Sri's History as Fiction Blog

At the tailend of Mumbo Jumbo, Papa LaBas says that Jes Grew “has no end and no beginning,” (Reed, 204). In this monologue, Reeds seems to be pushing a theory on how Black creativity will stand the test of time because of its ability to reinvent itself over generations. Today, that seems to reflect in many parts of society, but what I want to focus on is cinema. The space for independent films, spearheaded by directors like Spike Lee, Ramon Menendez, and Jordan Peele resembles the idea of Jes Grew. In films like Do The Right Thing and Stand and Deliver, these filmmakers embrace Reed’s idea of an unsatiated cultural force, while in a sense, taking control of who gets to tell stories that are celebrated in America. I find the best parallel to Jes Grew is Spike Lee. He has made films like Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, and BlacKkKlansman, uses color, music, political beliefs/ideologies, and chaos to create a plotline that consistently pushes against the Atonist constraints and rules. Lee’...

Ragtime is a novel that takes an unconventional path of storytelling. Whenever I read the novel, I find myself always not completely sound in the story, mainly because of how well Doctorow blurs the line between history and fiction, sometimes causing me to lose track of the parts that are real, and what are just Doctorow's imagination. In the story, he uses historical figures of the time, but modifies their character, mannerisms, and behavior to fit his story, when he is able, mainly since he didn't know how they would respond in certain scenes. In a way, the book is a "meta-history". At first, I thought I would learn some history while reading the book, but now I am not sure if I really learned about history, or how to use history to tell a story. Doctorow might have even referenced this in Chapter 15, where the little boy looks at his reflection in the mirror, thinking"neither of which could claim to be the real one" (Doctorow 148). This could be a metapho...