Black History Month

[Anonymous No.23081268]

So I always see Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" listed in top 100 books of all time. I think, "fuck it, it's black history month -- guess I'll read it". Check it out at the library, and after i get home i throw on some 1920s Harlem jazz to fit the mood. Not even 50 pages in and a black share cropper is getting his own daughter pregnant. WHAT THE FUCK!? This is the power of African American authors?

[Anonymous No.23081272]

Incest is BLACK culture

>The Color Purple by Alice Walker
"Only fourteen, Celie is already pregnant with her second child—the result of rape and incest. Alphonso, Celie’s father, has turned to Celie for sexual gratification because Celie’s mother is ill and can no longer endure Alphonso’s sexual demands."

"Celie’s mother dies. Celie writes that Alphonso stole Celie’s first baby while she was sleeping and killed it in the woods, and she believes he will kill her second baby as well. However, Alphonso does not kill the second baby, and Celie suspects that he instead sold the child to a married couple. Celie is left with her breasts filled with milk for no one."

>Lord of Dark Places by Hal Bennett
"Novel about a black man who pimps his own son to men all across the USA."

>The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
"Novel about a young woman who gets raped by her biological father."

>Hogg by Samuel R. Delany
"The plot features a silent pre-adolescent boy (called only "cocksucker") sold into sexual slavery to a rapist named "Hogg" Hargus, who exposes him to the most extreme acts of deviancy imaginable. The novel involves graphic descriptions of murder, child molestation, incest, coprophilia, coprophagia, urolagnia, anal-oral contact, necrophilia and rape."

[Anonymous No.23081462]

>>23081272
Why did you type black in all caps?

[Anonymous No.23081465]

>>23081462
why not

[Anonymous No.23081543]

>>23081268
Ralph Ellison was one of the good ones and actually respected the white man's lit canon. he hated most black writers of the time

[Anonymous No.23081635]

>>23081543
Well, I'm 100 pages in now and no more incest. I did get to read a conversation between two black prostitutes about how white men have huge "donkey balls". That's enough for me tonight. I shall continue on this "top 100 book" tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.23081655]

>>23081268
>reading Ellison before Richard Wright
fucking embarrassing desu

[Anonymous No.23081670]

>>23081655
Where in my post did I say I haven't read anything by Richard Wright? Imbecile.

[Anonymous No.23081697]

>>23081670
If you had then the OP post wouldn’t be shocked

[Anonymous No.23081709]

>>23081272
>Incest is BLACK culture
which is why I just roll my eyes any time someone tries to imply White southerners are all inbreds

[Anonymous No.23081714]

>>23081709
There's no contradiction. They learned it from the white southerners, like all aspects of black American culture. Another example is ebonics.

[Anonymous No.23081728]

>>23081697
You're retarded. My thread/My rules and my rules are this: no retards allowed.
You will be seeing yourself out.

[Anonymous No.23083368]

>>23081268
>black history month
Ridiculous. Blacks don't have any history. At least nothing worth mentioning.

[Anonymous No.23083371]

Making Google research about what ethnicity of women I like the most. Can't because NIG NOGS loooooove lapping as other people
Fucking ship them to Antarctica, I don't care

[Anonymous No.23083389]

>>23081272
man wtf

[Anonymous No.23083450]

[Anonymous No.23083459]

>>23083450

[Anonymous No.23083558]

I'm just basking in all this Blackness, sisters.

[Anonymous No.23083561]

>>23081268
>Harlem jazz
Ellison was from Oklahoma and was a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. While he did live in NY, it was almost alien to him. He's more a Southerner than Northerner, and the level of disillusionment he had with black movements, as is shown in that novel, make that pretty clear.

[Anonymous No.23083613]

>>23081268
Another 100 pages into the Magnum Opus of the American Negro. The head Negro betrayed the younger one out of sheer self preservation. Now it appears the younger Negro has been lobotomized. Still wondering what the point of all this is. That being said, it's Black History Month, so I will continue.

[Anonymous No.23083621]

>>23083561
I didn't research the book before reading it. I just read the inside jacket cover and it said the book took place mostly in Harlem.

[Anonymous No.23083628]

>>23083561
The inside jacket says it took place mostly in Harlem. Didn't research the authors whole life before reading the book, dude.

[Anonymous No.23083647]

On the topic of black-lit, for all of its rich detail and inspiration from actual African history, Charles Saunders' Imaro can't escape the evidence that it was written by a biracial American.
>protagonist is called Son of No Father
>Enough introspection for a poetry slam
>no exploration of an unique African mindset aside from the quoting of their proverbs and animal names
>white man is basically your standard evil forerunner but South African

[Anonymous No.23083655]

>>23081268
>Perhaps *we're* the invisible man, a book you've never read.
Colin Quinn, to Patrice Oneal

[Anonymous No.23083743]

>>23083647
It's right there in his name, Saunders, that's a Jewish last name. He's black-jew mixed.

[Anonymous No.23083747]

>>23083647
>Over the course of the next three decades, Southern Rhodesia experienced a degree of economic expansion and industrialisation almost unrivaled in sub-Saharan Africa.[20] Its natural abundance of mineral wealth—including large deposits of chromium and manganese—contributed to the high rate of conventional economic growth.[20] However, most colonies in Africa, even those rich in natural resources, experienced difficulty in achieving similar rates of development due to a shortage of technical and managerial skills.[20] Small, rotating cadres of colonial civil servants who possessed little incentive to invest their skills in the local economy were insufficient to compensate for this disadvantage.[20] Southern Rhodesia had negated the issue by importing a skilled workforce directly from abroad in the form of its disproportionately large European immigrant and expatriate population.[20] For example, in 1951 over 90% of white Southern Rhodesians were engaged in what the British government classified as "skilled occupations", or professional and technical trades.[20] This made it possible to establish a diversified economy with a strong manufacturing sector and iron and steel industries, and circumvent the normal British protectionist policy of supporting domestic industry in the metropole while discouraging industry in the colonies abroad.[6][21] As the white population increased, so did capital imports, especially in the wake of the Second World War.[20] This trend, too, stood in sharp contrast to most other colonial territories, which suffered a major capital deficit due to revenues simply being repatriated to the metropole, leaving little capital to be invested locally.[22] The considerable investment made by white Rhodesians in the economy financed the development of Southern Rhodesia's export industries as well as the infrastructure necessary to integrate it further with international markets.[20]
It's wild what a paradise white men can turn Africa into when there are no niggers around.

[Anonymous No.23083918]

>>23081268
I'm reading James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain. I'm at the part where Gabriel, the priest, reflects on his guilt from the debauchery of his youth. I sympathize with his guilt as someone who was raised in a Catholic family and is now struggling with a masturbation addiction.
This particular sentence stuck to me:
>He hated the evil that lived in his body, and he feared it, as he feared and gated the lions of lust and longing that prowled the defenseless city of his mind.

[Anonymous No.23083985]

>>23083613
Huh?

[Anonymous No.23084034]

>>23081272
>Not even 50 pages in and a black share cropper is getting his own daughter pregnant
imagine getting that from the first few chapters. trueblood is was a blues singer that, at that point in the novel, can't sing because of the sins he has committed.

also just skip over the most poignant scene of the first half of the book where the white men in charge of that meeting hoodwink young blacks into fighting each other blindfolded. i don't think the book is the problem here, champ lmao. imagine reading a book of that caliber, and being overly concerned with trying to find faults with a group of people as opposed to actually analyzing what's happening in the narrative -if you're even capable of that.

>>23081272
imagine knowing what post-modernism is.
i just read lolita, i guess hebephilia is WHITE culture lmao. you're a clown. stop it.

[Anonymous No.23084048]

>>23084034
Seething on 4chan is BLACK culture

[Anonymous No.23084057]

>>23084034
> i just read lolita, i guess hebephilia is WHITE culture lmao. you're a clown. stop it.
Lolita is just one book and was written by a Russian. The examples posted are all by BLACK americans. There’s a pattern.

[Anonymous No.23084062]

>>23084048
How is commenting on morons, like yourself, seething? Just a bunch of idiots who couldn't analyze dr. seus let alone any actual work of literature. Wild ignorant people get so upset about being objectively wrong lmao.

[Anonymous No.23084087]

>>23084057
Russians aren't white?

> The examples posted are all by BLACK americans. There’s a pattern.
imagine reading any Faulkner or any other white post-modernist, if you even know what that is. not to mention black culture and black american culture aren't remotely synonymous. just admit you're racist and you think it's cool because you're "edgy" lmao. clown. you're stupid.

[Anonymous No.23084096]

>>23084087
There’s no such thing as white culture. The post is specifically about black american culture. All the famous by famous authors have filth and incest. Not the same with white americans. What are you so angry? are you a negro or something? lmao

[Anonymous No.23084099]

>>23084062
Lurk moar, twitter faggot

[Anonymous No.23084106]

>>23084096
all the famous books*

[Anonymous No.23084115]

>>23084096
Because you're wrong, i'm angry lmao. i'm actually amused by the thread. some more examples of your lack of ability to analyze simple text: the post is about invisible man, not black culture champ. comprehension really isn't your strong suit. not to mention, the jokes went over you head, obviously. you're not a bright person, i get that, but you're way outta your depth, lil bro.
i'll break the faulkner one down for you: if you take don't umbrage with white authors using the same themes and it not being a problem, why can't black authors? imagine some actual critical thinking happening on lit lmao

[Anonymous No.23084123]

>>23084106
oh shit, a typo. shit happens, son. lemme read the first draft of your dissertation? imagine mans can't grasp mild complexity in anything he's ever read, but a typo! shiiiiet lemme comment on that. amazing come back, champ. you did it lmao

[Anonymous No.23084126]

>>23084115
Again, there’s a pattern with black american authors, but not a pattern with white american authors. Pretty simple really. From your nobel prize Toni to your obscure Bennet, there’s filth.

[Anonymous No.23084128]

>>23084123
But why do blacks love incest so much?

[Anonymous No.23084130]

>>23081268
>even doe it's virtue signaling we pick the shortest month of the year so that we don't hurt our sells by not pandering to the actual majority of our customers (white western people)

[Anonymous No.23084142]

>>23084126
filth, lmao. bro, you aren't well-read. that's obvious, and it's okay. you also don't even know what the purpose of post-modernism is/was. How it was reaction to moderism. If you knew those things, you would understand the "filth" of say Beloved in the context of ya know, the literary movement lmao. Again, you're ignorant, but stay edgy friend.

[Anonymous No.23084153]

>>23084142
These are novels from different categories. Kind of dishonest to ascribe them all to postmodernism. But whatever helps you cope, incestbro.

[Anonymous No.23084157]

>>23084128
same reason literally every "author" from antiquity did, i guess. it's okay for greeks and romans back in the day right? lmao. it also occurs a lot in literature in general, not just post-modern black authors. nice try, champ. go read some more. learn something.

[Anonymous No.23084168]

>>23084157
The Greco-Romans were ancient people. Blacks in America should know better by now. And yet they still love incest.

[Anonymous No.23084172]

>>23084153
Has post-modernism even ended? If you know anything about morison, which you don't because you're a person trying seem intelligent and well read on an image board, you know labels are really her thing. as I am, ya know, pretty well versed in post-moderism, i consider it post modern. she wouldn't want her work to even be compared to any other authors, white or black. my bad dude. i'm sorry almost engaged in an actual academic argument on lit. lmao. yall don't know shit about that.

[Anonymous No.23084176]

>>23081268
it's crazy how black people declined even after segregation ended, they have never had artists or intellectuals on the level of wright or ellison or hughes or de bois or baldwin

[Anonymous No.23084179]

>>23084172
Like I said, they’re all books from different categories. You think The Color Purple, an obvious realist period work is postmodern? Try again, Jamal.

[Anonymous No.23084182]

>>23084168
so America can base the foundation of their national political ideology and even the architecture of structure of immense significance in their nation's capital on ideas and motifs from antiquity, but morality or really literature, is where yall draw the line? lmao. stop it. this is too easy lmao

[Anonymous No.23084202]

>>23084182
You think incest is good then? Stop touching your little cousins, Jamal.

[Anonymous No.23084207]

>>23084179
Lmao, bud. People are still producing post-modernist works to this day. Just like just because the romantic/transcendentalist period existed -there were a lot of authors that don't fit into those categories. A time period, i know you think that literally every artist thought the same and produced the same type of work during them, but unfortunately that's not the case. you also don't learn that in high school, so i can't blame you. hopefully you did graduate tho.

[Anonymous No.23084213]

>>23084202
i totally said that. nice troll, i guess? lmao

[Anonymous No.23084219]

>>23084207
That’s a postmodern READING of realist book, Jamal. You can also do Marxist readings of other stuff but it doesn’t mean a book Marxist. Jamal, you’re embarrassing yourself. Condemn incest and don’t fuck your own family.

[Anonymous No.23084223]

>>23084213
You’re justifying incest, yes.

[Anonymous No.23084224]

>>23084219
>Condemn incest and don’t fuck your own family.
But he wuz da real Isrealites doe

[Anonymous No.23084232]

>>23084223
As a theme in a fictional story? Yes. Again, if you even understand what Post-modernism is, like the single, most basic understanding of the term in the context of literature, it would make sense. unfortunately, you're a barely literate that thinks grammar is utmost expression of art via text. this is why real academics laugh at your board. it's literally an alt-right, incel book club. you literally can't critically think.

[Anonymous No.23084237]

>>23084219
mans knows what critical lenses are. okay so we got to maybe 1 post-secondary english class, but know. It's not. I've actually read the paper. Nice try though.

[Anonymous No.23084310]

>>23084034
What the fuck are you taking about? OP here. I didn't skip over the part where white guys made a couple of black youths fight blindfolded, and then electrocuted them while they fought for fake money. Just how the fuck is that relevant? Everyone knows the post reconstruction antebellum south was a shit place for blacks to grow up in. Besides being particularly shocking at the level of violence described everyone knew shit like this took place. What's the point? What's the deeper meaning? Is the idea that black men are buck broken by the system in the 1920s supposed to be this profound thought? Explain to me what the fuck the point is? All I've gotten is that white people bad, but black people also bad because Dr. Bledsoe is also a complete asshole obsessed with his position of power, and willing to humiliate young black men to keep it. Or do I need to finish the book to find out what all this is about?

[Anonymous No.23084334]

>>23084310
welcome to post-modernism. since you don't posses the wherewithal to get it on your own, i can try. if everyone is as you say, "bad," then what does that say for the world as a whole. What is redemptive about a world where even the most downtrodden prey on their very offspring? Is it even possible for there to be redemption in a world like that? Those are generally some of the very basic questions you can ask yourself when reading a postmodern work. It's bleak on purpose. Remember, these authors are writing these works as a reaction to their lives and various other experiences they've had personally. Good luck, champ.

[Anonymous No.23084385]

>>23084219
what do i's know. i just a po black boy who can reads. i's tryin lmao. you're a joke, trevor. enroll in a community college and get that aa.

[Anonymous No.23084387]

>>23083743
We wuz the lost tribe nigga.

[Anonymous No.23084396]

>>23084385
This was about The Color Purple, Jamal. Please keep up. Also not everything is literature, see pic >>23084202
Incest is black culture

[Anonymous No.23084416]

>>23084396
Trevor, you lost. You brought up the color of purple for no reason other than you thought morison wrote it. i even gave you a chance to correct yourself. maybe it was a typo but Beloved isn't the color purple. i was talking about morison and faulker (2 core authors of high postmodernism), walker. ya know, alice walker. the author of the color purple who is not toni morison. your racism is showing, trev. like i said, keep pretending to be well read on this image board. i's won't be upset. lmao

[Anonymous No.23084430]

>>23083747
They all had a good thing going.

[Anonymous No.23084487]

>>23084416
See (it’s clearly mentioned who wrote The Color Purple): >>23081272
There was never a mistake and Morrison was never mentioned. You’re embarrassing yourself, Tyrone.

[Anonymous No.23084491]

>>23084487
mentioned as the author of The Color Purple, I meant*

[Anonymous No.23084625]

>>23084334
No where is "Invisible Man" listed as a postmodern novel. It isn't considered one. Seriously, I cannot find a single reputable source that puts "Invisible Man" in that category. So again, what's the point? Though I wonder if it is even worth my time taking to you since you think this is basically a novel without a point -- by every source says you're wrong. Seems
I'll have to read or listen to thoughts on this one I'm done by someone who isn't a retard.

[Anonymous No.23084708]

>>23081268
This book is literally fantastic.
That scene used to freak me out too as a kid. When I was older though, I understood it. I think.
To me it seems like the scene was this: the white man funding the negro college fund was doing it because he had developed a white savior complex, which was less about actually helping anyone, and more about inflating his egoistic vision of himself as Messiah.
When he gets to the house and realizes that the man impregnated his own daughter; it bursts that bubble and shows him that people aren't what he thought they were, they're deeply flawed, debauched and tragic.

I guess, it'd be like if your ego trip was helping troubled kids become rehabilitated, and you were smiling in proud ignorance at all the kids you've helped, then you find out one of them has been quietly torturing his mother physically while nobody knew.

It's a stark reminder that you haven't really helped anyone because you've got rose colored glasses on that don't even allow you to see them fully
Bc it isn't about actually helping, but about forcing your ego vision as "the helper" upon them

[Anonymous No.23084747]

>>23084708
Interesting, I didn't take it as a savior complex; I took it as though with his heir dead the school was all he had to preserve his legacy. Also, shouldn't he be well familiar with the tragic - given he buried his daughter? That being said your take would make Dr. Bledsoe's reaction make sense, that the white trustees from up north could become disillusioned, and therefore withdraw their money threatening the schools existence.

Glad someone wants to actually talk about the novel.

[Anonymous No.23084795]

>>23084747
No worries and yeah, I mean he's definitely familiar with the tragic, but Ellison had a very nuanced understanding of the race problem, and also, had a fair bit of bitterness against the problem, which I dont necessarily begrudge him for at all. So there is an undercurrent of that throughout the novel.
He does a great job though, instead of some fuck whitey rant, the whole novel is about what its like to occupy a caste, developed by others, in which you are meant to play one of the various roles laid out for you by those in the dominant caste, instead of being able to define yourself, or even be given the courtesy of being understood as human.
So that's why I came away with that take, even the title "Invisible Man" reflects that idea, the real man is invisible, all that is seen is the Negro, whatever he is at that time. The former slave guy was supposed to be an exemplar of Bledsoes generosity and goodwill conferred upon these poor souls, but instead they are just flawed and as human as before, and the issue really stems from an idealism that doesn't see people as what they actually are
Not saying "hey man incest is natural" lol or something like that. Just saying people will always have the capacity to transgress in horrible and strange ways

[Anonymous No.23084827]

>>23084795
Yeah, I definitely feel like that narrator is constantly being defined by whatever those around him want him to be. Which suddenly now makes me get Mr. Norton's reaction. He was totally confounded by Trueblood because he had only interacted with highly educated rich yes-men blacks, and idealistic students. His savior complex was completely broken when he saw something that he couldn't fix so he did the only thing he knew which was to give money. Same with the white people in town. Their Christian sensibilities wanted to help, but had no idea what to do so they just gave him money. The police, thinking of blacks as truly inferior, just believed Trueblood and let him go believing that sort of thing could just happen to negros when it seems pretty obvious he raped his daughter and his whole "dream" is bullshit only believed because he's black. Or, at least that's how I'm interrupting it.

[Anonymous No.23084843]

>>23084827
This is also why the narrator is so confused at all the white people giving Trueblood money. He doesn't see blacks as inferior to whites so to him Trueblood is an awful criminal. He knows if a white person did what Trueblood did then they would be in prison or hung. It's also why Dr. Bledsoe is so mad. Trueblood is a reminder that white people think of blacks as basically animals, and while he can't get rid of Trueblood he can do the next best thing - get rid of the kid who shone a light on Trueblood. Explains Dr. Bledsoe's desire to humiliate the narrator, because Trueblood is a constant humiliation to people like Dr Bledsoe.

[Anonymous No.23084855]

>>23084827
I do think that it was somewhat of a remark on tragedy though, and the race problem, but that's what makes it smart writing. Usually, people depict these things as a black man defying the odd, by doing something excellent or moral and then it makes everyone confront that they're human. But in this scene, Ellison does the opposite by showing how a black man can do something completely messed up and wrong, too, and people will still judge it through a lens of what it says about themselves and some ideal they have instead of just seeing it as something all humans can do. My point being that literally at that same time there were white men raping and molesting their kids too. So the idea is this man, I forget his name by now but the college funder, wavers between two extremes with regard to black people. They're either poor souls in need of help and objects of his magnanimity, or, they are beyond the pale, if they do something contradictory to this vision, they have the capacity to shatter the dream.
But the real deal is just that they're people and that idealism extends from seeing them as other than that in the first place. Not to say it isn't horrible, it is; but it's not *especially* horrible.
In some strange way, giving another man the benefit of knowing he can be horrible is synonymous with humility in one's self

[Anonymous No.23084863]

>>23084843
Yes okay I see your interpretation. Yes good I'd say that's dead on accurate

[Anonymous No.23085406]

>>23081268
>Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

How much does this book owe to Notes From The Underground?

[Anonymous No.23085452]

>>23085406
Nothing? Notes from the underground is about coming together as humanity. Invisible man is about specific challenges black men face in America across a variety of social-classes and upbringings. To even compare the two is idiotic.

[Anonymous No.23085510]

>>23081268
The last time I read a "black author" was Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. I only got a third of the way done before ditching it and throwing it in the "donation book sale" rack at work, but I think one of the problems with them culturally is that their in-group is so strong that they're unwilling to reject troublemakers like rioters which trash the neighborhood and then wonder why no wants to run a first-class business there.

[Anonymous No.23085511]

>>23081714
>They learned it from the white southerners
Sure they did Jamal. Why don't you go back to molesting your cousin Shaniqua some more?

[Anonymous No.23085523]

If you had to trade your life for that of one of the Black man from this novel, who would it be?
>Trueblood
A simple man living a simple life who gets to have sex with his wife and his daughter
>Bledsoe
Respected, educated, and powerful but ultimately a pawn more powerful white men
>Ras the Exhorter / Ras the Destroyer
Based Black nationalist, rides a horse, wields a spear
>Lucius Brockway
All powerful within his paint-mixing room, white men grovel at his feet because they know they need him
>Rinehart
A man of many talents