ArtiFact #10: Charles Johnson’s ”Oxherding Tale” | Alex Sheremet, Joel Parrish

Charles R. Johnson (b. 1948) is a scholar, cartoonist, and writer who approaches literature from the Buddhist tradition. His best-known novels – Middle Passage and Oxherding Tale – offer a unique philosophical twist on slave narratives that go well beyond ‘redemptive’ and Abolitionist writing, and have still remained fresh decades after publication.

Oxherding Tale, especially, is a highly dense, character-driven work, which is obvious not only by the weight of individual sentences, but also in its complex, self-referential structure. What, exactly, makes the novel work so well, and what does it say of (and beyond) slavery? Is Andrew Hawkins a “wanderer” akin to wanderers of today? What is moksha and samsara in the context of the book? Who is the Soulcatcher, and what is his role beyond the most obvious one? Please join us for an in-depth look at one of the greatest novels ever published.

You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/vOi55Cs1xAk

Read the latest writing from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com

Joel's website: https://poeticimport.com

Read Alex’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Music sample: Lowkemia - "Lorem Ipsum" (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Timestamps:

0:00 – Introducing author and scholar Charles R. Johnson
4:38 – Oxherding Tale as a Buddhist slave narrative…for 2021
10:02 – Explaining the “10 Ox Herding Pictures” from Zen Buddhism
19:34 – Joel on the importance of cutting + condensing
22:45 – Chapter 1: George Hawkins, Jonathan Polkinghorne, & the master/slave relationship 
39:40 – Joel on Ezekiel, the book’s “half-privilege” & speed of characterization
49:50 – Chapter 2 + 3: Flo Hatfield, Siddhartha’s “Kamala”, & the book’s sexual conflicts
58:20 – Why Alex used a passage from Oxherding Tale to tackle Red Pill ideology
01:05:40 – The function of samsara in Oxherding Tale, introducing Reb the Coffinmaker
01:24:55 – Joel: Flo extends Andrew’s more ‘privileged’ experience of slavery
01:27:00 – Alex & Joel interpret the Soulcatcher’s deeper import
01:34:20 – The veterinarian’s “life-assurance” policy vs. objective values
01:39:15 – What is Karl Marx’s role in the wider narrative?
01:55:04 – Joel asks whether Andrew Hawkins copies Ezekiel’s false charity
01:59:15 – The Soulcatcher vs. human craving for mediocrity
02:12:40 – Spartanburg, Dr. Undercliff, and Andrew Hawkins’s marriage to Peggy
02:23:40 – Charles Johnson on the despair of black vs. white history
02:43:30 – Moksha: the final confrontation in Oxherding Tale