please give akin's piece another look-see. it is really quite good (and i think the "two" was intentional, not a mistake)
it is a really important statement on cole's work, and on the issue of race in the u.s. that informs the novel.
i have immediately added the link to my students' reading, and will be discussing it in class.
i also want to explore some of the points akin makes, but that will have to wait till i can reread it thoroughly and have time to write. i would note that the racial politics that are raised in the article make claims that are open to discussion. two come to mind, very quickly.
when julius doesn't respond to Mr. F, that doesn't mean that he is dismissing the racial claim placed on him. in other instances, as in the bar downtown or with the taxi driver, or with the young men who mug him, the racializing of the encounters are much much more nuanced. he himself calls farouk "brother" and then wonders whether he was entering a subjective space that he himself was uncomfortable with. yet there are lots of instances where "brother" or its equivalent is used, and where he is comfortable. consider the bootblack incident.
in the case of Mr. F, what strikes me is that the patient not only has the last word, there is no further reflection on julius's part, as in the example of the post office. i think he accepts Mr. F's claim on his racial solidarity because, simply, he doesn't refute it, as he does elsewhere when he wanted to. note that in the taxi he uses the term, and that he approvingly accepts racial claims made by his unnamed "friend."
as for his biracialness, i would dispute that. he is presented and presents himself as black. but his cultural affinities are not "black," by and large.
i want to cut this short since i have to get ready for class and teach the novel. i believe akin made a significant mistake in reversing tahar ben jelloun and choukri. the reason it is significant is that it comes when julius is querying the claims of difference/authenticity/indigeneity that farouk is making. by evoking poeticity with ben jelloun julius leaves unanswered the accusations made against him by farouk, opening up the mental debate that follows, a debate naipaul would never have accepted since he was on the side of racists who found ideologues mentally inferior.
my question for akin, for the text, is how to read all that high western culture if it entails more than a simple racial identifier as "white." and the same applies to julius, who is also not amenable to the simple racial marker as "black," much less mixed.
this is the issue akin raises so thoughtfully, and it is a, if not the, central issue of the novel. as well as a key postcolonial issue, as akin states so well
ken
On 10/3/13 11:03 AM, La Vonda R. Staples wrote:
"two strike me as..." Was this supposed to be, "...to strike me as..."? Also, the post office clerk doesn't 'say'. This means that the clerk made a statement. The post office clerk asked a question, therefore, the word 'queried' (or a synonym) is accurate. Who edited the review? Who edited this book?
This is why I gave you such a hard time a few months ago. I read the review and now I would really like to read 'Open City.' Although, I really think that I (or any one of a million folks) could have served the author better as an editor and consultant.
--
On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 8:01 AM, Amatoritsero Ede <esulaalu@gmail.com> wrote:
Of the many encounters in which Julius, the protagonist of Open City – Teju Cole's elegantly disarming novel – finds himself, two strike me as constituting the pulse of the subtle cultural politics animating the novel. In the first, the young psychiatrist is about to post a letter when the post office clerk, Terry, struck by his choice of stamp, says, "Say, brother, where are you from? 'Cause, see, I could tell you were from the Motherland. And you brothers have something that is vital, you understand me. You have something that is vital for the health of those of us raised on this side of the ocean. Let me tell you something: I am raising my daughters as Africans." further reading at:--
http://www.mtls.ca/issue16/writings/essay/akin-adesokan/
Amatoritsero
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La Vonda R. Staples, WriterBA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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