Mumbo Jumbo
Ishmael Reed, through parody, allusion, and satire, manages to convey the meaning of Jes Grew without once explicitly defining it. There is a good reason why he never defines it; Jes Grew has no true definition. Even those infected by this ?anti-plague? that evokes the jump, jive, and wail, do what you feel like spirit inside of them, can?t put their finger on exactly what is ?this Jes Grew thing? (33).
One cannot explain Jes Grew without destroying its carefree feeling. Yet without
?finding its text,?
Jes Grew ?will peter out as in the 1890?s, when it wasn?t ready and had no where to search? (34). Ironically, this set both pro and anti-Jes Grew advocates on an identical path: to seek out its text. Apparently an inevitable outcome, this essay too will seek out the implications of the sought after text and the exact meaning of that infectious fiction which Reed so delicately tip-toed around. Jes Grew at first glance reads as ?just grew.? Reed chose these words to give the phenomenon a sense of emergence. What was not there yesterday has suddenly appeared today because it just recently grew. What used to be the mundane, every day life of the
Negro is transformed into the enlivened carefree attitude of Jes Grew. The personal freedom which had been burning inside the people is suddenly expelled and lived out as if there was nothing to stand in their way. The ?irrepressible fancy? is to get up and express themselves through music, dance, and ?the speaks? (154). The epidemic spreads in a manner just as it exists, for as it pops up all over the country it evokes spontaneous activity in its victims. Jes Grew acts as a drug to those infected by it, which causes them to express themselves in otherwise unacceptable ways. ?The kids want to dance belly to belly and cheek to cheek.... The kids want to Funky Butt while their elders prefer the
Waltz...? (21). And just as the deleterious effects of drugs destroy one?s
One cannot explain Jes Grew without destroying its carefree feeling. Yet without
?finding its text,?
Jes Grew ?will peter out as in the 1890?s, when it wasn?t ready and had no where to search? (34). Ironically, this set both pro and anti-Jes Grew advocates on an identical path: to seek out its text. Apparently an inevitable outcome, this essay too will seek out the implications of the sought after text and the exact meaning of that infectious fiction which Reed so delicately tip-toed around. Jes Grew at first glance reads as ?just grew.? Reed chose these words to give the phenomenon a sense of emergence. What was not there yesterday has suddenly appeared today because it just recently grew. What used to be the mundane, every day life of the
Negro is transformed into the enlivened carefree attitude of Jes Grew. The personal freedom which had been burning inside the people is suddenly expelled and lived out as if there was nothing to stand in their way. The ?irrepressible fancy? is to get up and express themselves through music, dance, and ?the speaks? (154). The epidemic spreads in a manner just as it exists, for as it pops up all over the country it evokes spontaneous activity in its victims. Jes Grew acts as a drug to those infected by it, which causes them to express themselves in otherwise unacceptable ways. ?The kids want to dance belly to belly and cheek to cheek.... The kids want to Funky Butt while their elders prefer the
Waltz...? (21). And just as the deleterious effects of drugs destroy one?s