Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison

descended, like Dante, into its depths. And beneath the swiftness of the hot tempo there was a slower tempo and a cave and I entered it and looked around and heard an old woman singing a spiritual as full of Weltschmerz as flamenco, and beneath that lay a still lower level on which I saw a beautiful girl the color of ivory pleading in a voice like my mother's as she stood before a group of slave owners who bid for her naked body, and below that I found a lower level and a more rapid tempo and I heard someone shout: "Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is the 'Blackness of Blackness.' " And a congregation of voices answered: "That blackness is most black, brother, most black . . ." "In the beginning . . ." "At the very start," they cried. ". . . there was blackness . . ." "Preach it . . ." ". . . and the sun . . ." "The sun, Lawd . . ." ". . . was bloody red . . ." "Red . . ." "Now black is . . ." the preacher shouted. "Bloody . . ." "I said black is . . ." "Preach it, brother . . ." ". . . an' black ain't . . " "Red, Lawd, red: He said it's red!" "Amen, brother . . ." "Black will git you . . ." "Yes, it will . . ." ". . . an' black won't . . ." "Naw, it won't!" "It do . . ." "It do, Lawd . . ." ". . . an' it don't." "Halleluiah . . ." ". . . It'll put you, glory, glory, Oh my Lawd, in the WHALE'S BELLY." "Preach it, dear brother . . ." ". . . an' make you tempt . . ." "Good God a-mighty!" "Old Aunt Nelly!" "Black will make you . ....

Dante ideologies !