Starting with the first of the two chapters 52, PaPa LaBas launches into his lengthy "back story" to the case of the missing Text, tracing the origins of this modern-day conflict all the way back to ancient Egypt.
How would you classify the writing in chapters 52? Is this history? Fiction? Mythology? How does this section fit with the style and reality-status of rest of the novel? Is there any sense in which this narrative represents a valid alternative history, despite all of the conspicuously fictional aspects of the story?
Please take 5 minutes to contemplate these questions in your notebook now, and post one sentence from your notebook in the comments section below.
38 comments:
Satire I do not think is the right word as it does not try yo make fun of Christianity or other religions, but rather discount them.
I feel like chapter 52 serves as a history for many storylines within the book, but it's narrated like a mythology.
I found it interesting that this section has so many more footnotes pointing to actual academic sources than other sections of the book––it makes it seem like the author is writing this with the intention of it being regarded as actual history.
Chapter 52's more linear structure makes it feel somewhat like a classic telling of history, or a mythological tale.
Honestly I’m not very sure, but the way I interpret things like Jes Grew is that it’s a version of history, like how most history is, filtered through a metaphor. There is truth and no truth at the same time
Today's reading processed in my mind as mythology as it's used somewhat like a cautionary tale to discuss what's generally happening in the book's plot.
This narrative is as valid a myth as any other conventional myth; it's not suitable as history until proven true (i.e., observed).
I think from a reader's perspective chapter 52 aligns more with fictional history blended with mythology, but from the character's perspective it is history.
Here, Reed flexis his power as omniscient author and rewrites history and common religious thought, completely at his own will. He connects Egyptian Mythology to Christianity (shown as a derivative and counterpush to Osirian beliefs), Osiris to Moses, and Jes Grew's text to Isis, Moses, and Von Vampton.
History is being used to elaborate and expand on storylines, though the fictional aspect remains present.
It reminded me a bit of christian theology in the sense that some people would believe it happened, but doubters wouldn't believe the stories.
I think this portion of the book is meant to ground the obviously fictional story in some type of reality. When events have big historical stories behind them, it gives them legitimacy, and this story is no different. It takes this book full of things that feel very made up despite certain realistic aspects and it gives these fictional events a very real jumping off point.
I would call the writing in chapter 52 a blend between mythology and fiction, centering in Egyptian myths and the Egyptian culture that surrounds them, and kind of reinventing them in a context that lines up with the inherent culture the Book and Jes Grew represent.
However, some of the overly unrealistic aspects of the mythological writing do make the story lose some of its validity; as a reader it felt like that author was just making up whatever crap whenever he wanted.
I think its a mythology since its a common trend to assign real world events that cant be explained and classify them as supernatural.
flexes*
There is an extremely unlikely coincidence that causes suspicion in this narrative's validity: in the original mythology, Set tricks Osiris into a chest, throws it in the Nile which kills Osiris, recovers the corpse, splits it into 14 pieces, and distributes them across Egypt.
In the first chapter 52 it felt like history. I think it's a valid form of history because Reed took information that has been misinterpreted and ignored and brought it out into the light, like papa LaBas did.
With the egyptian god Set trying to suppress the dancing, the message zooms out from being a critique on white authority's suppression of African American art to questioning the suppression of art generally.
From reading this chapter, at least to me, it felt more like history. Having a bunch of footnotes, like you're looking at an article on JSTOR. Although there are some parts that are mythology included.
I think this book isn't mythology because mythologies are often stories without a tangible effect and effect but chapter 52's events have a direct connection to the events in Mumbo Jumbo.
From reading this chapter, it feels more like Mythology to me. The representaion of Gods and religious figures makes it more like a Mythological story.
We are not really meant to think of the historical figures mentioned in the chapter as the real people, but instead Reed's interpretations of different religions and beliefs.
I think that, given the existence of loas and 1000 year old men, it is entirely feasible that the events LaBas described in Chapters 52 actually happened within the universe of Mumbo Jumbo.
The chronological, detailed storytelling in chapter 52 led to a more realistic-feeling, comprehendible structure, which made the chapter feel more like history.
It reads like a mythology, but functions as a history within the narrative of Mumbo Jumbo.
I found it quite interesting how the text was really just sacred dances that were so simple and also so controversial; and in a way, that aspect of fear hasn't changed in our culture today.
Chapters 52 beautifully represent the nature of Mumbo Jumbo as a whole, with respect to the novel's place at the intersection of history and fiction: Reed writes the novel in the same style as folklore or mythology, and therefore it comes across as a theory referencing the history of society and art (which is hard to truly disprove).
Like all fiction (and mythology as well) the textx takes inspiration and ideas from history.
I feel like this chapter has some mythological representation. For example, Thoth.
It feels like a further fictionalized version of mythology, which is itself already fictional. But at the same time, Reed also cites his sources, which sort of prevents it from being entirely fictional, and clearly uses his platform for commentary on issues that are decidedly not fictional. It's a strange mix of all three of the genres mentioned in the prompt - history, fiction, and mythology - and it especially "works" in the context of Mumbo Jumbo.
The writing style feels like a sermon, in the sense that you wonder when it will end, but also that there is something important being said, leaving me wishing it was broken up into more chapters.
Sincerely I think it is more about the characteristics of the author style who clearly has some exotic ways to develop his narratives, but also there is a bit of methodology in his motivation to have to chapters 52, since the first one talks about more of a Egyptian myth and the other develops more about historical facts
I think chapter 52's writing is more similar to the writing of history, with a little bit of mythology combined: being that describing an unexplainable event in the world as something mythical is basically what mythology is to me.
I think the dynamic of people having animosity towards a new growing culture through Egyptian mythology really proves how the conflict existed throughout history.
I interpreted these chapters as a shift into a mythic or cosmological scale of narrative, rather than looking at it as a mythological because cosmological is usually based on testable hypothesis.
The writing speaks to how I.R. uses the book Mumbo Jumbo to challenge ‘official’ histories and question just how much power and numbers control narrative.
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