Invisible Man

[Anonymous No.6321282]

Why does no one on /lit/ discuss Invisible Man?

What do you think the main theme is? The absurdism of human experience or black social progress or neither or both?

[Anonymous No.6321296]

>>6321282
My teenager had this book as required reading and I agreed to read the book right along with her. I regret my decision. Maybe, despite my being an avid reader, I am not cultured enough to appreciate the complexities of this very long and confusing book. The narration is so long winded. The author spends paragraphs ( Yes, paragraphs!) describing in minute detail the character passing over the campus green. Nothing happens on the campus green, yet I was subjected to the long description of "buzzing of the bees" and "the sound if women's laughter", all so he could go up to his dorm. I do have to say that the book came in handy two nights ago when I suffered a small bout of insomnia. Slept like a baby after reading half of a chapter.

[Anonymous No.6321300]

>>6321296
(that a crossover with the 1-star reviews thread?)

[Anonymous No.6321303]

>>6321296
I read in it a class with a very analytic teacher who knew the book well and explained a lot of the complex symbolism with the brief case white/black, etc.

I buy a lot of the symbolism myself, but I think a lot of is bullshit. I think a lot of the characters like Ras or Jack are very memorable personally.

Ellison said his two favorite pieces of /lit/ were Ulysses and the Waste Land, so Invisible Man can be kinda obtuse.

[Anonymous No.6321304]

It's about watermelon, OP.

[Anonymous No.6321307]

>>6321304
watermelon and chicken lmao

[Anonymous No.6321308]

>>6321282
Old /lit/ used to a lot. They'd rather make troll threads about Shakespeare or Joyce these days. Maybe a few Atheists vs Theist Shitstorm threads also.

[Anonymous No.6321312]

>>6321308
I don't go on /lit/ much right now, but I figured the supposedly patrician crowd of /lit/ would like the buildungsroman.

[Anonymous No.6321325]

One of the big things I took away from it was all forms pf racial identification are futile. The idea of "black solidarity" or whatever you want to call it is ultimately as racist as white bigotry because it forces an identity upon the individual.

Or maybe none of this is true and I'm a retard.

[Anonymous No.6321331]

>>6321325
Never really considered that. The narrator does realize Ras wasn't really helping the black community in chapter 25, but throughout the novel, I felt Ras and the black solidarity movement was seen as superior to Jack's shitty white-dominated communist movement.

I probably agree with you, because the narrator ultimately becomes self reliant when it comes to racial progress and defines his own identity.

[Anonymous No.6321338]

>>6321331
I guess I went to far to say that the two were equally racist, but yeah

Really the great thing about Invisible Man is that is really shows how complicated the race issue is, compared to how it is usually portrayed in mainstream culture

[Anonymous No.6321612]

lol this nigger couldnt even write another book. Lazy nigger.

[Anonymous No.6321617]

>>6321612
real fucking mature dude lol

[Anonymous No.6321619]

>>6321308
How old is old /lit/? I've been here quite a while.

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6321623]

It's about the futility of existentialism, the corruption of vanguard parties, and the various attitudes that can be derived from the black conditions (ranging from thriving on being a cynical Uncle Tom, to being the ironic nigger, to being a black supremacist, to being a refined black guy who's ashamed of being black). It's really about too many themes to name, but the biggest one is obviously the title, how the narrator doesn't fit in with any identity, not even any of the black ones.

[Anonymous No.6321625]

>>6321623
>futility of existentialism
Care to explain?

[Anonymous No.6321632]

>>6321282
Baldwin > Ellison > Wright

When it comes to the prominent black writers of the time.

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6321641]

>>6321625
The narrator keeps reconstructing his own meaning and identity but each one is as empty as the last, and the end is a sort of dizzying account a bunch of identities being forced on him, because whatever "he" is no one sees, and every sense of self he builds is just a sandcastle on the beach.

[Anonymous No.6321722]

Why are there few black writers today?

Who is the modern equvilant of James Baldwin?

I've literally never seen a black person reading on the bus.

Savages.

[Anonymous No.6321732]

>>6321619
Not that long ago when it was first introduced.
>Here's your damn book board! ~Moot

[Anonymous No.6321781]

Can the narrator be considered an unreliable narrator? He does say, flat out, that everybody refuses to see him. Could you extrapolate that out to him refusing to see himself? How much can we trust his own perspective on things? Maybe he inflated his own sense of importance in Jack's movement. It does seem a bit improbably that this hick from the South could be a big deal in New York City all of a sudden.

[Anonymous No.6321784]

>>6321632
But I like Richard Wright...

[Anonymous No.6321840]

>>6321784
>Richard Wright
>Good

>"Bigger stared out the window abstractedly..."

Go fuck yourself. Stared out a window abstractedly? Fucking 13 year old girl tier writing. Some parts of Native Son, I will admit, are gold, but there's SO MUCH SHIT to slog through to get to those nuggets of brilliance; Ellison and Baldwin on the other hand are much more consistent.

Baldwin is my personal pick for best simply because his bibliography is so much more expansive, and his essays and novels are both great. Invisible Man is probably better than any one thing Baldwin wrote, arguably, but Baldwin's just got the better career.

[Anonymous No.6321849]

>>6321781
This is the greatest irony running throughout the whole story: no matter how much influence the narrator attains among organizations, no one is able to see him for who he is. The point isn't that they can't see him physically or note his presence in any of the organizations--which they do, or course--but that he isn't seen for his own potential as a human being, as a person who can be self-reliant, dependent upon his own talents. But, also, since this is a story of the narrator's arrival at an understanding of his own invincibility, he also accounts for the fact that he was also blind to his own invincibility.

[Anonymous No.6321850]

>>6321840
There is literally nothing wrong with that sentence, particularly when you actually read the rest of the book.

[Anonymous No.6321865]

>>6321850
That's not the only time Bigger Xs with Bad Adverb. It's just bad prose. And the end is a fucking Galt speech. The book is propaganda and loses artistry in attempting to get his points across. Perfect Communist and Perfect Jew help Bigger, who is completely at the mercy of the "white cloud" that hangs over him.

Baldwin and Ellison are so much more effective while also having actual characters. Bigger is "the black man," whereas Baldwin and Ellison write "a black man".

The scene where Bigger talks to his mother in jail is actually amazing to me, great great writing, but I just personally feel like so much of the book is just lacking in artfulness.

[Anonymous No.6321888]

>>6321865
>The book is propaganda
This is a silly ahistorical value judgment.
>Perfect Communist and Perfect Jew
Alright mate.

[Anonymous No.6321928]

I''ve been reading it for a Harlem Renaissance Lit class and enjoyed what I read immensely, but I was so overloaded with other course materials I couldn't keep going. I know a lot of people will find the reliance on symbols overbearing, but I loved the unreal quality it gave: it becomes like a medieval text, sort of a Piers Plowman of the black experience. It's a social justice novel that's not an SJW novel. Cane by Toomer is equally fantastic.
I feel crummy for saying it, especially because I risk derailing the thread, but so far none of the female authors in the course have interested me, not even Hurston. We read a review of Their Eyes were Watching God by Wright, and he fucking tears it to shreds. I wouldn't be as extreme as him, but I found it a condescending slog. Same for bell hooks and Toni Morrison. I get the whole "double-yoke" of being a black woman concept, but none of them have expressed it in an empathizable way, especially Hurston which is just fucking naive.

[Anonymous No.6321979]

>>6321928
nice pointless spoiler retard

[Anonymous No.6321991]

>>6321888
It was on purpose propaganda. Wright was highly involved in the Communist movement. The Communist friend, who was dating Mary (I forget his name), dedicates his funds to help Bigger—selflessly, and despite Bigger having murdered his love and despite Bigger having threatened to kill him. The Jewish lawyer is perfect and articulate, and lays out a fucking tract.

Are you sure you read the book?

[Anonymous No.6322017]

>>6321979
___________sorry_____________

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.6322207]

>>6321304
>>6321307
No, /pol/. Sweet potatoes.
>>6321612
He did though, but he didn't think it was good enough. They published Juneteenth after his death, since he was good enough to not trash it.
You're the lazy nigger.

>>6321722
>He's never seen BlackKidReads50Shades.jpg
0/10

[Anonymous No.6322593]

>>6322207
His second book was unfinished and it took him 40 years to write that. Lazy nigger. One hit wonder. Betcha think the new Lee Harper book is legit too.

[Anonymous No.6322624]

>>6321722
>Why are there few black writers today?
If you live the dream and become a respected literary writer, you get to teach college classes in some podunk town in the middle of nowhere for just enough money to pay the rent on your depressing apartment n Iowa or Syracuse and your bar tabs.
Or you could just learn to rap really well and make millions

[Anonymous No.6322629]

>>6321282
>Why does no one on /lit/ discuss Invisible Man?
Because he's invisible, OP.

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6322667]

>>6322593
You have really terrible taste if you think To Kill a Mockingbird is comparable to the quality of Invisible Man.

Ellison might have been a lazy nigger, but he was also an extremely gifted nigger, his work is a literary masterpiece.

[Anonymous No.6322707]

>>6322667
You show poor reading comprehension. Harper Lee has not released a book for over 50 years. She is described as having dementia and now we have a second book being released from her. It is obviously a heavily edited manuscript her lawyer and estate fished out.

Ellison's follow up novel was never completed. What you read has been edited and altered by another author. I didnt say Invisible Man wasnt a good book. I didnt say To Kill A Mockingbird was better or worse. The situations are similar. Ellison was still a lazy nigger. 40 years for a measly 2000 word manuscript?

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6322717]

>>6322707
I never read his follow up novel. I'm talking about Invisible Man.

The situations really aren't similar, because the basis for your assertion ("betcha think") is the implication of a comparable quality. Without having read either book, it would be fair to think Eliison's mess of a follow up would be better than Lee's simply because Ellison has shown himself capable of producing a literary masterpiece. Your assertion is as tedious as saying someone who thinks someone's eighth book is meritable would think JK Rowling's post-HP books are.

[Anonymous No.6322732]

>>6322717
I wasnt talking about Invisible Man either. You brought it up. The situation of Ellison's second book is why I call him a lazy nigger. What is availible to buy is a poor book and 'betcha think was only meant to imply that the new Harper novel is also an incomplete ghostwritten rough draft.

A side point. You are literally retarded if you dont think To Kill A Mockingbird is a literary masterpiece in it's own right. Stop trying to pose.

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6322734]

>>6322732
It's not. At least not when we're talking Ellison, who is right up there with Faulkner and Melville in American literature.

[Anonymous No.6322749]

>>6322734
Lol. Ok man. There is a reason it won the pulitzer. It is a modern classic. Not because I say so. It just is. Just as you think Lee doesnt compare to Ellison, I have a big problem with him being compared to American masters like Melville or Faulkner. Library Of America doesnt even recognize Ellison as of yet. Baldwin took that one.

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6322761]

>>6322749
Please post what you think is one of Lee's better paragraphs.