The way Cassius finds himself uncharacteristically and unintentionally boosting the slave labor market in order to support himself is reminiscent of Bigger Thomas' accidental murder on the first day of his new job. The way Steve Lift forces Cassius to rap in front of a cheering white crowd reminds me of the battle royal scene, as both Cassius and the narrator's supposed racially-inherited skills become entertainment for the benefit of white people. Detroit's afrocentric art reminds me of Zora Neal Hurston's poetic prose and focus on life in black communities. WorryFree is a slave labor system capitalizing on circumstances people can't control, a modernized "Beloved." The white voice Cassius uses could be likened to Gunnar's white shuffle, as both characters struggle to cater to two separate groups of people.
Yeah, some of those comparisons were a stretch. But I guess my point is, it's cool to see how the themes we've discussed over the semester connect. The American social systems we've done our best to analyze are infinitely more complicated than one book or poem or film can capture. But by stepping back and seeing how these works are similar, it's easier to get the big picture. Like, how we were able to discuss race and class simultaneously in our discussion about "Sorry To Bother You." It would've been harder to have that conversation if we hadn't had five novels worth of discussion under our belts already.
I'm not saying five books and a handful of poems granted us a full understanding of the American Social System. I don't think we could quite get there in one semester. And obviously we all came into the class at different places, in terms of our understanding of concepts like race and class. Nevertheless, I think the more we expose ourselves to literature, poetry, and art, the more we'll understand about the world we live in today. Especially if we can connect that literature, poetry, and art to the historical context in which it was made.
Oof. That was such a Mr. Leff sentence.
This is a really good post, and I think all the comparisons you made are really valuable connections. I think it makes sense that Sorry To Bother You would pull from so many different themes and ideas, because it's so contemporary and I wouldn't be surprised if the people involved were aware of all of the different kinds of protest literature that preceded it. I also agree that having read so many different books this semester, each with different focuses, is really helpful in being able to look at a bigger picture of race, class, gender, and their intersections in America.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that going through this class made watching Sorry To Bother You a much more interesting and meaningful experience. Situating ourselves in the protest fiction of the past gave us a springboard to go off of during discussions, and I think it gave all of us common references, so that someone could say something like “this reminds me of invisible man because of x y and z”, and all of us would be on the same page. I liked your connections to past novels, I hadn’t even thought about the battle royal scene in relation to the rapping, but now that you say it, it makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteReally cool post! I defentietly felt similar feelings while watch and after reflecting for a bit. It's interesting for me to see so many black artists putting out similar messages throughout different points in the past century. To me, it's an embodiment of the fact that America still has a long way to go when it comes to the treatment of African-Americans (and it's also a bit disheartening tbh that this country as a whole hasn't really fix those big problems.)
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