Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
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BOOK<br />
"Great Literature i.s simply language charged with meaning to the utmost<br />
possible degree ." -Ezra Pound<br />
"Nothing is ever finished, except the mediocre or the pretentious . The<br />
only people who should be consistently interested in masterpieces are<br />
museums and other- people who have no use for them ."<br />
-LeRoi Jones<br />
S I HAVE often said<br />
before, to the point of<br />
repetition cramps, criticism<br />
of writing by<br />
Afro-Americans is -<br />
and should be-the responsibility<br />
of Afro-American critics . Not that<br />
black critics are more perspective<br />
or analytical or, for that matter,<br />
better writers of criticism ; but,<br />
white critics have not in the past<br />
(as in the present) been able to explain<br />
or translate black literature<br />
accurately . This is not heresy but<br />
fact, and the few reviews that were<br />
written, by whites, of John A . Williams'<br />
The Man Who Cried 1 Am<br />
(Little, Brown, $6.95 ) support<br />
this statement explicitly .<br />
Most good fiction borders on<br />
truth, i.e ., it is a reflection of the<br />
truth . If Newark and Detroit of<br />
1967 had not happened, one could<br />
have, in all likelihood, read Mr .<br />
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968<br />
The Man Who Cried I Am<br />
NOTED<br />
Williams' book with less fear and,<br />
indeed, could have smiled at the<br />
uncommon ending . One could have<br />
contentedly put the book aside as<br />
an excellent work of fiction and, of<br />
course, recommended it to friends<br />
and associates ; you know, like we<br />
recommended The Stranger, Portrait<br />
of the Artist as a Young Marr,<br />
Black Boy, et cetera, et cetera . One<br />
could have suggested this book with<br />
the same ease and delight as one<br />
suggested the early John Coltrane .<br />
However, the summer of 1967 was<br />
not fiction ; therefore it added a new<br />
dimension to this novel : the dimension<br />
of prophesy .<br />
As with black music, black literature<br />
continues to grow, extend,<br />
and ceases to be invisible . Our literature<br />
now cuts and you do bleed .<br />
Mr. Williams' latest book is this<br />
type of work ; a blood bringer, causing<br />
you to hurt and forcing you to<br />
5i