From the Ashes
Aakash Vasireddy | March 11th, 2022 | History as Fiction | Blog Post #3
How Jes Grew Extends Far Beyond a Simple Dance Craze
Jes Grew has no end and no beginning. It even precedes that little ball that exploded 10000000000s of years ago and et to what we are now. Jes Grew may even have caused the ball to explode. We will miss it for a while but it will come back, and when it returns we will see that it never left. You see, life will will never end; there is really no end to life, if anything goes it will be death. Jes Grew is life. They comfortably share a single horse like 2 knights. They will try to depress Jes Grew but it will only spring back and prosper. We will make our own future Text. A future generation of young artists will accomplish this. - Papa LaBas, Mumbo Jumbo, 204
The entire premise of Ismael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, a unique storyline filled with a multitude of characters, motives, and complex conflicts, surrounds the idea of a powerful cultural phenomenon known as Jes Grew growing and spreading throughout the United States, gaining the title of "pandemic" and "plague" by those who oppose the ideas of Jes Grew. It is extremely interesting how the concept of Jes Grew surpasses the basic level of significance that comes with being a new historical era in Reed's fictional world. Towards the end of the novel, we see that Jes Grew is waning, despite the main antagonists choosing to undermine the movement - the likes of Hinckle Von Vampton and Hubert "Safecracker" Gould - being contained. As it does for Earline on page 204, we are left to wonder: "Is this really the end of Jes Grew?" Despite all the signs that the movement has come to an end in Reed's narrative, Papa LaBas calmly denounces that Jes Grew is gone and instead claims that Jes Grew can never truly die, after which he asks Earline to go down and have a sandwich at the restaurant.
From Papa LaBas's strong statement regarding how Jes Grew will come back and continue to live on throughout the years in the aspirations of future generations, forever and ever, we get this understanding as readers that Jes Grew represents much more than the single narrative of a dance/music that invokes this chaotic energy inside of people across the nation and world. In his statement, LaBas marks the importance of creating "our own future Text." Throughout the story, Jes Grew has been characterized as a phenomenon created by the people that can never last because nothing in its nature has been set in stone; there is no Text to define the movement and establish its ideas in history. As we later postulate, Jes Grew represents a spread of culture. This sensation develops so rapidly, and with the added elements of other storylines like the Art Snatchers (Mukta'Fikah?), Reed shows how much power Jes Grew has as a cultural phenomenon.
Now, despite this meaning of Jes Grew being more developed than we perhaps thought at the beginning of our Mumbo Jumbo discussions, I believe Jes Grew extends beyond even that understanding. Instead of Jes Grew simply being a means of spreading culture to those that have no knowledge and/or reinvesting power in various cultures, Jes Grew - in a more holistic manner - represents an overwhelming shared concept of continuing to find new ideas.
Great post! I like how you start with a quote, and that specific quote being an important line from PaPa LaBas. I agree that this helps us understand how Jes Grew is almost alive, as how it's so much more complicated and involves countless lives, and is not just one narrative. It's the spread of culture, and it certainly is powerful.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. I found that quote particularly powerful, as it sort of ties in everything in the book preceding it together. The idea that Jes Grew is something far bigger than ourselves seemed really interesting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think you described the book's depiction of Jes Grew's vast and constant nature perfectly. At the beginning of the book, it introduces Jes Grew as an epidemic or a craze, but by the end of the novel, we understand that Jes Grew transcends time and trends, and has always existed. The non-linear style of Mumbo Jumbo and the graphics from different time periods and events help characterize the nature of Jes Grew as well. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI like this emphasis on a culture-wide effort to "find new ideas", or to be open to whatever new unpredictable cultural forms may emerge as this "future Text" without being so ready to dismiss it as not meeting the "standards" of what counts as art. The metaphor of culture "just growing" (rather than being engineered by the authorities) and being "mistaken for entertainment," suggests that we should be alert for these unexpected emergences and growths of new cultural forms. (See my recent blog post, "Hip Hop Jes Grew," for an example of culture "just growing" in an unexpected and unanticipated context.)
ReplyDeleteI think you explained the thought process that a lot of readers, most of us included, go through while reading Mumbo Jumbo and trying to figure out what exactly Jes Grew is. I found the idea of Jes Grew not just being a specific cultural movement, but rather a larger idea of the pursuit of new ideas, very interesting. I hadn't ever thought about it that way. Despite the fact that our understanding of Jes Grew expanded and we realized it was larger than initially thought, I still hadn't thought about it as that general of a thing. I don't disagree though and I think it's a great explanation for Jes Grew and it really makes sense if you think about it.
ReplyDeleteHi, interesting take on Jes Grew. I handn't thought about the idea of Jes Grew not only being the spread of culture but the creation of new culture. But I think you're absolutely right, as the world changes we are bound to find new ideas and new understanding of the ways things once were. But in order to do that we have to look back at the origins and old ideas to form new ones. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI love all the interesting takes on Jes' Grew I'm seeing in these blogs, and yours is no exception. I really like your point of how Jes' Grew isn't confined to one specific movement or one specific culture, but that the core of Jes' Grew is it's willingness to continue searching for new ideas and new values and new movements. If the next outbreak of Jes' Grew was trying to push and spread the exact same things as the outbreaks in 1890 or 1920, it wouldn't be Jes' Grew anymore, because it wouldn't be representing the evolved values and ideas of the current generation. It'd be like Atonism, trying desperately to hold onto something from the past, and not allowing room for adaption or change. Jes' Grew is inherently full of life, and if it didn't allow for flexibility and change as the world around it changed, it would be denying and going against the nature of life to change and grow.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important characteristic of Jes Grew is that it is undefinable. It represents so many things: love, dance, culture, people, music, and infinitely many more. It is so universal yet so personal that we can't really put our finger on what exactly it is referring to. That's why it's so special: we understand what it is, we just can't exactly define it, or put words to it. It just is.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea that Jew Grew is the spread of culture, and beyond that the spread of many cultures. I've been wondering if examples of Jes Grew can be found in other places as well. Does it require a marginalized culture to grow? There are certainly other examples of marginalized communities outside of the US.
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