Pym

Quarantine reading for this week included Mat Johnson's hilarious Pym, a satirical work about an African American literature professor denied tenure. He happens to stumble upon a great discovery that turns Edgar Allen Poe's sole novel into a true story involving Dirk Peters and Arthur Pym's adventures in Antarctica and the South Seas. While a familiarity with the Poe source material certainly helps, there is enough material in here for laughs and social commentary to entertain and provoke all readers. From the absurdity of race relations in American academia to the tortured ways African Americans think of themselves in relation to the larger society, there is much to ruminate on here. 

Undoubtedly, the penchant for conspiracy theory among African Americans, the condescension of the "diversity committee," and metaphorical blackness and whiteness in lost beings make for entertaining reading. Particularly so when embedded in an adventure tale with much humor (Garth, for instance, is Chris Jayne's obese friend, obsessed with the Eurocentric paintings of a white artist. Did we mention his cousin, a black militant who named his dog White Folks?).  Structurally, the novel also borrows from Poe to make for entertaining reading with elements of fantasy to terrify and please. Anyone interested in the works of Poe, Lovecraft, Verne, and others likewise inspired by The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket could find something likable in this unlikely tale of African Americans in Antarctica. 

Unfortunately, the black Edenic Tsalalians do not receive as much treatment as the "albino snow monkeys" of Antarctica, so those hoping for a black utopian narrative of sorts may be disappointed by the last section of the tale. While I was hoping for a final section in which Chris finds closure of some sort at Tsalal, where the "Negro island" should offer some succor to the weary travelers, there is no easy "out" through a fictional black utopia. Perhaps, in the end, escape to Wakanda or similarly-inspired places will always be illusory when dealing with the real world. Is hip-hop culture any better than white 'cannibalism'? Can blackness exist without whiteness?