James Baldwin With Dinner

[ancianita]

Last edited Tue Dec 7, 2021, 09:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Not a single thing James Baldwin says is outdated. All the more is the pity.

[markpkessinger]

1. I was first turned on to Baldwin as a college freshman . . .

I was a student at Westminster Choir College, as a voice major. For one of my non-music requirements, I took a course titled, "Literature of Human Sexuality." One of the assigned books was Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room," his one and only gay novel. As an 18-year-old coming to terms with being gay myself, I found his writing to be some of the most eloquent and powerful writing I had encountered. I then went on to read as many of his other works as I could get my hands on. And now, at age 60, I still feel that way!

[ancianita]

2. Oh, wow.

I love this. Thank you for sharing your story.

Fully schooled in African American Literature, I still didn't appreciate Baldwin enough until I taught him to my high school sophomores and seniors (I was planning a gay literature unit with him in it but my dept chair nixed that). The short story, "Sonny's Blues," and his Go Tell It On the Mountain were my students' favorites. US Literature doesn't get credit for magical realism -- it's been credited to Colombia's Gabriel García Márquez -- but Hawthorne and Baldwin used it before him. I l

[magicguido]

3. Soon there will be a way to turn on and off the melanin gene; and you can wake up and be any color

[ancianita]

4. Where did you read that? Any sources?