Japanese by Spring: Ishmael Reed, feminism, multiculturalism, and traditionalism

Japanese Spring

The Satirization of Feminism, Multiculturalism, and Traditional Monoculturalism in Japanese by Spring

Ishmael Reed is well-renowned and controversial author, poet, activist, and MacArthur Fellowhship "Genius" grant award winner, who has several volumes of poetry and even more novels to his name. Coming of age during the Civil Rights movement and working as a writer in New York City after leaving college, the details of Reed's life make it perhaps unsurprising that his eventual views and the manner in which he puts them forth turned out to be controversial. Life consists of a lot of needless yet present controversy in Reed's perspective, if his texts are to be taken as an indicator of how the author thinks and feels regarding a variety of issues, and thus controversy is an ever present issues that must be dealt with, though not necessarily as head-on as one might imagine.

In his novel Japanese by Spring, Reed creates a world ripe for the lampooning of al the controversies raging in the real world during the time in which the novel was written. The early nineties were witnessing a reaction to -- and against -- the presidency of George H.W. Bush and the Reagan era that had proceed Bush, Sr.'s administration; feminists, race activists, and a multitude of other political correcters appeared throughout the media and the halls of public institutions, outraged at their perceived enemies for their aggression and often at their supposed allies for the weakness of their positions. All of this makes ripe fodder for Ishmael Reed's pen, which tells the dark yet humorous tale of "typical" California university.

Jack London University is the name that Reed gives to the school in Japanese by Spring, and as Chappie Puttbutt -- the novel's protagonist -- finagles his way through the power structures of the institution under two very different regimes, the feminist movement, multiculturalism, and traditionalism or monoculturalism all come under especial attack. None of these systems provide the answers that Reed is looking for, but instead all are merely superficial grotesqueries of the same type of power structure that adherents of each of the former two movements are supposedly fighting, while the latter might perhaps be unabashedly honest but is ridiculous even so. Blowing the aesthetics and the reactions of individuals exhibiting feminist, multiculturalist, and traditionalist/monoculturalist tendencies slightly -- and only slightly -- out of proportion, Reed satirizes these movements to the point that they are seen for the empty promises that they contain.

Feminism

As both an incidental feature in the story and a central hinge upon which the plot of the novel swings, feminism is a prominent target for satirizing in Japanese by Spring. Not all of the satirizing that Reed engages in during the course of the novel is even overt upon initial inspection, though in light of the later events, sentiments, and conclusions of the book even seemingly innocent descriptions become sources of social commentary. The novel's first paragraph reveals that, "Ruby Putbutt' [the protagonist's mother] star was on the rise as a member of the United States Intelligence community," which seems innocuous enough (Reed 3).

Ruby Puttbutt is not, on fact satirized for her feminism, but even this simple description seen in the light of the later events of the novel provides an avenue for satirizing through comparison. The black feminist poet that takes Chappie's tenure at the university has none of the real-world drive or capabilities that Ruby Puttbutt possesses, yet she is the supposed embodiment of the strong black female. Reed, though admittedly showing the world primarily through Chappie Puttbutt-colored glasses, shows the feminists on the faculty of the school to be just as opportunistic as Chappie himself, if not more so, betraying him in order to put "one of their won" unfairly in his position. This is not advancement or progress, but merely usurps one form of tyranny for another, a fact which Reed makes sure becomes abundantly clear during the course of the novel. This continuing trading out of one tyranny for another is also built into a recurring theme in the text.

Multiculturalism

Early on in the novel, a scene of mob violence -- that is, of a white mob practicing violence upon black students, including with the use of a baseball bat -- is described, and Puttbutt's reaction to the scene is prompted and recorded by the ubiquitous television media. Puttbutt describes the problem as one that the black students themselves have created and perpetuated, with the help of the black faculty agitators, not simply acting as an apologist for the white students but actually blaming the victims for their differences. Though Puttbutt is also angling for tenure and security, there is a sense of irony and staire in his speech that cannot be ignored.

Specifically, when he refers to the "poor white students" who let things like affirmative action and quotas "get themselves worked up" until "it's understandable that they go about assaulting the black students," Reed sounds as if he is describing a simple and apolitical anthropological observation of a different culture (Reed, 6). This places the black professor in the position of describing, to the mainstream press, nonetheless, the otherwise indiscernible actions of the white population in terms of tolerance, understanding, and acceptance -- with the same type of patronizing attitude that the dominant culture has propagated with its multiculturalist ethic, that is. The crowning glory of this scene, and the one that plunges this description into the ultimate depths of irony and satire, is that Pittbutt is smoking a menthol cigarette -- a very stereotypical thing for a black male to be doing -- while he addresses the reporters and cameras; multiculturalism reinforces and forces acceptance of stereotypes more than anything else, Reed seems to be saying.

Traditionalism/Monoculturalism

Though multiculturalism is not seen as the answer by either Reed or his protagonist Chappie Pittbutt, traditionalism or monoculturalism -- i.e. The complete ethnocentricity of the dominant power in a given region that has typified the bulk of human history and social progress -- is not seen as any better. Even this satirical statement is accomplished in a humorous and unexpected manner, however, as a testament to Reed's literary creativity and the extreme lengths to which he will go to get his point across.