MJJG: pg 42 - artistic choices around Abdul Hamid

[Raphael Saltwood]

Pg 42, on which PaPa LaBas sez:

“When you reviewed my last work in your ‘Journal of Black Case Histories’ - that magazine whose contents resemble the scrawls the patients compose with their excreta on the walls of these Atonist ‘hospitals’ - you accused me of having a French woman on my staff.

“I guess your teachings haven’t made you realize your bad manners.”

A) after a rigorous search
(I scrolled through the 1st & 2nd pages of results)
I found
 no mention of historical “Sufi Abdul Hamid” (aka the Black Hitler due to his vehement anti-Semitism) having a magazine

B) if he did have one, the historical Hamid really doesn’t seem like someone who would call it a Journal of Black Case Histories

C) PaPa LaBas does in fact have a French woman on his staff - the aforementioned Charlotte whose likeness (“a French trainee he has hired to fill in for Berbelang​* wears a similar costume to Earline’s** and smokes a cigarette”) is on the painting described intricately on page 32.

*Berbelang was quite evidently a treasured member and is sorely missed.
 “...his enigmatic smile, the thick black mustache, the derby and snappy bow-tie, his mysterious ring bearing the initials E.F., his eyes of black rock, 2 mysterious bodies emitting radio energy from deep in space, set in the narrow face....”

** Viz: “the characteristic black skirt, the white blouse with the ruffled shoulders, the violet stone around her neck...”

So he’s giving him heck about him having given him heck around having a French trainee

  *    specifically objecting to the “accusation” which is in fact true...
  *   On the grounds of “bad manners”

These departures suggest an artistic choice.

The acceptance/rejection of French influence- a culture which in fairness does seem to exalt pleasure, dancing, art, wine - to a degree approaching Jes Grew sympathizer status - is a polarizing point or a Maypole around which they their banners twine...

¡Feliz nuevo año, amigos!