To start out, I'm not going to lie and say that I like or even mildly enjoy this book. I completed the entire novel about five minutes ago and thought to myself, "Wow. I really didn't like that book at all...." This is actually fairly uncommon--I am generally very tolerant of almost all genres but I just couldn't really stomach Mumbo Jumbo. The reading was dense, the ideas were difficult to latch on to, and the characters seemed distant and difficult to connect with. Of course, I realize that this may have been the entire point, but that still doesn't make me like it.
That being said, I think I'll get to the actual point of my blog: the 30 page story told by Papa LaBas that spans two of the same chapters (in my eyes, 52 parts A and B).
This enormous, Scooby-Doo-wrap-up-esque reading was the actually my favorite part of the entire book. Not only was the story interesting, the characters were memorable, and the story followed a logical path. An unexpectedly amusing part was the seemingly out of place, and yet hilarious interjections of Reed/Papa LaBas's humor. I also noticed an interesting connection between Ragtime and this book as well.
Like any other person, I get a feeling of satisfaction when, after a long while of scratching my head and wondering what could have possibly gone down to explain the situation in Mumbo Jumbo, I finally realize the entire story behind it. However, I also really liked the weird and yet oddly hilarious comments Reed (or maybe LaBas, I'm not even sure who's actually doing the talking in this part) such as, "The only remedies the Church knew was to 'beat the living shit out of them'." or "the minor geek and sorcerer Jesus Christ." I think the former is pretty self-explanatory and although the whole Jesus-was-a-sorcerer is not an unexplored concept, I just had to stop and chuckle to myself when I read "minor geek".
Finally, there was a short section concerning Freud in the story. I read over it, realized that there was a similar section in Ragtime concerning his trip to America and how utterly horrified/disgusted he was. In Mumbo Jumbo, Freud appears a little more dramatic as he actually faints because of just how awful the situation in America seems to be. Later (as in, not in the storytelling section), Reed says that Freud believed America was a "mistake", like a failed European experiment. I remember that Doctorow used a highly similar, if not identical, description and I was just wondering to myself if this holds more significance than a mere interesting coincidence.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Impressions
Oh, where do I even begin? His writing style? Content? Grammar? It's all so radically different from Doctorow's writing and yet, they both fall under the category of postmodernism. Interesting stuff.
In class, lots of people were saying that they enjoyed Reed's spontaneity and complete randomness but I was more than a little bit confused. Unfortunately, when I read, if I don't understand it, I tend to just continue reading and not realize I'm not taking in anything until like five pages later... which inevitably leads to several rereads. Needless to say, I was more frustrated than amused by the end of the reading. I thought that Reed meant an actual disease when he said "disease of the mind" and because we have recently been watching bio movies regarding bovine spongiform encephalopathy, I immediately thought of prions and mad cow disease. Fortunately, this misunderstanding was cleared up later. Anyway, after listening to the discussions in class, I guess I can see how people enjoyed his taunting of the reader by virtually flaunting the supposed "rules" we set for novel writing. Reed breaks the fourth wall and interjects throughout the story his own little additions to the story, giving us insight on what the meant to do, but also sort of throwing us off (well, throwing me off anyway).
The illustrations are also an interesting addition. Reed throws in random pictures that sometimes seem to offer a purpose (the potential Teutonic Knight symbol on page 14) but can also be utterly indecipherable (like the Satanic word search on page 33). I spent a good amount of time searching for any explanations regarding these pictures but found none, which just sort of adds to the mystique of the whole thing. Also, two small things that aren't terribly important but yet continue to bother me anyway is his use of commas (or lack thereof) and numbers for words. I was really disconcerted to see the lack of commas during lists (this, this, and that) but the worst part is that he isn't consistent about that either! Some lists include all necessary commas and the Oxford comma as well while others don't. So vexing. The other one is the use of numbers for words (1 of them, 1000s of men died, etc). This one is even more insignificant but it irritates me so badly! Hopefully, I grow accustomed to this soon or this is going to be a really tough book to get through.
In class, lots of people were saying that they enjoyed Reed's spontaneity and complete randomness but I was more than a little bit confused. Unfortunately, when I read, if I don't understand it, I tend to just continue reading and not realize I'm not taking in anything until like five pages later... which inevitably leads to several rereads. Needless to say, I was more frustrated than amused by the end of the reading. I thought that Reed meant an actual disease when he said "disease of the mind" and because we have recently been watching bio movies regarding bovine spongiform encephalopathy, I immediately thought of prions and mad cow disease. Fortunately, this misunderstanding was cleared up later. Anyway, after listening to the discussions in class, I guess I can see how people enjoyed his taunting of the reader by virtually flaunting the supposed "rules" we set for novel writing. Reed breaks the fourth wall and interjects throughout the story his own little additions to the story, giving us insight on what the meant to do, but also sort of throwing us off (well, throwing me off anyway).
The illustrations are also an interesting addition. Reed throws in random pictures that sometimes seem to offer a purpose (the potential Teutonic Knight symbol on page 14) but can also be utterly indecipherable (like the Satanic word search on page 33). I spent a good amount of time searching for any explanations regarding these pictures but found none, which just sort of adds to the mystique of the whole thing. Also, two small things that aren't terribly important but yet continue to bother me anyway is his use of commas (or lack thereof) and numbers for words. I was really disconcerted to see the lack of commas during lists (this, this, and that) but the worst part is that he isn't consistent about that either! Some lists include all necessary commas and the Oxford comma as well while others don't. So vexing. The other one is the use of numbers for words (1 of them, 1000s of men died, etc). This one is even more insignificant but it irritates me so badly! Hopefully, I grow accustomed to this soon or this is going to be a really tough book to get through.
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