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White Tower Musings

~ This blog will be an attempt to explain the significance of various works of great writing, the authors that create them, and some effort to understand correlations between great writing and contemporary events.

White Tower Musings

Tag Archives: Absalom, Absalom

Barnes & Noble and I Want You to Read This Summer: A White Tower Guest Article

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Joshua Ryan "Jammer" Smith in Guest Authors, Literature, Novels

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

A Separate Peace, Absalom, Absalom, Aristophanes, As I Lay Dying, Barnes& Noble, Book List, Elie Wiesel, Invisible Man, J.D. Salinger, Jason Walker, John Knowles, John Steinbeck, Light in August, Literature, Lord of the Flies, Night, Novel, Of Mice and Men, Ralph Ellison, Randy Pausch, The Catcher in the Rye, The Clouds, The Last Lecture, William Faulkner, William Golding

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I’ve tried in these essays to encourage my regular reader to read many books, but on the whole I’ve avoided just providing lists.  The reason for this is that I tend to be rather intellectual much like the parody of Socrates in Aristophanes’ play The Clouds where the old man is walking always amidst the clouds of ideas.  I realize that this can be a bit galling to readers who are looking for a simpler review, and sometimes you just need somebody to give you a list of books so you can jump into them yourself and decide what you think.

I met the writer of this guest article after taking several online classes with him.  It’s an odd moment when you meet somebody that you already knew, but Jason Walker and I became friends and intellectual companions pretty quickly when it was discovered that we had similar interests in literature, education, Queer theory, STAR WARS, and David Sedaris books.  He’s expressed interest in writing something for me before and now that he’s managed to vanquish the Beetle King of Xandar-4 and rescue the Robot Princess, Female Processor 0.919, he found time to write up a small essay which should give the reader a reading list for the summer.

Please enjoy:

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Barnes & Noble and I Want You to Read This Summer

I don’t make it in to Barnes & Noble much anymore. Mostly because the nearest store is 30 miles from where I live, but also because when I do go I end up depressed because I don’t have the money to buy all of the books I want to buy. Alas, such is the life of a bookie who is poor. Recently, I had to go because I was getting a graduation gift for a friend. As I wandered through the shelves, salivating in want and sobbing in lack, I happened upon a table filled with an impressive collection of titles, most of which I have read and would recommend as a worthwhile use of time this summer. Right then and there I decided that I must take it upon myself to post my recommendations for all the world to see–or, at least all of the people who read blogs about books to see. There were too many titles to feature them all, so I’ve selected the ones I consider top-shelf (pardon the pun).

From the “Books To Make You Think” table at Barnes & Noble, here are a few of the works I think YOU should read this summer. . .I’ve categorized them for no apparent reason. . .

Books I’ve Read Recently

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
First published in 1959, this coming of age tale follows two teenaged boys, Gene and Finny, a separate peaceas they navigate the complexities of adolescent relationships. Set at a private boarding school during World War II, the novel explores a number of themes including patriotism, war and peace, identity, friendship, and death. Though it has been labeled by a number of modern critics as not having weathered the test of time well, I found the book to be relevant and easily adaptable to the struggles faced by, not only 21st Century adolescents, but to those faced by most of us regardless of age or social status. It is a “slow” read in that Knowles does not write rapid-fire transitions from one scene to the next like many contemporary writers. Rather, he lingers in the moment, thoroughly plumbing the depths of his characters and situations. A Separate Peace is a charming throwback to a simpler time and well worth the trip. It averages 3.5 out of 5 stars on bn.com.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Until compelled to do so when one of my 9th grade Pre-AP English students turned in a surprisingly insightful response to literature paper, I had never read Ellison’s most famous work. To say I found it moving and thought-provoking would be an the invisible manunderstatement. The novel was first published in 1952. It chronicles the life of an unnamed narrator as he discovers the harsh realities of growing up a black male during what is a particularly turbulent time in America. At first I found the fact that Ellison doesn’t name the narrator a drawback. I kept going back and rereading thinking I’d simply missed it. As the story proceeded, however, I realized the brilliance of his choice. The narrator is an everyman who soon draws the reader into the story in such a way as to become an active participant rather than a mere observer. Whether it is the isolation of the Southern black community where he spent his childhood, the disappointment of being expelled from a black college, or the violence surrounding his life with “the Brotherhood” in New York, readers come away with, if not an understandiing of, then an appreciation for his description of himself as invisible in a world which refuses to see him. Invisible Man will tug at your humanity in the very best way. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on bn.com.

Lord of the Flies by Sir William Golding
I’ve actually read this book three times, most recently with my 9th graders back in Lord of the FliesFebruary as a class novel. While their reviews of the book were mixed (boys loved it, girls hated it), Lord of the Flies earns its way into the canon of modern classic literature in spades. First published in 1954 (are you getting a sense of the era I most enjoy), Lord of the Flies is the story of a group of boys from a well-to-do private school who are stranded on an island after the plane they were traveling in, fleeing war-ravaged Britain, is shot down over a deserted island. At first, there is actually a sense of relief amongst some of the boys to be away from the restrictions of their lives back at school. They exalt in their newfound freedom. Danger lurks nearby, however. Despite their realization that to survive they must establish order on the island, they soon give in to the animal instincts which lie just beneath the human surface–survival at all costs; kill or be killed. Golding’s raw allegory was the inspiration for director JJ Abrams’s hit television series “Lost” and is a sophisticated ancestor to The Hunger Games series. . .but, do yourself a favor and read Lord of the Flies before you watch “Lost” or read The Hunger Games. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on bn.com.

What Do You MEAN You Haven’t Read These?…Go Now!

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
What is left to write about JD Salinger’s only published novel that has not already been written? Not much, but I’m going to write a bit more anyway. It was first published in 1951 (see…what did I tell you?) and is, arguably, the quintessential American novel. From his

Catcher in the Rye

bed in a mental hospital, young Holden Caulfield tells the story of his trek through the streets of New York City on his way home from the second boarding school from which he has been expelled. More than simply telling the story, however, Caulfield engages the reader in a conversation about his life, which could easily be the life of just about any angst-ridden teen. The book is Holden’s ironic commentary on the phoniness of American society, and his search for authenticity, not so much in others but in himself. Many critics have surmized that The Catcher in the Rye is autobiographical in nature, a conclusion which Salinger would, given the little we know about the man, dismiss. This is a book which has delighted, inspired (often dubiously), and infuriated audiences for over 60 years and should be required reading for, well, everyone…in my not-so-humble opinion. It inexplicably only averages 4 of 5 stars on bn.com. (I guess no book is perfect.)

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s 1937 novel about two friends who are migrant workers trying to survive. George and Lennie make their way to a ranch in Of Mice and MenCalifornia where they find more than just work. Lennie is simple-minded and almost completely reliant on George for his well-being. George, often frustrated at Lennie’s habit of accidentally finding trouble wherever they go, is nevertheless committed to their friendship. He frequently tells Lennie the story of how they will one day have a piece of land to call their own and will build a better life for themselves. Steinbeck weaves the tale brilliantly, endearing his surprisingly complex characters to readers through the poignant innocense of their friendship. By the story’s tear-jerking conclusion, readers are left wishing they knew Lennie and George, or Steinbeck himself just to know what happens after the men walk away. No spoilers here…you’ll just have to go read it. Of Mice and Men averages 4 or 5 stars on bn.com.

Books That Changed Me

Night by Elie Wiesel
This book remains the only book I have ever read in one sitting. I bought it and began reading it while on my lunch break from work one day. I was so hooked from the beginning that I actually called my boss and told him that I’d gotten sick while eating and would not Nightbe back in that day. I sat at B&N for three or four hours reading until I’d finished. Night is the autobiographical account of Nobel Lauriet and humanitarian Wiesel’s interrment in Nazi death camps during World War II. It is a brutally honest recounting of the unfathomably monsterous acts committed upon innocent men, women, and children by Adolf Hitler’s SS. Wiesel does not spare the reader details of what happened inside the barbed wire fences and gas chambers. Instead he confronts our notions of humanity, morality, death, life, and even of God himself. Night is a clarion call for the entire human race to never forget what can happen if we allow hatred to prevail. This book changed not only my understanding of the Holocaust, but also my understanding of the needs of those who remain oppressed even today. Night averages 4 of 5 stars on bn.com.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
I have a confession–I watched the video before I read the book. But, it wasn’t my fault because I didn’t know the book existed until after I’d already seen the video, so cut me The Last Lecturesome slack…I still read it. Dr. Randy Pausch was a popular Computer Science professor at Carnegie Melon University. In 2008, after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and announcing his departure from the university, he was asked to participate in the university’s lecture series in which professors were asked to give the lecture they would give if they knew it was their last. For Dr. Pausch, it was literal. The lecture he gave was titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” However, it was about far more than becoming an astronaut or a pro ball player. Pausch’s lecture was about finding ways around the difficulties of life and also about encouraging others to do the same. The Last Lecture is funny, poignant, and inspiring on a soul level. It was after reading this book that I decided to put my past failures behind me and go back to school to finish the degree I had started nearly 20 years earlier. I guarantee this book will jump start whatever stalled out dream you are carrying around. The Last Lecture averages 4 of 5 stars on bn.com.

A Book I Have Not Yet Read By an Author I’m Determined to Love

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
I have a love-hate realtionship with William Faulkner. I absolutely love his short stories. I’ve been in love with “A Rose for Emily” since I was a senior in high school and have As I Lay Dyingstudied it with both middle school and high school students in my classes. They all love it, too, and many of them still talk about it. Faulkner’s short stories make me feel like I’m reading about people I know. They make me feel at home. His novels, however, at least the two I’ve read so far, Absalom! Absalom! and A Light in August…not so much. It’s not so much the stories I don’t like–actually, it’s not the stories at all. It’s the way Faulkner wrote them. I read both books as assignments in graduate school and struggled mightily get around Faulkner’s train-of-thought style which is often laden with description and nearly absent any simblance of proper punctuation. But, because I love his short stories so much, I am determined to love his novels, too. So, this summer, I will be reading As I Lay Dying, of which Faulkner himself wrote, “I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall.” I don’t know what the story is because I stay away from summaries of books before I read them, but I’ve been assured by one professor and one well-read former student, that As I Lay Dying is, in fact, the tour-de-force Faulkner aimed for. It averages 3.5 of 5 stars on bn.com

Other Books I Recommend But Don’t Have the Space to Write About

The Prince by Niccolo MachiavelliBooks to mke you think
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Travels With Charlie by John Steinbeck
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansbury
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Animal Farm by George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Art of War by Sun Tzu

This is, by no means, a complete list (it’s not even close) of books I would recommend to you. These are the books I saw on the “Books to Make You Think” table at B&N, all of which will do just that–make you think. Whether you read any of these books or not, just read something. Reading and writing are noble pursuits, both of which are, sadly, becoming less and less pursued. Don’t miss out on something great. Go pick up and book and give yourself time to let it take you wherever it will.

 

About the Author:

Jason Profile

Jason Walker is a graduate student finishing his Master of Arts in English Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at Tyler. He also teaches 9th Grade Pre-AP Literature and Creative Writing. A life-long resident of East Texas, Jason recently decided to leave his teaching position in order to pursue his true passion–writing. He works as a freelance writer and blogger, publishing pieces for various outlets and covering many topics. Jason is also a classically trained singer and pianist, history buff, and foodie. You can read more of his work on his blog called MEtopia: A Guy Who Writes About Things and Stuff.

URL for the blog:

http://jwalkergs.wordpress.com

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Nigger: A White Tower Review

12 Thursday May 2016

Posted by Joshua Ryan "Jammer" Smith in Academic Books, Book Review, Politics, Race

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Absalom, Absalom, Academic Book, Barack Obama, Book Review, Larry Wilmore, Light in August, Mark Twain, Merrium-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, nigger v. nigga, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Political Discourse, Politics, Public speech, race, Race relations, Randall Kennedy, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Nightly Show, White House Correspondance Dinner, William Faulkner

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“Don’t re-nig 2012.”  Imagine reading that.

I’ve written before, on several occasions, about issues of race often using my experience of East Texas as my example.  I feel this is unfortunate for my reader who begins to assume that Texas is a state filled with racist bastards who do nothing but listen to Toby Keith on repeat but only the second half of that sentence is true.  Texas is a state of fine people who, while they may at times seem cartoonish in their eccentricity, are possessed with a quality that evades description.  Texas is a beautiful state and the people are unlike any the reader is likely to meet in their lifetimes, but this essay isn’t about defending my state, because alas while I love it and live it I do have to suffer the presence of a few assholes.

I watched the words through a kind of haze.  The bumper-sticker was on the back window of a White Toyota and was just a white background with Black Impact font.  I was used to hqdefaultthe “One-Big-Ass-Mistake-America” stickers as well as the “NO” that used the cloudy “O” from President Obama’s first campaign.  Living in Texas you get used to such rhetoric because Obama is a Democrat and democrats, like communists and liberals, are ghoulish creatures that emerge from the black pit of Washington D.C. to come and devour our children, freedom, health-care, businesses, and, if we’re especially unlucky, our guns too.  I wasn’t bothered by the partisan bullshit because every asshole believes expressing his individuality through a bumper-sticker makes him part of the discourse.

I was outraged by the fact that the driver was white and seemed completely apathetic to the fact that there’s a difference between calling the President an idiot and being a racist.

It wasn’t this bumper-sticker however that lead me to Randall Kennedy’s book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.  It was actually William Faulkner.

This semester I received my second chance to read Faulkner in Graduate School, and given Faulkner-Light in augustthe fact the last book was Absalom, Absalom I was nervous as fucking hell.  I only in the last few weeks have completed the exhausted physical and psychological recovery of such a long painful affair that left me stimulated and devastated intellectually.  Light in August however was actually an amazing read, and true to Faulknerian style, the book was ultimately demonstrating the atmosphere of the post-Civil War south as a scene of internal corruption mixed with the complicated nature of race embodied in the character of Joe Christmas.  Faulkner and nigger tend to go hand in hand (he was a white man writing in Mississippi, it was gonna happen) and the first real recognition of the word struck me.  Christmas is an orphan who steals into the orphanage’s dietician’s office to grab some toothpaste when he is interrupted.  The dietician, a 26 year old woman, begins to have sex with a man until she hears Christmas coughing and when she finds him she says:

“’You little rat!’ the thin, furious voice hissed; “you little rat! Spying on me!  You little nigger bastard!” (LIA 122).

It would have been enough to just say the dietician was a white woman from the south therefore she’s racist, but I needed a paper topic, as well as a viable excuse for spending my parent’s money on yet another book.  My father’s keeping a tab.  He denies it but I know he is.  One of my other professor’s had introduced me to the book, and given my background attending a lily-white private Christian school, and then attending a public 02-073university where most of the students and faculty are white I was curious about Nigger.

Kennedy is an academic, specifically a law professor at Harvard University, and before the reader believes that that means Kennedy’s book in one of the many dense unreadable texts produced by academics I’m happy to disappoint them.  Nigger is readable and written in a way that anyone with the ability to read can approach the book and come away secure in the knowledge that they have understood the material.  Part of the reason for this is Kennedy’s careful strategy of approaching the word with curiosity along with agenda.  He says in one opening passage:

To be ignorant of its meanings and effects is to make oneself vulnerable to all manner of perils, including the loss of a job, a reputation, a friend, even one’s life.

Let’s turn first to etymology.  Nigger is derived from the latin word for the color black, niger.  According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it did not originate as a slur but took on a derogatory connotation over time.  Nigger and other words related to it have been spelled in a variety of ways, including niggah, nigguh, niggur, and nigger.  When John Rolfe recorded in his journal the first shipment of Africans to Virginia in 1619, he listed them as “negars.”  A 1689 inventory of an estate in Brooklyn, New York, made mention of an enslaved “niggor” boy.  The seminal lexicographer Noah Webster referred to Negroes as “negars.”  […]  No one knows Slave_Auction_Adprecisely when or how niger turned derisively into nigger and attained a pejorative meaning.  We do know, however, that by the end of first third of nineteenth century, nigger had already become a familiar and influential insult.  (4)

Kennedy later goes to list how the word Nigger has become a fluid term and an almost unifying form of insult as the Irish are sometimes referred to as the “niggers” of Europe, and arabs, when described casually by bigots, are sometimes referred to as “sand-niggers.”  These are just two of the numerous examples Kennedy provides and that itself is revealing enough about the potency of the word.

Kennedy’s book is vital reading to any and all who are left puzzled to the nature of the word nigger, specifically whether or not they are really allowed to say it.  Before the reader thinks I can answer that question, allow me to clarify: I CAN’T.  I am a white man writing a review of the book and not in fact commenting on the existence of the word or my freedom to use it.  I don’t use it, but that is partly because I’ve read this book, as well as commentary and testimony by numerous African Americans, and realized that it just doesn’t hold any relevance or usefulness in my lexicon.

That, and I try to avoid being a dick to the best of my ability.

I myself recognize this conflict for writing this review is in fact a form of cowardice on my part.  A white man verbally dissecting the complexities inherent to the use of the word nigger is a needfully careful, and let’s be honest, tricky as fucking-fuck dance that leaves many impaled on their own good intentions.  Writing the word however allows some buffering, but even so, my regular use of the word can and should be questioned.  The conflict of being white is a guard against the potency of this word, and growing up surrounded by privileged white rich kids I became painfully aware of this fact.  I would hear the word from time to time, always in purely white environments, and it was clear that as long as black people couldn’t hear nobody would mind, and the larger problem was there wasn’t a word to refer to us that had the same level of bite.  Some would protest pathetically that “honkey” or “cracker” was just as bad as nigger but this fell flat and even the regular abusers of the word would recognize that that shit didn’t fly.

whiteprivilege

For the record, the only contemporary word on record that can sting a white person is the word “racist.”

Kennedy’s book doesn’t try to account or explain methods to eliminate this conflict, for ultimately the book aims to follow the use of the term in popular, cultural, and historical record.  The book is divided into three sections: the first tries to establish the history of the word, the second section observes how the use of this word has become entangled with legal arguments, and finally the third and final section covers the public fight against the use of the word and the attempted eradication of it.  It is in this third section, aptly titled “Pitfalls in Fighting Nigger: Perils of Deception, Censoriousness and Excessive Anger,” that Kennedy tackles two public instances of the word and the fight around them: the inclusion of the word in the Merrium-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and the regular arguments surrounding Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.Webster_collegiate_11

In the first case he explains the significance of the inclusion:

Deciding whether to not or how to define a deeply controversial word is an inescapably “political” act, and claims to the contrary are either naïve or disingenuous.  The issue, then, is not whether editors shape the substance of their dictionaries.  Of course they do.  The issue is the substance of the choices made.  Some of Merrium-Webster’s critics have condemned the editors’ decision to include any reference at all to nigger.  […]  That tack, however, is glaringly wrongheaded.  Many terms that are absent from dictionaries are nonetheless pervasive in popular usage.  Moreover, so long as racist sentiments exist, they will fund linguistic means of expression, even if some avenues are blocked.  There are, after all, numerous ways of insulting people. (108)

Kennedy follows this paragraph with a smaller summation in the last line of the subsequent paragraph:

Nigger should have a place in any serious dictionary.  The word is simply too important to ignore.  (108).

twain_nwordAfter this Kennedy addresses a conflict that is about at least a century old at this point: the use of the word nigger in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  There have been entire books written about this subject, and rather than list out every position taken I’d rather just quote Kennedy because he speaks much clearer and with less pathetic attempt at humor.  Addressing the argument that Huckleberry Finn proliferates racism by using the word nigger frequently Kennedy contends that:

That interpretation, however, is ludicrous, a frightening exhibition of how thought becomes stunted in the absence of any sense of irony.  Twain is not willfully buttressing racism here; he is seeking ruthlessly to unveil and ridicule it.  But putting nigger in white character’s mouths, the author is not branding blacks, but rather 3c12065rbranding the whites.  (109).

Many authors both black and white have argued this position effectively and the scores of activists that have attempted to censor the novel have often been left revealed as people who don’t get the joke.  Having read and studied Mark Twain in depth, and having read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this entire argument is hilarious to watch.  Yes white men use the word nigger ad nauseum (fancy-pants way of saying too much) but if you observe many of these white characters they tend to be crooks, thieves, bloodthirsty murderers, idiots, or just genuinely ridiculous fools.  It would be one thing if Twain had his intelligent characters, or morally virtuous characters spouting that word at length, but when the individuals using that word tend to be morons it becomes a dubious proposition to argue that white’s using this word demonstrates Twain trying to argue for genetic or innate superiority of the white race.  Simply put, if a murderer is using the word nigger then it becomes difficult to romanticize that vocabulary choice.

Kennedy concludes this argument later when he notes:Huckleberry-Finn_N-Word

It is undoubtedly true, moreover, that regardless of Twain’s intentions, Huckleberry Finn (like any work of art) can be handled in a way that is not only stupid but downright destructive of the educational and emotional well-being of students.  (111).

Having taught myself I understand this position because the classroom is a fragile space.  The possibility to lose students to emotion or ego is a careful balance and when teachers sacrifice the opportunity to foster real growth by relenting to the idea that something is difficult therefore not worth my, or the student’s, time then a great tragedy has ensued.

It’s at this point though that the reader may be wondering what relevance any of this has to their life.  Nigger is just a bad word and so we shouldn’t talk or write about it because it will either just make people angry or else jeopardize people’s careers.  What good does it do talking about it?

The conflict with this position is that it is defeatist, but more importantly it’s just not practical given the current political and cultural climate.  It’s been barely two years since tumblr_static_76rv7ftkky88wc8kgc4k44gww_2048_v2Michael Brown was shot, and in that space of time the United States has suffered more and more tragedy and the conversation about black/white relations in America has become a more pressing subject.  In our current atmosphere where conservatives are telling jokes about Black Lives Matter groups, and self-hating-self-aggrandizing liberals are bashing cops on twitter hoping they can be “cool” it’s easy to lose track of what the real problem is, and a perfect microcosm of this is Larry Wilmore’s half hour appearance at the White House Correspondent’s dinner.

Willmore is the host of the program The Nightly Show, the half hour political comedy program that takes place after The Daily Show, and since he took over Stephen Colbert’s spot Wilmore’s humor has tended to focus more and more on the political atmosphere for African Americans and perceptions of race in media at large.  At the White House Correspondence dinner he was introduced by the President and made a few jokes, some funny, some not so funny, but it was the last line of the evening that broke the media because before he left the stage he placed his fist to his heart and called President Obama “My nigga.”  There was laughter, some horror, but then also the President doing the same and embracing Wilmore before the man left.  NPR did a small article covering the affair and in it Wilmore laid out his artistic choice for using the word:

I’ve been called that word in my lifetime — the “-er” version — and I made a distinction between the use of “nigger” against us and the use of “nigga” that we’ve used with each other. On [The Nightly Show Monday] night, I said we conjugate the slur. …

The one in “-er” is unmistakable — it’s an attempt by white people to dehumanize and denigrate and demean black people, to make them less than human.021215-celebs-larry-wilmore.jpg

When we turned it around, it was our way of having camaraderie with each other, of taking the power out of that word, stamping [out its] ability to dehumanize. It isn’t always the easiest thing to translate to people who aren’t in that experience. … And not all blacks agree with that, and I acknowledge that. … I understand why people would be upset about it. I have no quarrel or criticism of that. … But part of it is a generational thing, and it is possibly a different way of just viewing who has the power to say what. Who has the right to be in charge of the narrative? Who gets to control what’s being said about us or how we get to say it?*

While I initially focused on the difference between nigger and nigga, rereading this article I focused more attention upon the last paragraph.  The ultimate problem with nigger is not just that white people use it, for I like some people have been in situations in which a white person may have said the word in the presence of a black person and there wasn’t a conflict, and likewise there have been moments where you could slice the tension with a knife.  It’s not just that white people use the word, it’s the way white people have used the word often to craft a rhetoric in which they are in a position of power.  This manifested in the past as whites, whether they were rich or poor, using nigger to remind black people that they were socially inferior.  In the environment of Post 1960s Civil-Rights the method of whites exerting power of their race over blacks has now morphed and often the idea of “reverse racism” has been employed to treat whites as “victims” of the real racism and Randall-Kennedy-Picthat using that word really isn’t that bad.  Wilmore received criticism from both black and white commentators for a score of reasons, but like many scrambling to alight Twain’s Huckleberry Finn on fire, most of these critics were people who just didn’t get the joke.

Kennedy’s book is an important read, and while at times his style is a bit tedious and he spends lengthy passages listing off offenses rather than digging into an analysis of them, it is still a vital read to any and all people approaching the complicated nature of race, particularly how rhetoric of said races are constructed using language.

I understand that many are bothered by the word, and many will be left more confused about the nature of the word, but the sanest way of understanding this conflict is not by refusing talking about it, or being self-righteous about it.  The best means of beginning to understand and empathize people’s emotions is by talking it out and really listening to each other.

Kennedy’s book is a must-read and he concludes it by saying:

For bad and for good, nigger is thus destined to remain with us for many years to come—a reminder of the ironies and dilemmas, the tragedies and glories, of the American experience.  (139).

Nigger isn’t going anywhere, nor are stupid, racist bumper stickers. WIN_20160510_15_35_13_Pro

If people give up talking and really listening however then the issue will continue to inspire bad memes, shit emails your uncle sends you, and more unnecessary violence.  Kennedy’s book goes the long way of just starting the conversation, and books like that are worth people’s time because often the fear of asking questions leads to only further ignorance.  Nigger will remain on my bookshelf because as a white man I cannot possibly comprehend the emotion that word inspires, and so rather than trying to ignore the problem, or protest that one doesn’t exist, I can do only what I have always done: read the book, and try to consider another’s perspective.

I’m a white man, as such my job isn’t to tell anybody what to feel or what to think about this word.  My reality is to listen and try to understand so that when other people express confusion or anger I can try and communicate what I’ve read and heard.  Kennedy’s book goes a long way then to getting the conversation started.

image_08_13_030_R07-2010

 

 

 

*Writer’s Note*

Below is a link to the NPR article concerning Larry Wilmore’s use of the word nigga at the White house Correspondent’s dinner in case you would like to read the whole thing:

http://www.npr.org/2016/05/03/476598311/larry-wilmore-on-breaking-taboos-at-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner

 

**Writer’s Second Note**

If you’re still wondering if you’re allowed to use the word nigger in conversation or in public if you’re white the best answer I have is…No.

Just don’t use it.

If you believe that isn’t fair remember that it wasn’t fair that your older brother got a car for his birthday and you got a computer, and I know that isn’t a great metaphor but it’s simpler than the argument that because you’re white it will be seen that your character is immediately suspect in which case as a potential employee, friend, employer, etc you pose a risk because you’re using language that racists tend to use and nobody wants to work or be around racists except other racists and so job opportunities go out the window because you’re seen as unprofessional, your wife leaves you, and your kids think you’re a racist prick, but really the only reason you should need is that for the most part because everyone in the world doesn’t know who you are you’re just some random white guy saying the word nigger, so the nuance that might be able to help you will be ignored and you’ll be left looking like a gigantic douche.

the_princess_bride_68805If you’re still bitching about the fact that that isn’t fair remember the Grandfather in The Princess Bride who played Colombo for years: “Well who said life is fair?  Where is that written?”

Before you use the word ask yourself an important question: Do you really need to use the word?  If so why, and is that a legitimate reason to use it?

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The Poet’s Voice, The Record of Man: Kissing Faulkner’s Ass Again

05 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by Joshua Ryan "Jammer" Smith in Literature, Speech, Writing

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Absalom, Absalom, American literary Canon, Atom Bombs, Civil War, Fall Out 4, KKK, Literature, Modernism, Nobel Prize, nuclear annihilation, Postmodernism, Reconstruction, The Catcher in the Rye, The Deep South, The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner, World War I, Writers, Writing

WILLIAM_FAULKNER_4--644x362

It may just be attributed to the region I find myself in, but it’s heartbreaking to discover how many of my fellow English majors admit that they do not like William Faulkner. It is just as heartbreaking discovering that William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, and Dante Aligheri are included in the list of authors that, in my compatriot’s words, just aren’t that interesting. Once I’ve gotten over the homicidal urge to implode their skulls with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and have managed to smile my widest shit-eating-grin that I can muster, I begin to make my case as best I can. At the nobelcore of all final, and let’s be honest, desperate defense my plea often amounts to the sentiment that studying literature is not just about the stories, it’s as much about the craft that goes into the words as their final meaning.

While I understand the animosity towards the other writer’s on the list (their language is perceived of as either outdated or full of itself but that’s only true for Hemingway) I don’t fully understand the animosity towards Faulkner. I understand, from a common reader’s perspective, that Faulkner is difficult as fucking fuck, there’s a scar that runs down the length of my chest that serves as a reminder that I’ve read Absalom, Absalom and survived, but that doesn’t mean that the man was farting around. Faulkner was a craftsman and the only masturbating he ever did with words were the screenplays he wrote while he was in Hollywood. In the man’s defense he needed money and we’ve all done things we’re not proud of behind the dumpster at a Red Lobster that one Sunday in 2010 to pay for a laptop that one time…ahem. Like Shakespeare, Faulkner recognized what writing could do, what it was for, and how it could benefit the rest of humanity while also using it to tell stories.faulkner

This is clear and apparent to anyone who has ever read or listened to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

The Nobel Prize is, for many people, still an indication that you’ve actually done something with your life unlike Dale who’s forty and still living at home. I know, we’re planning on talking to him about looking for work, but it’s his birthday next week and it feels like it would be a dick move to just kick him to the curb. We’ll get to it eventually. The fields of nomination, in case the reader is unfamiliar with the topics, are Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Peace, Economics, and Literature, and for the record I believe it’s a bum rap for Historians that their work are left unrewarded. Anybody who’s willing to dig through parchment and use an actual Microfilm machine deserves a fucking gold medal in my opinion.

Faulkner-bresson-rowan-oakFaulkner worked his entire life exploring themes, attitudes, and the general atmosphere of the Deep South, a territory defined by its physical beauty and marred by the jarred and damaged psyche of the post-Civil War South, and in that time the man managed to accomplish things with prose that can only be imitated today. Twelve years before his death, December 10 1950, he received his Nobel Prize and began his speech accordingly:

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle writers-writefrom which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.

The reader who fancies themselves a writer in some form or fashion might take an opportunity to recognize a great introduction when they read it. Looking over this speech there seems a wonderful humbling character that Faulkner is able to pull off, yet at the same time he goes nowhere near the level of self-depreciation that is the stock image of writers. Instead he positions himself as a voice or a beacon summing young men and women who desire to become writers to him to understand or hear his words of experience.

Faulkner’s speech is not a preachy sermon, but rather he pushes forward, recognizing a larger issue at hand:

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone easy_buster_croppedcan make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

It’s easy to forget how imposing the threat of nuclear annihilation was for the people living in the 1950s, even if you play Fall Out 4 on a regular basis like I do and have found the Fat Boy, a weapon that literally shoots miniature nuclear bombs at the player’s enemies. The Mushroom cloud, that potent phallic burst of light, has faded into a soft glow or plot device that inspires only momentary awe before we remember that the main character is being voiced by Ryan Reynolds and that the boy at the counter overcharged for that second refill of popcorn. Nuclear annihilation infected the zeitgeist and consciousness of everyone who lived in the world following the end of the Second World War thus making it difficult to really recognize problems that didn’t involve the total and utter collapse of human existence. I find it difficult to hold it against the people of that time, the bomb was so new, so powerful, and the people in charge of esb70bikixyck77szfmy-768x386wielding it were, at times, unpredictable or nightmarishly evil.

For those of us living in the twenty-first century, the bomb has lost much of its potency and so topics dealing with the heart, the self, and the spiritual power of the individual have been able to slowly but surely seep back into the literature being produced, but not as much as there could be.

There’s something missing in much of the work being produced, either for the larger public or for the small handful of literary weirdos and geniuses (I only fall into the first faulkner_nobel_1950category) that are writing and publishing. Faulkner offers up his summation.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed – love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

The word bones shall always an archetypal quality because it speaks to the root of ourselves. Looking at my own creative writing, and speaking to other creative writers close to me, I’ve expressed some concern that Faulkner’s summation here may be correct. TheFAULKNERendless scenes of cock and balls and dick and pussy haunt my pages as well as the pages of numerous authors even if they don’t use those words. With a few exceptions (McCarthy and Eugenides to name two) there are few contemporary authors that try to use writing to speak to that core space where lessons of destiny and greatness are sealed on the edifice of time…god I sound like a fucking AM radio, but the point stands: writing exists to understand the nature of human beings and dissolve the barriers that exist between peoples.

Well so what? My contester asks, Faulkner was a Modernist, one of those weirdos that draw dots against dots and call it art. What relevance does this speech possess to someone working as a mechanical engineer or a doctor?

The purpose, dear reader, has already been said. Writing can at times merge into esoteric malarkey and I have read some novels labeled as “genius” (*Cough, cough*Finnegan’s Wake*cough, cough)* that honestly would have been better served as sketches than actual “art works.” Faulkner is difficult, and anyone who has struggled through The Sound and the Fury has probably wondered why they should give three shits about a splintered family in e9959a6ce0f6b3b0d7ef17764846e223Mississippi and holy crap I just figured out that’s what the novel was actually about. Faulkner was a Modernist that bordered on Postmodernity, and while the reader may not believe that’s terribly important I assure you it is. It will require a small history lesson though.

Following the end of the First World War many young men returning from battle were disillusioned about the previous beliefs and attitudes society held. Words like honor, religion, authority, and god didn’t seem to possess any kind of meaning after watching scores of their friends and acquaintances gunned down in No Man’s Land or suffering from the various gasses that were spilled over them. Putting it simply, when you watch your friend cough up his own lungs after breathing in mustard gas it’s a little hard to take a phrase like “the glory and honor of battle” seriously. As such the people that followed the war known as “the lost generation.” In the case of Faulkner this ideology is compounded by the fact that he lived and developed his craft in the Deep South. On one side note my father permanently sealed the impression of Faulkner on me when I was a young man by always lowering his voice and shuddering “the Deep South” with a mixture of disgust and pleasant glee. Following1000509261001_1313105647001_Bio-Mini-Bio-Writers-Faulkner-SF the end of the Civil War a period known as Reconstruction took place in America. When the Union armies had swept over the Confederacy they had a tendency to burn everything as they went. Even after the war was done Union soldiers occupied the southern states and Northern generals and commanders occupied positions of power in the local governments until, through the help of guerilla warfare and a fucked-up organization known as the KKK, “them damn Yankees were plum kicked out a the south.” Losing a war is different than winning one and before you say “fucking duh” it’s not for the reason you think. Ask anyone from Texas about the war and the sentiment you reach is generally “We didn’t lose, we just put the war on pause.” The Civil War left a scar on the hearts and minds of Southerners inspiring folk-songs, legends, narratives, terrible bumper stickers, but above all it lingering created pain.

At the start of this year I began my last semester of grad school taking two classes. One over the works of Emily Dickinson (127 poems, two chapters of a biography, and two chapters of an academic book… a week) and another on 20th Century American Literature. The professor, Dr. Karen Sloan, is a good friend of mine and when I saw the reading list I knew I had to take it because, apart from The Catcher in the Rye, was the novel Light in August. Like much of his work the novel follows the splintered and damaged people of a Slide2145southern town trying to understand their hearts and minds that feel, often, broken. Faulkner’s work was about the South, but far more often it was about sealing on the bones of human consciousness that feeling of isolation and damage.

Faulkner as a writer tried only to capture that feeling and make sure humanity saw that work for what it was.

Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.

I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

Looking at this last paragraph I find myself where I began, scratching my head and biting 1101640717_400my tongue as I consider those people that tell me they despise Faulkner. I many ways, and I’m terrified to write this since many of them count as members of my audience, I despise them for it. The criticism of the man’s work is never in fact against his work, it’s never because they believe he has nothing to say as a writer, nor is it ever that they feel that his work is empty of meaning or creative direction. In the end the sentiment is: Faulkner is hard therefore not worth my time.

This speech should silence that sentiment, as well as my patient contester who keeps me going. Seriously bro[dette] we need to go out for drinks soon, it’s been too long. Faulkner’s Nobel Prize speech is a work that should be read to and by any and all people who wish to become writers because the job is more than just telling cute stories with fun characters. Writing is first and foremost the physical manifestation of thought, it’s the way we shape and refine our thoughts and even recognize what is lost, broken, beautiful, and damaged about our souls. Writers like Faulkner have inspired men like Cormac McCarthy who in turn inspired people like me to pick up a pen, or a word processor, and start typing hoping somebody, somewhere, would read my thoughts and recognize a kindred spirit, or in the very least some wacko with a blog who bitches about why people don’t like Faulkner.

The Poet’s, or really the writer’s voice, is ultimately the fire that attempts to fill the authoritarian darkness that attempts to stamp out our voice in the first place. Writer’s don’t and shouldn’t write for glory, but because they have a few more words to carve into the bones for the future ones to read and inspire.

 faulkner_shakespeare

 

 

*Writer’s Note*

To be fair to the reader I haven’t read the entirety of Finnegan’s wake. I’ve read the first few pages and found it a jumbled mess of jibberish and esoteric genius that, try as I may, I cannot find any ground to move forward into. I will defend Joyce as a writer only so far as Ulysses and Picture of the Artist as a Young Man, because even I admit that art should have some relevance to people actually living in society instead of their own mind.

**Writer’s Second Note**

Below I’ve posted a link to a transcript of the entire speech, though I’ve quoted it in it’s entirety in the essay, and I have also posted link to a recording of Faulkner reading the actual speech. A professor friend of mine always posts this whenever she teaches Faulkner and I never grow tired of hearing the man’s voice. It’s the Johnney Rep in me.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html

The recording, NOTE, this recording does NOT include the entire speech:

 

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