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Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 108
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 12:13 am: | 
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/books/25XGOIN.html
Hmmm....this article sheds some light, a bit, on the conversations about a) black male readership b)brothers in prison and c)what commercial fiction is available for those uninterested in u-go-girl lit....or as CH as called it "chick lit." |
Chrishayden
Veteran Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 64
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 11:05 am: |
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Yukio:
"Dopefiend" was my favorite Goines novel--but he is not the only commercial fiction for those who are not interested in blackchicklit. |
Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 109
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 02:34 pm: |
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Chrishayden:
OK...I didn't say anything about "Dopefiend." The article suggests that young men[in and out of prison] are reading literature which is related to socalled thug and pimp culture....and this literature is reflected in hip hop music...if u don't know anything about me, you should know by now that use information[in this case an article] to reflect on larger issues... |
Soulofaauthor
Newbie Poster
Username: Soulofaauthor
Post Number: 12
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 08:05 pm: |
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My favorite book by donald has got to be black girl lost. But anyway i'mma tell ya'll this black men in prison do love donald and iceberg.Before I meet and married my husband I had this boyfriend who was in prison and if he didnt read anything else he read donald and iceberg.Everymonth I would send him those books and he read them he would even write me and talk about nothing but they books.Donald and Iceberg been their and when you read they books they are not just writing about other people experinces they lived the life they write about.I guess thats why they sales are still up their after all these years they got longevity. |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 60
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 11:26 am: |
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Hello All,
Yukio: Thanks for showing us the article. I see your point. But, as I stated before there is a vast difference between the books of Goines and Iceberg Slim than the books that are being published today under the hip hop banner. For instance Goines and Slim books did not have the same premise or repeat the same situations over and over again. Sure the books were about the underbelly of Black America society that many would love to deny of ever existing, but today's hip hop books can't make that same claim. I'm waiting on the next Goines or Iceberg Slim to emerge. But as of right now, I ain't seeing it.
All: My favorite Goines book is Daddy Cool. I hope the movie version gets off the ground and see fruitation. |
Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 110
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 11:34 am: |
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thumper:
you were partly the inspiration of the post...when i read the article i thought about some of your past comments about female author domination, the comments of other posters about black men reading in jail, etc.... |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 62
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 12:30 pm: |
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Hello Yukio:
Oh. Now that you mention it, the article does tie in to the previous thread. And if the number of Goines books that are selling today is even half way correct, who's doing all that reading? Certainly not the female reading audience that buys only U-go-girl books. If the black men in jail are reading books that they feel describe their reality, and black women are reading the U-go-girl books that they say relates to their reality; no wonder we aint gettin along. The article certainly dispute the claim that black men don't read fiction, doesn't it? Where does that leave us? |
Yukio
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 111
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 01:29 pm: |
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hmmmmm...it leaves of where it always had...not talking...both genres, for the most part, stroke egos and affirm feelings than challenge and force folk to reconsider what they know about eachother... |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 141
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 01:34 pm: |
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I think it is pertinent to note that IceBerg Slim's book "Trick Baby" was autobiographical. He was actually a pimp, and he wrote about his experiences. |
Soulofaauthor
Newbie Poster
Username: Soulofaauthor
Post Number: 14
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 05:42 pm: |
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Thumper I have to say this I know I lot of black men who read. My best friend a male reads so much I be like hold up can it read it before you want to discuss it.He pisses of his wife cause he reads faster than her and he's one of those types that after he reads it he's gonna tell you the whole book from beginning to end.He's ruined a many good books for me lol.Any way Cynique Trick baby was one of my favorite books by Iceberg But now I loved mama black widow to me that was the best one he ever wrote.I remember when I read it the first time as a teen and when I got older I remember the book and couldn't recall the title and called my older sis and finally she remembered the name months later that book is one of my most prized possessions cause it was the book the made me fall in love with reading |
Chrishayden
Veteran Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 67
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 11:59 am: |
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Cynique:
"Pimp" was autobiographical. "Trick Baby" was about a mulatto con man--supposedly based on somebody he knew--or was that "Mama Black Widow" |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 147
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 01:53 pm: |
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Ok, Chris, you're right. But wasn't Iceberg Slim a mulatto, himself whose mother was a prostitute? |
Chrishayden
Veteran Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 70
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 02:15 pm: |
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Cynique:
No he was not a mulatto (where are you getting this stuff?)
His mama was not a prostitute. I think she had Slim out of wedlock down South and was sent up north to live --have to check that. She got married to a square guy who owned businesses, she fell got hooked up with a fast talking sharpie ran off breaking the square's heart and earning Slim's hatred, which he says he transferred to all women. The sharpie apparently took all she had acquired with the square and beat her up and left them both flat. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 152
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 02:52 pm: |
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Because it's been so long since I became acquainted with IceBerg Slim,Chris, my knowledge of him is admittedly off-track. Why do I have this picture of him in my mind as a fair-skinned man with light eyes? What does he look like? I guess I am confusing him with one of his characters. |
Chrishayden
Veteran Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 73
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004 - 03:01 pm: |
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Cynique:
I don't know--perhaps you are mixing him up in your mind with some other playa you met personally--doing research for your novels, of course (ahem ahem)
This is the only photo I was able to find of Slim on the net
http://www.twbooks.co.uk/authors/icebergslim.html
It is difficult to tell what shade his skin was--I do know he was adopted by Sweet Jones the boss pimp, because he liked "black boys who liked to pimp"--indicating he was dark skinned. The aforesaid Sweet Jones was very dark skinned and hated light skinned black men--he deliberately broke and ruined a light skinned pimp for this reason and got a murder rap for killing some light skinned playa (from St. Louis) who failed to show him the proper respect. |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 65
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 08:30 pm: |
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Hello All,
SOA: Hello. You're preaching to the choir, I know black male read fiction. It's the publishing industry that's playing Boo Boo.
All this talk about Goines and Slim is making me hungry for that good ol' AA pulp fiction. One of the links, in this thread, mentioned a series that was put out by Norton years ago titled Old School Books. Gawd, I loved that series. If any of you run across any of those books, grab it up. |
Soulofaauthor
Newbie Poster
Username: Soulofaauthor
Post Number: 19
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 10:19 pm: |
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o alright thumper i was about to say.but you talking bout those norton books like daddy cool, mama black widow and two of my old school favorite i have to say are portrait of a young man drowning and yesterday will make you cry.It aways use to amaze me that neither of the last two main charcters were african american.What did you all think of that? I still havent been able to find some of those books but then again I havent looked for them at amazon either. |
Soulofaauthor
Newbie Poster
Username: Soulofaauthor
Post Number: 20
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 10:22 pm: |
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Btw thump wasnt mama black widow the one that was suppose to be about someone iceberg knew? |
Crystal
Newbie Poster
Username: Crystal
Post Number: 18
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:15 pm: |
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I'm re-reading Iceberg's Trick Baby/The Story of a White Negro now. It starts off with Iceberg meeting him in jail. I went through an Old School marathon last year re-reading Mama Black Widow and Manchild in the Promise Land. That’s also when I read Clarence Cooper’s Black. And while not in the “pulp fiction” category that’s when I read The Good Negress and The Blacker The Berry. That was some good reading! |
Soulofaauthor
Newbie Poster
Username: Soulofaauthor
Post Number: 21
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 05:27 pm: |
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Crystal I might just reread some of those old school books myself I always try to reread them after a few years and since we been talking about them it wouldnt hurt to refresh my memory on some of them but i gotta say mama black widow was one of those books i dont have to reread it never left my memory in other words like i have said before that book make me fall in love with reading and i never forgot it. |
Spratlin
Newbie Poster
Username: Spratlin
Post Number: 3
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 01:37 pm: |
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Speaking of 'old school' books, has anyone out there read the Old School AA series put out by WW Norton? And if so, whats your opinion---good as Goines, better than or worse than, etc...? |
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