Episode 89: On Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo,' or, Why We Need More Magical Thinking
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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.
\\n\\n**Image: **Albrecht D\\xfcrer, Two Pairs of Hands with Book
\\n\\nREFERENCES
\\n\\nIshmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo
\\n\\nHarold Bloom, The Western Canon
\\nFor more on Colin Wilson\'s concept of lunar religion, see The Occult
\\nWeird Studies, episode 36: "On Hyperstition"
\\nWilliam S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
\\nCarl Van Vechten, American writer
\\nRobert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, Illuminatus!
\\nMC5, "Kick Out the Jams"
\\nKarl Pfeiffer (dir.), Hellier, webseries
\\nJasun Horsley, 16 Maps of Hell
\\nRamsey Dukes (Lionel Snell), SSOTBME
\\nAnonymous, Meditations on the Tarot
\\nFats Waller, American jazz musician
\\nOwen Barfield, Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry
\\nWeird Studies, episode 57 - "Box of Gods: On Raiders of the Lost Ark"
\\nHans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity
\\nGilles Deleuze and F\\xe9lix Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature