The Misrepresentation of Black Authors

[Anonymous No.15071931]

I'm finishing up Richard Wright's Black Boy and it's quickly become one of my favorite books of all time due to a simple fact: This "autobiography" (likely full of fiction) is one of the first kuntslerroman by a black American writer and provides a view on the psyche of an angsty, inquisitive, passionate, and sincere artist struggling through their environment and building a "self". I consider it the black counterpart to novels like Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (not in aesthetic value but in spirit) and it's been very meaningful for me on that part. So the issue I've taken is that this book is branded as if it were in tandem with the Malcolm X autobiography, where its function is primarily a social critique. "Black Boy" is widely considered and taught as a "race novel" when it is in fact deeply psychological and revealing of the impoverished artist's journey. The encounters with racism are treated as simple facts of his life rather than focal points of his being. So it's disappointing to see that he, as well as authors like Toni Morrison, are so often reduced to the brand of "race writer" when their works themes encompass greater depths of thought than those generally allotted the label. It's ironic that liberal media, in attempts to "represent" these poignant minds have only done so in a lens that the artists themselves would likely eschew. The poet Robert Hayden suffered from this as well, I believe even saying something to the effect of "I'm interested in how good of a poet I am, not how good of a black poet". The results of this misrepresentation have turned off a variety of readers and aside from that have done a poor depiction of black creative life. Even now people on this board consider a work like "The Bluest Eye" a "race novel" when its themes very obviously expand beyond that single issue. I'm not sure what I'm getting at here, I don't really care if any of you choose to read these books or not but I guess it was just interesting because this board participates in a lot of that false-branding too.

[Anonymous No.15071953]

>>15071931
Charls Carroll seems to like some black literature a lot, don't know why though but I guess some of it has value.

Didn't read your post though.

[Anonymous No.15071979]

>>15071931
Go virtue signal on Instagram faggot

[Anonymous No.15071987]

>>15071931
I was the same way as you, and when I said stuff like this in my university classes I was criticized for being white and insensitive. The people that want to promote these books just care about race, and any value I found in these books prior is marred because I know they're only promoted to push an agenda irrespective if they have literary merit or not. This is evinced by Ta-Nehishi Coates being promoted at all, he's just a capitalist. As for Morrison, I didn't find much value in Beloved when I read it. It felt cheap and overly sentimental, however the prose was very-goodl in some parts. Also, I don't buy into representation, so quotes like "I consider it the black counterpart to novels like Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" mean nothing to me. I also think for every black novelist you could find a white one who is better, and would not consider any first rate, except maybe Ellison and Wright.

[Anonymous No.15072030]

>>15071987

I only compared it with the Joyce to clarify my point as I'm sure most on this board haven't read Wright. I don't actually care about that sort of thing. As for the rest of your post, yeah, I mean, I'm black but I do believe that this branding is the result of a sick liberal agenda. I'm not a fan of Coates personally or any liberals so that's my say on him. Beloved is very difficult and not personally a favorite of mine, The Bluest Eye an Song of Solomon are generally considered her zeniths (I think). It's silly to think of art in terms of "for every black there is a white" because that ignores a significant piece of the expression which is the sheer multiplicity on accounts of the world. My favorite books are Moby Dick, The Brothers K, Portrait of the Artist, Black Boy, and a mix of European and black authors and they're all valuable to me personally for different reasons. No one needs a white Ellison, Ellison did what he needed to do, likewise does Morrison, Wright, Baldwin, Reed, etc. You don't listen to Mingus and say "well Mozarts better", they're doing their own things, I'm not interested on a discussion of hierarchy haha.

[Anonymous No.15072043]

>>15071987
>I also think for every black novelist you could find a white one who is better
Eh, maybe if you really limited yourself geographically. There are very few good authors in general, and I can think of a good few great African authors while most "good" white authors are generally middling.

[Anonymous No.15072054]

>>15072030
>as I'm sure most on this board haven't read Wright
I hope this is not the case, that would be a terrible low for the board in its decade of life.

[Anonymous No.15072066]

>>15071931
wasn't he the keyboard player in pink floyd

[Anonymous No.15072068]

How is The Bluest Eye not a "race novel"? It is 100% about the psychological effects racism has on the psyche of a black girl. There is nothing about white people in the novel. It is completely about the black experience and all the better for it. What's great is that Morrison wrote it so carefully and thoroughly that now we all have access to it and can better understand what it actually feels like.

I think you should give up on trying to placate the retarded white people you find on sites like 4chan who will always look down on black, women, gay, etc. writers as just writing into their oppression, not being universal/part of the human condition, etc.

[Anonymous No.15072081]

>>15072043

My issue with the discussion is that it's a fundamentally dishonest way of thinking about art. You could say "Michelangelo is truly the height of art, for every German modernist painting there is a Michelangelo to top it" but hell, I don't always want to look at Michelangelo and there's a wider range of moods and expressions to humanity than are conveyed from classical eras. I don't believe that beauty is necessarily subjective so much as that qualifiers should be based on their level of expertise within their scope, not what so and so has done elsewhere. Basically, I don't need a black Shakespeare because I'm not always in the mood for Shakespeare anyway, it's very nice to just read Etheridge Knight and relax sometimes and he offers things Shakespeare could never.

[Anonymous No.15072114]

>>15072068

There are several narratives woven throughout the story, not just Pecola and Claudia's. And even Pecola's struggle is not limited to the issues of racism, it's just a reductionist phrase in how it's understood. The thing is, I personally wouldn't care about the term if its connotations weren't to say "this is a narrow perspective" but unfortunately, they are. Also, no truly I don't know why I posted this because I don't expect people to hear me out nor do I care really. I think it was just an impulse sort of "white propaganda has fucked with my head and unlearning the bullshit is something I feel like sharing because a lot of it is perpetuated here". I don't expect much but I guess maybe one or two valuable talks lol

[Anonymous No.15072119]

>>15071931
>>15071987
Yeah, it’s a complex issue, especially if you’re a white dude talking about a “black” book in any other terms than race. Part of my thesis involved a pretty detailed analysis of Cane by Jean Toomer, which I felt that it wasn’t just a book about race but one of the greatest modernist works of literature that almost inevitably goes under appreciated, but whenever his name is mentioned it’s usually always in relation to his “complex” or “problematic” attitudes to race, usually because his mixed heritage and the fact that he was able to be white passing in some circles. Ultimately it boils down to colourism more than anything else, which is really sad because it’s such a tremendously beautiful novel, and one that has so much respect and admiration for the “black folk-spirit”.

[Anonymous No.15072122]

>>15072054

Somebody told me Joyce and Faulkner were shit prose stylists yesterday anon, the board has been far lost...

[Anonymous No.15072133]

>>15072119

Not him but yeah it is interesting to see that some white people have recognized this as well. I planned on writing about Black Boy for grad school myself and pairing it with films like "La Noir De..." to weave a tradition of black existentialist art that is often misrepresented as being narrowly focused.

[Anonymous No.15072298]

>>15072068
Bluest Eye is absolutely a "race novel' but what it isn't is a "novel [only] about racism".

He has a better point about Black Boy though. Black Boy just isn't about "racism" much at all.

As far as the larger point >>15071931, most literary criticism is pablum spooned out to plebs as propaganda narratives. It's good that you've started to see past it, but this isn't an issue limited to the treatment of black writers.

[Anonymous No.15072316]

>>15072122
I hope you called them a dirty plebeian.

>>15072119
Fetishisation of racism is very annoying and is merely acting in a truly racist sense. At least you can recognise it and reject it.

[Anonymous No.15072331]

>>15072298

I don't doubt it. Where else do you think the issue arises? I consider in certain women writers being penned as "feminist" by intention rather than happenstance, such as Dickinson.

[Anonymous No.15072777]

>>15072114
>think it was just an impulse sort of "white propaganda has fucked with my head and unlearning the bullshit is something I feel like sharing because a lot of it is perpetuated here".
Are you a fucking computer or something, 'unlearning'? just make up your mind, how hard is it? Maybe its just an amerimutt thing.

[Anonymous No.15074048]

>>15071987
>The people that want to promote these books just care about race
>I also think for every black novelist you could find a white one who is better
Two sides of the same coin

[Anonymous No.15074163]

The black Thomas Pynchon, Tommy Lynchon

[Anonymous No.15074183]

>>15071931
Facts.

[Anonymous No.15074188]

you're probably right op. maybe the world will come back around to this in a decade or two.

[Anonymous No.15074258]

>>15074163
You have to do better than that anon. Think about it, Pynchon is the pineal, but also a clown like trickster in the vein of Dionysus. Work from there.

[Cyberbird No.15074892]

>>15071931
You're seeing far into the future, fren. The world isn't ready yet.