We Live in a (Secret) Society
I don't know about anyone else reading this blog post, but for me, there's always been a certain appeal to secret societies. Something about them and the unknown power that they have really has a sense of mysticism or wonder. There's a lot of fun to be had with questioning whether or not the world as we know it is secretly being controlled by some underground organization like the Illuminati or the Deep State. While it almost certainly isn't, there's still something captivating about these secret societies tapping into some ethereal power via rituals and magic to control the balances of the world we live in.
That being said, they're also an easy tool for people to leapfrog into whatever absolutely whacky conspiracy theory they want. If we suspend common judgment for just a while and believe that secret societies do actually have some power in controlling our world, they can be used to re-explain the history of practically anything. The U.S. invasion of the Philippines? That was just the Freemasons looking for gold deposits. The conquering of the Incas? Secretly a Rosicrucian plot instigated by the Knights Templar to search for mana directly connected to Earth's natural energy. The JFK assassination? Duh, it was set up by the CIA, which is actually under the control of the Skull & Bones society of Yale.
To a certain extent, letting yourself believe that secret societies are out there is a fun topic to play with when writing a book. What jumps to my mind is the whole conspiracy in The Da Vinci Code and the search for truth about the life of Jesus through the works of the Renaissance. There's also this book by this Italian guy named Umberto Eco called Foucault's Pendulum, where these guys who are bored at their publishing jobs decide to create a conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar taking over the world, but then the conspiracy accidentally becomes real. The books have just the right level of fiction and fascination with the occult to hook readers into asking, "Is all of this real?" And at least in my experience, they're really fun to read.
We already saw some of what the existence of a secret society would mean in Ragtime, when J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford form their own secret society of reincarnated spirits of world leaders. And while it is technically a literary example of what was (probably) a fake secret society, it's more used as part of the caricature for the two businessmen.
Whereas even with how little we've read of Mumbo Jumbo so far, there's already a crap ton of conspiracy going on. We have the Wallflower Order doing everything in its power to destroy Jes Grew and wipe out the remnants of African civilization by replacing it with European colonialism and Western ideas. Not only that, this whole engagement apparently roots back all the way to ancient Egypt, with connections to Heliopolis and the Knights Templar as different iterations of an eternal battle between artificial progress and the roots of civilization.
Now this book is witty and ridiculous enough to disregard the actual existence of the Wallflower Order from the get-go. But to a certain extent, the Wallflower Order is possibly one of the most realistic secret societies that I've seen in fiction. Sure there's probably not actually a group of people who actively pull the strings to do things like tell scholars what to write and install the president of the U.S., but the Wallflower Order is more a representation of Western civilization and ideas in general. They're a physical embodiment of the idea that the only history is Western history, and any deviation from that singular narrative is wrong and must be destroyed.
So why make it a secret society? Why didn't Reed just say something along the lines of "white people were racist and liked erasure, surprise"? I feel like to a certain extent, inventing the Wallflower Order is tapping into the reader's suspension of disbelief and common judgment, making them ask "lmao what if the Wallflower Order were a real thing." But then if the reader takes a step back, they realize that, in a sense, it is a real thing. The narrative back then (and to this day still) was written by white Protestants with a singular idea of what history is. They are the people deciding what's important to teach kids and make an essential part of human (and/or Western) culture. Any challenge to that prescribed idea of what culture is should be treated as a threat and fad and dealt with accordingly.
So in a sense, Reed uses a secret society to force suspension of judgment in the reader and realize just how real an impact a secret society could have. Everyone loves to speculate on whether secret organizations have control over the world, but you never actually stop to think about what the real-world impact would be if that were so.
That being said, they're also an easy tool for people to leapfrog into whatever absolutely whacky conspiracy theory they want. If we suspend common judgment for just a while and believe that secret societies do actually have some power in controlling our world, they can be used to re-explain the history of practically anything. The U.S. invasion of the Philippines? That was just the Freemasons looking for gold deposits. The conquering of the Incas? Secretly a Rosicrucian plot instigated by the Knights Templar to search for mana directly connected to Earth's natural energy. The JFK assassination? Duh, it was set up by the CIA, which is actually under the control of the Skull & Bones society of Yale.
To a certain extent, letting yourself believe that secret societies are out there is a fun topic to play with when writing a book. What jumps to my mind is the whole conspiracy in The Da Vinci Code and the search for truth about the life of Jesus through the works of the Renaissance. There's also this book by this Italian guy named Umberto Eco called Foucault's Pendulum, where these guys who are bored at their publishing jobs decide to create a conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar taking over the world, but then the conspiracy accidentally becomes real. The books have just the right level of fiction and fascination with the occult to hook readers into asking, "Is all of this real?" And at least in my experience, they're really fun to read.
We already saw some of what the existence of a secret society would mean in Ragtime, when J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford form their own secret society of reincarnated spirits of world leaders. And while it is technically a literary example of what was (probably) a fake secret society, it's more used as part of the caricature for the two businessmen.
Whereas even with how little we've read of Mumbo Jumbo so far, there's already a crap ton of conspiracy going on. We have the Wallflower Order doing everything in its power to destroy Jes Grew and wipe out the remnants of African civilization by replacing it with European colonialism and Western ideas. Not only that, this whole engagement apparently roots back all the way to ancient Egypt, with connections to Heliopolis and the Knights Templar as different iterations of an eternal battle between artificial progress and the roots of civilization.
Now this book is witty and ridiculous enough to disregard the actual existence of the Wallflower Order from the get-go. But to a certain extent, the Wallflower Order is possibly one of the most realistic secret societies that I've seen in fiction. Sure there's probably not actually a group of people who actively pull the strings to do things like tell scholars what to write and install the president of the U.S., but the Wallflower Order is more a representation of Western civilization and ideas in general. They're a physical embodiment of the idea that the only history is Western history, and any deviation from that singular narrative is wrong and must be destroyed.
So why make it a secret society? Why didn't Reed just say something along the lines of "white people were racist and liked erasure, surprise"? I feel like to a certain extent, inventing the Wallflower Order is tapping into the reader's suspension of disbelief and common judgment, making them ask "lmao what if the Wallflower Order were a real thing." But then if the reader takes a step back, they realize that, in a sense, it is a real thing. The narrative back then (and to this day still) was written by white Protestants with a singular idea of what history is. They are the people deciding what's important to teach kids and make an essential part of human (and/or Western) culture. Any challenge to that prescribed idea of what culture is should be treated as a threat and fad and dealt with accordingly.
So in a sense, Reed uses a secret society to force suspension of judgment in the reader and realize just how real an impact a secret society could have. Everyone loves to speculate on whether secret organizations have control over the world, but you never actually stop to think about what the real-world impact would be if that were so.
Normal Mailer made an interesting observation about the appeal of conspiracy theories, in reference to the Kennedy assassination: in some ways, to acknowledge the absurd imbalance of power whereby a shiftless 24-year-old loser from Texas can singlehandedly alter the course of history by killing the president is in fact much more deeply unsettling and problematic than the idea that there's a vast plot underlying the whole affair, with Oswald as an unknowing dupe or patsy. In an odd way, the conspiracy reassures us that there is some "meaning" to be found in such an event, even if that meaning presupposes a vast collusion of interests involving U.S. intelligence, the mafia, foreign agents, the masons, whoever. At least there *is* underlying meaning, whereas a world where Oswald can just decide to shoot the president--and succeeds--is too frightening to contemplate. If there's a "coverup" (as there inevitably is), at least we have faith that there *is* a bottom line story that is being covered up. The meaning is there, if only we can trace enough clues.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the main reasons people are so attracted to conspiracy theories is because it lets them attribute larger, systemic problems to one person, or a small group of people, who can then be blamed, Rather than realizing that the system itself in the problem, these people say that if we just remove that group of people, that all of the problems will be solved.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that Reed is asking us to realize that in some way the Wallflower order is real. I don't think he's asking us to imagine a real secret society quite as much, but he is asking to realize that it's not secret. The people asking us to erase narratives other than Western History aren't acting in secret, they're not engaging in secret meetings to get presidents elected. They speak in public. "Africa has no history" is not in the documents of a secret society, it's the words of a famous philosopher. The people who order changes made to textbooks sold in Texas don't act in secret, they're literally just the Texas School Board.
ReplyDeleteI think the erasure of African culture is a very real thing and Reed flips that by turning it into a conspiracy theory or secret organization. And to be honest it's interesting to see something something like that through a secret society since secret societies are good at capturing attention. I mean before this book I didn't know the true meaning behind the words mumbo jumbo and voodoo and you could say the 'Wallflower Order' did a good job of erasing that information.
ReplyDeleteThis idea applies to Ragtime's narration style as well. Remember the poverty ball with the meat hanging from the ceiling? Or the whole murder/sex scandal that seemed too outlandish to be true, but when you researched it it actually was? So much of Ragtime's narration focused on treating absurd historical events like absurd fictional events, so that we'd first question their truth, then research them a bit and find out that they actually did occur. Mumbo Jumbo carries on that tradition of historical outlandishness by being just a little more fictional, unbelievable, and grandiose, and if anything, the payoff is even better.
ReplyDeleteThis idea of secret societies controlling our country or world reminds me of the Nickelodeon show “House of Anubis”. If you haven’t seen this, basically this group of school kids discover all sorts of Egyptian, historical secrets about the house they live in, and how and who controls it. Basically, they find out that their boarding school is just a front for a secret society. Now, I don’t particularly remember what this society does, I only remember it was secret and powerful. Mumbo Jumbo kind of reminds me of this show.
ReplyDeleteI love this post, especially the question about why Reed even bothered to create secret societies instead of re-narrating the story of racist oppression and colonial hegemony. Something about the secrecy of these shady organizations calls into question the problems people deal with on a daily basis. Reed has dramatized all these issues in American society, asking readers to creatively reimagine the complex racial dynamics we experience. This act of defamiliarization challenges readers to rethink our relationship to power, privlidge, and narration in new ways.
ReplyDelete