Old School Reading

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED THURSDAY, MARCH 23 2006

My reading selection took a drastic turn at the beginning of this year. I can’t remember whether that was by choice for the New Year or by habit. I can honestly tell you that it was definitely time for a change since I had long burned out on the genre I was reading prior. A change was so badly needed because I hadn’t even bothered to pick up a book when I dropped by the library to return the armful of unread books. (If you know me, the general question is always ‘what have you been reading lately?’)To answer that very question, my reading has lately included the likes of Iceberg Slim (née Robert Beck) and Donald Goines. Unfortunately, those two names alone bring chills and frowns to some faces within the Black community because of the content of their works, a harsh look at reality (for these individuals) of what the black experience meant. But if these same faces got off their high horses and actually took the time to read their works instead of judging them on face value, they would realize that in spite of their graphic contents their books have such an intelligence to them that it can parallel most “literary classics” in diction and in flow. It brings back a time when it was known that some of the smartest people in the neighborhood were the most conniving and underhanded folks around. Very shrewd, but they were always up to no good. The same ones the old folks used to complain about that if they just put their minds to work for good they could change the whole world. Those people that left prison with a better diction and education than they ever could get out of a public school. A sort of painful contrast in the basic ignorance we see out here in the streets and the music that is being played in thumping cars. Because of these books from former pimps, I had long forgotten that it took intelligence to survive street life, something I had to deny in my attempt to fit into the “proper” avenues of class.My most recent read, a book that I just finished this morning, fits into this old school class although it was written and published in 2003 by Atria Books by Roland S. Jefferson’s Damaged Goods. He fits into the category because of his 1974 book The School on 103rd Street, which I plan on reading later on today. Reading the foreword of his book [103rd] of his tragic story in the printing world, I am more appreciative of the fact that true talent is always being turned away from the publishing world don’t nearly get the recognition that it deserves. That’s if 103rd is as good or if not better than its successor. What brought on the Old School reading?I had always been an Old School reader reading [James] Baldwin and [Richard] Wright; Zora Neale Hurston and Dorothy West, and whoever else I was reading when I was on my Harlem Renaissance kick way back when. I’m not trying to do the “intellectual” thing as I am wrapping my fingers around a good book. To me, unlike most of the old school book, most if not none of the contemporaries put their own “stank” to the story. Everybody (particularly my black folks) is so busy trying to sound so educated that they don’t bother to include the experiences that educate them. I would be lying if I said there weren’t any good ones out there, but they are usually the hardest to find. So many of the others are so monotone with monotone characters (or as I like to call them those books that basic theme is I’m all that and a bag of chips but I can’t find anybody) that it is almost sickening that they are the quickest to get published while talent like Mr. Jefferson took almost thirty years to get any recognition from the publishing world. It was through my need to seek out other genres out of boredom that I was able to discover Walter Moseley (up until I was nineteen I had a great fear of suspense and mystery) and Samuel R. Delany (autobiographical; I have yet to read any of his sci-fi stuff yet.)What’s next after my “Old School” kick?Well, I have three books by William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury, Mosquitoes and As I Lay Dying that need to get cracking on. If not Faulkner, then Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day or Laura Esquivel (author of Like Water for Chocolate) the Law of Love, and the only reason I hadn’t picked up the latter (because she is one of my favorite female writers of all time) is because aside from the reading there is an accompanying CD that I haven’t learned the patience to sit and read and sit and listen to it. I should break down and read Passion Marks by Lee Hayes since a friend of mine wants me to read the sequel so he can talk to someone about the matter. Of course, I own those books along with a host of others including the Harry Potter Series that I haven’t even touched (Harry Potter fans please don’t stone me!!!). Because I own them I honestly don’t have a clue when I will pull them from my shelves and read them. It isn’t as if I have 21 days to check them out and return them.