The Sado-Masochism of American Racism: Baldwin + Williams, Part 2.
Please post a question below that explores the continuities and contrasts of these complementary short stories, possibly stirring Circus and the Soviet cartoons into the pot as well. If you desperately want to post about only one of them, feel free. Otherwise I welcome you to respond to one of the questions posted about these texts--whether in this or the previous thread, by you or your classmates. You should also feel free to begin interrogating Queer, though I have a hunch we'll be spending the bulk of our meeting puzzling through these other two, and setting up what comes next in Burroughs's book.
After we spoke about Baldwin's private opening into Jesse's story – his inability to have sex with his wife – I looked back at Desire & the Black Masseur and realized that the other story opens in a similar way. Beginning Burns' story with his cinematic obsession gives us something that we can connect to. Most everyone likes movies, and even if we don't relate to them in the same mind-numbing way that Burns does, we can sympathize with his need to escape from reality through film.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, can Circus be tied into this same category of opening scenes? The newspaper headlines don't reveal anything particularly personal (to the viewer, that is), but her struggle to escape the mob shows the viewer a side of her we would not otherwise see in day-to-day life. Is this analogous to GtMtM and DatBM?
Throughout Circus, Marion and her son share very few affectionate moments. The film opens with Marion jumping onto a train with her child to escape an angry crowd and subsequently leaving the bundle of her child on the seat as she clings to her German savior. As the film progresses, she does her best to hide her son from the Russians she interacts with for fear that they too will judge her for having a bi-racial child (especially out of wedlock). Her son frequently appears at moments of conflict, which has the effect of highlighting the issue of race and American race relations. Even when Marion is alone she is barely seen with her child. Indeed, the only time we really see the son be cuddled and spoken to for an extended period of time is at the end of the film when he is passed around the audience as they sing to him.
ReplyDeleteI think it is fair to say that in both of the short stories that we have been discussing, self-hate seems to be a theme that gets tangled up in race relations and dealt with through violent acts. Although violence is not a theme in Circus, could we argue that Marion feels similarly guilty for having a sexual relationship and a child with a black man? Is this perhaps why we see her so little with her child?
Fire and related imagery/symbolism is important to both texts - what role does is it playing in each/both?
ReplyDeleteWhy did Baldwin give his character the name of a famous black slave who was the "inspiration" if you will for the Fugitive Slave Act?
What point are the authors trying to make by characterizing the white characters as passive? The passivity and submission is obvious in the Williams text, but more subtle in Baldwin's. Ex. from Baldwin pg. 198, "...instead of forcing him to act, it made action impossible." We also get the feeling that Baldwin has a need to be "buried in [his wife] like a child," similar to how Burns needs to be "absorbed," and is even said to look like a child.
In characterizing the white characters as passive, I believe the authors are making statements on racism: That the institution is subtle, it plays out even without personal prejudices (or that those prejudices are unwittingly inculcated), and that the characters are powerless to stop it. Essentially, the characters in both stories concede to a racial order and their confusion or hesitations are suppressed in favor of the need to blend in or belong (despite their passivity playing out through different personalities).
DeleteWhen comparing and contrasting these texts, it's important to keep in mind the political climates into which they were released. Both 'Circus' and 'Masha's Concert' were produced by official State Soviet media companies and were meant to encourage racial tolerance among their audiences, rather than expose the lack thereof as 'Going To Meet The Man' and 'Desire And The Black Masseur' do. When looking at these sources all together, though, we get a sense of what sort of discussion of race was permissible and occurring in both societies, which is just as important to understand as the reality of race and race relations in Cold War-era USA and USSR.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the content of the texts suggest about the climates of racial discussion in the US and USSR? How does this help us understand the reality of race relations in both societies?
I think a possible explanation for the distinction you notice can be attributed to the "limits of realism" that we discussed in class the other day. I think it's fair to say that in the USSR, the top-down declaration of the anti-racist, anti-imperialist model society constrained the possibility of an open, public discourse regarding race. In light of that consideration, the changes effected during the height of the Civil Rights Movement (I'm thinking Baldwin's piece) were definitely bottom-up. In other words, in the United States, vision and action toward racial equity originated in a collective, public experience, whereas in the Soviet Union, the vision was produced by a few individuals and distributed to the masses.
DeleteIn the beginning of "Desire and the Black Masseur", the reader has a chance to really get to know the character of Anthony Burns. He is described as a flustered, lackluster and uninteresting man who doesn't have the strength or determination to bother to get to know himself. In "Going to Meet the Man", there is no background character information on Jesse,and the only details that you hear about his past is the trajectory towards racism that his parents led him on as a young boy. However, even this doesn't give you a clear idea of who Jesse is, other than this one extremely negative side of him.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the information given about Anthony Burns makes you read his story differently? Did you pity him and his life in a way that didn't occur when reading about Jesse? How does knowing details about who the characters are make the reader connect or disconnect with any given paragraph?
I think being given the background information about Anthony allowed me to empathize more with him. I'm not sure I pitied him as much as just had stronger emotions toward him than I felt with Jesse. However, I also think Jesse's story is described in more detail. This throws the reader more into the story.
DeleteSo I suppose reflection on that makes me think I get more emotional with Anthony as a person, but was also more emotional about Jesse's actual story.
The Soviet cartoon “Black and White” depicts extreme acts of violence, fittingly establishing a stark contrast between good and evil and thereby avoiding any moral gray areas. Thus the high level of violence in what is assumed to be the Unites States lowers the standard for the supposed haven of the USSR. In other words, a place where racism exists is still preferable to a place where it exists to a higher degree. With this in mind, what is the effect of the flashback in Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man”? Is the scene of the past preferable to the scenes of the present? Does the intensity of the violence in Jesse’s childhood serve to show improvement or continuity? Have things changed or have they merely relocated from the public sphere to the private?
ReplyDeleteAs Taylor suggests, the cartoon "Black and White" provides a tangible framework for understanding racialized oppression in the United States as definitively immoral. Although the images that we encounter are presented as cartoon, 'Black and White" represents instances very real, material racial violence. As viewers, we experience these things firsthand. I'm interested in the level of abstraction that engages the James Baldwin piece. Although we are similarly presented with horrifying images of racial violence, we experience through the lens of Jesse, recounting a distant childhood memory. How does the altering the perspective through which these same images are consumed affect our interpretation of the broader themes presented in these stories? Along the same lines, the structure/form of this stories is far from black and white. We are situated within a dream or something like it. The subject/narration (as we discussed last time) and time sequence of the story is fluid and nonconventional. How do Baldwin's literary conventions support or complicate Jesse's character? How might these conclusions compare to the conclusions we draw out from the cartoon "Black and White."
DeleteHow do you think Baldwin feels about Jesse, the character he created? Do you think Baldwin constructed him in pursuit of making a point through his short story? Or is this character like folks Baldwin has encountered, and Baldwin is merely building a context which "explains" their prejudices? Obviously Baldwin's piece is disturbing and emotionally challenging - what would motivate him to go through such great pains for just a short story?
ReplyDelete