1) Johnson’s PYM is extremely entertaining while offering an interesting take on the mysterious ending of Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. It sheds light on the racism and pokes fun at black stereotypes while addressing real issues about the ‘post racial’ world we claim to live in. It has generic black characters like Garth and Mosaic Johnson but also has Chris Jaynes who seems to be stuck between the two ethnicities. He is mulatto, having white skin but physically black attributes, most prominently his nose and facial structure. This distinction causes differing reactions depending on the person meeting him. The satire with stereotyped dialogue pokes fun at the differences of the races but still addresses the racial problems. The first issue addressed is when the president denies Chris tenure because he won’t join the Diversity Committee. This is again mentioned when Chris is arguing with Mosaic Johnson saying that the committee is just a way for the college to keep saying they are a diverse campus without addressing any of the real issues or doing anything about it. Race is encountered throughout the book with Chris’ thoughts. He is always wondering whether the next person he meets will view him as black or white. Racism is encountered again with Pym and once again with the ‘snow monkeys’ when they enslave the blacks. All of this reality as well as Chris Jaynes’ explanation and interpretation throughout the story illuminates all of the racism within Poe’s novel and sheds light on issues of race still encountered today.
2) There were quite a few sequels written and all of the descriptions seem to show that they were written solely to give an actual ending to Poe’s novel. Most weren’t all that popular or successful and I believe PYM by Mat Johnson is attempting to bring many of them together. While the main story is another ending to the original novel, Johnson also addresses all the other novels written as sequels. His literary criticism and interpretation is scattered throughout the pages of PYM and is seeking to summarize all that the original has unlocked within the literary world. He gives his own opinion of the theories about the mysterious ending while also having a satirical ‘real’ ending using The True and Interesting Narrative of Dirk Peters as well as his journey to the Antarctic. The satirical story, I believe, is attempting to shut down any of the ridiculous Poe’s- novel-was-based-in-fact theories.
3) The Little Debbie snacks although satirical also symbolize greed and gluttony in a way. I believe that the fact that these were traded as payment for Garth’s imprisonment they symbolize freedom. If Garth hadn’t been so gluttonous before this point he would have been able to free the rest of them.
4) Chris Jaynes believes that by understanding where racism comes from and why it exists he would be able to make the world a better place and eliminate racism in society. However, Mosaic Johnson saying that Poe doesn’t matter seems to be his view and response when faced with the truth that we do not live in a post racial society. This illuminates the two schools of thought on racism. One, Jaynes perspective, that blacks still live with racism and that is completely unacceptable and, as a race, they should be fighting for complete equality and complete elimination of the stigma and stereotypes. And two, Johnson’s perspective, in which blacks should embrace the stereotypes, be the strong black man on campus and essentially pretend that they are treated equally while understanding that this is not the truth.
5) Johnson reinterprets the island of Tsalal as a black utopia that never encountered racism. This island that never had slavery or white superiority. He sees the island as almost holy, as an escape from modern society. He believes it to be a black utopia untouched by modern society’s views of black inferiority.
6) Mat Johnson seems to view Dirk Peters as a savior. After reading Peters narrative Johnson has this idea that by abandoning Pym on the island with the white shrouded figures he save the island of Tsalal. Again he sees Tsalal as this black utopia and he believes that if Pym was saved and returned to the U.S. with Peters he would have told the world about this island with plentiful food and resources that could be harvested by the white men. He sees Peters as a hero for saving this land and preserving it for so many years so that it would be untouched by whites, and therefore untouched by slavery, white colonization, and therefore racism itself.
7) What is Johnson’s interpretation, as a literary critic, of the ending of Poe’s original narrative?
I can see that he addresses every possible explanation of Poe’s ending. He even gives Chris’ view of the mystery as well as a ‘true’ ending of the story given by Dirk Peters’ narrative as well as their adventure in the arctic. I believe his interpretation or hope is similar to Chris’ which is that there is an imaginary land with these creatures but I’m not sure if this whole explanation is satire. If so, I believe he is trying to address how ridiculous some of these interpretations are and that there is a possibly much simpler and real truth that the novel is in fact fiction and Poe got tired of writing or even that he was simply being metaphorical. The other interpretation I get from this sequel is that given the narrative by Dirk Peters Poe’s ending is simply due to the unfinished piece of Peter’s narrative that was sent to him. Any of these explanations are possible.
