James Baldwin, the oldest of 9 children, was born on
August 2, 1924 to an unwed mother who eventually
married David Baldwin, a religious and contentious man
who stressed James's racial and religious roots later
in life. David Baldwin eventually adopted Baldwin.
Baldwin described his childhood as being spent with a
book in one hand, and a baby in the other. Although
it was not specified, one wonders if this reflects
distance from David Baldwin.

While in middle school, Baldwin found
guidance in African American poet Richard Wright.
Wright showed Baldwin the potential for a black voice,
and encouraged his writting although both knew Baldwin
could not afford college.

In 1943, the year David Baldwin died, Baldwin moved to
Greenwich village. Social rejection continued, and
Baldwin eventually found solace in Paris where he
continued writting, often on homosexuality and race.

Our book claims Baldwin avoided being pigeon holed as
a racial writer by using white characters. However,
the majority of information attributes his main
literary influences as Lawrence, Dickens, and Stowe.
I feel this restrains Baldwin's work. To say Stowe
was a major influence encourages one to expect Uncle
Toms in every story and superfluous moralistic
summaries. Similarly, the only person asking for more
in Sonny's Blues might be Sonny looking for another
drink. Poverty is not patronized by Baldwin.

I think his French influences are important to note,
as he spent most of his life in Paris. His lucid
sentences are like Montaigne's; his concern with time
is almost Proustian. But Baldwin's approach deserves
recognition. For Baldwin, telling Sonny's Blues in
media res shows the inherent untruths of the past and
those misconceptions continual resurfacing in American
life. If nothing else, his time spent preaching
before moving to Greenwich may have given his stories
the oratorical power suggested by so many resources.
Baldwin died on December 1, 1987.

I was thinking I could also print out a timeline.

1924 James Baldwin Born
1927 mother marries david baldwin
1930s baldwin's oppressive father shields him from
harsh, outside world. Baldwin reads Stowe and Dickens.
1940 Baldwin comes to terms with his poverty. becomes
member of pentecostal faith church in act of paternal
rebellion
1940s attends de witt clinton high school,
predominately white and jewish
1942 baldwin does not graduate with class but recieves
diploma. establishes lasting friendships with school
paper editors
1943 david baldwin dies. james moves to greenwich
1946 book review on Maxim Gorky published in nation.
writes sixty pages of unfinished novel "in my father's
house"
1948 leaves new york for paris. writes "everybody's
protest novel" and frees himself from racial
expectations
1951-53 finishes "In My Father's House" and retitles
as "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
Writes many books, plays articles. publishes
giovanni's room in 1956, a book about homosexuality,
to sum it up in small terms.
Continues publishing in 1960
1970 sees rise in black rights writings
1986 awarded legion of honor in france
1987 baldwin dies

main points i've covered between the two stories are there. hope that helps or is enough.

I want to stress that baldwin's telling the story in media res is similar to his entire artistic statement. It is as though untruths and misconceptions come back and "haunt" the narrator. baldwin's art was apparently about the racial lies that continue in American society.

final project

Melinda, thanks for the response. I think these ideas are great!

I think you're right. We can all do research on both authors and tie them in together with music and art.

I will agree to write the outline. Please send any info you have to me and I will write it up. I will reply to make sure you agree on the format/material.

If we are all contributing to the outline in a random order, is that how you want to present? I think the more scattered the art and music are the better too!


Please let me know what you all think.

W3rd... sorry for posting so late; I hope it's not a problem.

After mulling over the two stories and skimming a little, I thought of the following:

Both artists find inspiration in sorrow
Both are incapable of fitting into rules
Both overcome eventual restraint
Both pianos play strange, inaccessible music
Music comes from a road/parking lot in both stories
The end reaction towards both finished musics is sort of some "he gets the Kerouac-ian IT"

An interesting contrast would be Card's inherent distaste for the fine art admirers, whereas Baldwin treats practice as a necessary means for an end.
It may also be interesting to look at Card's "fine art" isolation, and Baldwin's complete absorption in other music... don't know if i agree with Card.. lots of music contains musical allusions, intentional ones.



I was thinking there must be a reason Christian is named Christian... but I can't think of it. His story seems to be some sort of odd meditation on youth.

James Baldwin

Mark, I like your idea for choice of author for final project. I'm willing to go forward with your suggestion. I'm intrigued.

I don't know if anyone still uses this, but I wanted to ask about possibly using James Baldwin as our group author for our final project. I have a collection of his stories and his story Sonny's Blues is in our anthology.

Sonny's Blues is the story of an algebra teacher and his heroin-addicted, Jazz musician brother. But it's probably important to note Baldwin does not glorify drug use, has a remarkably lucid style, and displays unique compassion. Reading the story and presenting it would allow us to view a portion of the world that lives in our minds as the other united states, that underground filled with shady behavior and musical icons we hear of every so often but rarely enjoy. Additionally, we would have the opportunity to view the work of a black american author who was, and has been, very influential.

I wanted to post some passages from the story I thought were particularly beautiful in order to sway judgement:

This is the narrator's (i forget his name) meeting with a drug addict toward the beginning:

[narrator ("would" should be italicized):] "How the hell would I know what you mean?" I almost whispered it, I don't know why.
"That's right," he said to the air, "how would he [italics] know what I mean?" He turned toward me again, patient and calm, and yet I somehow felt him shaking, shaking as though he were going to fall apart. I felt that ice in my guts again, the dread I'd felt all afternoon; and again I watched the barmaid, moving about the bar, washing glasses, and singing....

Another scened when the narrator hears music:
All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours...

And, slightly later: I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breat of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.



I hope I've been succinct

I wanted to change my stance on whether Tim O'Brien's character was a coward in "On the Rainy River." By my logic, O'Brien would actually be constricting himself by moving to Canada, where his actions would be largely dictated by possible poverty and a lack of relations. By going to the war, if he survives, he has a greater range of freedoms.

Similarly, if the imagery be considered, I think it is intentional that the woman with the Umbrella is carrying a copy of Plato's Republic, a book throughout which Plato's Socrates voices his opinion on one having obligations to the state because it is a sort of parent to the individual. If O'Brien were to swim across the river he would go through a sort of literary rebirth, and be left an astranged child in a new country, orphaned.

If we look at Hemingway, and the way duty was emphasized, he would be abandoning his duty. O'Brien, doubtless, feels the war was wrong, but seems also to have realized the futility of his "one man stand" against something as nebulous as a war. I agree that the plan seemed childish, if not completely a farce.