Historiography sucks. It's one of the most annoying subjects to discuss because of its abstract nature, but Ishmael Reed has created a very compelling study of this that I can't help but explore. However (I just need to complain about this real quick), not only is it very confusing to piece together the big picture, but the book also reads like a bomb went off in a library and the whole mess about its stylistic decisions—not following standard conventions, settings jumping from chapter to chapter, footnotes for some reason, etc.—is the debris. This debris has to exist, though, because trying to tell this chaotic cultural narrative in a straight line makes it even worse. Like many of its contemporary works, Reed's Mumbo Jumbo has a very distinct method in how it narrates history. While history is usually read as a passive linear record, Reed uses it as an active battlefield of cultures. The novel puts two fundamentally opposing versions of the...
"Atque aliquis [inquit]... 'exitus acta probat.' Careat successibus, opto, quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat!" -Phyllis, written to Demophoon (Ovid, Heroides 2.83-86) Doctorow’s Ragtime is a difficult read because of the many plot points that it strings together so freely. Of these narratives, the most significant is most likely Coalhouse Walker’s transformation from a well-spoken ragtime pianist to a revenge-seeking terrorist. This metamorphosis is outlined by a journey that drags Coalhouse through a corrupt legal system (Doctorow 178, 185) after he encounters the Emerald Isle volunteer firefighting division and his Ford Model T is vandalized by a mob (Doctorow 177). He then resorts to arson, killing 4 random firefighters (Doctorow, 205). Usually, an agitation of this scale isn’t warranted by this background, especially for someone as articulate as Coalhouse, but there are two major points that can semi-rationalize this provoked response: Sarah’s death, and th...