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Concise Texts - Comprehensive Coverage
Mar. 9th, 2011 02:33 pmThis week has definitely been a shift of gears. Gone (temporarily) are the long reads, and the late night efforts to get that last chapter in before bed. In their stead are a litany of little texts. Enough of that musing, after all, you already know that!
Of those texts, I enjoyed W.E.B. Du Bois' "The Comet" most of all. This is probably because of its short story format, and the fact that it was not explicitly a commentary on race in America (though it most certainly was, it just did not say so itself). Leaving it at that certainly is not quite giving it its due worth.
The fact that the main character, Jim, is not 'defined' as black until he meets the first human after the comet sweeps by (which, at least from a scientific standpoint is dumb, W.E.B. Du Bois is certainly no scientist if that's what he thinks might happen, but I'll suspend my disbelief and get off my soapbox for now), is significant. He is nothing more than a man, in a world without humanity. Only when another person shows up, Julia, a rich white woman, does it at all matter what he is. Even then, for the most part, until society shows up, or influences Julia to act in some way (like when she fled from the radio building), race does not matter. I take from it that our humanity is independent from our identity.
This is what I find to be completely fascinating about the short story. Herein there is a demonstration that all our prejudices are artificial. The woman does not immeadiately this "omg a black man," but rather "omg a person in a city!" W.E.B. Du Bois captures this distinction perfectly with that 'meeting' scene in his short story.
Of those texts, I enjoyed W.E.B. Du Bois' "The Comet" most of all. This is probably because of its short story format, and the fact that it was not explicitly a commentary on race in America (though it most certainly was, it just did not say so itself). Leaving it at that certainly is not quite giving it its due worth.
The fact that the main character, Jim, is not 'defined' as black until he meets the first human after the comet sweeps by (which, at least from a scientific standpoint is dumb, W.E.B. Du Bois is certainly no scientist if that's what he thinks might happen, but I'll suspend my disbelief and get off my soapbox for now), is significant. He is nothing more than a man, in a world without humanity. Only when another person shows up, Julia, a rich white woman, does it at all matter what he is. Even then, for the most part, until society shows up, or influences Julia to act in some way (like when she fled from the radio building), race does not matter. I take from it that our humanity is independent from our identity.
This is what I find to be completely fascinating about the short story. Herein there is a demonstration that all our prejudices are artificial. The woman does not immeadiately this "omg a black man," but rather "omg a person in a city!" W.E.B. Du Bois captures this distinction perfectly with that 'meeting' scene in his short story.
