I came across your channel looking for insight in "waiting for the Barbarians" and you answered the question I was struggling with. I really enjoy your dialogue and the tenor of your voice. Thank you for giving the gift of your knowledge and interests to us.
I know many of Baldwin's novels, plays, and essays, but somehow I missed this story. I think of the differences and similarities between this story as described and GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and THE AMEN CORNER. Brothers play a role in the former, escaping the church and the ghetto via music concludes the latter. The painful life conditions are intense in all three works; "Sonny's Blues" seems to be configured differently, though; perhaps it is the next step. I can't tell if Baldwin's negative assessment of the Black church in the two novels continues in this story. By this time, if I remember correctly, Baldwin had made in an essay his rejection of Christianity explicit. Jazz is the resolution of the needs of the self via autonomy, beyond the rigidity of social position and formulaic tradition, revisiting the past, recognizing its sufferings, and freeing the mind from it.
Hi Ralph, "Sonny's Blues" does not reference the church, except with reference to a group of siblings singing church tunes on a Harlem street and collecting contributions. But that scene definitely does not act as the emotional anchor of the story. So yes, this one is configured quire differently.
Thank you. Exquisite summary and related elements from the beginning to the ending of the story.
I came across your channel looking for insight in "waiting for the Barbarians" and you answered the question I was struggling with. I really enjoy your dialogue and the tenor of your voice. Thank you for giving the gift of your knowledge and interests to us.
Fantastic book; love Coetzee. How did you like it?
@@tootscarlson im working my way through McCarthy first lol but coetzee is a literary mountain with climbing for sure
Thanks so much for your effort.
My pleasure!
I know many of Baldwin's novels, plays, and essays, but somehow I missed this story. I think of the differences and similarities between this story as described and GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and THE AMEN CORNER. Brothers play a role in the former, escaping the church and the ghetto via music concludes the latter. The painful life conditions are intense in all three works; "Sonny's Blues" seems to be configured differently, though; perhaps it is the next step. I can't tell if Baldwin's negative assessment of the Black church in the two novels continues in this story. By this time, if I remember correctly, Baldwin had made in an essay his rejection of Christianity explicit. Jazz is the resolution of the needs of the self via autonomy, beyond the rigidity of social position and formulaic tradition, revisiting the past, recognizing its sufferings, and freeing the mind from it.
Hi Ralph, "Sonny's Blues" does not reference the church, except with reference to a group of siblings singing church tunes on a Harlem street and collecting contributions. But that scene definitely does not act as the emotional anchor of the story. So yes, this one is configured quire differently.
I wonder if you could tell me what literary theory is used in this interpretation.