Tangential to MJJG: _Juice_ and _Conjugating Hindi_

[Raphael Saltwood]

Ishmael Reed once wrote “writin’ is fightin’”

Or words to that effect. Presumably referring not to the difficulties of producing prose and poetry, but more to the notion of contributing to a worthy cause that encounters resistance. Like how people say “fight for a $15 minimum wage,” but they don’t mean literally go out and punch someone for that cause, but to do things that contribute to the success of it - voting, research, publication, engage with opposition, create more worthy arguments, and so forth, but with the sort of excitement that arises from a fight.

Squaring this with non-violence has always been a difficulty for me, so it’s interesting to see how he carries through with the approach.

Anyway, in _Juice_ he takes up his cudgel or laces up his gloves & presents a lot of examples, real and slightly fictionalized, from years of media coverage of OJ, pointing out a lot of overkill (people like Bill Maher dragging in references to OJ in conversations about completely unrelated stuff, eg) and some stubborn irreconcilable problems with the evidence.

As the jury found at the time, reasonable doubt was not unreasonable in the light of these things - time frame, chain of custody, preservatives present in blood evidence et al - which were ignored or deprecated in much media coverage (in favor of trivia like lawyers’ hairstyles, personalities, etc)

To keep this from being a screed and/or a snoozefest, his protagonist is a cartoonist & we get a few examples of his work, drawn by Reed in an enjoyable sort of primitivism. The cartoonist goes on defending OJ, after admitting that much about OJ isn’t terrifically likeable. He pounces on data from the case, follows it closely, and watches his friends and fellow defenders drop away from the cause in the face of family feedback and career concerns.

In some senses, it’s a much narrower topic than MJ’s panorama of history/Harlem Renaissance/Jes Grew.

 _Juice_ focuses on OJ coverage, but the addition of the bemused and sympathetic cartoonist who is, obviously, innocent of murder but suffers by association - as the case was blown up to the extent that it affected racial attitudes towards millions of people who had nothing to do with it. (It’s hard to believe that wasn’t intentional to some extent.)

He returns to the bits and pieces of exculpatory info, (which, honestly, imho, are more than just bits and pieces) but places their presentation with quite a simpatico personage who has other concerns amid an interesting life.

I enjoyed the heck out of it!

_Conjugating Hindi_ is a different kettle of fish, again dealing with racial attitudes, through the eyes of a new persona, a professor & public speaker named Boa. Ishmael Reed appears briefly as a character, and so does Chappy Puttbutt - whose adventures appeared in some earlier Reed novels.

Boa is paired with an India-Indian neo-con (of whom Dinesh D’Souza might be an inspiration) to give the anti- side in public debates about slavery. While _CH_ , like MJ and _Juice​_, treats one to the fascinating historical facts that one has come to expect, its fictional component is funkier and more hard-hitting than _Juice_ , more dystopian which is natural considering the 45th Presidential Administration in effect during its production.
There’s a bit more of the primitivist cartooning here to enjoy also.

And yes, I think his notion of writing as fighting is legit as exemplified here. Without the nastiness & brain damage of actual boxing, it’s actually good for the mentality to observe as Mr Reed deals the knockout punch to many racist preconceptions, but perhaps some feminist counterpunches penetrate his defenses at times.