Is Jes Grew Destined to Die?
Mambo Jumbo ends on a melancholic but hopeful note, with Jes Grew dying out, but also with Papa La Bas ensuring everyone that “we will miss it for a while but it will come back, and when it returns we will see that it never left” (Reed 204). But how true is Papa La Bas? Is Jes Grew destined to come back, and will it always be stuck in the cycle of emerging and being suppressed?
In Mumbo Jumbo, Jes Grew is a metaphor for how small cultural movements can end up influencing large groups of people, and how Atonist–– or people who put white, European standards on a pedestal––react negatively to these movements. In Mumbo Jumbo, Jes Grew is an illness that is spreading across the nation causing people to dance and listen to jazz music. In response to this, Hinkle Von Vampton, as an attempt to infiltrate Jes Grew and destroy it from the inside out, creates the “talking android.” The talking android is a man who will pose as a part of the Jes Grew movement, in the case of Mumbo Jumbo the Harlem Renaissance, and create art so vile and disgusting that it breaks the movement apart.
In a lot of ways, the talking android mirrors a phenomenon that happened naturally in America all throughout the twentieth century and continues to happen today. This phenomenon is when certain things will become popular, whether that be styles of music, clothing, or art, and will quickly be taken over by the mainstream, so that the point of the art is no longer strictly artistic, but is now monetary. This effectively kills the “Jes Grew” aspect of whatever is becoming popular, because the minute something is made for money more than for art is the minute it loses its authenticity.
Is this phenomenon always going to exist? We’ve seen it throughout history with music styles like RnB, Rap, and Rock n’ Roll losing its authenticity when becoming mainstream and being taken over by people who didn’t create it. We’ve also seen it with certain styles losing their authenticity becoming mainstream, or with restaurants that claim to be food from different countries but are really americanized versions of those foods that don’t resemble the real thing in the slightest. In all of these circumstances, the Jes Grew element dies when the replica becomes mainstream.
So, is this inevitable? Are we destined to never have anything stay authentic forever, because they are too often being taken over by the fake mainstream version? Unfortunately, I think it is. I think that nothing can become so ubiquitous in certain communities, in the way that Jes Grew tends to, without being observed and stolen by someone who pushes it to the mainstream and makes it lose all of its value. Fortunately, though, I think Papa La Bas has a point. While one example of Jes Grew is dying, another one is being born, something completely new and original and authentic, and the cycle is repeating itself. While Jes Grew is impossible to keep alive in its original form, new forms are constantly emerging, and the cycle is constantly continuing.
Reed, Ishmael. Mumbo Jumbo. Scribner, 1996.
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ReplyDeleteHi Ruby! You are true that Jes Grew has appeared in different variations over time. But does each Jes Grew really die from the Talking Androids taking over? I think authentic versions of Hip Hop and RnB stay alive but become underground compared to the mainstream watered down versions. Those authentic styles have disappeared over time though, since the original creators have died out and generations passed. This is true for even Eurocentric styles like impressionism. The art style is now used in a much different style having gone through many variations, but the authenticity wasn't killed due to those imitations, it was killed over time. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHey Ruby, super interesting idea. The first thing that pops into my mind on this topic is the Atonists. The Atonist religion was originally made because of this hate for music and dance. I believe that if the Atonists still exist, it is because Jes Grew is still around. And the Atonists are still very much around. I totally agree with you, it seems as if Jes Grew will die out at some points in time, Abdul did end up burning the text which seems to be important to this thesis. How does the text play a role in this topic? I feel like it's always evolving alongside Jes Grew and adjusting to the mainstream ideas. At the end of the day though, in my opinion, Jes Grew will always come back.
ReplyDeleteThere is a core paradox here: in order for Jes Grew to truly become ascendant, and to push these Atonists to the margins, presumably Jes Grew would need to become popular, dominant, ubiquitous. PaPa LaBas is bullish on the prospects for a "real" emergence in the 1920s, and then, as you note, the novel ends with his optimism undimmed, as he anticipates this new generation of artists who will create a "future Text" that brings JG fully into the culture. And yet, throughout American pop cultural history AND in the novel itself, it's clear that Jes Grew gets a lot of its power and energy from being marginal, underground, subversive. So the novel ultimately offers an ambiguous picture: if we want to spot Jes Grew, we need to look at the margins, but we ALSO need to look for the Atonist backlash, so we can see who and what is threatened by this newly emerging culture. If Jes Grew succeeds, it will no longer be underground and marginal, because it will displace the Atonists at the center.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, we maybe have seen such an outcome, at least in academia. Many of the non- or anti-Eurocentric views that are presented in the novel have indeed become mainstream in the universities, and there are many "multicultural" academic disciplines and departments that have been founded in the last 50 years. The situation Reed depicts, where any scholar who challenges the status quo will be undermined by the gatekeepers, is maybe less applicable to a typical university in the present day. And maybe this is precisely why the current Atonist administration is trying so hard to roll back these advancements under the umbrella of "anti-DEI" or "anti-woke."
There's also some irony in the portrait we get of 100-year-old LaBas giving his annual lecture on the Harlem Renaissance and Jes Grew: on the one hand, we see these 1970s young people rocking their homemade Jes Grew pins and celebrating the "Jes Grew Holiday" (Black History Month?) at their university. But at the same time, they aren't all that interested in the lecture itself, more in the fact that the guy giving it is 100 years old, and we see LaBas just kind of rambling on at the front of the room until he is cut off, celebrated as a charming and nostalgic figure whose ideas aren't especially revolutionary. So the novel ends with a portrait of what it might look like for Jes Grew to become institutionalized--and it doesn't seem all that revolutionary.
The idea that Jes Grew can die is a really interesting one. As you iterate, when one form is dying another form is created, thus Jes Grew is continuous even when it is not the same. Like Papa La Bas said, Jes Grew has existed before the beginning of anything, and will exist after everything is gone. In that sense, I think Jes Grew is not so much the artform it inhabits than an inhabitor of artforms. Jes Grew cannot die, but the things it possesses can.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you connected Jes Grew’s cycle to the way mainstream culture often drains authenticity from creative movements. I agree that this pattern still happens all the time, especially in music and fashion. Your point about Papa LaBas’s optimism stood out to me, too. Even though authenticity fades, new forms of Jes Grew always rise up, keeping that creative spirit alive. It’s a bittersweet but truthful take on how culture constantly reinvents itself.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that society has slowly started tending towards niches more than bigger cultural art movements. I think atonist culture is so prevalent in society nowadays that it would be hard to get Jes Grew back the way people would really need it. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHey ruby! I really loved how you described the constant cycle of Jes Grew, implying that at least some of its power comes from the fact that it is so underground. Eventually, society tends to cheapen these movements by making them more popular, reinventing their purpose to follow more monetary goals and leaving room for new movements to continue the cycle again. This idea is super creative and can be applied to pretty much anything, which is pretty crazy as you begin to consider the scope these Jes Grew elements have in our world. Great blog!!
ReplyDeleteHi Ruby!!! I feel like Jes Grew will never truly die, but rather I think it'd just go under the radar. There'll always be an audience somehow somewhere, but just not big enough to be noticed by atonists (I think this point is somewhat illustrated by the quote you included). In the context of music, it's rare that someone will entirely go obscure. They'll have even just a few people listening and their work will typically be there to be discovered. It's only a matter of time before it'll grow large enough back into a Jes Grew-like state. Great work!!!
ReplyDeletehi ruby!! I think this is a really interesting blog topic! Its sad how a lot of media will eventually lose its authenticity, but I think with efforts to preserve and practice culturally significant art forms it will never truly die. I agree with Sandaru that Jes Grew will just fade into the background until the next time it'll be discovered and become relevant again.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruby! I like the addition of questions throughout your writing. It really made a take a step back and understand where you are going and also got me thinking of how correct you are. I liked how you brought up a real world examples of certain things(even as simple as food) lose their authenticity. Nice job!
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