Misreading Ellison's Cartoons

[Robin Landseadel]

On Aug 4, 2009, at 6:28 AM, Nushra MohamedKhan wrote:

> Following the glass string,  not a thread really,  of that kite that
> shimmers under the red hot Native Son, Gates,  and that Son of
> Daudalus, Wood, and their seperate but equal  critiques of White
> America and Pynchon's Cartoons, I've excerpted an essay of HAB Jr.
> It does and it must make us wonder if critics bother to read the works
> they critique. Even the favorable ones of IV read like so much
> Fanboy's fan mail; cheerleaders under the bleechers, pinching off a
> bit of weed, tossing to the wind, a libation for OBA ...endless
> speculations about what He mydadunandsaid, and shit, dude.

Not completed, not by a long stretch, and this only barely touches on  
the racial aspects of the CIA's drug selling activities. But this  
[hopefully] casts light on Thomas Pynchon's long-term concerns and  
interests.

http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pynchon%27s_California_Trilogy_and_the_CIA

> Two National Book Awards for Cartoons cast as Invisible Men. Yes,
> though Pynchon does, in SL, tip his hat to the author's and books he's
> written on top of, to Ishmael Reed, to Jewish Fiction, to Jazz, to
> Henry James and Mark Twain ...perhaps, as with Malcolm X, where the
> parody and transfer is so obvious or as in 1984m Duh, or Moby-Dick,
> double-Duh,  Pynchon sees no reason to Name Ellison as the muse of of
> GR, but IM is the blueprint for a s much as the whiteness of the
> rocket as Melville's Call Me Influential.

Though Pynchon does not shout out: "Drop that roach that's burnin' yer  
fingers and Look At Mumbo-Jumbo, ya'll freakin' flakes", that is  
specifically where's he's pointing at in Gravity's Rainbow:

		The cherubic-faced balding man sitting at the desk prods
	Jefferson. Tell us again who you want to meet?
		Why ... why Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Another round of
	laughter. But when the editor-in-chief walks into the room they
	stop.
		What's going on here? Don't you know we got an edition to
	get out.
		You. C'mere.
		Jefferson points to himself.
		Yeah, you. C'mere.
		Jefferson walks up to the man.
		Now, what's on your mind, Mac?
		I want to meet Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
		Well they don't work here no more, they were promoted. Now
	get outta here.
		The' city room breaks up. Woodrow Wilson Jefferson slowly
	walks out, undaunted. He is an ambitious man. If he wasn't going
	to find these men here, he was going to return to the room he rents
	above Frimbo's Funeral Home and look them up in the phone
	book. He is walking down University Street in Greenwich Village
	when he comes upon the sign in the window.

				NEGRO VIEWPOINT WANTED

		As soon as Woodrow Wilson enters the office of the Benign
	Monster holding the sign, Hincle Von Vampton starts licking his
	chops.

		Yes young man, what can I do for you?
		I came about the Negro Viewpoint job.
		Yes, what is your experience?
		I have read all the 487 articles written by Karl Marx and
	Friedrich Engels and know them by heart.

		The perfect candidate, Hinckle Von Vampton decides. He
	doesn't mind the shape of the idol: sexuality, economics, whatever,
	as long as it is limited to 1.

		You're hired.
		But don't you want to hear about my contributions to the
	County Seed packages, my descriptions of the bulbs and the
	germs?
		That's enough. You've convinced me.
		Hinckle Von Vampton informs Woodrow Wilson Jefferson of
	his salary and the other terms of the position as Negro Viewpoint.
		We've an office for you in the rear of Spiraling Agony, my
	estate, and you will also be required to perform certain chores in
	addition to your responsibility as a columnist. We are doubling-up
	due to our very limited resources.
		Well what will my double-up be? Woodrow Wilson asks,
	overjoyed at having found a job the 2nd day in New York.
		Ask the cook when you reach Spiraling Agony.
		Hinckle Von Vampton summons 1 of his drivers to take
	Woodrow Wilson to a rented room above Frimbo's Funeral Home
	in Harlem to gather his things and then to go on to Long Island.
		1 thing, Mr. Von Vampton?
		Yes, what is that Woodrow?
		Can you introduce me to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels?
		... Hinckle thinks he would have to really mold this 1 but it
	would give him good practice for when he discovered the Android.
	Come into my office just 1 moment, Woodrow. I'll explain.

							I I I I

	S.R.: IN HAITI IT WAS PAPA LOA, IN NEW ORLEANS IT WAS
	PAPA LABAS, IN CHICAGO IT WAS PAPA JOE. THE LOCATION
	MAY SHIFT BUT THE FUNCTION REMAINS THE SAME. CREOLE
	BANDS CONCEAL JES GREW FROM CHICAGO'S PSYCHIC 	
	DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH.  ERZULIE WITH HER FAST
	SELF IS SHELTERED IN A "VOCALISING" TRUMPET WHICH
	SINGS FROM MUTE TO GROWL. LEGBA TAKES REQUESTS
	FROM BEHIND THE DERBY-COVERED BELL OF A "TALKING"
	SLIDE-TROMBONE.
	(He is a loa who has always worked for his keep.—I.R.)

	Ishmael Reed: Mumbo Jumbo, pages 86/87
	Bantam paperback ed.
	1973