Bit more Baldwin

[AdamSmith]

‘Begin Again’ Calls on James Baldwin to Make Sense of Today

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/books/review-begin-again-james-baldwin-eddie-glaude-jr.amp.html

[Pete1111]

An early 2019 article in GQ also looked back at Baldwin for perspective.  Baldwin saw the handwriting on the wall and moved to France, as did the main character in Giovanni's Room, Baldwin's novel of an American's despair.

I love the article's images of Baldwin's style.

 

 

[Buddy2]

II have mentioned before another student sophomore year in college was reading 'Another Country' because he was constantly propositioned, even with his parents, on vacation in Maine. He wasn't gay, but wanted to  know what he was up against.

To be fair, he had been a male models.

 

I believe this was in the Fall of 1962 when conversations like this were a bit unusual.

He lived with his parents in Brookline, Massachusetts.

[Pete1111]

Writing about it was unusual too.  I assume that is why authors like Baldwin and Renault used such subtle references to same sex affairs of their characters.

[Buddy2]

24 minutes ago, Pete1111 said:

Writing about it was unusual too.  I assume that is why authors like Baldwin and Renault used such subtle references to same sex affairs of their characters.

I may be wrong, but never considered James Baldwin subtle.

[AdamSmith]

31 minutes ago, Buddy2 said:

I may be wrong, but never considered James Baldwin subtle.

I think he as most great writers was most subtle.

At the same time as flaming across the sky as a comet. Like Hemingway, Faulkner, the 19th-century greats, on and on. All the way back to Gawain & Chaucer & before.

For many reasons, reader-influencing etc etc etc

[Pete1111]

1 hour ago, Buddy2 said:

I may be wrong, but never considered James Baldwin 

Yet one can find people that disagree the characters in Giovanni's Room made love, or people that disagree Lysis and Alexias ever made love in Last of the Wine.

Was a difficult task getting the point across back in the 50s and 60s, to get that published.

Call it what you will.  Clever, subtle, deft, and so on.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Pete1111

[Buddy2]

On 7/13/2020 at 10:34 PM, AdamSmith said:

I think he as most great writers was most subtle.

At the same time as flaming across the sky as a comet. Like Hemingway, Faulkner, the 19th-century greats, on and on. All the way back to Gawain & Chaucer & before.

For many reasons, reader-influencing etc etc etc

I don't consider James Baldwin a great writer of fiction. Not even close.

[AdamSmith]

5 hours ago, Buddy2 said:

I don't consider James Baldwin a great writer of fiction. Not even close.

Why do you think that?

[Buddy2]

Who reads his fiction today?

[AdamSmith]

2 hours ago, Buddy2 said:

Who reads his fiction today?

How many people read Spencer’s The Faerie Queene today?

That seems a scant measure of the greatness of a body of work. Rather a marker of our own shortcomings, laziness, chosen ignorance.

[Buddy2]

7 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

How many people read Spencer’s The Faerie Queene today?

That seems a scant measure of the greatness of a body of work. Rather a marker of our own shortcomings, laziness, chosen ignorance.

I usually agree with your choices of writers, this is a rare exception.

[AdamSmith]

1 hour ago, Buddy2 said:

I usually agree with your choices of writers, this is a rare exception.

Still curious about your beef with Baldwin. His work seems to me more relevant now than ever.

[AdamSmith]

People don’t read what they don’t want to hear. Especially when it speaks truth to power.

[Buddy2]

16 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

People don’t read what they don’t want to hear. Especially when it speaks truth to power.

Ha ha ha ha

 

I have been reading Baldwin all my life 

 

And I served in Vietnam in the military for a year in 1968 and 1969. I missed the 1968 Demoratic National Convention.

 

However, When I reviewed Bobby Seale's  case files in Philadelphia, he did briefly talked about his participation at that convention 

[AdamSmith]

11 hours ago, Buddy2 said:

Ha ha ha ha

 

I have been reading Baldwin all my life 

 

And I served in Vietnam in the military for a year in 1968 and 1969. I missed the 1968 Demoratic National Convention.

 

However, When I reviewed Bobby Seale's  case files in Philadelphia, he did briefly talked about his participation at that convention 

Still curious to know why you don’t like Baldwin.

How the Vietnam facts are relevant is a mystery.

[Buddy2]

10 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

Still curious to know why you don’t like Baldwin.

How the Vietnam facts are relevant is a mystery.

Then we are even because most of your posts are a mystery to me.

[TotallyOz]

I liked the NYT article. Now, I have to order a few books to read! Thanks.

[Buddy2]

On 7/20/2020 at 7:29 PM, AdamSmith said:

Still curious about your beef with Baldwin. His work seems to me more relevant now than ever.

Once again, I am writing about James Baldwin's fiction, not his more politcal writing.

Perhaps you greatly over valued Stanley Kubrick also. His films were relevant in the 60s and 70s.

[AdamSmith]

9 hours ago, Buddy2 said:

Once again, I am writing about James Baldwin's fiction, not his more politcal writing.

Perhaps you greatly over valued Stanley Kubrick also. His films were relevant in the 60s and 70s.

Well, once again, we shall just have to agree to disagree.

[AdamSmith]

On 7/22/2020 at 11:20 AM, Buddy2 said:

Perhaps you greatly over valued Stanley Kubrick also. His films were relevant in the 60s and 70s.

Musing on it, wonder why you think Kubrick's films were linked to a particular era.

To me (as to great directors quoted in my posts elsewhere here), they were more like the timeless works of Homer, Dante, Chaucer, etc etc than to 'the '60s  and 70s.'

[Buddy2]

Just now, AdamSmith said:

Musing on it, wonder why you think Kubrick's films were linked to a particular era.

To me (as to great directors quoted in my posts elsewhere here), they were more like the timeless works of Homer, Dante, Chaucer, etc etc than to 'the '60s  and 70s.'

You actually believe Stanley Kubrick's films are timeless.

 

Few people  believe:

Alfred Hitchcock's or Spike Lee's films are timeless.

 

Astonished

[AdamSmith]

Seems you are just saying movies in general cannot be art at all.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/17-rare-times-when-director-made-five-or-more-great-films-row

Very odd POV.

[Buddy2]

6 minutes ago, AdamSmith said:

Seems you are just saying movies in general cannot be art at all.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/17-rare-times-when-director-made-five-or-more-great-films-row

Very odd POV.

Of course not.

 

"The Wizard of Oz" is timeless.

[AdamSmith]

7 minutes ago, Buddy2 said:

Of course not.

 

"The Wizard of Oz" is timeless.

Is it art compared with the above and their like?

We will soon be admiring Willy Wonka.