Agree, this is excellent. I learned so much! I am always fascinated how little artists (writers, painters, etc) are appreciated in their life time. So often they are "discovered" afterwards.
I wonder if it’s not that there is little appreciation, but so much to be appreciated that a lifetime of work is mostly (or only) noticed by those seeking to appreciate it?
I reread this book for the first time since high school this year and was blown away by the prose; lots of quotes ended up in my commonplace book. Thanks for the biographical info, I hadn’t realized there was such a gap between initial publication and the book’s later popularity.
You can feast on Hurston’s language it’s so rich. I’ve seen critics complain that it’s “overripe” or overwrought, but only in a few places really. And it’s by risking that charge she can give us so many delectable phrases and passages.
Excellent. Of the many attempts in the press to revive her and explain her disappearance, the first one I first read was Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in 1985 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/21/books/a-negro-way-of-saying.html. Gates has done more to promote (and rediscover, in the case of Harriet Wilson and Hannah Crafts) the writings of African American women than almost any other scholar.
Agree, this is excellent. I learned so much! I am always fascinated how little artists (writers, painters, etc) are appreciated in their life time. So often they are "discovered" afterwards.
Thanks, Shayne! It is a puzzle. Art tends to speak to a time—and sometimes that time is long after the artist’s life.
I wonder if it’s not that there is little appreciation, but so much to be appreciated that a lifetime of work is mostly (or only) noticed by those seeking to appreciate it?
That makes sense. The truth is we’re mostly ignorant of everything; there’s too much to know and evaluate.
Well that’s a relief because I constantly feel I know absolutely nothing about anything
LOL
Thank you for the essay. Does she contextualize the title at all? Why this title do you think? I have not finished reading it.
You’re welcome! Re the title, it’s a line from later in the book, after the hurricane.
Wow I totally remember this book. Going to need to add it to the library.
Totally worth it—just for her use of language alone.
Thank you for this! Have you read Barracon by her? Both the book and the way it came about are very interesting!
I haven’t. But it’s on my list!
She showed experiences the powerful didn't want to see. Her fierce freedom, and willingness to live her life on her own terms, inspires me.
Same here. She was a remarkable woman.
I reread this book for the first time since high school this year and was blown away by the prose; lots of quotes ended up in my commonplace book. Thanks for the biographical info, I hadn’t realized there was such a gap between initial publication and the book’s later popularity.
You can feast on Hurston’s language it’s so rich. I’ve seen critics complain that it’s “overripe” or overwrought, but only in a few places really. And it’s by risking that charge she can give us so many delectable phrases and passages.
Excellent. Of the many attempts in the press to revive her and explain her disappearance, the first one I first read was Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in 1985 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/21/books/a-negro-way-of-saying.html. Gates has done more to promote (and rediscover, in the case of Harriet Wilson and Hannah Crafts) the writings of African American women than almost any other scholar.
He’s a treasure. I just got his recent anthology of Hurston essays, “You Don’t Know Us Negroes.” It’s incredible.