NP but kinda, re: Mumbo Jumbo
Rev'd Seventy-Six
revd.76 at gmail.com
Wed May 15 17:32:53 CDT 2013
"The headquarters of the Wallflower Order. You have nothing real up here.
Everything is polyurethane, Polystyrene, Lucite, Plexiglas, acrylate,
Mylar, Teflon, phenolic, polycarbonate. A gallimaufry of synthetic
materials. Wood you hate. Nothing to remind you of the Human Seed. The
aesthetic is thin flat turgid dull gray bland like a yawn. Neat. Clean,
accurate, and precise but one big Yawn they got up here. Everything as the
law laid down in Heliopolis 1000 years ago. (Heliopolis, the Greek name
for the ancient city of Atu or Aton.) You eat rays and for snacks you
munch on sound. Loading up on date is slumber and recreation is
disassembling. Transplanting is real big here. Sometimes you play switch
brains and hide the heart. Lots of marching. Soon as these Like-Men
disappear walking single file down the hall here comes another row at you.
The Atonists got rid of their spirit thousands of years ago with Him. The
flesh is next. Plastic will soon prevail over flesh and bones. Death will
have taken over. Why is it Death you like? Because then no-one will keep
you up all night with that racket dancing and singing. The next morning
you can get up and build, drill, progress putting up skyscrapers and...
and... and... working and stuff. You know? Keeping busy."
--pps. 62-3 of 'Mumbo Jumbo' by Ishmael Reed, 1972
I've read little of Reed besides this & 'The Last Days of Louisiana Red'.
Was dehumanization / The Triumph of Death a theme in Reed's earlier,
pre-'72 work? Because this is in pert near perfect harmony with P. in V. &
GR.
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