James Baldwin - BR Maya & Sofia Dec 2015

[Sofia]

James Baldwin: A Biography

[Maya]

Thank you for making the thread!

For me a couple of chapters per day during the holidays sounds good. Just not sure from your comment on your review if you want to start today or after Christmas?
I'd rather start tomorrow 26.12 if that's ok for you.

[Sofia]

Super for me Maya, tomorrow it is :D

[Maya]

great :)

[Sofia]

Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

—old song

Excerpt From: "James Baldwin: A Biography" by David Leeming. Scribd.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/257941579

We chose the right time to start, like Baldwin is smiling at us.

[Maya]

yes, his books gave us so much food for thought this year, it's only right that we end it learning more about the man himself.

[Sofia]

Mid chap 1 - Baldwin describing his mother's smile is beautiful. (view spoiler)[ I've just read how he saw his step father, what made him how he was, his good and his bad. Then he talks about how his mother always wanted them to love the whole person the good and the bad and so the first bit about his father is testimony to that. (hide spoiler)]


“I’m black only as long as you think you’re white,” his stepson was to tell many audiences in later years.

Excerpt From: "James Baldwin: A Biography" by David Leeming. Scribd.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/257941579

[Maya]

The Harlem Life - I think we knew most of this from Go Tell It on the Mountain - the mother, the step-father, the poverty and despair, the life the books and school gave him. (view spoiler)[What I didn't know was that he too attempted suicide - maybe there will be more about that in the later chapters. (hide spoiler)]

To your spoiler above - wasn't his mother an amazing person? Not only thought him to treat the others he way he wanted to be treated but she constantly reminded him not to fall into the self hatred path like his step father.

[Sofia]

Yes we did see lots of it in Go Tell it to the Mountain. The boy who shot himself reminded me of Fonny, he too had light skinned sisters. We saw there some of the tensions mention re shades of black. How things seep down from the original trangession and sully every aspect of life. Sad isn't it that self confidence is built on saying somebody else is less. How that destroys.

Yes his Mum is wonderful. Have the guts to 'keep the faith' always, courage and confidence.

I'm quoting a lot because i don't have the book and I might not continue my scribd so i want to keep the words :)

She was a constant reminder to him of the necessity of “keeping the faith,” of not drifting onto the all-too-tempting road of racial or personal hatred.

Excerpt From: "James Baldwin: A Biography" by David Leeming. Scribd.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/257941579

[Maya]

Same here with scribd. But I'm reading on my laptop and I can only highlight and make notes, not allowed to copy text.

I also read the second chapter about his teacher and stopped there although I was very curious to find out why he decided (if decided is the right word?) to go into priesthood after the social life he had with her and her family.

[Sofia]

going to start it soon, my son gave me a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle so I made him help with the border :)

I'm glad that Leeming style is quite flowing

[Sofia]

Chapter Two - he was lucky in Bill, I'm glad he appreciated her and they restored relations.

[Maya]

Sofia wrote: "Chapter Two - he was lucky in Bill, I'm glad he appreciated her and they restored relations."

Yes, not every teacher would've paid him so much attention.

Two more chapters tomorrow?

[Sofia]

Yes please :)

[Maya]

Chapter 3 Awakenings - that was very interesting
(view spoiler)["The boy preacher had to leave the church to save his soul." - ah, the irony!

I can only try to imagine how torn he was in his decision to chose between education and religion. (hide spoiler)]

[Sofia]

Good morning beautiful one.

I read this chapter and I was constantly looking up to talk to you about it.

We know now why he chose the Church - I'm glad that he than chose not to remain in that closet.

What i love about him is that he continously takes what he can from what he has. He learnt from his time in the Church. He compares and decides and builds himself in blocks, ugliness/beauty, reading/intellect/art, his sexuality, his body. He is able to push through the limiting labels which lessen a person.

Elisha - the push and pull we felt there reflects him at the time so well

Your quote - a very mature decision. People ruin their lives accepting a yoke that does not fit.

[Maya]

He is able to push through the limiting labels which lessen a person.

^^
Exactly!
And he probably would have done so in any circumstances because there was a fire burning inside him but I keep thinking - how crazy was the situation at time? Professors had to teach high school because of the depression but if that weren't the case Jimmy may not have had the chance to meet people with progressive thinking and what Bill showed him earlier might have stayed just a childhood memory.

[Sofia]

That's what i mean he sees/takes opportunities which others discard because of pride, anger. I think looking at life with open eyes make you see stuff others don't even in the hardest if times.

Will do another chapter in the afternoon.

[Maya]

Chapter 4 - the eye opening continues and the confidence grows.

I can do another chapter later tonight if you think you'll have time too.

[Sofia]

Just returned full from lunch, going to do chap 4. Yes let's do 5 as well :)

[Maya]

Sofia wrote: "Just returned full from lunch, going to do chap 4. Yes let's do 5 as well :)"

I've only been eating and lazing around the house in the last few days. It's soo good :)

[Sofia]

We had a big meal with my husbands family at a Sicilian restaurant - feel so full, reading is all I'm good for :D

[Sofia]

Portrait of Beauford Delaney by Georgia O'Keeffe
http://npg.si.edu/cexh/eye/html/l_del...

[Sofia]

Can Fire in the Park - Beauford Delaney

[Maya]

chapter 5 - Probings - left me wanting to read more

Once again lost but this time - in his 20s - it seems even more difficult to find his place.

(view spoiler)["The Village years had been traumatic and, finally, some- what productive, but he was still, at best, an “up and coming Negro writer” and, at worst, a confused bisexual black man who had “deserted” his family and who merely pretended to be at ease in what was, in fact, the hostile white world masked by a bohemian life-style. Baldwin had reached another dangerous impasse, and once again he felt chaos closing in. (hide spoiler)]

[Maya]

Sofia wrote: "

Can Fire in the Park - Beauford Delaney"

bright colors but the sadness is palpable.

[Sofia]

Probings explain so much some of the ambiguities, confusion I found in Another Country, Rufus and his relationships with men and women and despair. The Bohemians in the Village in a way they are like a model where art makes all men equal and on the other hand there is the anger and despair that things remain the same.

I understood his battle with violence. In our lives we do have to choose how we are to live, how we are going to face the world. The injustices he and his people face do make one angry and it is so easy to fall into hatred which is counterproductive and like letting others dictate what we do.

imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain.”

Excerpt From: "James Baldwin: A Biography" by David Leeming. Scribd.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/257941579

[Sofia]

Williana wrote: "If you have a special friend , if you lost what you love, if you dream about finding your place in the universe, reads: The Earthling .
Soon I will be published in English:

http://www.amazon.com/g..."

Please see Maya's comment above.

[Maya]

yes, also what happened in Another Country between Rufus and Vivaldo was what happened in real life between him and Eugene. Do you remember we wondered if there has been a sexual relationship between them? It was subtly hinted but not explored.

It was also very interesting to see that the book he was attempting to write at the time was a combination between Another Country and Giovanni's Room.

But this had to happen: "Yet, he was still “fighting with my shame.” It was necessary to accept the paradox of himself before he could be “free.”

before he had clear concept of what he wanted to write.

Re the violence: those episodes where he became aggressive towards his white friends - it was good he had a safe place to pour this anger out.

I don't imagine France provided him with an instant cure for his turmoil though. The guilt for leaving his family will probably continue to eat him.

[Sofia]

Yes to all you say above. I was relieved that the ambiguity i felt was what he felt so it was 'right', there were no clear cut answers.

about the safe place - some do not even have that.

I think France will give him the seperation, distance necessary to see tge wood from the trees hopefully. His disertion feelings are part of the price to pay I fear.

[Maya]

Agreed - the characters in Another Country were just as lost and angry and desperate for love as he was.

Are you working tomorrow? Let me know if we are reading during the day or in the evening.

[Sofia]

I'm working in the morning. So I'll read a little bit when i wake up and then in the afternoon/evening.

[Maya]

Hope you don't have too much work today.
I'm starting chapter 6 now: on to Paris.

[Sofia]

Good reading Maya - wish we were in Paris as well :)



I curl up with it later this afternoon.

[Maya]

I haven't been there since 2011.

One of my favorite pics taken with my old Nokia phone from the roof of the Arab World Museum :

[Sofia]

Great pic - feels you you can walk on the roof tops.

I've never been, only in books, films and music :)

[Sofia]

go back where we all come from … and do it there or you are in danger of losing your perspective.”

Excerpt From: "James Baldwin: A Biography" by David Leeming. Scribd.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/257941579


Well JB certainly did that with his writing. I wonder how they (Bohemians) consider the production line fiction for entertainment only, we are inundated with?

[Sofia]

“Lover man,” he sang, “lover man, where can you be?”

Excerpt From: "James Baldwin: A Biography" by David Leeming. Scribd.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Read this book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/257941579

[Sofia]

The Expatriate chap 6

Better to go to France then over a bridge.

The Americans in Paris feel like a colony in exile, not part of American and not part of France. Like being a long time tourist.

Protest Literature - Everybody's Protest Novel - I want to read this.
His point that as it is 'a protest' the driving force of the novel is the protest and so the man looses pieces of his humanity makes me think of other genres that are like that. For example Romances, the driving force needs to be the romance and it takes a very good writer to let the characters keep all their humanity. Say Probation that is not a romance and Mendicino makes Andy real.

[Maya]

I think so too. And his identity search continues but now he knows precisely who he is as a person - the good and the bad.

How weird he felt when he realized people abroad saw his just as an American, as part of a group he denied belonging for so long?

[Sofia]

Being unshackled by 'home' helps in finding oneself I think. When I still lived in my parents house I was their daughter who was label A, label B and label C. When I left, I could start the work of being me. This works also on the grander scale - that is the town, city, country, culture.

[Maya]

will read the next chapter later. I'm in the culmination of Mendicino's book and can't put it down now.

[Sofia]

Go ahead if he calls, he calls. I got Daniel of Mnevermind calling me as well :D

[Maya]

Good morning!



Did you read further last night? My other book got me very emotional in the end and I couldn't switch to Baldwin after I finished it.

[Sofia]

Good morning Maya



I felt asleep last night so I'm still at the end of chap 6. I'm glad you are enjoying the Boys, finished yet? If you are enjoying it I can look forward to this in peace.

I can start chap 7 later this afternoon.

[Maya]

Yes, finished The Boys last night. I think you'll like it too.

Starting chapter 7 of our book now.

[Sofia]

Just finished part 1 of Mnevermind so I can start chap 7 soonish as well :)

Good about the Boys :)

[Maya]

chapter 7 - ah, when I saw Lucien's name in the title I thought some good times are coming because I remember reading earlier that he was JB's great love. But ...

Reading the next chapter - Go Tell It on the Mountain - now. Hmm, the author goes into quite the detail to explain the book. I wouldn't have liked reading that if I hadn't read the book.

[Sofia]

Started chap 7 - why is Gidske's marriage dishonest?

I think if we had not already read some of his books we would not be understanding what we are. And if we re read this after we've read all his work we'll find it different and see things we do not now.

[Maya]

I'm pretty sure it was implied/mentioned? earlier that she was a lesbian.

ETA: Maybe I have misunderstood?