| Author |
Message |
    
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 106
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 02, 2006 - 08:19 pm: | 
|
I found the following article on writersdigest.com. The article gives props to AALBC. Congratulations TJ!
Hip-Hop Lit Is Hot
Once limited to street-corner sales, hip-hop lit now can be found in major bookstores—and mainstream publishers are taking note.
by Kara Gebhart Uhl
Vickie M. Stringer wrote her first novel, Let That Be the Reason, while serving a seven-year sentence in a federal prison for drug trafficking. The novel is about a young female hustler playing "the street game." After sending her manuscript to 26 publishers without success, Stringer decided to self-publish. Soon after the first printing, she was hawking her book in hair and nail salons, at rap concerts and out of the trunk of her car—on the same corners she once sold drugs. Selling 1,000 copies in one week, the book was a success. Today, Stringer is founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Triple Crown Publications, which has published 41 hip-hop lit titles by 28 different authors since December 2002.
Stringer's story is one that's often told in reports about hip-hop lit for several reasons. For one thing her books fit the classic hip-hop mold. Typical setting: an unsympathetic urban environment. Typical protagonist: black or Latino. Typical plot: A young person joins a gang, deals drugs and/or becomes a prostitute in order to overcome obstacles such as poverty, racism and violence. The books are written in urban vernacular and don't shy away from profanity and sexually explicit scenes. In addition, Stringer's successful guerrilla marketing tactics are ones practiced by most hip-hop authors, with impressive results. And Stringer's books serve to reveal an urban reality she says many young people experience today.
Hip-hop lit—also called urban fiction, street lit and ghetto lit—has been met with a fair amount of criticism. Some say these books glorify drug dealing, gang violence and prostitution. Others point out that many of the books are in dire need of good editors; urban vernacular aside, the books are often riddled with grammar issues ranging from poor syntax to missing end punctuation and quotation marks.
But despite the criticism, hip-hop lit is a moving force in the industry. Once sold on the streets and at independent booksellers, these books now can be found in Wal-Mart and major bookstore chains such as Borders and Barnes & Noble. Large publishing houses such as Simon & Schuster, Random House and St. Martin's Press also are taking notice by signing up hip-hop authors for various imprints and divisions. And recently, rap artist 50 Cent joined with Pocket/MTV Books to produce a new line of street lit called G-Unit Books. Hip-hop authors Nikki Turner, K. Elliot and Noire are slated to write the first trade paperbacks.
Not new, just a revival In 1969, Robert Beck, using the pen name Iceberg Slim, wrote his first book, Pimp: The Story of My Life, while in jail. He wrote many other similar-themed novels. Donald Goines also was a prolific street-lit author at that time. While in prison, Stringer says, she read every book in the prison's library—more than 1,500 of them—and Goines' books inspired her the most. Unlike the other novels that simply entertained her, Stringer says Goines' work described experiences similar to her own and encouraged her to lead a different life.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, hip-hop music overtook hip-hop lit. Hip-hop artists such as Run-D.M.C., Tupac Shakur and Public Enemy described their street-life experiences orally and against a definitive musical beat vs. putting pen to paper.
Then, in the late 1990s and early 2000, three books sparked a hip-hop-lit revival: Sister Souljah's Coldest Winter Ever, Teri Woods' True to the Game and Omar Tyree's Flyy Girl. The rise of self-publishing also fueled the fire. Today many writers don't rely on the support of major publishing houses. Instead, they're self-publishing or finding acceptance at smaller publishing firms, several of which now publish urban lit exclusively.
Troy Johnson is the founder of The African American Literature Book Club (AALBC.com), a website that sells African-American book titles and features author profiles, book recommendations, critical reviews, discussion groups and more. Urban titles make up about 10 percent of AALBC.com's top 10 bestsellers. "They probably make up a larger percentage of all the books sold, which is fairly substantial for a fairly new genre that's predominantly self-published," he says.
AALBC.com currently sells about 20 urban titles directly. "We sell urban fiction because it sells so well," he says, adding that most urban authors aggressively promote their books, which increases their popularity.
Selling on the street Pamela M. Johnson, author and CEO of San Francisco-based Macavelli Press and The Johnson Agency, a literary PR and book marketing company, is a strong believer in self-promotion. "Guerrilla marketing tactics are very important to the small-business owner," she says. "We have to be creative." Initially Johnson used a print-on-demand company to publish her debut novel, From a Hard Rock to a Gem. In four months, she sold 1,200 copies by publicizing in hair and nail salons and selling copies out of her car's trunk. Thanks to her initial efforts, she was later able to secure an investor, print 20,000 copies and get her book in major bookstores.
Although book distributor Ingram and book wholesaler Baker & Taylor now distribute Macavelli Press titles, Johnson still swears by unorthodox marketing methods. She and her friends will take an afternoon to "poster the city," putting up posters of book covers in urban areas and at major construction sites. She'll leave bookmarks in taxis and approach people with them at malls. "Urban literature is catching ground at the street level," she says. Last September she took a trip to New York City. Street vendors located next to subway stations were hawking hip-hop lit—and people were buying. "Everybody was reading on the train," she says.
Mark Anthony is publisher and president of New York City-based Q-Boro Books. Recently Anthony partnered with Urban Books, a firm that publishes three to four hip-hop books each month and will, eventually, publish all Q-Boro Books' hardcore street lit. Urban Books was founded by bestselling author Carl Weber, whose work includes The Preacher's Son and So You Call Yourself a Man, his latest. Anthony also writes hip-hop lit. St. Martin's Griffin is publishing his fourth book, The Take Down, this October. To sell his earlier works, Anthony also hit the streets, quickly realizing that he could easily make $1,000 simply by hawking his book for four hours on 125th Street in Harlem. Anthony would also load up a van with books and visit every street vendor in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. He'd offer vendors a price that beat their distributors' prices, and then he'd collect directly from the vendor. "You see the difference in sales numbers," he says.
Harsh critics and fervent supporters Civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, author of The Souls of Black Folk, inspired many hip-hop authors, including Macavelli's Johnson. Through her characters, Johnson says she hopes to show people outside the "veil"—a term coined by Du Bois—how urban people arrive at their ideas, philosophies and opinions. But she also wants to give black readers something they can identify with. "We want to read books that have characters that look like us," she says. "Black people have been starved for so, so long."
AALBC.com's Johnson agrees. "[Hip-hop lit] appeals to so many kids in the city because they can relate to it," he says. "The stories are familiar. The scenes and characters mimic characters in a rap video." But he also says that, as with rap videos, readers need to remember that hip-hop lit doesn't reflect the way all black people live. "When this does cross over, which I suspect it will, more and more white people will read the genre," he says. "Some will take it for what it is—entertainment—and some will use it to stereotype black people."
Still, many critics say the genre glamorizes gang violence, drug useand prostitution. Stringer's response? "I wish I could give you a different experience," she says. "If it makes you ashamed that there is urban society, you're ashamed of something that's bigger than what I'm writing about. What else can I write about?"
Macavelli's Johnson also has strong reactions to the genre's critics. "A lot of people shun it, but it's a reality and it's somebody's reality. To shun it is to deny someone's reality." She adds that hip-hop authors aim to get inside the mind of inner-city people and really understand how the thug mentality is created. Many hip-hop authors also say their books offer a "you-can-change-your-life-around" lesson. In fact, Macavelli's Johnson says several area schools are incorporating her novels into their curriculum.
But then there's the quality issue. "I think editing is a very tough job," Stringer says. "That is the weak link in our chain." But finding editors who both excel in grammar and have a solid understanding of urban slang is tough, she says. AALBC.com's Johnson says that because the hip-hop-lit trend is on an upward swing, more authors will be introduced, which will mean stiffer competition. "Nothing that starts out in the beginning is as good as it's going to be," he says. "It'll improve over time."
AALBC.com's Johnson says this improvement will continue as hip-hop lit reaches a more diverse audience. Currently, the primary buyers are black females from major urban centers and, more recently, young, black urban men drawn into the exciting story lines. While street lit also is embracing the Latino culture, Macavelli's Johnson says she foresees the genre soon embracing many other cultures. "The urban culture knows no color," she says, noting the number of middle- to upper-class white kids who listen to hip-hop music.
On October 21, 1974, author Goines and his wife were shot and killed. Stringer remembers an interview with Goines' family, who noted how sad it was that Goines died before his books became bestsellers. She says she's thankful she's had the opportunity to see the reaction to her hard work, proud to follow in Goines' footsteps and doesn't see the genre going away anytime soon. "Hip hop is here to stay."
http://www.writersdigest.com/articles/uhl_hiphop.asp
|
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2800
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 09:37 am: |
|
What do you think of our little discussion: that hip hop has destroyed the black community? |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6512
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 12:32 pm: |
|
If hip-hop has "destroyed" the Black community it probably wasn't much a community to begin with. |
Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 92
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 01:13 pm: |
|
I don't believe that hip hop by itself has destroyed the black community. That's ridiculous. I don't know what destroyed it but we are not united anymore like our old folks were and we openly disrespect black women with more hate than any white people. Just watch t.v. or listen to black radio.
I live in a black BLACK area in Chocolate City (Washington D.C.) so I am part of the last fortress so to speak. Yet I have traveled all over the country and it boggles the mind black youth aren't interested in community or being down for each other anymore.
Brothers got a saying "Every man for himself." But I never heard my daddy and uncles speak like that.
|
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 109
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 01:28 pm: |
|
I've been following that discussion. Many poignant points have been made. But to say that hip hop or urban lit is/has destroyed the Black community is, in my view, utter nonsense.
Like everything else, Urban Fiction has its pros and cons. From a literary perspective, I agree that the genre overall severely suffers from lack of editing. I think once the writers and publishers of UF get a strong hold on proper editing, within keeping of UF, that will play a key role in the genre's crossover potential.
Also from a literary perspective, I see UF as an important and necessary slice of Americana. These stories are part of American culture, from a Black and more recently Latino inner city point-of-view, and need to be told and brought to public attention. Urban youth are reading more because they've discovered common ground in the UF stories that talk to and about them. Most urban youth can't relate to Morrison, Ansa, Baldwin, Hurston or even McMillan. But they can and do relate to the tomes written by Woods, Weber, Tyree, Stringer, Noire, and/or Turner.
On the social and cultural fronts, UF is no more likely to make urban youth run out and sell drugs than the local Walgreen's is likely to make urban youth run out and become pharmacists.
UF stands as a depiction of pre-existing inner city life and struggles. Having that life and those struggles slap society dead in the face is what's making people so uncomfortable with the genre. They can no longer disavow or overlook the existence of the depths of social and cultural imbalances in our society. UF authors are giving it to us straight, gritty, raw, and more importantly, firsthand. This isn't some fantasy they've concocted. This is real! It's going on everyday - and has been for generations. Now it's in our face. Deal with it. Is UF representative of how ALL Blacks live? Absolutely not. But has anything ever been representative of how ALL Blacks live? Can anything ever be representative of how ALL Blacks live? Has any one thing ever been the be-all and end-all of the total Black community or diaspora? UF simply depicts a side of Black life that needs to be displayed.
While I am dismayed by those who merely jumped on the bandwagon to cash in, which I liken to the atmosphere surrounding Blaxplotation films of the 70s, I feel that this can actually work in the genre's favor. I'm all for UF stories being brought to the forefront. Who better to get the stories out there and stocked in chain bookstores than the major publishing houses?
In my estimation, UF is a potential good rather than a potential evil for the Black community. We had the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s, Black Panthers in the 60s, Rap/Hip Hop culture in the 70s and 80s, then in the 90s and now moving into the 21st century Urban Fiction, more than any other contemporary Black literature, is positioning itself as the voice of many Blacks. That voice is growing stronger, louder, becoming more marketable, and steadfastly refusing to be ignored.
All I got to say is: Power to the mf-ing people! |
Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 94
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 01:49 pm: |
|
Civil rights movement was in the 1960s, the Black Panthers were part of the Black Power movement of the early 70's.
Rap music and Hip hop Lit are not "Hip Hop Culture".
The culture means the way of thinking, the emphasis on values in that culture. Culture means "mass identity".
While I don't think Hip Hop "CULTURE" has destroyed the black community, I do believe that the values of Hip Hop culture are totally different from the values of Civil Rights and Black Power culture.
Now this may be controversial but I think if anything the Hip Hop culture has been one of the few "glue" holding our community together.
|
Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 95
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 01:54 pm: |
|
That's not to put down Kola Boof who I think is a hellofa woman and I really admire. But that's what I honestly think.
|
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 110
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 02:46 pm: |
|
Nolanfane,
The Civil Rights Movement was kicked off by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a White man on December 1, 1955 in the segregated South.
The Black Panther party began organizing in the late 60s but the party didn't pick up speed until the early 70s.
Rap and Hip Hop Lit are indeed part of Hip Hop Culture. If you like, I can provide sources that detail their common relationship.
If I'm not confusing you with another poster, and forgive me if I am, I believe you posted elsewhere on this forum that you are employed by BET. As an employee of a Black conglomerate, I'm surprised you don't know the above facts off the top of your head.
Further, I likened Hip Hop culture not to the missions of the Civil Rights or Black Power Movement but to the ideology behind the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in that Hip Hop culture's primary intent is to give voice to the Black community, just as the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements gave Blacks a voice back in the day. |
Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 96
Registered: 09-2006
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 03:35 pm: |
|
Hey Urban_Scribe it's no need to attack like that.
We're both basically saying that Hip Hop culture did not destroy the black community right?
Though the civil rights movement began to brew back in 1954 with Brown Decision, it did not become noted in the history books as a full fledged national movement until 1963.
When KING was shot in 1968, the Black Power movement began. James Brown's "I'm Black and I'm Proud" in the early 70's was the anthem of that movement and the Black Panthers were only a small part of the Black Power movement. The Black Power Movement was the "People's" movement.
I did not say that Rap and Hip hop music/literature are not a PART of Hip Hip Culture.
I said that they are not the "CULTURE" and they are not. Music and art forms are things that stem from a cultural ethic and belief system.
Hip Hop Culture is a set of values. Those values are totally different from the values my Pappy had and my Grandpappy had. Giving voice has nothing to do with "what you believe". The Hip Hop Culture as one of your authors stated is not just for blacks--it's for everyone.
The Civil Rights/Black Power movements were expressly about black people embracing each other, being responsible for each other with a strong embracing of Afro-black identity. Now tell me that's the same as Hip Hop Culture.
If all you say is true then where is today's Muhammad Ali, todays Maya Angelou, today's Amiri Baraka? Yo "G", Hip hop aint down with none of that!
|
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2810
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 03:55 pm: |
|
As usual all dates are subject to interpretation.
Did the Civil War begin with the firing on Fort Sumpter, the election of Abraham Lincoln, or John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry?
Organizations had been fighting for black people's Civil Rights since before the Civil War. They were active around the turn of the century when the NAACP was formed, and when Garvey's movement was founded. A Phillip Randolph tried to organize a March on Washington during WWII.
The Modern Civil Rights movement--of Civil Disobedeince and demonstrations, etc formally began some time between the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Sit In Movement, 1955-1960. The Black Power movement began with Stokely Carmichael during the march when he coined the phrase Black Power (1965?) and the expelling of all whites from SNCC and CORE and you had groups spring up that rejected King's non violent approach--
The Black Panthers were Revolutionary Marxists and, though they insisted that the vanguard and the membership be black they worked with white revolutionaries and orgamizations.
Say it Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud came out in 1968 and it wasn't the anthem of anything.
The Black Power movement involved a small number of activists, the philosophy was adopted by black mainstream politicians.
Hip Hop Culture is a set of values? Whose values? Snoop Doggy Doggs? Public Enemy's? Tupac Shakurs? The Black Eyed Peas? Biz Markie's? Ice-T's? (now we will get into the "Dey ain't hip hop thang).
The Civil Rights Black Power movements were only incidentally about black people embracing each other. They were about getting basic rights in the one case, and getting power in the other. People who were involved especially in the latter or in revolutionary movements were just as likely to use coercion on black people who were counter revolutionaries or toms as white racists.
The Black Panthers were Marxists. They rejected cultural Nationalism as racism and incorrect.
There is no today's Muhammad Ali, Maya or Amiri because these are not revolutionary times. Like it or not black people are setting for trying to get their piece of the pie--economic development they say as though somebody can wave a wand and make that happen.
The people are not revolutionary. They do not want to change the system. They just want what they think is their part of it.
Get mines! |
Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 100
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 04:10 pm: |
|
Hey Chris I disagree with you bigtime on the "values" thang.
You damned straight that Hip Hop Culture is a set of values just like any other culture. There's plenty of good books on just that issue. Wasn't it Joan Morgan who said black women younger than 30 don't mind being called "bitch" because it's part of their culture? (Hip Hop Culture).
The Black Power Movement didn't have that shit man. Black women was called "Queens" and "mothers of the race".
I'm 47 years old so I'm not a kid making empty statements here.
The values I grew up with are not the values of today's youth AT ALL bro.
|
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2811
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 04:36 pm: |
|
Nolanfane:
Joan Morgan is full of crap. Go on the street and call some woman you don't know a bitch and see what happens to you.
If you grew up with those values, you were a minority. That's what we (I was born in 1950--I am 56 years old) like to delude ourselves with. We were so moral and so good and so race conscious.
Where did these people today come from, then? From US that's who because we were not all those things--we just like to think we were. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5367
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 06:11 pm: |
|
In the midst of that dissertation, Urban Scribe just glosses over the fact that this generation can't relate to Toni Morrison or James Baldwin or Zora Neale Hurston as if this is a feather in their caps. That's the problem. These kid's worlds end and begin with their myopic vision. They have no sense of the larger world around them. They are stifled and stunted by their own prosaic little culture. There was a time not so long ago when if we couldn't relate to the literary greats of the day, we read them in order to do so, to expand our minds and gain enlightenment. Nobody made excuses for lazy intellects. Yes, urban lit is a genuine genre which has its place in the annals of black fiction, but spare me the way some folks are anointing it like it's a black New Testament, giving props and rewarding it for no other reason than that it's an authentic depiction of a shallow, sordid, violent lifestyle. Let's keep it real. If ya git my drift. |
Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 692
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 06:41 pm: |
|
Absolutely, Cynique.
People forget that James Baldwin also wrote about the ghetto--he was born in Harlem, for crying out loud! NOBODY wrote about the Harlem ghetto with more eloquence than he. Nobody(as far as I know) has ever surpassed him in this regard. Read his "Harlem Ghetto" essay from 1948; read "No Name in The Street", or the first part of Another Country, etc. He writes about the same things these U.F. creeps scribble about, but with thousands of times more depth and understanding. These Urban Fiction books are just gangster rap films put into words. |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 111
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 06:42 pm: |
|
Nolanfane,
We ARE on the same side of this issue; it's only the presentation of our arguments that differs.
My apologies if my previous post seemed like an attack. I'm having a hectic day at the office and only had a quick minute to write so I just wanted to get to the point. Again, apologies if I came across aggressive.
As for the Ali, Angelou or Baraka of today, I am witnessing this on a small scale in music via Talib Kweli, Common, India.Arie, Jill Scott, and to a lesser extent, Nas. There's not a single CONTEMPORARY Black literary figure who leaps out at me; least of all in Urban Fiction. While I do feel that UF represents more of a reflection of the times than any other Black literature today, I can not point to one whose work is mesmerizingly heads and shoulders above the rest. So for the most part, I have to side with Chrishayden here and agree that we're not living in revolutionary times - not in the sense of the 60s and 70s, anyway. So perhaps, perhaps the times are not dire enough today, in comparison, for a revolutionary figure.
We may never see another such artist, musical, literary or otherwise, again in our lifetime with the magnitude of an Ali, Angelou or Baraka. We'll have many notables, yes, many prolifics, yes, but so far I've yet to see "The One" with sublime, superhuman-esque poise, charisma, or articulation. "The Visionary" who captures the pure essence of today's Black generation and today's Black experience.
Believe me, I'm on the look-out. And I would very much like to be proven wrong. |
Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 694
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 07:16 pm: |
|
Urban_scribe, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but you can check out MY novel, NATE, at Amazon! |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 112
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 07:31 pm: |
|
Well said, Cynique. You gets no argument from me.
My question is: Isn't writing, including fiction, always personal?
Baldwin, Hurston, Wright, et al, wrote from personal reflection of their day. Should today's youth read Baldwin and Hurston, etc, ABSOLUTELY! But they're not, for the most part, because there is a generational disconnect that they can not relate to. It is heartbreaking that this generation overall hasn't even HEARD OF those writers.
I was fortunate enough to be exposed to the masters of Black literature via my parents who came up in the 40s and 50s. This generation's parents came up in the 70s and 80s. There's been a significant cultural shift as well as a huge generation gap. I say this generation is reading the Black literature, i.e., Urban Fiction, that is personal to them NOW.
Y'know, I ride the city buses and subways here in NYC on a daily basis. I encounter lots of high schoolers commuting back and forth and I eavesdrop on some of their conversations. I usually can only shake my head and muse at many of their assertions that they "Wouldna been no slave." "Wouldna been sitting on the back of no bus."
What I'm getting at is that this generation of urban youth is not my grandparents' generation, not your generation, not my parents' generation or even mine. In comparison to what my grandparents read coming up, what you read coming up, what my parents read coming up or what I read coming up, this generation is reading drivel. Like I said, you gets no argument from me on that point. But in this generation's defense, I must say that they are reading the literature that is personal to them. Literature that THEY can relate to. |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 113
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 07:43 pm: |
|
Schakspir,
Next week I'm doing my Fall book buying and your novel is ALREADY on my list. Beatcha to it!
I don't know if I can PM you on this forum so I can be brutally honest with you about my thoughts on your book.
Belated CONGRATULATIONS on your award. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2817
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 12:28 pm: |
|
Cynique:
You didn't know who they were and you did just fine.
Now you do (probably found out who they were last week) and you are feeling so superior. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5376
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 12:42 pm: |
|
You can't even post a comment with a frame of reference, chrishayden. So shut up because you don't know what you're talking about. You try to put people in little boxes that you have conjured up in your narrow little mind and your are invaribly way off the mark. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2819
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 01:06 pm: |
|
I got a PHD in Cynique!
I know what makes ya TICK! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5379
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 01:14 pm: |
|
That's the pathetic thing about you, and your deluded self, chrishayden. You have created a monster and labeled it "Cynique" because it's easier for you to deal with a lie than the truth. You appear to have difficulty coping with anything that doesn't comply with your warped view of the world. |
Libralind2
Regular Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 379
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 05, 2006 - 10:26 pm: |
|
Schakspir writes:People forget that James Baldwin also wrote about the ghetto--he was born in Harlem, for crying out loud! NOBODY wrote about the Harlem ghetto with more eloquence than he. Nobody(as far as I know) has ever surpassed him in this regard. Read his "Harlem Ghetto" essay from 1948; read "No Name in The Street", or the first part of Another Country, etc. He writes about the same things these U.F. creeps scribble about, but with thousands of times more depth and understanding.
LiLi: I had this book in my hands today and put it back. Im going back to Half Price and pick it up. It was .75 |
|
Email This Page