Here’s a piece on the HBO film from Mother Jones that talks about the filmmakers’ investments in the novel and in revising it. And here’s a piece that talks about the tabloid infrastructure that the novel critiques, including a look at the real-life case that, in part, inspired Bigger’s character.
We’ll talk about this in class, but Wright clearly draws from the blockbuster King Kong, released in 1933, seven years prior to Native Son, in the end of Part II. “Kill that black ape!” resonates strongly with this scene, as does the theme of the savage, animalistic “perpetrator” and the defenseless white woman, surrounded by plenty of white guys armed to the teeth:
Here’s the trailer for the film Bigger and the aptly named Jack watch in Part I:
https://archive.org/details/TraderHornTrailer
Lots to talk about here; I’ll let the trailer speak for itself and we can unpack it in class!
To focus your reflection on our gameplay of Chesnutt’s “conjure tales,” I would like you to write a post of 500-1000 words that reckons with the following four questions (you can either write four quick responses or weave the four questions into a single mini-essay):
**Henry James famous likened the novel genre to a “house of fiction” that “has in short not one window, but a million — a number of possible windows not to be reckoned, rather; every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable, in its vast front, by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will.”
I’m really impressed by the first round of moves in our “Talking Book” play thus far. We’re going to do a brief exercise today reporting on each others’ moves, so this may duplicate some of what we talk about then, but I wanted to call attention to some exemplary moves, categorized by what one can do with a move. So here are some strategies, paired with moves that use those strategies (among others, in many cases):
Just wanted to share a brief overview of “local color” writing and its relationship to the South: I think it helps grasp the broader context Chesnutt was writing his “conjure tales” within.
I’d also like to direct you to the site we’ll use to host our “game” of Chesnutt’s writing. Feel free to peruse the site: you can see some old games from last year, a list of possible characters to play, and more.
For those who miss class today (Thursday) or just want to look back…
You might find it helpful to read this brief but informative interview with Christopher Hager, author of Word by Word: he talks about the methodology behind the project, but more important, why doing work like this matters. Lots of material that ties to our course discussions.
[reposted from last year but relevant!]
Check out this short piece by David Blight, history prof at Yale, on how the Right selectively reads Douglass as a champion of libertarianism. As much as Douglass did take a more moderate path than some abolitionists, and as much as he did embrace elements of what we now call “neoliberalism,” including an embrace of markets to solve social problems, it’s hard to imagine the degree of disgust he would feel today with a party in the thrall of “white nationalism,” as evidenced in his long riff on the liberation he felt upon entering the “monarchical” Britain.
The amazing Jamelle Bouie wrote a piece on the scandal surrounding VA Governor Ralph Northam and the broader context of blackface in US culture, past and present. Check it out: it’s extremely relevant to the material we’ve been talking about, especially regarding “double consciousness.” And the piece would give anyone pause before narrating US history in a “progressive” frame in which things are always moving towards tolerance and reason!
