| Author | Message | ||
     Ssssss Rating: |
One thing I find annoying about "the review world" lately...are the growing attacks on the credibility of author Maya Angelou. First, my favorite poet Wanda Coleman, wrote a scathing review of Maya's last book in the L.A. Times. That I could stomach, because much of what Wanda said was true. But now there has been a re-printing of an old essay/review by White novelist and intellectual Francine Prose (it's titled "I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read")...inwhich she denigrates Maya as a talentless "sentimentalist" whose work should not be taught in schools. On top of that, Times editor Steve Wasserman and the author of a science fiction novel called "Cosm" (inwhich Maya is portrayed as a witless, no-talent overrated by the black community...Angela Bassett was asked to do a film version)...have both recently made disparaging remarks about Maya's talent and have branded her--"overrated". I wholeheartedly disagree and I cannot imagine how anyone who has read "Even the Stars Look Lonesome" or "Caged Bird" or several other of Angelou's books and keep a straight face (or keep their bowels from moving) while claiming that this very "precise word placer"--a natural woman and a genuine mother spirit--is "talentless" or "bad for our children's reading curriculum." Excuse me while I let my hair down. Maya Angelou's work is laced with one unmovable ingredient--"truth". Pure as cracked sugarcane. She tells it without heirs. Not only that...the woman can write. She can rhyme. And more than all that combined--she has devoted her art, not to the people who sign her checks, but to her own people--her community. Whether they want to remember or not, Miss Angelou WAS THERE for the 1960's (true, she has fabricated a bond with Malcolm X for modern times, when in reality--so many famous Negroes who praise him today would not return his calls back then or acknowledge in public that they knew him--TRUST ME, I know the feeling)...but Maya Angelou has still honored her people and did everything she could to see them liberated, redeemed and "entertained". And she did KNOW Malcolm X when they both were in Africa. In fact, as a child in Omdurman...I saw photos of Malcolm (who we call "Red Rooster") and Maya standing with my mother's tribe--the Oromo. Farrakhan came to Sudan and told the newspapers that he was NOT...NOT a black man...but a Muslim. But Malcolm X proclaimed himself a black husband, a black father and a black son--a child of Africa. Mama Maya did the same. No matter what any "academics" say with their noses in the air--Maya's poems--"Phenomenal Woman", "And Still I Rise" and "On the Pulse of Morning" are as good as anything written by any Prestige literary poet in the last century. These works are simple and imbued with sentimentality...yet still...they are of another world. They are legitimate pieces of sky and time. The technical process in all three is of major note. Maya Angelou is BAD as hell. She's a writing woman and a griot. This blatant and disrespectful attack on her are not deserved...nor do they have merit. FRANCINE PROSE...should realize that she has written over 30 books...but not a single "memorable line"...not a single phrase or idea that she has produced with her own pen has become "famous..of everyday use to the public". Her "well reviewed prestige books"...are read in morgues and by frigid white people who haven't had sex since the last they time they were warm enough to produce snot. Yet she has the nerve to take a hatchet to Maya. I am outraged that this is continuing--unchallenged. Kola Boof | ||
| Tee C. Royal Rating: N/A |
Kola, interesting dialogue you have going on here and I agree with a lot of what you've said, but I have loved all the pieces I've read by Maya Angelou. She exudes a sincerity (to me) that you don't see often in people; especially someone considered famous. In spite of this, what can one do when a reviewer attacks an authors work? Not much from where I'm sitting; other than voice your own thoughts and continue to share your opinion to those willing to listen. My Mom always told me it's not what you say, it's how you say it and I'll stop at that... -Tee | ||
| Kola Rating: |
Hi Tee, I like ALL of Maya's books as well...but that isn't the issue that her critics are raising...and keep in mind, her critics are some very powerful academics. I named "works" of hers...that can stand up on a literary scale with her peers. While Maya may come across as a "folk" writer...she is ALSO a literary artist. I'm tired of people like Francine Prose so viciously attacking Maya's work and no one saying a word on Maya's behalf. As for what you were saying about your mom's advice...I couldn't figure out what you meant specifically--it was so vague(were you speaking about "me" or Francine Prose?). I myself go the Alice Walker-Audre Lorde approach....which is to "NEVER BE VAGUE" or beat around the bush...because it stifles "honest" communication. But it's always good to hear from you, Tee. And I also love Maya Angelou. She's one of my heroes. | ||
| catty Rating: N/A |
everybody knows your girl zz all over franceene take it up with her drinking coffee elsewhere - acknowledgements: "Special thanks to Francine Prose for her sharp wit and constant support." barnes and noble - zz: " . . . [Virginia Woolf's] heirs apparent -- in some regards -- are Alice Munro and Francine Prose; her living incarnation, however, is Michael Cunningham. . ." oprah: Francine Prose, writing in O, The Oprah Magazine pronounced Packer's book "acerbic, hilarious, nuanced, as fiercely unsentimental and deliciously subtle as Jane Austen." identity theory: ZZ. . . We had Francine Prose and that was great. It was really great because what happened was that they take everyone(everyone has been selected)—the visiting faculty don't really know what our writing was like—so to familiarize herself she asked us to submit a sample of our writing. So there were ten of us there and there was this silence and then she said, "I'm going to read some things I like." She obviously hated what we all had put forth. And it was this incredibly—not even humiliating—imagine you have been selected to this program and this person who you have never met just basically says en masse she doesn't like our stuff. After she read what she liked and said why, I thought it was really great, this is the ultimate education. I went back and looked at my stuff in this completely different way. About a third—that would be about three people—looked at their writing but the others just rebelled and it was sad because she was right. That was one of the times that I realized to be a writer you have to have a certain humility, otherwise you are not going to improve. RB: Prose is certainly known and respected in the writer culture. But I wonder if there was a rebellion because she didn't represent a certain masculine authority? ZZ: That definitely occurred to us. There was an element of that. luv ya! pee wee | ||
| Kola Rating: N/A |
I intend to take care of Francine's ass before it's all over. As for Z.Z. Now that she and I are in the same "anthology" (Oct. 8th)...and now that critics know that I was originally asked to "replace" Z.Z. in the collection (after she couldn't meet her deadline)-- but then she heard how powerful and cutting edge my story was and decided to come back and participate after all....press people are trying to start a "cat fight" between us. I think Z.Z.'s absolutely great. She's the white establishment's new literary darling...and I, Kola...am NOBODY's darling....but then again, my success has always been multiplied by being the outsider. I personally think Berniece McFadden, A.J. Verdelle and Wanda Coleman are the best of the best in black women's fiction right now. I haven't really been published yet...and I'm more of an avant garde glamour celebrity...because of all the press, the industry doesn't realize how talented I am yet. That I can actually "write" something. Or that I have a "vision" to go along with my prose. But I intend to get Francine Prose for trashing Mama Maya. I hope Z.Z. doesn't try to jump to Francine's defense...'cause that would be unfortunate. | ||
| Tee C. Royal Rating: |
Kola, my apologies for not being clear. What I meant was that sometimes a reviewer says things in a way that may come across "wrong" to the person reading it. My thoughts were in reference to your comments about Francine Prose...you can't control what she says, it's her right whether it's scathing, sugar-coated, or whatever. And, I was simply saying that I do believe in constructive criticism, but it's not what you say, it's how you say it. -Tee | ||
| idrissa Rating: N/A |
I am cracking up at Kola (cause I'm new to this venue) but in all sincerity; I feel her rage like a child whose mother has been attacked...I don't play the dozens very well. I had read so much about ZZ Packer's work and went running to buy her book of stories. I was not impressed. Somehow; to me most of the stories lacked a punch; especially at the end....but I did enjoy them and will buy her books again. Being a 50 year-old AAwoman who came of age in the sixties reading Nikki Giovanni,Sonia Sanchez, J.E. Franklin, Don L. Lee, Imamu Amiri Baraka (when he was Leroi Jones)Toni Cade Bambara, Louise Merriweather, Clarence Major and Verta-Mae Grosvenor (anybody remember her) and then discovering Gwen Brooks, Ann Petry, Paule Marshall, Langston and Zora....and I could go on and on....I find a lot of the newer writers lack the quality of creative and lyrical writing that I cut my teeth on.... Too many times; I am disappointed but still I enjoy the newer writers (even sisters like Rosalyn McMillan who I think can out-write her sister Terry). I miss the writings in literary magazines such as Black World, OBSIDIAN, Journal of Black Poetry and will continue to read their books and support them. Anybody from the old skool (as they say) readers of Black literature? I wonder..... | ||
| Gene_6pack Newbie Poster Username: Gene_6pack Post Number: 5 Registered: 02-2004 Rating: |
Maya writes like someone getting paid by the word. If she were white, she could not get her stuff copied on a Xerox. The soft bigotry of reduced expectations. Literary bussing. | ||
| Penknife_press Newbie Poster Username: Penknife_press Post Number: 2 Registered: 02-2004 Rating: N/A |
idrissa: Yes, there are some old 'skool' readers here. But that was then, this is now, and the revolution is dead. Luckily, the writings still live. |
