Jumbo are able to use false documents to their advantage. I also liked your point about how Reed used African mythology in Mumbo Jumbo to create an Afrocentric novel and connect Jes Grew to history. Great post!

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  9. Note that, even in 1971, Reed was associating the Wallflower Order with anti-environmentalists and (future) climate deniers: remember the moment when the "hierophants" are eagerly checking the growing list of extinct and endangered species, cheering for extinction. There are a number of such environmental-adjacent points made throughout the novel--not as central as the racial/cultural war at the center of the book, but the first Earth Day was in 1971, and environmentalism was very much "in the air" as Reed was writing. The Wallflower Order is all synthetic, plastic, anti-nature, just as Jes Grew is literally (as its name implies) organic.

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  10. Nice post Gabe! Reed takes historical fiction’s brand of fiction supported by history one step further by using mythology to “verify” the events in the novel. Pretty cool stuff, and yes, many hot current political topics do come to mind when thinking about how an atonist movement would act in real life. Keep up the good work!

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