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For those of you that haven't read my profile, the name of this blog "Invisible Woman" is based on the book by Ralph Ellison "Invisible Man". It is a fictional account of a black man's invisibility in white society, but it might as well be non-fiction. It is super eloquent, and just as relevant today as it was decades ago when it was written. Undercover Black Man gave out a little info on my man last week:
It’s amazing the amount of cultural information at our fingertips via the Internet. With enough time, one could give oneself a college-level education in world history or literature or philosophy.
You want to know a supremely cool resource? Public radio archives.
In June, Stanford English professor Arnold Rampersad spoke with David Inge on WILL-AM 580, the University of Illinois radio station. The subject was Rampersad’s new book, “Ralph Ellison: A Biography.”
Their conversation makes me hungry to read Ellison’s “Invisible Man” again; I haven’t since high school.
Prof. Rampersad has interesting insights on the major mystery of Ralph Ellison’s creative life: Why, after having written a great American novel, did he never finish a second one?
You can download the full 50-minute interview as an MP3 podcast here. (Click on the headphones icon, then save to disk.)I’m streaming a 4½-minute audio bite on my Vox annex, dealing with the criticism Ellison received from black nationalists and separatists. The clip begins with a question from David Inge. Click here to hear it.
From IW: For those of you interested in the black classics, I hope you check it out.
3 comments:
Thanks for the linkage, IW. Some while ago, I thought I'd found audio of Ellison himself speaking... but now I can't find it on my hard drive, and don't remember where I saw it on the Web. My hard drive is like a junked-up attic... I need to do some spring cleaning or something.
My parents had this book on the shelf when I was a kid. Everytime I saw it I wondered how do they know he is a man if he is invisible.
Later I understood the meaning and the definite value of Ellison's literary skill. Reading him was when I grew up.
Clean it out, UBM...I'm sure you have the treasures of the Sierra Madre in there! @debo: I started reading that book at least 5 times before I read it in it's entirety, don't feel bad. I guess I really wouldn't have been ready before anyway.
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