In WAYR?, I note what I’m reading and comment...you note what you are reading and comment. Occasionally, I may add a section or a link related to books...
I am reading:
The Black Box- Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.- I actually did speed read and finish this but decided to hold off the review for a couple of weeks to take a 2nd, deeper reading pass and soak up this material on the many ways that Black people have historically defined ourselves to white people and to ourselves. Lots of names in here, known and unknown and a few surprises. This does read like a series of lectures...good lecture, but lectures nevertheless.
And what about the concept of race betrayal? Isn’t that something of a fiction, too, used to control individuality within a group? After all, who is to decide what the “proper” and “authentically Black” way of thinking or behaving actually is? Are we to suppress our individuality in the name of an imaginary Board of Black Censorship? Are we to conform to the dictates of public opinion, even Black public opinion, if we morally or ethically disagree with it?
whew! I have more than a few thoughts on that.
Private Notebooks 1914-1916 by Ludwig Wittgenstein (edited and translated by Marjorie Perloff)- Only 20 pages to go with this book now and in the 3rd of the private notebooks, the philosophy shows up.
27.4.16
The platoon, with a few exceptions, hates me because I am a volunteer. So now I am nearly always surrounded by men who hate me. And this is the one thing to which I can’t resign myself yet. Here there are cruel, heartless beings. It is almost impossible for me to find a trace of humanity in them. God help me to live.
26.7.16
Very moving letter from David. He writes that his brother was killed in action in France. Terrible! This sweet, affectionate letter opens my eyes to how I live in exile. It may be a healthy exile but I feel it now as an exile. I am exiled among a bunch of worms and must live with them under the most circumstances. And in this environment I am supposed to lead a good life and purify myself.
Slow Horses by Mick Herron-
Frederick Douglass in Ireland by Laurence Fenton
Journey of the Mind: A Life in History by Peter Brown