"Just the Facts"--or Not

I have to say that I am quite impressed at how Reed ties up all holes in and confusion regarding the plot of Mumbo Jumbo is the final few chapters. It is interesting how the plot settles with a clear signing off-like end to the novel, but I still feel very much suspended in Reed’s metanarratives and claims, especially his Afro-centric metanarrative of the course of history, which follows historical facts (as we know them) fairly well and therefore makes me question the validity/truth history I’ve learned. As I was flipping through the pages of the book, (still) stuck in the novel’s provoking points, the “news” clippings and S.R.’s (situation reports) caught my eye.

Naturally, I read them over and after doing so, I feel that they have a significance in Reed’s view of history. I think that news channels often present themselves as providing “just the facts,” though, as we discussed in class a few weeks ago, any retelling of an event that has passed is usually a metanarrative that contains connections of the facts from which a certain claim/lesson can be formed regarding the event. The same facts, however, can be connected in a different way to result in a different meaning that can be gathered from the same event. Thus, although news reporters claim to provide us with the facts, they naturally give us a narrative that includes and possibly shapes the facts. Generally, I think that published news is commonly accepted as historically accurate, though the single perspective may not be true. Reed plays with the idea of many histories rather than a single correct version with Papa LaBas’ proposal of the Afro-centric course of history.

I think that the S.R. and “news” clippings serve as the immediate general public knowledge in Mumbo Jumbo, since the public usually gets its information from the media. Most of these sections of news have an obvious Atonist view, where the “war hero” Musclewhite “slays” the “bad” Berbelang, though we (the readers) know that Musclewhite is actually the “bad” one (123). The newspaper also exhibits Atonist intolerance to other cultures, calling the Olmec head “ugly,” “sausage-lipped,” and “big-headed” (123). In this section of a newspaper, Reed obviously portrays an Atonist bias, probing us to question our acceptance of the immediate news we receive from the media.

Reed also provides an example of news that is anti-Atonist—the revealing of American troops in Haiti. The immediate “overload” of “questions from the populace concerning Haiti” is significant because such influx of questions does not follow other Atonist news updates (like the one where Musclewhite “slays” Berlbelang) (58, 123). With this anomaly in news articles, I think Reed conveys the general acceptance of history through a single metanarrative rather than through multiple metanarratives, so when a different one appears, much skepticism surrounds it. 

Also, slightly off topic, but the idea of looking at history presented in the news through multiple metanarratives rather than just one metanarrative reminds me of polytheism (Osirian) and monotheism (Atonist). 

Tateh or Baron or Both

Even after having finished Ragtime for a while now, Tateh is the character who I am most intrigued by and still think about. Chapter 34 reveals the story of Tateh’s transformation from the solemn socialist to the “voluble and energetic” filmmaker, Baron Ashkenazy. I never suspected Tateh as being capable of such drastic change for most of the novel, but I think his change allows for interesting connections to other parts of the novel.

Besides Tateh’s ultimate success, Doctorow’s placement of Tateh’s joining of the “flow of American energy” next to his first discussion of Ford makes me want to compare the two. Although they both have a “rags to riches” background story, they are otherwise quite different. As discussed in class, Doctorow depicts Ford with heavy irony to possibly poke fun at the metanarrative of American success, but does not describe Tateh with any irony (at least from what I understood), somewhat displaying another side of this metanarrative. Tateh changes a lot, but I think that he is also in a broad sense static because he remains artist throughout the novel—from a street artist to a filmmaker, he is constantly and creatively replicating the world around him. Ford, similarly static, however, is (as suggested in class discussion) an industrialist, whose focus remains on mass replication of the same Model T design and treating workers as a part of the machine. Because Doctorow is not ironic with Tateh and Tateh is producing new art, unlike Ford who is replicating the same design, I think that Doctorow appreciates Tateh’s originality. In fact, Doctorow builds upon Tateh’s originality and representation of the world around him by naming one of Tateh’s movies A Daughter’s Innocence, which hints at being about Tateh’s own daughter.

I find that Tateh also has an interesting connection to the Little Boy. In Chapter 15, we get to go inside the Little Boy’s head and learn his idea of “self-duplication.” This section seems a little random by itself, but looking at the following Chapter 16, which begins with Tateh, again, I feel inclined to compare the idea of self-duplication with Tateh—I think that Tateh is the example of self-duplication in this novel. Although the final few chapters are focused on Tateh as Baron, the “old Tateh” is recognized as still existing in Baron. Tateh’s construction of his new self also goes along with the Little Boy’s view that “the world composed and recomposed itself constantly in an endless process of dissatisfaction.” Tateh recomposed himself because was dissatisfied with his life in the slum and he “felt he deserved his happiness.”

I think that there are many other interesting aspects of Tateh, but these are the ones I found most compelling. Do you have any observations regarding Tateh or Baron or both?