everything is false

Mumbo jumbo has been very interesting and has a lot of aspects that are similar to other books yet a lot of traits that draw my attention. This book, being a detective book, has all the suspense and traits that we are used to seeing in other books. Yet, the most interesting part to me is that even though we the readers eventually find out who is guilty, there is still enough going on that I still super drawn to the book. Unlike other stories, it was never one-sided and always a battle between two people that is everlasting.

This also brings up the point if what we are reading is actually something that happened or entirely myth. Did something like this actually happen in the world of mumbo jumbo? To me, I believe it was a myth. We are so used to reading and hearing these kinds of stories from our family and on assigned these books at school. There is always one main character who goes through some stuff and always comes on top. This story is in many ways different from that idea but still has one powerful being that wouldn't make sense to believe in our world. There is a lot of symbolism in the book, and I think we can safely assume that this story is supposed to represent something and not simply supposed to be an account of what happens in the mumbo jumbo world.

Comments

  1. Sarah H.March 5, 2020 at 1:58 PM

    I think that Mumbo Jumbo is real in this world. Not in the sense that there is a huge conspiracy of world domination, but I believe that there is a constant struggle for control of the world's narrative. As civilizations vie for control, the strongest one will eventually become weaker until a new superpower rises. This change is never abrupt but happens gradually just like how Jes Grew is a gradual phenomena that after being stopped will rise again in a later generation. I don't know why but a small example that just popped into my head is Texas. Texas used to be solid republican territory, but now as a new demographics rise and urbanization grows there is talk that it could become a blue state.

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  2. Peter ZhangMarch 5, 2020 at 8:24 PM

    When you think about it, the Jes Grew vs. Atonism conflict is very similar to many other cultural movements and "old vs. new" conflicts in history. These sorts of conflicts will inevitably arise in the future, and the long-lasting conflict in Mumbo Jumbo seems pretty fitting.

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  3. spolonus282March 11, 2020 at 7:55 PM

    I think one of the uses for the interactions between Jes Grew and Atonism is just to reassociate previous events with a different point of view. Instead of taking the historian's external point of view, with their one way of looking at the reasons behind events, the book spins it from another direction, introducing new viewpoints and (likely false) reasons behind events.

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