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Mar. 10th, 2026 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kradeelavi don't have the brainwidth to do a long review, but james baldwin's 'no name in the street' was. gripping.
it was my first introduction to his work, and it won't be the last.
what grabbed me first: the deep and quiet alienation. i described to the doujin group that he feels like a self-aware/self described quote unquote traitor to so many groups (not out of a lack of a moral compass, just by how the chips fell with being thrust in the spotlight by fate, and by holding onto his sincerity at the cost of being quietly left out on the shore by various tribes.) i ... don't ever think i've seen a writer accurately capture how that feels before him.
what grabbed me second: i don't ever think i've seen a writer hold such (tight! well defended!) intellectual cynicism and yet a genuine dignity for all life in the same hand as dexterously as he does. he has earned grievances to be sure. but too many intellectual-heavy authors i get a sour note of contempt at some form of otherness-in-their-mind whether it be queers, children, or the disabled or what have you.
not from him.
anyway if you were a fan of malcom x (the autobiography) and its prose/history mix, even more of a reason to read it. for such a heavy read on the civil rights era the prose itself made you want to tear through it to hear more of what he had to say.
it was my first introduction to his work, and it won't be the last.
what grabbed me first: the deep and quiet alienation. i described to the doujin group that he feels like a self-aware/self described quote unquote traitor to so many groups (not out of a lack of a moral compass, just by how the chips fell with being thrust in the spotlight by fate, and by holding onto his sincerity at the cost of being quietly left out on the shore by various tribes.) i ... don't ever think i've seen a writer accurately capture how that feels before him.
what grabbed me second: i don't ever think i've seen a writer hold such (tight! well defended!) intellectual cynicism and yet a genuine dignity for all life in the same hand as dexterously as he does. he has earned grievances to be sure. but too many intellectual-heavy authors i get a sour note of contempt at some form of otherness-in-their-mind whether it be queers, children, or the disabled or what have you.
not from him.
anyway if you were a fan of malcom x (the autobiography) and its prose/history mix, even more of a reason to read it. for such a heavy read on the civil rights era the prose itself made you want to tear through it to hear more of what he had to say.
