At the time when I noticed the juxtaposing of unrelated things in the mind and actions of my grandmother and in the Negro blues songs, it never occurred to me that some day, many miles distant from my hometown, I would encounter a “theory” imported from Europe that would enable me to see and understand what those disjointed items meant when they were tied together by the mood, faith, or passion of a personality. What this “theory” was I shall explain later and link it with The Man Who Lived Underground.
