Ishmael Reed

[pynchonoid]

--- kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> Has anyone read Ishmael Reed?
> 
> "Well and keep in mind where those Masonic Mysteries
> came from in the first place.  (Check out Ishmael
> Reed.  He knows more about it than you'll ever find
> here.)"
> 
> GR, p.588 (Penguin)
> 
> I consider this the weakest moment (possibly the
> only weak moment) in the whole book.  Pynchon
> suddenly steps into the book as Pynchon and plugs a
> present-day writer.   It's very jarring. 

It's part of what drew me into the book, the voice,
the sense that the author is also right there,
speaking, not just some "narrator", while at the same
time amping and multiplying the narrative games.  A
compelling - to me - combination of authorial
distancing and intimacy.

Pynchon's probably not referring to the published
version of Mumbo Jumbo (if that's the book he means,
or if he means a specific book of Reed's) which
appears in 1972, I imagine GR is already in the hands
of the publisher by then. 



> 
> Reed's writing career had barely begun.  His
> pre-1973 works:
> 
> The Freelance Pallbearers, 1967
> Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, 1969
> Mumbo-Jumbo, 1972
> Neo-HooDoo Manifesto, 1972
> Conjure: Selected Poems, 1963-1970, 1972
> 
> Does anyone know which book(s) Pynchon is refering
> to?
> 
> Laura
> 


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