Archive for January, 2008
January 29th, 2008 - Idea for First Feature
Recently I perused the African-American section of a local bookstore. To my dismay, my search for riveting literature was cut short by the intimidating prescence of erotica fiction and hip-hop novels. Alice, Toni and Maya say alone amongst the pop fiction, untouched or squeezed between scantily-clad women covers. What do our bookshelves say about the AA community?
January 29th, 2008 - Shelf Interpretation of A.A. Writing
Let’s get real. Great African-American writing is pushed to the back of the shelves and replaced with an overwhelming array of erotica and hip-hop novels. A lack of intellect pervades the 1 shelf we are given, leaving perusers with an impression of flashy covers, half-dressed women, and mediocre writing. What do our bookshelves say about the A.A. Community?
According to the African American Literature Book Club, Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”, Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” are the 3 top favorite books of the 20th century. While, the best sellers list for A.A. writing lists #1 as “Sleeping With Strangers” by Eric Jerome Dickey and #2 being “Men, Money and Gold Diggers” by Je’Caryous Johnson.
There is clearly a time gap between these 5 novels, but as the years have gone by, the writing has decreased in value of content. A good book is hard to find. Entertaining novels left for reading under the hairdryer or the duration of plane travel is fine – but coasting by as the best the A.A. community has to offer is disappointing.
This is not to say that hip-hop fiction is trash. If the book is interesting enough to be read by a youth, chances are, he/she will continue to read. It can almost be seen as furtherance of interest by another genre of our writing. The same goes for Erotica novels, since they are common enough, but they should not out rate real literature.
More recently, the A.A. sections in bookstores are full of titles, but black literature is masked amongst the others, stacked according to title. To each his own, yes, but what about the young minds that approach our shelves; wanting to indulge in familiar writing; to invest in the written word that was a struggle in itself for our ancestors — only that young mind’s eye will be paraded with scantily clad women, trashy plots and forced to peruse another isle…