Jane Addams, who faced brutal consequences for opposing war, would be appalled that you are writing books about her. But you play a traditional and loJane Addams, who faced brutal consequences for opposing war, would be appalled that you are writing books about her. But you play a traditional and long-serving role as the liberal snake oil salesperson of war to the poor and dwindling working class for which you are rewarded in silver by the prestigious institutions listed in your resume that profit from our endless wars. ...more
“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
Set in the 1950s, Invisible Man stoically bears witnesses to the psychological wa“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
Set in the 1950s, Invisible Man stoically bears witnesses to the psychological war waged by the duality of White Patriarchy and White Supremacy on a young Black protagonist.
Never formally named in the novel, The protagonist --who could, therefore, be any Black man or no one-- dodges the ubiquitous minefields planted by white liberal elites and the progressive left- and their underlings-the Black political class, in order to keep him frantically scrambling, invisible and disconnected from his history. In short, to quote from the novel, to "keep this nigger running" until death or insanity.
At the heart of this novel is an answer to the question, "What happens to a dream deferred", posed by Langston Hughes in his epic poem, "Dream Deferred".
The Invisible Man picks up and drops off the protagonist in various situational environments, including a southern Black college, that Ellison modeled off his own college, Tuskegee University. Ellison also added a fictional college president who placates white supremacy just as Tuskegee University founder Booker T. Washington did in real life with the infamous Atlanta Compromise. This important critique on Black colleagues precurses the late Gil Scott Heron's southern Black college featured in his novel "The Nigger Factory," where students were also indoctrinated to remain loyal to white supremacy as the price for social acceptance and advancement in America.
The next stop on the Faustian trail is his first job, secured by a white liberal sympathizer, at the Liberty Paints factory, home of the "world-renowned" Optic White Paint, whose motto is “If It's Optic White, It's the Right White.” In order to create Optic White paint, the protagonist is instructed to add "ten black drops of toner, no more and no less than ten black drops" into each bucket of white paint.
The next stops in the novel become even more bizarre and painful as each opportunity is supposed to give him "identity" in the shape of empowerment. In actuality, however, at every stop, what remains of his identity is undermined intellectually, socially, and historically, as a Black person, who at his core originally wanted to be a transformative agent for his community, but instead is rendered invisible.
The tragic irony is that Ralph Ellison fared even worse. His journey, up from invisibility and into history, as one of America's most celebrated writers, dwarfed him into his most loathsome character in the novel, Dr. Bledsoe. And instead of just sending one poisoned pen letter to end a promising career of a Black Intellectual, as what happened in the novel, Ellison himself sent many letters to white liberal philanthropists to break the careers of Black writers who he feared might eclipse him, including James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, who labeled him a "black literary patrician.” But the poisoner often becomes the poisoned. In this case Ellison's Black self-hatred, clearly a byproduct of colonialism, manifested as a cancerous writer's block which poisoned his efforts to achieve true literary greatness, preventing him from writing even a second novel, as opposed to Toni Morrison and James Baldwin who produced brilliant literary canons....more
I'm not sure if this is a bad French to English translation because at some sentences were incomprehensible. Even still the material itself was shalloI'm not sure if this is a bad French to English translation because at some sentences were incomprehensible. Even still the material itself was shallow, like a micro soap opera with shamefully limited historical context of the complicated and tumultuous political, economic, and international, forces at play. This book left me suspect that Marie Antoinette and the rest of the royal court had to be more complicated that the woman child and men boys portrayed in this book. ...more
Faith Berry’s bio exposes his glob trotting life as the Tupac of his time, who with ceaseless pen, spread and pushed the poetical envelope, of race anFaith Berry’s bio exposes his glob trotting life as the Tupac of his time, who with ceaseless pen, spread and pushed the poetical envelope, of race and class, (part of the foundation of today’s Hip Hop Culture) throughout some of America’s most hostile regions and into the far more welcoming and enthusiastic region of Europe and Asia. And like today’s Hip Hop Culture, the Black Bourgeoisie called his poetry “ghetto” and representative of the worst of Black America. Some of Hughes mostly lively moments were his years in the Soviet Union as a guest of their government, where he boldly traveled, mostly alone, through some of the most remote and inhospitable regions, reminiscent of Alexander of Macedon’s travels throughout Asia minor. But while Alexander is known for brutal war of conquest, oppression, and slaughter, Hughes blazed a bright trail, quickly becoming legend as a revolutionary Black poet, dramatists, journalist, novelist and human rights activist.
Also highly interesting is Hughes’s journalistic reporting, which all most costs him his life several times, from the battle grounds, of the savagely violent Franco Fascist takeover of Spain’s democratic government, that precluded to the rise of Nazi Germany. Hughes also covered the service of numerous Black Americans who were inspired -as volunteers- to travel to Spain to fight and die, (unreported by the American mainstream press) to support the populist leftist Government of 2nd Spanish Republic. Many Blacks also volunteered and died, performing military support roles such as driving ambulances and delivery trucks. Hughes joined and became friends with journalists from all walks of life including Ernest Hemingway, who all attempted to expose the American governments support for the Fascists and Nazis destruction of the democratically elected and popular government in Spain during a time when most white Americans violently opposed any government with a socialistic bent
. Sadly, there is deep missing in this book, a void that probably, simply cannot be filled given the very private nature of Langston Hughes, which I’m sure is connected to his furtive life as a gay black man. Langston still had brief, but romantically colorfully dalliances with talented, intelligent, and beautiful women from across the globe, which seem to provide him with some of the deep intimacy, that this highly sensitive man craved, but that was ultimately forbidden to him (as it was for so many of those trapped in his same boat) which therefore rendered these relationships more platonic, as each one ultimately turned from passionate spring love, to burningly complicated summer, and then dead but longing melancholy winter, because Langston ultimately couldn’t give them what they all craved, which was all of him. We don’t know if any of the Langston ladies, knew of his true sexuality, because in hiding such a large portion of himself, think how many biographies center also on wives, husbands, and long lovers, this book lakes all of this, which again is not the fault of the writer, but is deeply endemic of the man himself, which becomes to a major undercurrent of this brilliant book
Indeed Langston in many ways was a drifting soul who’s only roots were his work and his tumultuous relationship with his endlessly needy, dependent, and hapless mother, who Langston often put her needs, (even the most frivolous over his which added another layer of melancholy on top of their problematic relationship, which created so much angst mixed with profound love for a women who ultimately could not find the type of love she too desired and deserved.
Langston Hughes dislike for Chicago, which was also shared with Martin Luther King is also notable Chicago is one of the most fantastic towns outside of Shangha that I’ve ever been in. Its certainly is one of the chief abodes of the devil in the western hemisphere
Ah, When the world was a stage of epic and endless war! This book is an arm chair general's book, over flowing with the foundations of western militarAh, When the world was a stage of epic and endless war! This book is an arm chair general's book, over flowing with the foundations of western military strategy still used today,( yet dwindling because of drone warfare, etc.) thanks to the world's most brilliant, daring, and fluid general, Hannibal Barca who clearly was able to connect and motivate a diverse and rambunctious army who spoke numerous languages into the most spectacular fighting force- that including Elephants! What makes this book poignantly fascinating is the rise of the Roman Empire which mirrors our own in the supremacy of its military industrial complex which means that -as it is in America- every thing comes down to war.
Indeed the phrase "all roads lead to Rome", should be updated to include "and all Roman roads lead to war". This is the crux of Rome's destruction of Carthage, born not out of brilliant generals, for they were few in Rome besides for Scipio Africanus. Yet in Carthage Hannibal belonged to a who family "The Barcids" of secondary but also epic generals.
Simply put, Rome triumphed because of an endless willingness to feed men and boys into the constantly churning grinder while mobilizing and incorporating all means of production into endless blood wars of greed and petty ambitions of the ruling elite. And while other city states and foreign powers used war as an extreme method of diplomacy, Rome truly a war like and barbaric culture used war to destroy and absorbed civilizations into itself while expanding like a giant black whole across half the globe This was the weakness of Carthage, they were clueless to who they were ultimately dealing with.
The major down fall of this book is, who ever edited it, undertook the task while guzzling Ardbeg. if this were ancient Rome, the editor would have bee crucified or feed to the lions! ...more
The popularity of this gibberish is demonstrative of the idolization of the American white male, because if this book was written by someone named SanThe popularity of this gibberish is demonstrative of the idolization of the American white male, because if this book was written by someone named Sanchez it would not have even reached a publisher. This book was called( clearly by other white males) a major literarily accomplishment, representing a "new voice"that mirrored bebop jazz, but that's James Baldwin. This torturous novel parroted Faulkner's literacy style minus his intelligence,while clearly written while extremely high. There are no characters with depth,( Because its all about "the writing" of this "new voice") so they too all appear extremely high all the time conducting gibberish exchanges, except for the women, they are simply silent or crazy. The reader learns nothing about any of them. I knew this novel was doomed when the city of New Orleans only received only a few scant pages and the protagonist admitted to being fearful of going where the Black folk lived.This is what makes this novel so the sad because they traveled through some really amazing places including Mexico. A real writer like Cormac McCarthy *(who actually exceeds Faulkner at his own style) could have made this a genuine read, instead of one big literary miss or a whole in the ground. And I thought Catcher in the Rye was 98 percent inflated because of white male culture. This novel has no literary merit except for stoners at midwestern colleges on the ten year meal plan....more
The war between a well written historical narrative and staid academia, was unfortunately lost with Operation Roll Back. Primarily because it compressThe war between a well written historical narrative and staid academia, was unfortunately lost with Operation Roll Back. Primarily because it compressed far too much (good) information into too few many pages at the expense of what it promised, a "rip roaring yarn complete with a colorful cast of characters.." The rip roaring was quickly shot down into the cold sea of sterile academia. Meanwhile characters heralded under the "colorful" banner, exited almost as soon as they arrived, leaving the reader with the most minute grasps of who they were and their motivations.This was extremely regrettable because numerous of the rogues, bumblers, agent- provocateurs, patriots, and adventures, lost their lives -executed as spies- on the rustic front lawns of the humble peasantry under the iron curtain while their "democracy" loving CIA/ Intelligence handlers"shrugged their shoulders, before turning back to the drawing board safe in the west. To add insult to injury, only the most general detail( let alone personal antidotes) are provied as to why these spices failed to penetrate eastern European societies. Again the books information is impressive, but overall, Operation Roll Back reads like a long cliffs note for a senior cold war exam. In full disclosure, I have no bitterness towards the author for exposing my alma mater's roll in building and sustaining the cold war, which did and continues to do terrible damage to our world. I'm just shocked that somehow this detail was left out of my freshman origination. ...more
I'm a huge fan of Doris Kearns Goodwin. It therefore pains me to say that this book is a disappointment. Granted, her ambitious undertaking of such a I'm a huge fan of Doris Kearns Goodwin. It therefore pains me to say that this book is a disappointment. Granted, her ambitious undertaking of such a mammoth scope of work demonstrates( again as with her book Team of Rivals) her literary courage and scholastic dedication. This book However, bites off far more than it can digest intellectually by focusing on far too many major characters.
There isn't much to say about Theodore Roosevelt that hasn’t all ready been said, yet I never tire of hearing more. This books strong point details his relationship with the then burgeoning investigative journalist movement forged by those brave literary muckrakers. The tragic thing is that the most interesting muckraking leader (by far), Ms. Ida Tarbell gets the major short shift compared to other journalist ( not early as interesting) and also politicians, chiefly amongst them the plodding political tortoise William Taft, a decent -yet utterly boring- man, except when he headed the civilian government of the Philippines and beat down Gen. MacArthur. Yet over all Taft elevates to higher levels of power due to his white skin and wealth, and then under the grand and generous patronage of the great T.R.
The dilemma in this book is chiefly how much did Taft owe T.R.? Substantially enough that Taft should have always consulted with T.R. over major policy positions including major administrative firings, even when T.R. descended- basically incommunicado- into the heart of Africa to kill animals? Clearly Taft didn’t agree to being a caretaker president for T.R, just as T.R believed that he brought Taft to the "dance" and therefore Taft should have approved all his dance moves, such lead to the unraveling of the republican party. What's striking about this book is that Doris Kearns Goodwin seems to have compromised her much needed feminist voice that shook up the staid white man's club of historical narratives, when she released "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt - The Home Front in World War II., which I say is the root cause of the recent spurious charges of plagiarism brought against her by those jealous white male "haters". I therefore look forward to her next project and hope her attackers have not left her gun shy of using her gifted and wonderful voice, because women like Ida Tarbell deserve to be fully heard especially during these times. ...more
I finished “Zeitoun” a year ago, but it took this horrific headline; "Zeitoun, Hurricane Katrina Famed Protagonist, Arrested for the 3rd Time for Atte I finished “Zeitoun” a year ago, but it took this horrific headline; "Zeitoun, Hurricane Katrina Famed Protagonist, Arrested for the 3rd Time for Attempted Murder, Domestic Assault and Battery" to motivate me to finish reviewing this grim book.
“Zeitoun” is the story of a “super model American Immigrant" who endures one of our government’s official responses to Hurricane Katrina, torturious marshal law imprisonment, against Muslims.
Yet, in this Ronald Reagan-esque apple pie narrative, America still remains, land of endless opportunity with conflict diamond paved streets for those who chose to work, Zeitoun, therefore, forgives all. His nightmare is a simple anomaly, so questioning the systematic root cause of the injustices he experiences, which continues to harming so many immigrants and citizens alike, is unnessiasry.
This books real flaw is Zeitoun’s relation with his wife, conceived under endemic American and religious patriarchy, (in this case Islamic), where Kathy takes to the hijab like many imprisoned Black men convert to Islam. Kathy, equate a “chaste” life with “dignity”, “personal responsibility”, and “freedom”.
Kathy's traumatic history gets mostly deleted. All that’s important for Eggers is that Kathy, as a teen often fled her troubled home, leading to a bad marriage, ending in divorce, finally stranding her as a single parent. Generally, in modern day tales like this, racism is never far behind patriarchy or vise versa, and “Zeitoun” doesn’t disappoint. Eggers writes of Kathy’s Islamic conversion before Zeitoun, by a Japanese women, Yuko, who’s close friendship dates back to their “multiethnic high school”. Multiethnic, in this book, is unique code for mostly Black hoodlums who’s bulling, forged this white and Japanese bond. Interestingly, Yuko was converted to Islam from women as well. Eggers simply accepts that Christianity failed Kathy, which is not surprising, as it has horribly failed untold others, way before the First American slave ship named Jesus sailed. But equally pathetic, is this literary celebration of a pious and devote Muslim male who rescues her and completely fills the void, leading Kathy forward by his own religious brand.
Eggers beautifully welds demented patriarchyartical romance language to describe Zeitoun and a much younger ( 21) Kathy’s union.
Yuko’s husband Ahmaad knows of Zeitoun’s search for a wife and picks Kathy. Kathy rejects even meeting Zeitoun, explaining that after her rushed first marriage, she wants to find herself before dating again. This logical request doesn’t matter to Ahmaad, because under their brand of Islam, the male is the shot caller. Ironically, Zeitoun doesn’t jump at a meeting either for different reasons, he wants to make sure she looks good. Pushing the creep factor further into the red, he demands to stalk her first, ( which portends the out side the book/real life, extreme public violence Zeitoun will demonstrate against Kathy on a crowded street with the tire iron in front of numerous witnesses. Yuko is brought in to assist the stalking, perhaps to secure Kathy’s work address and schedule?
Zeitoun, arrives early before Kathy’s shifts end. Settling in across the street for his “stake out” he observes Kathy leaving. She’s “striking”, “wearing a hijab”, and “very young” and Zeitoun is smitten. But although Zeitoun is adebt at stalking, things go horribly awry, when Kathy suddenly heads toward his parked SUV! Zeitoun isn’t bothered about scaring and totally creeping her out, he’s only concerned with “being embaressed” and “looking foolish”. So he crouches below the dash board and literally begs for Allah’s assistance, who, has his back. “Kathy had no idea she was passing a man hiding under his steering wheel. Her car just happened to be parked next to his.
A meeting is set, but Kathy is not impressed, he’s too old and too conservative. But they continue to bump into each other casually for two years. But what wins her over is guilt of depriving her four year old son of a father.
The rest of the book describes Zeitoun's heroic refuses to leave NOLA, using a row boat to save both human and canine life, before winding up in the "Hurrican Katrina Guantanamo Bay". But I often wondered if his decision to remain behind was more out of a sense of American Adventure and freedom from his facility responsibility because every phone conversation with Kathy, who relocated with her parents and then with Yoko and Ahmaad in Texas was an extension of Kathy’s painfully childish crying fits over daily mishaps before Katrinia, that Zeitoun swiftly corrected, again demonstrating the glorious power of positive Patrachy.
I greatly appreciate the effort of this fictional account of former slaves armed participation in the liberation of America and Black people from sou I greatly appreciate the effort of this fictional account of former slaves armed participation in the liberation of America and Black people from southern tyranny. The problem I had with this novel is its focus on the short sighted religious beliefs of the still enslaved and the recently freed women and men, to such an extent that one would think that slavery was a sanctioned part of "Gods", will, just as ending slavery was now "his" plan. I mean if he had such control over events, then why were we enslaved for 200 years in the first place?
Additionally, while some of the horrors of America's "peculiar institution" were exposed, more were glossed over or not covered at all. In fact the relations between captive and captor were often stripped of their complications and replaced by unrealistic and paternalistic relationships. Finally, the recently freed men and women's participation in the Union Army was flawless in this telling, when in fact they had to fight for their recognition and their rights just as they had to fight as captives under chattel slavery. This novel seem more for the benefit of teen readers....more
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