What are Reed's intentions in "Mumbo Jumbo"?

Mumbo Jumbo was definitely one of the hardest books I’ve read. The difficulty of grasping the ideas Reed touches upon, the chronology of the story, and the ridiculousness of some of the stories (such as Moses’ concert) are to name a few reasons. As crazy as the book was, maybe Reed really intended for Mumbo Jumbo to be such a jumbled mess, as a way to show how new cultural movements like jazz can really change the status quo of society.

I remember one person in class mentioning how Mumbo Jumbo was very much like a comic book story. The Wallflower Order is like the evil, secret society that is trying to kill Jes Grew, which the good guys, Papa Labas and his men, are trying to save. This is actually a funny way to portray on such serious topics as race, cultural movements, and Western civilization. Reed seems to be intentionally satirical in this sort of manner throughout the entire novel. Take the scene where Moses plays the music he learns from Jethro that causes the audience’s ears to bleed. The way Reed describes this scene made me immediately think of Woodstock and the hippie audience, a very odd comparison.

Look at the book from a more general view. The plans that the Wallflower Order tries to accomplish are simply outrageous. A Talking Android that disguises himself in order to destroy Jes Grew and black culture from the inside out? An economic panic that the Wallflower Order will control in order to shut down all black music clubs and Jes Grew as a whole? Again, these plots are just as ridiculous as any other evil villain’s plans in a comic book. Even the evil characters like Hinckle von Vampton and Harold “Safecracker” Gould are just ridiculous in how they speak, how they view Jes Grew, and how they act as people.

So what does a book as crazy and ridiculous as Mumbo Jumbo have to say about what’s going on in Western culture? Reed uses this insane plot to show how a movement like jazz and African American music as a whole can really impact society. Like any other new idea or new cultural movement that comes about, there are always going to be critics. There are going to be those people who have very conservative ideals and find such changes way too radical. Reed tries to poke fun at these sorts of people and show how truly ridiculous they are. After all, change is inevitable, and whether we like it or not, we are going to have to eventually accept it for what it is.