African American Studies Commons^™

Paintings And Biodomes, Cameron Osteen

Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions

The novel PYM by Mat Johnson seems on the surface to be a light-hearted, comedic, summer vacation easy read. It is parodic, but not in a cynical or harsh way, and it is relatively simple and often quite silly in its plot and structure. It would be easy to read PYM and not have any consideration of it as a piece of lasting or significant literature. There are, however, many elements in PYM that open it up to analysis, revealing an intricate and extremely well-constructed novel whose themes and implications carry a great deal of significance. Jean Baudrillard's theory of …