Junketeering is RIDICULOUS...

As we go deeper into Colson Whitehead’s novel, John Henry Days, this concept of junketeering become more and more ridiculous and ill thought to me. First I would like to identify a formal, dictionary definition of this concept--

jun⋅ket 

·      noun

1.            a sweet, custardlike food of flavored milk curdled with rennet.

2.            a pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.

3.            a trip, as by an official or legislative committee, paid out of public funds and ostensibly to obtain information.

·      verb (used without object)

4.            to go on a junket.

·      verb (used with object)

5.            to entertain; feast; regale.

            After reading this definition of junket, it is completely clear to me as to why the characters in this novel are miserable. These junketeers do what they do because they believe it serves as an escape. They go to events that no one really cares about, they get free food, and they write articles about the events. Their job does not require or provide anyone with any motivation or any opportunity for self-improvement or pride for that matter. Miggs for example, lived an unhappy and unfulfilling life, and he used junketeering and stamp collecting as an escape, yet he is still miserable and depressed because his work provides him with nothing worth being satisfied. I can understand how free food and attending social events can be fun and harboring, but having it as a job and expecting it to be fulfilling is ridiculous. That’s like me saying that me going to the beach for vacation everyday of my life is going to never get old and it will always satisfy me. Paradise can only be paradise for so long once it becomes a commodity. J Sutter, the main character, wants to “[go] for the record”, meaning that he wants to go on a junket for more than 9 months without stopping and without break. It is clear and obvious that by looking at his fellow junketeers and their appalling and depressed nature that this is a horrible idea. These people have nothing in their lives that has value or no aspect of their personalities that anyone should want, and yet J thinks that this is a record worth breaking even when his fellow junketeers tell him that it is a horrible idea and when even they realize that their lives pretty much “suck” (excuse my lack of proper/formal vernacular) because of their jobs.

The Desperate Characters in John Henry Days

In Colson Whitehead’s novel, John Henry Days, there are a series of characters who thrive off of the success and opportunity presented by the legendary John Henry. Personally, I seem to find one of the characters to be quite intriguing and notable—Pamela Street. Many of the junketeers go to Talcott because they gain their success by making “content” out of the story and that is how they make their living, however Pamela Street is quite different than the junketeers. Pamela’s father was obsessed with the story of John Henry to such an extant that he was a horrible parent and that he would, by today’s standards, most likely be considered a “freak”. Her father had a gigantic collection of memorabilia dedicated to John Henry in a small apartment. No one would come to visit and see his memorabilia, yet he still insisted on gaining a massive collection of John Henry material. When her father passed away, Pamela stored away his entire collection, however Talcott, the city that is holding the commemoration of John Henry, is trying to gain the collection. Now the interesting thing about the situation is that Pamela feels as if she cannot give up the collection, regardless of the fact that she had a practically fatherless childhood. Her father was not a good parent, and yet she cannot let go of his memory. It seems as if Pamela does not fully understand how she is to deal with the death of her father even if giving up the collection is what most people would do, or at least what would be the right or sensible decision. There is another interesting character that is somewhat similar to Pamela—Alphonse Miggs. Alphonse also suffers a life in which he is extremely distant from his family, particularly his wife. His life was so miserable that he found stamp collecting as a way to pass the time in his desperation, and yet he still strives to find something meaningful because nothing in his life, even his stamp collecting, has sufficed thus far. It seems as if many of the characters, especially the junketeers are just people who have lived in misery and only wish to find something meaningful and Whitehead uses them to brighten up the characteristics of the main characer, J..