Chapter 52 and the origin of Jes Grew

    Both Chapter 52 and Chapter 52 are some of the most unique chapters in Mumbo Jumbo. Serving as an expositional backstory to the mysterious phenomenon of Jes Grew, Reed intersects mythology and historical fiction in a distinctive manner, and utilizes the ideas of historical fiction to shape the mythology of Jes Grew. Mythology and religion commonly have some basis in reality or history - think of Jesus, who was a real person, many kings who were worshipped after presumably going through deification, and others. Reed extends this ideology to Egyptian mythology and deities, and presumes that the central figures Osiris and Set were real people. In fact, Reed focuses more on Osiris and Set as characters in a historical narrative, and only alludes to the mythological significance of their actions and existence occasionally. At the start, we see that "Osiris was so adept at ... agriculture that people began to circulate stories that his mother was the sky Nut and the earth his father Geb." (Reed 162). Later on, when Osiris is murdered, we see the mix of various mythological interpretations of Osiris's death in Mumbo Jumbo: he is thrown into a river in a locked box, but does so willingly. He is killed by being cut up into pieces, but by Set, and into 14 instead of 26. The blending of the various aspects of mythology into the "true" Jes Grew-interpretation shows the deniable plausibility characteristic of historical fiction. So much of the "known" aspects are the same that small details, like making it 14 pieces of Osiris to fit with the symbolic 14 pieces of the Text, are within the "margin of error." Furthermore, where mythology undeniably intersects with written text, Reed simply states that, for example, "Homer doesn't mention it," circumventing "absolute" history characteristically of historical fiction (Reed 168). 

    Jes Grew's presence throughout the "historical" narrative is also an extremely important aspect of the Chapters. We find allusions to established facets of Jes Grew, which show the fundamental nature of Jes Grew as a foundational gestalt of many cultural movements. The subtle incorporation of seemingly benign ideas serve as significant ties to the previous fifty chapters and emphasize the nature of Mumbo Jumbo as historical fiction. Jes Grew is never explicitly mentioned. Instead, the narrative is about "precursors" of Jes Grew that in fact show the limitations of Jes Grew as a label for a contemporary movement, a movement that in reality spans human civilization. We see the connection between Isis and "her spiritual descendent Erzulie" (Reed 162). We see it as the "dance of Osiris" and the idea that "the outbreaks occurred because the mysteries had no text to turn to" (Reed 164). We see that "Dionysus taught the Greek the Osirian Art," and it supposedly referred to by "Proteus, King of Tiryns" (Reed 168). We see it incorporated by the Roman empire and associated mythologies. More importantly, the cultural connections and mythological blending said to be the spread of Jes Grew also reflects real, historical influences these mythologies had on each other, further reinforcing the constructed idea that Jes Grew underlies all embodiments of the same ideas. 

    Chapter 52 and Chapter 52 serve extremely unique roles in Mumbo Jumbo, and undoubtedly are some of the most important chapters in it. The treatment of mythologies as real history and then applying the paradigm of historical fiction makes the narrative extremely distinctive, and the subtle connections to the previous chapters help tie together the entire book as a whole. Despite being expositional chapters and chapters far out of the timeframe of the rest of the book, these two chapters serve as the climax or pre-climactic sequence.