From Totems to Hip-Hop

From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas 1900-2002 | Ishmael Reed

This drives me bananas, so seeing it called out is very satisfying.
“One of the puzzling aspects of American Academic life and professional criticism is the fact that teachers have gone along with this model of American literature, one riddled with holes, gaps and absences, and that they‘ve shown no interest in anything but an outdated canon, which they follow like sheep.”

Sweettartlaura Here‘s the thing with The Canon that I do appreciate, though: there is something valuable in studying the first time something was done, even if it was by a white man/etc. I‘ll give you an example: 6y

Sweettartlaura The Haunting of Hill House (not a white man, but still) - an iconic story... that I didn‘t get to until a year or two ago. By the time I read it, I had read/seen so many imitators, good and poor, that the impact of this book failed me. I wish I had read it as a teen. It would have shaped me so much more, & enriched me. That‘s the role The Canon plays, for better or worse. 6y

Sweettartlaura That being said, I‘m sure there are better ways to enrich school reading - for example, read the classic, & then read one recent book that is related/similar for a book report. My college Lit classes were much broader as well (where they could be - if I was taking Victorian Lit, well, then ... 🤷🏻‍♀️). 6y

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kgriffith @Sweettartlaura the first of its kind, sure, but how many “classics” by straight, cisgender, white men are actually novel? While “best” will always be contested, I think it‘s fair to say that if a group of works can be collectively referred to as a type, having a theme, etc, then many kinds of people have written what could be included if the powers that be were interested. 6y

Sweettartlaura @kgriffith that‘s the thing... a lot of them were, when placed in their context. I‘m working on a challenge to read books from 1920 - 2019 right now, which has brought a lot of this in front of me over the past couple years. And it‘s solidified for me that yeah, a lot of these guys WERE worth the hype 🤷🏻‍♀️. Take Philip Roth... I get that if you pick up Portnoy‘s Complaint, it‘s realllll easy to put it right back down again. But... 6y

Sweettartlaura In doing this challenge I stumbled across his “auotobiography”, The Facts. I don‘t even think there‘s a genre for what he did in that book - it‘s that flat-out amazing. He‘s THAT GOOD a writer. Writers should read him, & lovers of literature should, too. Does that mean some students are stuck just reading Portnoy‘s Complaint, with a so-so teacher who can‘t bring them to this relationship with Roth? Yeah, it does 😕. 6y

Sweettartlaura The other thing to factor in here is the number of parents who get over-involved and try to ban books from their kids‘ syllabus. I can‘t imagine being a teacher and having this interference, but it happens every day. And if you don‘t have a supportive principal or Board of Ed, your job is at risk. It‘s not fair to anyone involved, but it‘s the harsh reality. 6y

kgriffith @Sweettartlaura and that‘s the trouble with an education system that keeps the same kind of people in positions to make decisions in perpetuity, and which doesn‘t center the students‘ actual learning environments and academic content above protecting those systems. The knots I‘ve seen academics tie themselves into in order to avoid stepping too far outside acceptable lines with their original work are disheartening to say the least. (edited) 6y

kgriffith @Sweettartlaura Literature at least is allowed, SUPPOSED, to challenge the status quo, to blur the lines, to offer broader intellectual and emotional horizons. The dead white dude whose work was great isn‘t getting anything from our studying him, and it will NEVER be hard for a student to find him. The diverse thinking of a varied cast of authors is something I, as a student and a woman and a queer person, feel I should have access to. 6y

kgriffith @Sweettartlaura And it‘s the job of those institutions of higher education, and of administrators in our elementary and secondary schools, to see to it that authors and works I can relate to are as available to me as are excellent works by people nothing like me. Privilege is why white men‘s works are taught, not skill or innovation: put a Black- or Hispanic- or Muslim-sounding name on a white dude‘s book and it wouldn‘t have even been considered. 6y

Sweettartlaura I‘ll quibble with you on this point: it‘s not always easy to find time for dead white dudes. I‘m finding that beyond short stories, I ever truly read Hemingway or Faulkner. I‘ve read everything I could ever get my hands on, but somehow they never made their way into my hands. It‘s taken until 20 years after school, during an intentional focus, to bring them back to me. I feel like this should have been done, to put them in my brain. That said- 6y

Sweettartlaura You‘re fighting the good fight - fight on 🙂. The more we as a society read - meaning more genres, more eras, more genders, more ethnicities, more of everything - the richer we‘ll be. (If you‘re looking for two more weapons in your arsenal, read Zora Neale Hurston & Nella Larsen - Harlem Renaissance writers who were overshadowed by the men who felt like it was finally THEIR turn for attention... but not for their female counterparts😡) 6y

kgriffith @Sweettartlaura Ah, see, that‘s the thing: white dudes, dead and otherwise, have been given or have taken more of my time my whole life than they have earned or deserved, and I have no qualms about not giving them any more of it than I :decide: to give, because inevitably, even when it should be, it isn‘t always my decision to make. 6y

kgriffith @Sweettartlaura Passing and Their Eyes Were Watching God are on my priority TBR for this year 😊 6y

Sweettartlaura Both excellent choices - can‘t wait to see what you think of them ❤️ 6y

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