Episode 89: On Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo,' or, Why We Need More Magical Thinking

Ishmael Reed's 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo is a conspiracy thriller, a postmodern experiment, a revolutionary tract, a celebration, and a magical working. It is a novel that, over and above prophetically describing the world we live in, creates a whole new world and invites us to move in. For Phil and JF, Mumbo Jumbo exemplifies art's creative power to generate new possibilities for life. It is also the perfect occasion for pinpointing the difference between the kind of magical thinking that fuels virulent conspiricism, and the more profound magical thinking which alone can save us from it. **Image: **Albrecht Dürer, Two Pairs of Hands with Book REFERENCES Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo Harold Bloom, The Western Canon For more on Colin Wilson's concept of lunar religion, see The Occult Weird Studies, episode 36: "On Hyperstition" William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch Carl Van Vechten, American writer Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, Illuminatus! MC5, "Kick Out the Jams" Karl Pfeiffer (dir.), Hellier, webseries Jasun Horsley, 16 Maps of Hell Ramsey Dukes (Lionel Snell), SSOTBME Anonymous, Meditations on the Tarot Fats Waller, American jazz musician Owen Barfield, Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry Weird Studies, episode 57 - "Box of Gods: On Raiders of the Lost Ark" Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature