Re: Racial diversity here and possible (probable
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Wed, 12 Aug 1998 17:51:08 -0600 (MDT)
Yeah...i lived in Paris (Blvd St. Montparnasse close to Le Dome) in
l976--how else can americans really see themselves? I read a lot of
Miller and Balzac in Paris, and even Hemingway's _A Moveable Feast_ to
know how good living Paris really was...will
On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Malcolm Lawrence wrote:
> WILL HOCHMAN wrote:
>
> > Malcs, _Invisible Man_ by Ralph Ellison and _The Autobiography of Malcolm
> > X_ really got to me and I'm not black
>
> They really got to me too. As did Native Son, as did Nobody Knows My Name....
>
> > ...but anyone who understands alienation and a struggle to respect oneself
> > can inhabit these great
> > books
>
> And that's pretty much the bottom line of this thread. Paying inordinate
> attention to things like race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation,
> religion, heritage and geography diverts one's attention away from the real
> metaphors at play in the work and just leaves you measuring yourself up to a
> visual idea rather than a visceral one. It's like that line of Seymour's from
> "Franny & Zooey" that I've always loved: "...all legitimate religious study
> must lead to unlearning the differences, the illusory differences, between
> boys and girls, animals and stones, day and night, heat and cold."
>
> > , even if you happen to be an unimaginative american, eh? will
>
> Ever lived abroad, Will?
>
> Malcolm
>
>