Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

BOOK
"Great Literature i.s simply language charged with meaning to the utmost
possible degree ." -Ezra Pound
"Nothing is ever finished, except the mediocre or the pretentious . The
only people who should be consistently interested in masterpieces are
museums and other- people who have no use for them ."
-LeRoi Jones
S I HAVE often said
before, to the point of
repetition cramps, criticism
of writing by
Afro-Americans is -
and should be-the responsibility
of Afro-American critics . Not that
black critics are more perspective
or analytical or, for that matter,
better writers of criticism ; but,
white critics have not in the past
(as in the present) been able to explain
or translate black literature
accurately . This is not heresy but
fact, and the few reviews that were
written, by whites, of John A . Williams'
The Man Who Cried 1 Am
(Little, Brown, $6.95 ) support
this statement explicitly .
Most good fiction borders on
truth, i.e ., it is a reflection of the
truth . If Newark and Detroit of
1967 had not happened, one could
have, in all likelihood, read Mr .
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968
The Man Who Cried I Am
NOTED
Williams' book with less fear and,
indeed, could have smiled at the
uncommon ending . One could have
contentedly put the book aside as
an excellent work of fiction and, of
course, recommended it to friends
and associates ; you know, like we
recommended The Stranger, Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Marr,
Black Boy, et cetera, et cetera . One
could have suggested this book with
the same ease and delight as one
suggested the early John Coltrane .
However, the summer of 1967 was
not fiction ; therefore it added a new
dimension to this novel : the dimension
of prophesy .
As with black music, black literature
continues to grow, extend,
and ceases to be invisible . Our literature
now cuts and you do bleed .
Mr. Williams' latest book is this
type of work ; a blood bringer, causing
you to hurt and forcing you to
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