The Wall Street Journal has a review up on a new book about author-turned-photographer Carl Van Vechten and his connection with the Harlem Renaissance. Mr. Van Vechten was involved with almost all of the great artist of the Harlem Renaissance and eventually took portraits of each figure during his lifetime. Before the famous portraits came about, Van Vechten wrote a controversial, fictional book about those famous years uptown which has a title that would make many still cringe today. The author is also quite an interesting figure himself not only for the fact that he was a white gentleman involved with the African American cultural giants of the time but also because he was twice married and was reportedly gay or bisexual. This book apparently just talks about Mr. Van Vechten' black life and focuses on the literary side of things. Read more about the book in the Journal:
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Photo via Carl Van Vechten Wikipedia
Just ordered “Nigger Heaven”. In part simply so I can ride the subway reading a book called “Nigger Heaven” to see what, if any, are the reactions.
ReplyDeleteSanou's foolish Mum.....You are TOOOOOO Funny !!!
DeleteThe history of the controversy about the title of this book is fascinating. Langston Hughes, Rudolph Fisher, and James Weldon Johnson approved, having actually read the book--indeed, Hughes expressed his concern to all three of them before publication and they all urged him to go right ahead and use the title. Most other major literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Hubert Harrison were appalled--then again, most never read the book and never saw the footnote that Van Vechten included to contextualize the word choice.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course there were plenty of books with the n-word in the title. Didn't Richard Wright want to call Native Son Big Nigger?
I taught the book at Columbia years ago and never had any problem, but such matters have to be handled with care. If the word weren't ubiquitous in the hip hop world (I don't count the use of the word by the Last Poets in this category at all) and among lots of young African Americans, it would be like those "Colored Only" signs from the South--worth preserving as a reminder.
Maybe an idea from a parallel setting is relevant? In Jewish history there is a figure named Amalek, a terrible, genocidal enemy who appears in the Torah and who comes back symbolically time and time again in different incarnations (Herod, Haman, Hitler, etc.). There is this idea that one day Amalek will be finally defeated, and on that day even the memory of him will disappear. What if future generations were never to know of the n-word? I can see both sides...
Interesting perspective.
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