OS Book Club Pt II

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Thanks. I'll have to go back through the thread because I know there was a string about Baldwin and similar authors.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Just finished Notes of a Native Son, I'd recommend it 100% and it fits your goal. It's 10 essays, the longest of which I think is 20 something pages, so you get Baldwin on a few different topics. He goes in on Uncle Tom's Cabin, gives an interesting take on Native Son by Richard Wright (which is also on my list and I'll get to eventually), my favorite is he tells of dealing with law enforcement and the Justice system in France.

Spoiler

I'm really loving his stuff. He just had a way with words, it's unreal. The way he eloquently touches on topics that are so prevalent in his life almost as an outside observer, I can't get enough. You can tell how conflicted he was and how heartbroken he was that the only country he was ever going to be able to call home wouldn't accept him. It really is tragic, you wanna cry at times and give him a hug lol. But man, he's spot on in his sentiments. He wrote a preface to one of the later editions in the 80's so you get his updated take on how things have gone and how he feels. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up reading everything this guy put out, it's worth it and his memory deserves it.

"I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that. So are we all."

"I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for that reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

"We take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequeathed us at our birth; and yet it is purely through our dependence on this reality that we are most endlessly betrayed."

"It is as easy, after all, and as meaningless, to embrace uncritically the cultural sterility of main street as it is to decay it. Both extremes avoid the question of whether or not main street is really sterile, avoid, in fact - which is the prince convenience of extremes - any questions about main steer at all."

"Joyce is right about history being a nightmare - but it may be the nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them."

"People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster."

So yeah Baldwin is awesome. I was gonna go into Freddie Douglass but I'm gonna hit that with a rain delay and make this Baldwin week. See if I can't knock out Nobody Knows My Name and Go Tell it on the Mountain.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I went through the last 2-3 pages and added about 10 books to my Amazon Book List pushing me above 50 and counting.

I also found a series of hardcover collections of James Baldwin. Most of them compile his novels/short-stories, but there is one that contains a handful of essays including the ones discussed the last several pages: James Baldwin - Collected Essays I will probably pick this up on soon since it seems like a no brainer for a starting point as well as getting back Coates' Between The World and Me because I've been itching to read it again. Due to the way things are as of 2017 it keeps popping into my head on a weekly basis. Not to mention there's just so much material there despite the shortness of the book it just sticks with you for a long while after you put it down.

Apart from picking up some Baldwin and continuing on with Harry Potter nothing else is really sticking out to me at the moment.

And this is off-topic (since its music), but its related to some of the things we've been discussing this year:

Spoiler

I'm not sure what music you guys are into, but Hurray for the Riff Raff released an album earlier this year titled The Navigator that continues to amaze me every time I listen to it. The band cut its teeth in the folk arena, but this album is decidedly more modern and layered while maintaining that roots feel.

The album itself is a cohesive concept album that manages to maintain its thematic elements throughout the whole. It centers around a Puerto Rican street kid living in a neighborhood that could be from any burrow or neighborhood in any large US city. Through the course of the album the character is faced with living in oppression and instead of looking outward for support turns to self-reliance and survival. In an effort to escape the character encounters a bruja. The character wakes 40 years later to the same neighborhood that has changed to the point of being unrecognizable to her due to the oppressed being run out and over by systematic gentrification and assimilation.

The climax of the album, however, packs an emotional punch as the character comes to grips with the realization that her struggles weren't limited to her, but were in fact shared by those around her. This realization culminates halfway through Pa'lante . Featuring samples from Pedro Peitri's poem "Puerto Rican Obituary" the Day in the Life structured song follows the character's reconciliation with oppression and assimilation as she ends by chanting the title (onward, forward) both as a battle cry and a survival song for her people. Its a powerful song and it always hits me square in the stomach.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AOL2OkV-TkU" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>


With what we've discussed this year I thought I would share and hopefully you guys dig it.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I'm almost done with the list I wanted to read coming into the year, I'm now interested to see how many books I can get through before the end of the year and where that'll end up taking me. I have a physical list written down but I've added so much to it its basically lost all meaning lol. I went diving on Amazon to see if there's anything else I want to look into, found 2 more: Founding Brothers which is about the generation who led the Revolution and African American Religions, 1500-2000. That one I'm all over. I can't get enough learning about this country. The weird thing is the thing that made me first realize it was probably Bioshock Infinite. Seeing the Founding Fathers being literally worshipped was weird but then I realized that's basically the way they look in my head. Learning more has been a great experience. I eventually want to start alternating fiction and nonfiction but I need to cut down on some of the nonfiction backlog I've created.

I will check out that album.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Do you guys read multiple books at once or no?


I started Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire last night. The Prisoner of Azkaban, for me, is when the series really starts gelling and to come into its own as all the pieces begin to come together.

Looking ahead I'm thinking of finally doing the Lord of the Rings thing which is something I've said for the past 3-4 years. My goal would be to read one book per season (Summer, Fall, Winter). We'll see what comes of that. Of course there's a bunch of non-fiction I want to buy, but I was thinking of doing a companion/complimentary read of Lies My History Teacher Told Me and Destruction of Black Civilization.

With that said I can completely see myself picking up that hardcover essay collection of Baldwin and being enamored with him.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Yeah based on the way you feel about Coates, I'm actually excited to see your thoughts on Baldwin.

I've never had an opinion really on the quality of the Harry Potter books. I read them so young I was reading more for content, just getting lost in the world. I'm almost afraid to go back and find out they're like terribly written books or something lol, it would be a real blow to the childhood. LOTR I would love to read. Same with Song of Ice and Fire so I can keep up with all my Game of Thrones nerd friends. My true downfall will come when I try, as my friends are urging me, to get into the Star Wars Extended Universe. I'm a huge Star Wars fan but never got into the books. I already know once I go down that rabbit hole I'll never be seen again.

I've never tried to read 2 novels at once, I assume I'd be bad at it, I'm the kind of person who can't play 2 story games at the same time because it throws me off lol. It would probably depend on the books. I could double up with a textbook, or a really long book meant to be read in a bunch of different pieces. I don't think I could read The Martian and Leviathan Wakes at the same time.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I'm the same way with games which was why I asked. There's no way I could do two novels at once. My attention would not allow itself to be divided in such a way. Mainly I guess I was asking if anybody reads a novel and a non-fiction/text/essay.

For me its something I could handle in the beginning until one of the texts started to pique my interest more and then I would dive full into one and ignore the other.

Apart from The Sorcerer's Stone none of the Harry Potter books are written poorly. None of them really read as children's books and each book is dense enough that a thorough analysis and discussion is possible with a number of topics. Sure the overall arcs are fairly simple, but the characters are complex enough and develop very well over the course of the series.

Having read the first half of the The Fellowship LOTR is dense, but its not as intimidating as one would think. For me starting up the Song of Ice and Fire series was more dense because there is so many moving pieces and world building that it really never stops. Books 2 and 3 wonderful, though. So if you can trudge through the first book you should be golden. I haven't read anymore because after 3 of them I was tired and haven't been back yet.

I know I would enjoy the Extended Universe books, but them not being canon anymore ruins it for me now.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I was reading a textbook on the history of America for the first half of the year, I'm gonna read the half for the time from Reconstruction to the present over the summer. Like you said it's much easier because I'm reading for different purposes. I know when I start the textbook I'm taking in facts and taking notes, and reading a narrative I look more for things that are memorable and will stick with me, philosophy nuggets to a degree.

I'm glad to hear Harry Potter holds up. My worry with Song of Ice and Fire is exactly what you mentioned and partly the reason I've been avoiding fiction in general, I don't want to get bogged down in a series. The Expanse series is 6 books deep at 600 pages per. I could probably read the whole thing in a month and a half or so but it just seems like a poor use of time when I can hit up all these nonfiction books and learn about so many different other things. Too many books, too little time.

The canon argument never hit with me for 2 reasons. One, there's a million and a half EU books to begin with, none of them really making sure to reconcile with all the others, so I don't believe there was ever a true canon with the EU in it. Two, it's a fictional series so I never knew what to make of people saying "No this isn't really a part of the fake universe, that's the real truth". That always threw me off, but went out the window when Lucas bailed. Now, it's every man for himself. Mickey Mouse is trying to run over Star Wars with his newspeak dictionary and I won't allow it. KOTOR lives forever, and **** anyone who says it doesn't.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Welp. I ordered that Baldwin hardcover essay collection along with the Destruction of Black Civilization.

I figure Memorial Day weekend would be a good time to start some historical reading. I'll probably read Destruction of Black Civilization in conjunction with Lies My Teacher Told Me.

Has anybody read Howard Zinn's A People's History of The United States? I added that to my book list.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The reason I mentioned it is because it was recommended by someone who's ideology doesn't really vibe with it. I figure if he can give it a thumbs up, I'll give it a read.

Followed your lead and updated my Amazon wish list, there's almost 80 books on it. Doesn't even include stuff I've already bought but want to read like The Martian, Leviathan Wakes, The Only Rule is It Has to Work, Federalist Papers, Elon Musk biography, etc. I see now the monster I've created, I'll post it later.

Nobody Knows My Name

Spoiler

More Baldwin greatness, his writing is extraordinarily poignant, still can't get enough. Writing on topics from growing up in Harlem (my favorite essay) to a tribute to Richard Wright after he died, to his relationship with Norman Mailer/what it means to be a writer, his pen is sacrosanct. Love love love this guy.

"The determined will is rare - at the moment, in this country, it is unspeakably rare - and the inequalities suffered by the many are in no way justified by the few. A few have always risen - in every country, every era, and in the teeth of regimes which can. By no stretch of the imagination be thought of as free. Not all of these people, it is worth remembering, left the world better than they found it. The determined will is rare, but it is not invariably benevolent."

"The situation of our youth is not mysterious. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other mods. That is exactly what our children are doing. They are imitating our immorality, our disrespect for the pain of others."

"The world has never lacked for horrifying examples; but I do not believe that these examples are meant to be used as justification for our own crimes. This perpetual justification empties the heart of all human feeling. The emptier our hearts become, the greater will be our crimes."

"One hasn't got to have an enormous military machine in order to be unfree when it's simpler to be asleep, when it's simpler to be apathetic, when it's simpler, in fact, not to want to be free, to think that something else is more important."

"'I want to know how power works,' Norman once said to me, "How it really works, in detail.' Well I know how power works, it has worked on me, and if I didn't know how power worked, I would be dead. And it goes without saying, perhaps, that I have simply never been able to afford myself any illusions concerning the manipulation of that power. My revenge, I decided very early, would be to achieve a power which outlasts kingdoms."

What a guy, I actually rewatched the talk with him and Malcolm X this morning and now I feel like I'm reading in his voice lol. On to his first novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain. I planned to read that and get back to Frederick Douglass but now I've read the description for another essay collection by Baldwin and I might need to get to that. No Name in the Street has him giving his take on the 60's assassinations, I'd really like to hear his thoughts on that era.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

What's the name of the text?

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

That one was Nobody Knows My Name, I think it's included in the collection you mentioned.

Side note, I've hit another book that doesn't have an ebook, My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas. Now I feel like I need to look into the ebook process lol, how can it be that a sitting Supreme Court Justice's book has not been adapted to Kindle, publisher slacking.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Nah, the history text you were reading.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

America A Narrative History, I had a friend in school email a teacher at our local community college to see what they teach out of. It's in 2 parts, Revolution to Reconstruction and Reconstruction to Present. It's not bad. Best part is I could rent the Kindle version. It's good for a general overview, but I see now why history is so difficult to teach. Seems impossible to be an expert in any more than one era in history, there's just so much literature on every person, place, and thing.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Yes. So much gets left out and there's an obvious bias in focus on Europe. Textbooks are an interesting topic anyway. The biggest market (ie: Texas) basically dictates what ends up in history texts for the whole country.

I keep telling myself if I have kids they're going to have some supplemental reading/questions for their history classes.