ENGL 3450 The City in Lit&Art Notes on Reading Condescened FINAL PDF Fall 2024

ENGL 3450: The City in Literature and Art Megan E. Mills Fordham University Fall 2024 Professor Keri Walsh...

ENGL 3450: The City in Literature and Art Megan E. Mills Fordham University Fall 2024 Professor Keri Walsh Dealy Hall 112 Tuesday & Friday 1 p.m. (R01) NOTES ON READINGS Friday, Sept. 13. Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Background: The title The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) is misleading, as the work is written by Alice B. Toklas’s partner, Gertrude Stein, and functions mostly as an autobiography of Stein herself. The biography was Stein’s bestselling work and also her most accessible to the average reader, as her other poetry and prose were more obscure and experimental. Stein wrote the biography within six weeks, and while the book was a commercial success, Stein’s brother Leo viewed it as untruthful, and the writer Ernest Hemingway thought it lacked merit. Still, over time, writers and scholars such as Jeanette Winterson and Tamara Ann Ramsay have positioned the work in the tradition of Virginia Woolf’s experimental novelistic biography Orlando (1928), which challenges concepts of gender and singular identity. The Autobiography begins by introducing Toklas and Stein individually. The first two chapters describe Toklas’s upbringing in San Francisco and her move to Paris. They are written in the first person and reveal details such as Toklas’s serious musical training up until her mother’s death and the fact that her life was pleasant but not entirely fulfilling before she came to Paris. When she arrived in Paris, she initially resided with a friend in temporary accommodations before meeting Gertrude Stein, whom she recognized as “a genius.” Toklas then moved into Stein’s rue de Fleurus residence and became her life companion and the typist and curator of her works. The next two chapters relate Stein’s biography in reverse order. The first chapter outlines Stein’s meeting with Matisse and Picasso in Paris and the establishment of the rue de Fleurus salon. The second details her upbringing and how she gave up an education in psychology and medicine to move to Paris and follow her passion for art. Ch. 1 Before I Came To Paris Alice was born in San Francisco. Her mother’s father was a pioneer who came to Ca. in 1849. Her grandfather “came from Polish patriarch stock” Alice was interested in music until age 20. After her mother dies, she loses interest. She led a pleasant life w/many friends. The San Francisco fires happens. Alice was living w/her father.  She meets GS, who talks about her life in Paris. AT decides to go to Paris. She visits GS there, who is living w/her mother. AT says GS is a genius. There are 2 other geniuses besides Gertrude Stein: Pablo Picasso & Alfred Whitehead. Ch. 2 My Arrival in Paris 1907. She meets PIcasso. She meets Matisse. Alice was invited to dinner for all these parties. Helaine, GS’s cook and maid is described as an “excellent cook,” Many of the guests were struggling artists and writers. Years later they w/all have cooks. Helaine leaves in 1913 when she marries and has a boy. But her boy dies and she leaves her husband and returns. Helaine is happy that all the parties have become famous and written about in the Parisian papers. 1907 again: Alice goes to dinner w/these struggling artists and authors. GS speaks to her before the other guests arrive. AT remembers how the “pictures” in the room “were so strange” and the “chairs in the room were all Italian Renaissance” (13). GS had pictures of Picasso, Renoir, Matisse ,& Cezanne, Toulouse, and others. “In short, there was everything” (14). Alice was confused by it all. “A little dark, dapper man” enters the house: Alfy Maurer. Pablo is late for dinner, & Gertrude worries about it. Pablo & Fernande (a woman) enter the apartment. Alice sits next to Pablo. Alice tells him that she likes his portrait of Gertrude. Other people come after dinner. The idea was anyone could come as long as those who came mentioned someone that GS knew. This was “the formula” for those who came. Americans come too. “People came and went, in and out.” (19) Fernanda (Picasso’s lover) liked to talk about 2 subjects: hats and perfumes (19). “Completely American was Gertrude Stein” Gertrude offers to get Alice French lessons (25). She visits Montmartre with Gertrude and she loves it, and visits there often (28). Pablo Picasso “was dressed in what the french call the singe, or a monkey costume, overalls made of blue jean or brown” (29). Fernande is to give Alice French lessons and she & Gertrude visit her at Montmartre. Ch. 3 Gertrude Stein Paris 1903 to 1907. Gertrude studied medicine at John Hopkins, dropped out and joined her brother living in Paris but her brother was in Florence. Her brother meets Cezanne. She and her brother start buying art pieces. Stein observes “There is art and there is official art” (44). A man named Voilard owned lots of Cezanne, and he sold them to GS and her brother. Later, she and her brother haggle over a price for a piece of art by Matisse 2  The narrator talks about where Mattise lived, a walk up overlooking the city and the dark woman who posed for all of Mattise’s paintings. She always wore black (47). Mattise came to Paris to study pharmacy. He became interested in painting. (48). He painted fruit in a cold flat. His art was refused, and he needed the money b/c his daughter was very sick. He also painted nudes. Matisse was at this time 35 years old and he was depressed (52). Gertrude begins to write - she wrote through the night. Gertrude’s brother discovers the work of PIcasso, an unknown Spanish painter. They bought a big picture “very cheap” but Gertrude Stein didn’t like it (56). This was their 1st Picasso that they brought home. Picasso begins a portrait of Gertrude Stein (59). “Gertrude Stein and Pablo PIcasso immediately understood each other” (60). Gertrude got in the habit of walking around Paris alone after her portrait sittings with Picasso (63). Valloton asked to paint Gertrude. He used crayons to start (64). Charlie Chaplin starts hanging out with everyone (65). Gertrude finished her book “Three Lives”. She wrote it by hand and wasn’t able to retype it on a typewriter. Etta Cone offers to type the book for Gertrude. Gertrude and her brother travel to Italy for vacation, as they always did. “Everybody who had become famous had sold their first painting to her” (67?) Gertrude begins that summer writing her book The Making of American (70). Gertrude and Mattisse were gossipers, and they enjoyed gossiping together (84). Tuesday, September 17. “If I Told Him, A Complete Portrait of Picasso” by Gertrude Stein Would I like it? If Napoleon Repeated words Now to date. Who came first? Was there? Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Comment: (1) It's as if GS is saying she is as important as Henry James b/c William James was important to her at Radcliffe. (2) She is flunked in medical school, but the story suggest that the failure wasn’t a reflection on her but on the professor b/c GS was so “bored” & he did her a favor by flunking her b/c she then went to Paris. Ch. 4 Gertrude Stein Before She Came to Paris 1903 to 1907 AT narrating. 3  There is only one language for GS: English. She never reads in French. She is writing “The Making of America” She was grateful not to be part of an intellectual family - she hates intellects. In Allegheny, 2 brothers (one her father) had a falling out and split. One family went to NYC and her family went to Europe. She lived for a while as a little girl in Paris and went to school there. They spent a year in Paris & returned to America. After a short stay in Baltimore with her grandfather, the family went to California. The mother refuses to forgive her sister in law. They settled in Oakland. She became an avid reader. She “lived continuously with the English language.” “She was and she is now always reading.” “The theater she cares for less.” Her parents die and she and her siblings go back East. She goes to Radcliffe. “She cannot draw anything.” She contends that “you can only have one “metier” and her metier is writing and her language is English.” At Radcliffe, her writing gets published. William James was an important person during this time of her life. (Wiliam James is related to Henry James.) William James was a professor at Radcliffe. While taking an examination paper for Professor James, she just felt she couldn’t do it and wrote on the paper that she couldn't do it and James understood and gave her the highest grade. James suggests she goes to medical school, and she goes to Johns Hopkins Medical School. William James visits Paris and GS and is impressed by her art work and tells her: “I always told you to keep your mind open.” She is flunked at medical school and GS claims it was b/c she was bored. The flunking professor tells her she just has to take a summer class to get reinstated but she refuses. Ch. 5 1907 - 1914. AT begins to recount Toklas and Stein’s life in Paris after Toklas moved into the rue de Fleurus residence. Prior to the move, Toklas resided in hotels and small apartments that she shared with a friend from California. Toklas helped Stein with the proofs of Three Lives and began to type The Making of Americans. When Toklas came to Paris there were very few Americans, but over the years, increasing numbers of them began to appear on Saturday nights at Stein’s residence. Life began in Paris. This is AT narrating. GS, Picasso and others are geniuses. She talked with all the wives of the geniuses. They go on a trip to Italy. GS likes so many saints, especially Saint Anthony and Saint Francis. They visit Assisi. “She was also fond of pigs.” AT returns to talk about her early years in Paris. “It was a kaleidoscope.” She talks about cubism being a Spanish movement. In Spanish villages, the houses were cube-shaped, and Picasso had photographic evidence to prove it. Indeed, Stein argued that only Spaniards could be Cubists, and therefore the movement’s chief devotees were Picasso and Juan Gris, even if Frenchman Georges Braque was also a pioneer. Toklas recalls that in Spain, a place she and Stein revisited, even the postcards were inside cubes. This was the period of Picasso and Braque’s intimacy, and of Picasso’s beginning to make sculptural works as well as paintings. 4  Picasso and his long-term love Fernande ended their relationship after Fernande introduced Picasso to her friend Eve. Eve replaced Fernande as Picasso’s lover and muse, and he made a painting of her titled Ma Jolie. As a result, Fernande’s intimacy with Toklas and Stein came to an end. Stein began to write textual portraits of the renowned people she knew, including Matisse and Picasso. A visit to Spain allowed Stein to produce the experimental work that eventually led to her book of prose poems, Tender Buttons (1914). Toklas passionately loved Spain and insisted to Stein that she wanted to stay in Avila forever. The pair wore Spanish clothing and were a source of fascination for local populations. They saw a Spanish dancer called Argentina, and Toklas learned to tolerate bullfights and view them as a ritual. In Granada, Stein’s writing interests evolved from wanting to express human psychology to conveying the visible world, and she remained “tormented by the problem of the external and the internal” (101). Friday, September 20. Ch. 6 The War. WW1 starts., Stein and Toklas are in London to visit John Lane. They were at Lockridge, the property of mathematician Alfred North Whitehead. Mrs. Whitehead says that they would find it difficult to return to Paris. Both Stein and Toklas were worried at the thought of the Germans approaching Paris. They were able to return to the city when England entered the war. The first German zeppelin attack happened while Toklas was asleep, and the second one happened when Picasso and Eve were dining with them. Stein and Toklas escaped to Mallorca, Spain, for 9 months. Stein wrote Geography and Plays, which was eventually published in 1922. Toklas knits for the soldiers. The Germans began to attack Verdun, & the couple became heartbroken. Toklas has “an awful feeling that the war had gotten out of my hands” (141). They make their way back to Paris, and Stein becomes determined to get a car.. Toklas and Stein join the American Fund for French Wounded. Stein drives their car, a Ford truck named Auntie, and Toklas starts doing nursing duties. They drove to Perpignan to work in hospitals and picked up what were known as “military god-sons”—soldiers on the road who required transportation (148). They maintain connections with these young men and provide for their needs as best they can. One adopted godson named Abel even stays with them. On the way back from Perpignan, in Nîmes, Stein and Toklas heard that a shell exploded over the Luxembourg Gardens, very near their home. Toklas cries b/c she doesn't like the thought of becoming a refugee. Back in Paris, Stein and Toklas met many American soldiers, and the war took a turn in the Allies’ favor. Although Stein and Toklas spent their days driving up and down the Rhône Valley, attending to soldiers who had contracted the Spanish flu, this was a creative period for Stein. Meanwhile, after Eve’s death, Picasso cheerfully pursued other women. Through Picasso, Stein and Toklas met the Norman composer Erik Satie and the French artist and playwright Jean Cocteau. Following the publication of Stein’s Tender Buttons, newspapers began to exaggerate her style , and Life magazine began a series on this topic. Stein wrote to the editor, Thomas L. Masson, and explained that she was more 5  funny than her imitators and that she should be hired for the job. Masson agreed and printed her work. Meanwhile, the following winter was very cold, exacerbated by coal shortages. Stein sweet-talked a policeman into bringing them two sacks of coal, and he became their protector. Picasso and Stein had a period of estrangement, and during this time, Picasso was married, had a son, and made a tapestry painting of his wife on a piece of canvas that Toklas embroidered. After that, Toklas made tapestries of Picasso’s drawings. Finally, Armistice Day arrived, and Toklas and Stein were in a prime place to witness it from the seat of their now exhausted truck, Auntie. Ch. 7 After The War. (1919-1932) Stein and Toklas see their old group of prewar friends, like Matisse and Picasso. Matisse had moved to Nice, and Stein and Picasso were more distant, although she did go to stay with him at Antibes on the Côte d’Azur. Stein struggles to gain literary recognition and to get her work published. She takes up the eccentric habit of writing in the car. They meet new people, including the American expat Sylvia Beach, who later established the famous Shakespeare and Company English-language bookshop on Paris’s Left Bank in 1951. New artistics were guests at their house, including Dadaism founder Tristan Tzara, and the photographer Man Ray, who took pictures of Stein and other famous people. They befriended American poet Ezra Pound, but Stein disliked him. She called him the dull village explainer and he took offense, ending their friendship. Stein and T. S. Eliot talks about poetry techniques, but he doesn’t publish her work. Toklas and Eliot’s secretary correspond, addressing each other as “Sir” although they were both female. Nothing came of this exchange. Stein and Toklas purchased a country house in the Rhône Valley, and it was there that Stein wrote Elucidation (1927), a meditation on her problems of expression and a treatise about her writing style. Later, Toklas printed Stein’s treatises on grammar, sentences, and paragraphs under the title How to Write. When the Spanish painter Juan Gris died, his former companion Picasso joined Stein for a day of mourning. Stein published a tribute titled “The Life and Death of Juan Gris”(1927), which Toklas believed was the most moving thing she ever wrote. During this time, Stein and Toklas meet a lot of young men who all appeared to be 26 years of age, including Ernest Hemnigway Hemingway and Stein became fast friends, but Toklas was always less certain of his writing and his character. Stein advised Hemingway that his work was too descriptive and encouraged him to begin again and concentrate. She also advised him to give up newspaper work, otherwise “you will never see things, you will only see words and that will not do […] if you intend to be a writer” (181). When Hemingway’s wife became pregnant, he decided that the best course of action would be to earn money in America for a year and then return to Paris with the baby. When they returned to Paris, Toklas and Stein were the baby’s godmothers. Toklas observed that writer godparents are not the most stable, as the relationship between them and the parents almost always 6  cools. Still, Toklas especially was a devoted godmother for a while. Hemingway wanted a sample of Stein’s work, The Making of Americans, for the Transatlantic Review. Meanwhile, Toklas shared her passion for Spanish culture and bullfighting with Hemingway. Hemingway’s career took off. Stein met F. Scott Fitzgerald & credited him with being the only one of his generation who wrote naturally in sentences. She thought his works This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Great Gatsby (1925) set the tone of the new era. Meanwhile, Stein published her thousand-page tome The Making of Americans( 1925), in which the sentences started off long and only got longer as the work continued. A few years later, Stein and Georges Hugnet worked on the French translation of the work. Stein’s work was popular in England with British poet and critic Edith Sitwell, and she was featured in French Vogue. Sitwell insisted that Stein speak at Oxford and Cambridge, where earnest young men asked questions about her work. Toklas, for her part, campaigned to get Stein’s writings, including operas and plays, published. Carl Van Vechten came to Paris and sent some prominent African Americans to Stein and Toklas’s house. The singer and actor Paul Robeson interested Stein for his ability to look critically at American values and life. However, Stein was racist and condescending, opining that Robeson “became definitely a negro” as soon as any white person came into the room, and telling him he was wrong to sing spirituals as “they do not belong to you any more than anything else” (201). Stein’s view was that people of African origin suffered less from discrimination than from “nothingness” in being from a continent with an ancient but static culture where nothing ever changed (202). Toklas jokes that she is such a good wifely accomplice to Stein’s life that she has no time to be an author of her own life. That is where Stein steps in to write the autobiography, in the style of Daniel Defoe for Robinson Crusoe. Themes of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas: 1. Modernism - an artistic movement that took place between the end of the 19th century and the start of WW2 (1939). Modernism questions the old traditions of the arts and literature, especially sentimentalism. The book shows how Stein was a proponent of modernism. 2. The spirit of collaboration in art instead of the Romanticism’s myth of the genius male artist working in solitude. 3. The Lost Generation: Americans in Exile. American artists and writers live in Europe, and have a life experience which they cannot get in America. Stein & Toklas started this group by getting there in the 1900s, before everyone else. More on Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and raised in Oakland, California. When Stein was three years old, she and her family moved to Vienna, and then Paris. Accompanied by 7 governesses and tutors, the Steins exposed their children to European culture, history and life. After a year-long sojourn abroad, they returned to America in 1878, settling in Oakland, California. Her parents died when she was a teenager. She went to Radcliffe, the sister school of Harvard and was a student of William James, one of the founders of modern psychology and the brother of author Henry James. James encouraged her to go to medical school and she attended Johns Hopkins for a while until she failed obstetrics. She moved to Paris in 1903, following her brother, Leo, and made France her home for the rest of her life. Over the years she collected the art works of many including Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,Henri Matisse, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She hosted a Paris salon at her home, 27 rue de Fleurus, where the leading figures of modernism in literature and art, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, and Henri Matisse, would meet. In 1933, Stein published a quasi-memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Alice B. Toklas, her life partner. The book became a literary bestseller and vaulted Stein from the relative obscurity of the cult-literature scene into the limelight of mainstream attention. Two quotes from her works have become widely known: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose", and "there is no there there", with the latter often taken to be a reference to her childhood home of Oakland. She also wrote Three Lives, The Making of Americans, and Tender Buttons. Stein had an unsteady relationship with Hemingway. They began as close friends, with Hemingway admiring Stein as a mentor, but they later grew apart, especially after Stein called Hemingway "yellow" in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas claimed that the book lacked merit. Upon the birth of his son, Hemingway asked Stein to be the godmother of his child. More on Alice B. Toklas: Tuesday, September 24. Monique Truong, The Book of Salt (Ch 1-9] Overview from super summary (reworded): The Book of Salt is a 2003 novel by Monique Truong, set in the 1920s and 1930s. The novel focuses on Binh, the Vietnamese cook of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Throughout the book, Binh struggles with emotions, imagining arguments with his father and trying to manage his habits of self-mutilation and heavy drinking. The novel explores themes of Racial and Sexual Identity. Comment:Binh had a complicated relationship with his sexuality, and I thought his story about his mother telling stories to him about a “scholar prince” and how he 8  always changed the ending from a girl getting a scholar prince to a boy getting his scholar prince was very thematic. He even thinks that the man he met on the bridge might be his scholar prince. Comment: It’s interesting that Binh struggles with speaking French and English with others in the story, yet as he tells the story as the book’s narrator, the reader experiences his eloquent use of words. I wonder what the significance is about this limited language ability in what context over the other? Ch. 1: Binh is at the Paris train station with Stein and Toklas, on their way to an ocean voyage to America. Photographers are taking photos of Stein and Toklas, and the women like it. Binh got a letter from his brother, Anh Minh, whom he hasn’t heard from in 5 years. Binh had come to Paris in 1926. Binh observes that the Great Depression caused many Americans to leave America for Paris, many of whom came to Stein’s home to discuss art, literature, and philosophy. They also liked drinking in Paris because Prohibition prevented it back home. The Parisians have mixed feelings about Americans. They “indulged them at first,” but grew tired of them and their vices. Binh has to make a choice: stay in Paris, go to America with Stein and Toklas or return to Vietnam at the request of his brother. Ch. 2. This chapter opens with a classified ad for a cook for two American ladies. Binh thinks about his French speaking ability. Binh remembers his father’s anger with him for leaving a job at the Governor-General’s home to be a cook somewhere else. Binh calls his father Old Man. The Old Man throws Binh out because he had a homosexual relationship with a cook at the Governor General’s home in Vietnam. Binh reflects that after living in Paris for 3 years, he knows the streets of the city better than most Parisians. Looking for a job, Binh says that his potential employers fall into three categories; those who close the door on him when they see he’s Vietnamese, another intent on interrogating him, and others who pry out his story because they want to be his savior from his role as an outcast. Binh meets a concierge, who instructs him that the two women, who may hire him, have an unconventional lifestyle but are nice. Ch. 3 Bing describes Stein and Toklas' apartment as “a temple not a home” (22). He describes Toklas as the person who types and proofreads Stein’s manuscripts and looks after Stein in every way. Binh keeps dreaming of his father lying in a casket and Binh making a speech in French at the funeral calling his father a coward. Binh has a flashback about when he left Saigon and introduces Bao, Binh’s shipmate on the ship the Niobe. Bao tells all kinds of stories, and one of his favorites is of Serena the Soloist, an adult entertainer who fascinates Bao. Binh asks Bao why he’s a sailor when 9  his name means “storm,” and Bao laughs. Bao and Binh bond over their shared home and language that excludes everyone else on the ship. Binh returns to the Stein house to apply for the cook position and meets Toklas. Binh explains how the household operates and what Stein and Toklas look like. He describes Toklas as looking like an owl, with a mustache and lively eyes. Binh describes Stein as a sturdier-built woman with disproportionately large ears and a large nose, who nevertheless “carries herself as if she is her own object of desire... [and gives off a] self-induced lust [which] is addictive in its effect” (28). Binh describes the women’s relationships in this way: Stein is the star, while Toklas is the willing helper. Toklas has taken over the typing duties to prevent Stein from forming intimate relationships with others. Specifically, Binh says that: “Miss Toklas has long since made herself indispensable” to Stein (30).. Ch. 4 Stein and Toklas nickname Binh “Thin Bin.” Binh discusses the womens’ two dogs, a poodle named Basket and a Chihuahua named Pepe. Binh doesn’t understand the womens’ affection for the dogs. Binh remembers his brother Anh Minh explaining that “Only the rich can afford not to eat their animals” (33). Stein’s French is not much better than Binh’s, and when they try to speak to each other, they use simple sentences accompanied by body language. This similarity bridges their differences in race, gender, and nationality. Nightly, Stein works on French lessons with Binh, using an English-French dictionary and illustrations. While they play this game, Toklas needlepoints. Stein seems amused by how Binh navigates the language maze. Stein changes from a friendly and unique employer to a regular “collector” employer who asks Binh how he defines love. He sees Stein’s question as an attempt to pry loose from him his own sad tale. He points to a bowl of quinces and shakes his head, walking out of the room. Binh describes a new character in the novel, an American man, who Binh is attracted to saying “Waves are coursing through my veins. I am at sea again” (37). The American asks the women if he can hire Binh as a cook for a dinner party. Binh agrees to work for the American and finds the American very handsome but doesn’t expect anything to happen between them except to replace his old, fraying clothing and footwear. The American meets Binh on the street, and the American is handsomely dressed. When the American asks Binh to conduct the interview, the word “interview” reminds Binh of his lower station and place as a servant in their world. Ch. 5 Anh Minh becomes the sous-chef in the Governor-General’s house, and convinces the Old Man to let him get Bing a job in the kitchen. Anh Minh teaches Binh about the particulars of others working in the household. Anh Minh gives Binh cooking lessons. Binh thinks his brother’s efficiency is useless: “Anh Minh believed that if he could save three minutes here, five minutes there, then one day he could tally them all up and have enough to start life all over again” (43). Binh likes to listen to Anh Minh because Anh 10  Minh inherited his father’s deep voice but uses it to speak encouragingly, rather than harshly like their father. The Old Man was harsh to all his sons, stating they shared the nickname Stupid. The second-oldest brother became a railroad porter in second class, hoping always to advance to the next level. The third son worked at a printing press. Anh Minh becoming a sous chef was only the beginning, according to the Old Man. Their father believed his eldest son soaked up all the good his mother’s womb had to give and had inherited the Old Man’s talent, intelligence, and ambition. The Governor-General and his wife, The Madame, believed the French superior to all other cultures, especially the Indochinese. Behind her back, the servants mock her. She never acknowledges that in France, she held a lower position than she does in Vietnam. As a young child, Binh’s father was abandoned by his mother at a Catholic church, which is how he became so entrenched in the church, going from choir to altar boy to a student at the seminary. However, Binh’s father declared that God told him to get a wife, so he left the seminary, found a home, and hired a matchmaker. He worked filling pews in a local church headed by a Vietnamese priest who would pay a token amount for these services. The Old Man filled church seats by holding gambling nights and then taking the gamblers to services on Sunday to pray for help or thank God for the night before. However, these converts were aging and steadily dying off. Anh Minh is worried that he can no longer protect Binh now that Binh has been dismissed from the Governor-General’s kitchen, due to his affair with Chef Bleriot. Ch. 6 On the ship, Bao tells Binh a story about a family of basket weavers that went back generations. At first, these weavers had attempted to grow rice, but water hyacinths overtook everything so the rice wouldn’t grow. Eventually, they gave in and used the hardy, unmovable hyacinths to weave baskets. They were able to support their family well after this. Eventually, a 15-year-old son wanted to leave and see what the world offered. He intended to grow cuttings from his family’s crop of hyacinths but they wouldn’t grow anywhere. He ended up on a boat with Bao, having run out of land to grow his flowers. Bao had told him to try Holland. When Binh met Bao and heard the story, Binh was 20 and full of pride and lust. His middle brothers were handsome and easily attracted to women but Bao didn’t want that. Binh could never display his pride in the Governor-General’s household because a Vietnamese person wasn’t permitted to stand fully erect or to look proud because they would be fired. At 20, Binh fell in love and had an affair with Chef Bleriot, which got him fired. Bleriot insisted on being called “Chef” at all times. Binh believed that love and lust were gambles worth taking. Ch. 7 Bingh has a habit of cutting his fingers: “I want to say it brings me happiness or satisfaction, but it does not. It gives me proof that I am alive, and sometimes that is enough” (65). Most employers do not notice, due to all their attention being on the 11  plates, rather than the servants’ hands and because of their insistence on white gloves for the help. Anh Minh says that the Chinese are far more fastidious and tells stories about the official tasters for China’s royalty. The Chinese royalty needed to check if there was poison in their food. The tasters’ already cultured palates would become even more sensitive and discerning due to the risk of death from the best food they’d ever had. The risk made the dish all the better when the taster survived. Binh states there’s a fine line between a cook and a murderer: “Really, the only difference between the two is that one kills to cook, and the other cooks to kill. Killing is involved either way” (67). Toklas shows Binh her method for killing pigeons and then explains that feeding a little liquor to a larger bird makes the task simpler. Binh compares Toklas’s method to his mother’s, saying that his mother’s was more economical in approach. Toklas notices Bingh’s habit of cutting his fingers and asks if Binh’s been drinking and checks his hands. Bing offers a poor excuse for the condition of his hands, and Toklas comments that she and Stein have tasted blood in their food. She demands firmly, but not cruelly, that he needs to bandage his hands. Binh recalls the first time he cut himself in the kitchen, while he was a young boy cooking with his mother. It was accidental, but it had an effect on him he can’t shake even as an adult. Binh feels at ease with Toklas and Stein. The concierge warns that the women “cohabitate in a state of grace.” Ch. 8 Bingh comments on the people who go to the women’s dinner parties. The parties are full of handsome, young, American men, and Bingh lusts for them and says he would have worked for free. Bing then talks about food and lust, using descriptive terms. He talks about wanting his “scholar prince” to come. His mother first told him about the scholar prince when he was a boy in stories. She told him these stories as they cooked together. His mother used to call Bingh “her little scholar prince” (81). The mother’s story was about a girl waiting for a scholar prince, but Bingh always changed the story to be him, a boy, waiting for the scholar prince. The end of the story was always the same for Bingh in his imagination, Ch. 9 Bingh describes meeting a “man on a bridge” in 1927 before he began working for the women. Binh feels an attraction to the man, but it’s not clear how the man on the bridge sees Binh. Binh calls the man on the bridge a scholar-prince but doesn’t explain the significance to his new friend. The man asks Binh what brought him to Paris and what keeps him there. This question will reverberate in Binh’s mind in the years to come. Bing and the man playing a game about who they are and where they worked. Binh realizes that the man on the bridge was the kitchen boy Bao had told him about—the one who wrote letters for the sailors. 12  The man on the bridge tells Bingh that he left Vietnam when he was 22 and hasn’t been back since. Bingh thinks that the way the man on the bridge talks about things - including how a bridge belongs to no one - makes him sound like a ‘scholar prince’ (92). Binh and the man play a game: Binh bets he can tell what neighborhood Paris addresses are located in from memory. Binh wins the game, and the man takes him to a restaurant where a friend is the chef. They have a warm exchange over dinner, but the man is leaving Paris that night. Binh is crestfallen and offers to walk the man to the train station, but the man insists the station is a bad place for goodbyes. Binh keeps going to the bridge, hoping for the man to return. Friday, September 27. Monique Truong, The Book of Salt (Ch 10-16] Ch. 10 Binh, drunk, faces his Madames, after his tryst with a man (we later learn is Lattimore), one of the sophisticated young Americans who frequent Stein's salon. Bingh has been gone for 24 hours. The women are horrified, not by his absence but by Lattimore giving him liquor. Binh says he bought the rum to protect Lattimore. The ladies sternly tell Binh to never lie to them. The Old Man’s voice in Binh’s ear tells Binh he is a fool to tell Stein and Toklas the lie. Binh thinks he is about to be fired. Binh then goes to his room, and feels a wad of money in his jacket pocket. There is a note with it - Lattimore wants to have dinner again next Sunday where they will be the only guests. Binh feels “at sea.” He remembers being on the ship, where Bao had told Binh to use a fake name with employers. Binh has memories of his father and of Bao. They laughed at some of the silly names that Bao had given his bosses, the employers not knowing the translations of the Vietnamese phrases that Bao claimed were his name. Binh’s laughter eased his seasickness and he found Bao attractive. When their voyage ended, he had a full list of questions he wanted to ask Bao but decided Bao would dodge the truth with his answers, so it was better not to ask the questions. Ch. 11 Binh addresses the American whom he had sex with as Sweet Sunday Man. On Sundays, Sweet Sunday Man calls Binh “Bee.” Sweet Sunday Man tells Binh that he spotted him in the flower market two days before, and this makes Binh happy. He no longer feels like an anonymous exile living unnoticed in Paris because he was noticed, and this makes him feel more real. Binh reflects that he “has been sighted.” Binh wishes silently that their life together would expand beyond one day a week. As it is, Bingh must leave at 3:00 a.m. in the morning to return to the Stein/Toklas apartment. Binh wishes Sweet Sunday Man (whose name is finally revealed in the story: Lattimore) would ask him to stay the entire night and choose a side of the bed. Binh and Lattimore have found a way around their language barrier. 13  “My French is clipped and jagged, an awkward careless collection, a blind man’s homes drunk man’s stumbled steps. We will throw all our words onto the table and find those saturated with meaning” (111). Lattimore, who is from New Orleans, speaks both English and French. he and Binh rely on shared words and body language. Lattimore is a quasi-doctor who diagnoses a person’s health by observing their irises. Lattimore explains to Binh that his father is white and his mother is mixed-race. Lattimore has money from his mother who took him to the northern United States for college and then on to Paris. Lattimore tells of meeting both the Emperor of Vietnam and the Crown Prince of Cambodia and having the opportunity to diagnose both using the aforementioned quasi-medical technique. Binh thinks that the Crown Prince of Cambodia is a kind of scholar prince. The Emperor called out Lattimore for passing for white; since Lattimore bleaches his skin and straightens his hair, the Emperor claimed he was acting not out of bigotry but a desire to be honest in their dealings. Lattimore diagnosed both royal men with Lattimore, one of the sophisticated young men from Stein’s salon, is American. He has a white father and a mixed-race African American mother. He passes for white by bleaching his skin and straightening his hair, but some can still discern his Black heritage. Lattimore is an unlicensed doctor, who reads the irises of a person’s eyes. He and Binh have an affair, meeting on Sundays. Thus, Binh refers to him as his “Sweet Sunday Man.” He and Binh talk about many things, although these conversations are limited by Binh’s language skills. Neither denied it. Ch. 12 The novel shifts back in time to a former employment, presumably in Paris, and a love affair between Chef Bleriot and Binh. Their relationship is apparent even to the young boys at the market. Eventually, the household servants take note, though Binh doesn’t know at first which servant tells on them, but finally discovers that it was the Madame’s secretary, who told on them because she had a crush on the chef. Out of jealousy, she wants Binh removed from the household. She tells the chef to let her handle the situation and tells the Madame that Binh is spreading lies that he and Bleriot are lovers. For that, Binh is dismissed; as her final vengeful act, the Madame’s secretary writes to the Old Man about the scandal. During this time, Binh is told he can be cured of his sexuality if he exercised a lot. Ch. 13 Stein has just turned 60, Toklas is 57, and the year is 1934. Binh learns that the women have a summer home in the country. Binh is anxious because he will miss his Sunday meetings with Lattimore. While at the country home, Binh gets Mondays off but his pay is less than it is in Paris. Toklas has a garden in the country that she loves. The people in the village consider Stein and Toklas freakish, calling Stein “Caesar” and Toklas “Cleopatra.” They ask Binh prying questions when he is drunk. Binh drinks quite a lot during the summers there. 14  Toklas inspects Binh’s hands daily, allegedly to be sure he has clean nails, but really to check for signs of cutting. Binh finds her level of caring comforting, but also a little invasive. Ch. 14 Binh has been with Stein and Toklas for 5 years. He understands the women completely. He knows all about their love and the people they associate with. He is still having sex with Lattimore but he thinks Lattimore is ashamed of choosing him. Lattimore takes Stein’s book off of a shelf and reads from the cover of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas to Bingh. Binh lets the reader know that he knew Stein was a writer, he just didn’t understand that it was her vocation. Binh always saw Stein writing, but he assumed it was letters and such. But, he also now realizes that all the typing done by Miss Toklas was a part of Stein’s writing. Binh eloquently explains how Toklas types. Bing also explains how the ladies leisurely drive around the city with books in their automobile. Gertrude Stein drives aggressively and the Concierge calls them “Crazy Americans!” (148). Stein just waves happily back at him. Binh considers his Saturdays with Stein and Toklas’s guests, including Lattimore. He feels sheltered with his Mesdames. Binh knows that he has access to what Lattimore wants most: the manuscripts and inner knowledge of these women. Binh feels pressure after mentioning the notebooks to Lattimore: Binh was hoping the information would ensure Lattimore’s continued interest, but instead, Lattimore wants to use it for his own purposes. Binh compares his and Lattimore’s racial status. By passing for white, Lattimore views his skin as a blank slate, leaving the details of his life open to interpretation. By contrast, Binh’s skin tells the Parisians all they think they need to know about him. Ch. 15 Stein and Toklas want to know the secret of Binh’s omelets. Even if there were such a secret, he’d never share it. The Mesdames don’t seem to consider that whatever they eat has passed through his hands. Binh thinks about the women’s relationship with their dogs. He doesn’t understand their affection for the animals and resents having to metaphorically crawl on hands and knees to serve them. One day, Stein asks, “Thin Bin, is Lattimore a Negro?” (157). Lattimore had previously warned Binh the question would eventually come. Binh describes Toklas coming to the Stein household and discovering her lesbianism. Toklas’s sexual orientation is understood but not freely acknowledged. Ch. 16 After being fired from the Governor-General’s house, Bing returns to his family home. His father disowns him and announces that he now only has three sons. Binh tells Bao how his mother came to marry his father. Binh’s mother married The Old Man after her father died and her mother thought about committing suicide because they were so poor.. Binh’s maternal grandmother hired a matchmaker to marry 15  off Binh’s mother, who was so young that she’d only just begun getting her period. She didn’t know anything about sex, her menstrual cycles, or pregnancy. Despite her youth, she never abandoned her Buddhist faith, despite marrying a (supposed) Catholic. After the birth of their first child, Binh’s father added a kitchen to the house, a place where Binh’s mother could take the crying baby and leave Binh’s father alone. Binh’s mother has a love affair with another man and conceives Bingh. Binh’s real father was a scholar prince for his mother. When she became pregnant, he left her money and left, never to see her again or meet his son. After Binh’s mother gave birth to Binh, she paid the midwife to sterilize her. The midwife told The Old Man his wife would never have another child, freeing Binh’s mother from the painful, loveless sex she’d endured. Binh last saw his mother after being fired for his affair. His father disowned him and threw him out, so Binh went to his mother’s kitchen one final time. After a sad farewell, his mom handed him a red packet—presumably the money his father, the scholar-prince, had given her. ○ Tuesday, October 1. Monique Truong, The Book of Salt (Ch 17-24] Ch. 17 Lattimore asks Binh all kinds of questions about Gertrude and Alice, whom Lattimore calls the women the Steins. The women love their car: Stein loves to drive, Toklas to navigate. They see the car as both a machine and an animal. The car is temperamental and prone to breakdowns; they have a “waiting kit” they take on longer trips, since auto travel isn’t common yet, and mechanics can be several towns away. The car is a muse to Stein, who listens to its syncopated sounds and replicates the rhythm in her writing. Toklas believes the car’s fumes are the real inspiration. Stein also loves that she and Toklas are the only women at the garage. Stein goes out of her way to avoid the company of women.Stein considers all visitors wives, no matter their marital status. Stein has all the wives go to the kitchen with Toklas. Stein thinks this makes Toklas selfless, whereas Toklas is just happy to keep any female objects of attention out of Stein’s presence. Binh tells Lattimore about a conversation he overheard between the women about Paul Robeson, the famous Black American actor, athlete, scholar, and singer, with a rich, deep voice and a gift for speaking. In their conversation, however, the women see him as a folksy caricature when he sings black spirituals, revealing their racial bigotry. Lattimore compares this to their need to know whether he is Black. (Lattimore is biracial but light skinned.). Lattimore attributes this need for the women to label someone as black to being very American because it is Americans who are obsessed with race (and at the of the day these women are American although living a bohemian Parisian life). Ch. 18 16  Aboard the ship, Binh tells Bao about the red pouch given to him by his mother. Binh, much to Bao’s amazement, has never looked inside. Later, in their room, Binh finally looks in the pouch and finds a gold leaf worth far more than he expected. Bao tells him to use the money to stay in the best room on the ship and eat the best food. Binh recalls his father’s hard drinking and gambling. His parents never enjoyed their physical relationship: To his mother, sex meant bleeding and pain. To his father, it meant touching someone who harbored a smell that sickened him, so he was also relieved when she secretly had herself sterilized. Binh is proud of his mother’s strength; He admires that she managed without any help from family. After paying the midwife to sterilize her, Binh’s mother worried her ancestors would be angry. When she later learned that preventing pregnancy was also a sin in Catholicism, she lost all belief in a happy afterlife. Nevertheless, though she had little joy or hope, she persevered. Binh cannot acknowledge that his drinking mirrors his father’s abuse of alcohol and his mother’s unhappiness. Ch. 19 Stein has three brothers and a sister, yet she only acknowledges one brother in conversation, saying, “I had a brother once…” Stein left America to join this brother, Leo, in Paris, after failing out of medical school and experiencing unrequited love for a woman. Specifically, Stein failed obstetrics in medical school. In Paris, Gertrude and Leo collected art and Leo painted, and Stein wrote. He believed himself to be the sole talent of the family. When Toklas came along, Stein realized she no longer had to live with Leo because she can live with Toklas. Toklas believed Stein - and not her brother- to be the family genius. Leo left, accusing Toklas of stealing his sister. Lattimore urges Binh to take a notebook from Stein’s cabinet. Lattimore promises to be careful and to return it the next week. Binh is reluctant;. Binh wants to please Lattimore but he doesn’t want to betray the women. Lattimore sweetens the pot by offering to sit for a photograph with Binh. Binh desires this so much that he relents and steals the notebook. Binh sees his name on its pages and feels violated. Ch. 20 Binh often likes to indulge in people-watching in a park in winter—winter is the only time he can get lost in Paris. Snow makes him want to stay in bed but not in his bed, but all over the city, like park benches or wherever he finds himself. While at the park, he watches children poking at a dying, flapping pigeon. A woman cups the bird and places it under a tree. Binh yells out in rough French to the children, “That’s enough!” and they scatter. He recalls the best dress his mother had, a gray dress she expected to grow into when she got older that would look good once her hair had gone gray. The dying pigeon becomes Binh’s mother in her gray dress. He sees her sweating with fever, becoming weak, and emerging from The Old Man’s house. Binh holds her hand as she walks across the street from their home, walking into traffic to die. Ch. 21 17  Lattimore tells Binh that the Mesdames are about to embark on a journey back to America. However, Binh has known this for a month. He is surprised that Stein lectures as well as writes and that word of the women’s trip is in the newspapers. Binh and Lattimore sit for their photograph together. Binh sees Lattimore’s deep interest in the literature of Stein as proof that Lattimore is his scholar-prince. The women bring Binh a letter from Anh Minh on a silver tray, but Binh assumes they are formally firing him for his theft of the notebook. They seem surprised to see his actual name written out on the envelope, which again underscores that they don’t see Binh fully as a person, but rather as their servant first. Anh Minh’s letter urges Binh to come home: “No matter what he may have said to you, he is our father, and he is going to die.” Binh acknowledges that he has been saying all along that his father was dead already because the only way Binh could sleep at night was by imagining the Old Man in his coffin. Anh Minh writes that Binh’s father has suffered a stroke and that their mother has already passed away. This confirms what Binh already knew in his heart since having the vision of the pigeon. Binh feels some relief on his mother’s behalf—she is now free from Binh’s father. He longs to reunite with her one day and feels she was brave in her death. Ch. 22 It’s Sunday, and Binh has been nervous all week about the women discovering his theft of the notebook. In preparation for their trip and due to all the press coverage of it, they seem to always be looking for something in their cabinet or cupboards. More accurately, Toklas searches and retrieves anything Stein has requested; Toklas is fine with fetching things for Stein. Binh goes to be with Lattimore only to find his lover has left Paris. Binh finds a note that reads, “Bee, thank you for the Book of Salt. Stein captured you, perfectly.” Also included is the receipt for the photo at the photography studio. Ch. 23 The last time Bao and Binh were together, Binh demonstrated how Chef Bleriot had taught him to tuck his penis between his legs and pretend to be a girl. Binh goes to the photographer’s studio, where he finds out Lattimore only paid for half of the picture. Binh sees a photo on the wall at the photographer’s studio and realizes it’s the man on the bridge. He asks the man’s name and is told he was a skilled photo retoucher named Nguyen Ai Quoc, a name Ho Chi Minh used to use, which means “patriot.” Binh decides to purchase the photo of the man on the bridge and offers to let the store clerk keep the photo of Binh and Lattimore. The narrative then flashes back to Binh on the ship. Binh had written Anh Minh’s name on a slip of paper so Bao could look up Binh’s brother when he was next in Saigon. Later, Binh discovered that Bao stole the red packet filled with gold leaf. Binh imagines a more pleasing scenario: Bao goes to see Anh Minh and hands Anh Minh the red packet, telling him it’s a gift from his youngest brother, Ho Chi Minh. Binh tells his imagined father that The Old Man had less love and redemption than anyone Binh 18  knew. To his mother, Binh says that her gift was her unending affection. Nonetheless, Binh, like the son in the story of the hyacinths and basket weavers, ventured out to find something else; Binh only went to sea because his father had thrown him out and he had nowhere else to go. He hadn’t understood how long they’d be on the ship or where he’d go after that. Surprised, he says, “I never meant to go this far.” Ch. 24 In the first-class cabin aboard the train with his Mesdames, Binh admits he has always dreamed of such a trip. Toklas repeatedly brings up that on the American lecture tour, there will be oysters and honeydew at each meal. This confuses Binh because he’s never known Stein to be particularly fond of either. He realizes that these foods will let a nervous Stein eat without chewing, simplifying her life. The trio is set to take an ocean liner to America. The number of journalists waiting for them on the deck surprises Stein and Toklas. While the buzzing of photographers surrounds them, Toklas asks Binh to sew a button onto Stein’s shoe because Toklas cannot be photographed bending down. Binh does this, and his act is captured by the photographers. Binh’s previous ocean travel was nothing like the luxury Stein and Toklas are about to enjoy. In total, Binh spent three years aboard several ships, only getting 40 nights on land during that time. Afterward, in Paris before he got his jobs with Gertrude and Alice, he bounced from job to job for a year, his fingers damaged from cutting and covered by gloves whenever possible. Then he met the man on the bridge, and although Binh knew the man was leaving, Binh decided to stay: “The man on the bridge was a memory, he was a story, he was a gift. Paris gave him to me. And in Paris I will stay, I decided. Only in this city, I thought, will I see him again.” Binh always knew he wouldn’t go to America with Stein and Toklas, but he wanted to accompany them to the ship. Stein and Toklas ask if he wants a return ticket or cash. He opts for cash because he is unsure of where to go—a ticket is an actual decision. Binh admits to heavy, midweek, post-midnight drinking binges in Paris in the weeks leading up to the women’s departure. He drinks himself broke, echoing his father’s behavior. Binh decides Lattimore shouldn’t feel guilty since neither woman ever realized the notebook was missing and since Toklas typically has three copies of everything anyway. In any case, if the Book of Salt was about him then it’s his story. Mentally, he says to Stein, “You’re welcome.” Binh looks at the two photos he has of Stein and Toklas: one from the train and the other on the ship, where his back is to the camera while he sews on the button. He thinks back to the question posed by the man on the bridge—what keeps Binh in Paris? Binh knows that “just your desire to know my answer keeps me.” Binh imagines the man’s smile and looks up as if someone has called his name. Thoughts about the end of The Book of Salt.: I am not sure how I felt about the ending having no tidy resolution. We don’t know if Binh goes back to Vietnam or stays in Paris. But, it does seem that Bingh has found peace with himself and those who dumped him like Bao and Lattimore. He imagines Bao going to Vietnam to give the red pouch to his brother and he 19 imagines Lattimore did him a favor because the notebook was about him anyway and it was his story not GS’s. Thoughts about the end of The Book of Salt. The novel has no tidy conclusions. The reader doesn't know if Binh stays in Paris or goes back to Vietnam. Binh remains disconnected from the characters, but internally comes to peace with his relationships. The imagined endings - like Bao going back to Vietnam to give the red pouch to his brother, allow Binh to move forward in his life. Bing’s determination to go forward is a metaphor for the struggles Vietnam will have seeking independence from its colonial masters. Friday, October 4. James Baldwin, Notes From A Native Son (] Essay 7 - Notes of a Native Son is a collection of nonfiction essays by James Baldwin. Baldwin originally published the essays individually in various literary and cultural commentary magazines between 1948 and 1955. The Beacon Press first republished the essays as Notes of a Native Son in 1955. Essay 7 Encounter on the Seine: Black meets Brown Baldwin begins by noting that it was easier for black people to become successful entertainers in Paris in the 1920s than it is today (Baldwin’s today is the 1950s). He notes that there are fewer black performers in Paris today. There is Inez Cavanaugh, who runs her own club specializing in “fried chicken and jazz.” In order to be successful today, black entertainers must get along well with other African-Americans living in the city, most of whom are studying on the G.I. Bill. However, Baldwin notes that encountering other Americans in Paris is not always a joyous occasion, and is in fact often embarrassing. White and black Americans are conditioned to view each other with distrust, which can create tension even within pleasant and well-intentioned interactions. Meanwhile, interactions with white Europeans leave black Americans with a sense of uncertainty about their own identity. Baldwin points out, the racial differentiation that exists between Americans does not evaporate among Americans who find themselves in France—in some ways, it actually becomes more pronounced. This feeling of confusion becomes even more acute when black Americans encounter Africans from the French colonies living in Paris. 20  Baldwin emphasizes the fact that Africans do not feel the same sense of alienation as African Americans do. There is a 300 year gulf of guilt that exists between Africans and African Americans, which cannot be breached in “an evening’s good-will.” African Americans in Paris may realize that their need to work through their relationship to the past may in fact be a quintessential sign of their own Americanness. They know they will have to return to the United States one day, and that the country will likely not have changed greatly in the time that they have been gone. Baldwin hopes that time will allow black Americans to make peace with themselves and the weight of their history. Questions for Presentation: 1. What is Baldwin saying about the condition of racism in America being so ingrained in the American psyche that White Americans can’t help- but treat Black Americans in Paris with suspicion? Answer: Baldwin is saying that American racism is so deeply embedded in the American psyche that even when Americans are abroad they cannot bridge the gap and embrace fellow Americans with a kind of camaraderie. 2. What is Baldwin saying about Black American being isolated in Paris? Answer: Baldwin is saying that unless you are a black entertainer, ordinary black Americans, who might be there on the GI Bill studying at the Sorbonne, are isolated from other black Americans because there are so few of them and White Americans will not include them. 3. What is Baldwin saying about how African Amerians and Africans living in Paris treat each other? Baldwin is saying that Africans (even in colonized countries) have a better sense of their identity than do African Americans, who descend from slavery. Africans may actually pity African Americans because African Americans are truly lost in their identity. Baldwin says there is a 300 year gulf of guilt that exists between Africans and African Americans, which cannot be breached in “an evening’s good-will.” Baldwin finishes with the hope that the Black American by being in Paris and exposed to Africans may then be inspired to embark on their own quest for their own identity. Essay 8 A Question of Identity. The “American student colony” of Paris is hard to describe, despite the fact that almost all students share the experience of having served in the war. Military service is the defining experience of an entire generation of men, and has surely had a different impact on each of them. The question of why Americans in Paris have chosen to stay in Europe instead of returning home is unclear. 21  Baldwin suspects that it is not love of French history or culture that brings Americans to study in Paris, nor the promise of better teaching b/c they would find very good teaching in the States. Baldwin argues that American students tend to cling to a Parisian image they have been taught through film, and they thereby delay discovering the city as it really is. Baldwin says that it is easy to adore Paris while disliking the French, who tend to keep foreigners “at an unmistakable arm’s length.” Parisians tend to have little interest in the foreigners who live among them, and also tend to have less desire for the freedom and irresponsibility that Americans so enthusiastically exploit. Americans dislike being seen as indistinguishable from their countrymen, but this objection makes little sense to the French. For some Americans, the experience of freedom becomes so overwhelming that they begin to long for “the prison of home.” At this point, the American develops a perverse sense of enthusiasm about the United States, which comes to him just as easily as his initial rejection of his country. Baldwin also considers the case of American students who adapt perfectly to the French lifestyle, cut off all ties to the United States, and live with a French family engaging in all the same activities as a truly French person. Yet Baldwin contends that these students actually hardly know more about France than those who do not assimilate to French culture at all. They remain entrenched in stereotypes about France, and even if they have many French friends this does not help them access the reality of France, as these friends remain an undifferentiated “mob.” Baldwin concludes that overall, most American students in Paris eventually lose a sense of their own personalities, and lose respect for other people’s personalities at the same time. In their confusion, they lose sight of the task of understanding themselves and the way in which all people are products of their environments. Europe presents a singular opportunity to “discover” the United States and end the sense of alienation from themselves that all Americans, on some level, feel. ○ Analysis: Baldwin’s description of the Americans who come to Paris only to fall back in love with America is amusing. Although Baldwin gently mocks the speed with which some Americans flee from the overwhelming freedom Paris presents, he is also sympathetic to their experience. He suggests that this journey of self-discovery is a necessary and even noble process, even if it can cause people to end up running back to the place in which they started. 22  Analysis: Baldwin’s exploration of the experience of American students in Paris is something of a departure from the rest of the book in that it is not based on his own experience or on issues of race and racism. At the same time, this chapter explores the same themes that occur in the rest of the book, including truth, delusion, intimacy, alienation, identity, and homelessness. His exploration of the reason why people come to Paris suggests that people’s motivations are often not even clear to them. They seek an image or myth of Paris that does not necessarily correspond to reality, but that still contains meaning—at least to the Americans who believe in it. Questions for Presentation: 1. Why do you think Baldwin makes no mention of race or racism in this essay? Answer: Perhaps Baldwin is saying that the American condition of lost identity applies equally to Black and White Americans because after all, all Americans share the same American history, which isn’t particularly a nice one because it's a history of slavery. Baldwin seems to say that all Americans have this desire to distance themselves from America by going abroad, but once abroad they sooner or later want to go back to America. Baldwin also says that hopefully every American by being abroad comes to a better understanding of themselves in the context of their real shared history as Americans. Essay 9. Equal in Paris. A year into his life in Paris, Baldwin is arrested for receiving stolen goods. This happens thanks to an American Baldwin had met twice in New York. Baldwin is living in a “ludicrously grim” hotel, and he spends most of his days in a café where he drinks large amounts of coffee followed by large amounts of alcohol. One day the New Yorker finds him there and complains about the state of his own hotel. Although they do not get along particularly well, Baldwin promises to find the man a room in his hotel. Baldwin had come to Paris with $40 and no knowledge of the French language or culture. At the time, he did not realize that French institutions were “outmoded, exasperating, completely impersonal, and very often cruel.” When the American moves into Baldwin’s hotel, he steals sheets from his old hotel out of spite, and Baldwin borrows some, as his own are dirty. On the night of December 19, Baldwin is sitting alone in his room, and decides to visit the American. He finds two French policemen in the American’s room; he doesn’t understand their conversation but believes they are looking for a “gangster.” However, they then ask to see Baldwin’s room, and upon entering they immediately seize the other hotel’s sheet and arrest Baldwin. 23  As he and the American are led out of the hotel, Baldwin asks the policemen if the situation is very serious, and one replies: “No… It’s not serious.” Baldwin thinks this means he will be released before dinner, but this doesn’t happen. He begins to feel nervous; he thinks that French policemen seem to be no better or worse than American police, but the problem with French police is that he cannot understand them. Baldwin says he knew how to react and play to a white America, but here, he didn’t know how to “play the game” because he didn’t know how the policemen were perceiving him except as “an American.”. He is held overnight and he continues to miscommunicate with the police officers. The next day he is interrogated and begins to feel dizzy as a result of not having eaten for so long. He wonders how long it will take for his friends in Paris to notice he is missing. Baldwin is fingerprinted, and his photograph is taken. He is then driven to a prison called Fresnes, outside of Paris. The American is sent to another prison, and as soon as he is gone Baldwin misses him, because he is the only person who knows that Baldwin is telling the truth and not guilty. Everyone else in Baldwin’s cell has committed only petty crimes; there are two North Africans, from whom Baldwin feels alienated. The reality of prison is far worse than what Baldwin had ever imagined. The day before Christmas Eve Baldwin is taken to trial; however, after being forced to wait in various cells, he is told that he will not in fact be tried that day. At this point, Baldwin realizes that the only person in Paris who will be able to help him is an American patent attorney for whom he used to perform administrative work. Baldwin is informed that his trial date has been set back to December 27th. An old man in Baldwin’s cell, who had been arrested for petty larceny, is acquitted. As he waits to be released, he asks Baldwin if there is anything he can do for him. At first Baldwin responds “No,” before giving him the phone number of the American attorney. The next day, the attorney comes to visit and promises Baldwin that everything will be alright; he will ensure Baldwin is released soon and make sure he gets a good Christmas dinner. On Christmas Day, Baldwin asks to go to mass, hoping to hear music. Instead he is placed in a grim, freezing cubicle where he listens to a priest preach about Christ’s love through a slot. On December 27, Baldwin was tried and acquitted. The story of Baldwin’s case evokes laughter in the courtroom; however, this laughter makes Baldwin uneasy, as it is the laughter of people who believe they are safe from the “wretchedness” of the world. Questions for Presentation: 24 1. What is Baldwin saying about Christianity and/or Christian countries like France when he describes going to mass on Christmas in the prison? Answer: Baldwin may be saying that even though the priest was talking about Christ’s love, there is no such thing in France because the French are willing to put its people in prison for something as minor as stolen hotel sheets. 2. What does Baldwin mean by the title “Equal in Paris?” Answer: Baldwin suggesting that back in America he knew how to “play the game” about being a Black man and should he have been arrested there, he actually would have been at an advantage compared to his arrest in Paris where he was simply treated like all other arrestees and had no “cultural understanding” of how to act to help himself. He is so used to being treated unequally in America, that there is an irony to his Parisian jail experience, where he is treated like everyone else. The irony is that black Americans want equality, but here he doesn’t want this. 3. What does Baldwin mean by the statement that the French policeman only saw him as an “American” instead of a black man? Answer: Ironically, Baldwin felt he was at a disadvantage in the situation because he was being treated like every other arrested person instead of a Black man, who in an American culture, has been taught how to respond to America’s criminal justice system. Friday, October 18. Ian Frazier, “Paradise Bronx.” NPR Review: It’s about walking around the Bronx. This is a book. 500+ pages It came out in 2024. It's the “drive-through” borough, It’s about the past bleeding through the present. The truth of a place can often be seen in plain sight. It’s a chronological ramble through Bronx history, He devotes a section to the crucial part the Bronx played in the American Revolution. After WW2, the Bronx became the victim of “planned destruction.” Hip-Hop was born there in the 1970s. The book is an ode to the borough. Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” 25  The narrator speaks on how New Yorkers from the past, present and future are all connected Long after the speaker is gone, New Yorkers will be in the exact places that he is in & share similar feelings and thoughts as he has. “Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt, Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd, Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d, Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried” Friday, October 15. David Hare, “Straight Line Crazy.” Act One. One. Roberts Moses, 38, is on the Southern shore of Long Island. Two. Jane Jacobs, in her 40s appears. Gray-haired. Washington Square, Greenwich Village. She was from Scranton, PA. She is an architect. She remembers thinking “What will be left of us after we are gone?” She remembers thinking that the only thing that remains are cities and songs, but she is no good at songs. Three. Henry Vanderbilt. 1926. Someone is at the door. Fergus answers the door. Robert Moses is shown in. Moses graduated from Yale, Class of 1909. Vanderbilt and Moses share a love of the beauty of Long Island. Vanderbilt: “seek to share that beauty [Long Island] and it is gone” (p. 7). Moses: “this little beauty that is Nassau County” (p. 7) Vanderbilt: “Why do they have to come at all?” Moses: “The people will get to the beach one way or another” Vanderbilt doesn’t want the “mob” to come to Jones Beach and destroy its beauty. He asks why can’t they go to Coney Island or Brighton Beach?” Moses says his new parkways will welcome them. This is the democratic way. Vanderbilt met with all the prominent LI families (Fricks, Whitneys, Morgans, etc). The families want to oppose Moses’s plans. Moses leaves. Moses’s headquarters are on a LI mansion. He is planning out the Southern State Parkway. 26  Porter works with Moses. Page 22. “I’ve been on a tour of the great families of Long Island (p. 25) “They want no words. They are against new roads on principle.” (p. 26) “The roads mean nothing to me. It’s the state parks which have meaning. The roads are just the means of getting there”. (p. 35) “Today, if a person is driving on a road anywhere in New York State which as the word Moses: “Long Island could be the recreational area for the whole of New York City”. (p.3)’ “Today, if a person is driving on a road anywhere in New York State which has the word 'expressway’ in its name, they are driving on a road built by Robert Moses “(p. 73). Tuesday, October 29. David Hare, “Straight Line Crazy.” Friday, November 15. 2 live performances of Pa’lante -a song by the American band form, Hurray for the Riffraff an American band formed by Alynda Segarra, a singer-songwriter from the Bronx. NPR Article, A Recovering Puerto Rico Stars In Hurray For The Riff Raff's 'Pa'lante' Video, - May 21, 2018: ○ Artists have been inspired to support Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017. ○ Alynda Segarra makes a point to represent the island and her lineage in her music, including the struggles her people are going through. ○ With samples from famous Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri and the titular reference to the name of the Young Lord's newspaper, justice and perseverance are at the center of the song's message. Podcast, Latino USA: “A Spoken History Of The Nuyoricans Poets Cafe,” November 12, 2021. ○ “We were very bohemian.” “We were just living life.” “We were part of a movement, but like most movements, you don’t know you are in one until it's over. ○ Maria Hinojosa, the podcaster. ○ NYC 1970s. It’s gritty; It’s violent; It’s very alive. 27 ○ It’s very alive with PR music. But, there is also deep poverty and xenophobia. ○ A group of writers - PR by birth but mostly raised in NYC - seek out community & they find it within each other and their words. They call themselves The Nuyorican Poets, and together they would spark a literary revolution. ○ 1974. The play “Short Eyes” opens on Broadway by Miquel Pinero. It was the first production by a Latino to ever debut on Broadway. ○ Some of the poetry is a condemnation of the American Dream. ○ In 1973, the NPC began as a series of informal poetry readings in the East Village apartment of Miguel Algarín, a writer and poet. Other co-founders included Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri, Sandra Maria Esteves, and Bittman John “Bimbo” Rivas. ○ The Nuyorican Poets Cafe moved to 236 East 3rd Street in the East Village. ○ Today, the NPC, artists compete in open mics and stage their own theatre productions. ○ Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, a poet shares his memories: Miguel Algarín, who died in 2020, was a professor at Rutgers at the time. He had a ground floor, nice apartment on 6th street. They would hang out there for days, read poetry, drink wine & smoke pot. We’d fall asleep, wake up and the readings were still going on. ○ Poets would recite, sit down and work on their poetry some more. In the morning, poets would go out to get bread and eggs and someone would make breakfast. It was a fun time. ○ “Papoleto” has the word poet in it; Jesus likes the name. He was conceived in PR, but born in NYC in 1950. ○ “To be a Nuyoricean, your development as a person has to be affected by New York; You can’t arrive in NYC as an adult and be a Nuyoricean.” ○ Jesus began writing as a little kid. When he was 18 or 19, he wasn’t a literary person. He didn’t know about Walt Whitmans, etc. He began to get politicized; He was opposed to the Vietnam War. He started going down to the Village & Washington Square Park, where musicians were playing and poets were reading. He met other poets there ○ His friends at Brooklyn College asked him to do a reading & he was paid. There was a strong sense of camaraderie. ○ For nearly 50 years, the NPC has been around. ○ Spoken word poet Caridiad De la Luz, a Bronxite, known as “La Bruja” (the witch) takes the stage. “It’s the coolest little cafe; It’s a mystical 28  place. A simple stage, a microphone & magic. It is open to everyone. Anyone can get on the stage and “speak their truth.” She started her career at the NPC on April 3, 1996. She was offered a weekend spot. She had been working at Bloomingdale’s at the time. She got a standing ovation, and she never turned away from that stage again. She now hosts the open mic there. ○ Ishmael Reed, a Black American poet and jazz piano player, with a serious biography speaks next. “We were called rabble.” He goes back to 1965 Columbia University. But then he remembers the “beat” the NPC had that others didn’t. He knew Miguel Piñero. Miguel had a great sense of humor. ○ The NPC was opened before the lower East Side was gentrified and became the East Village. Tuesday, November 19. Paris is Burning (1990) A documentary of New York's LGBT scene in the 1980s, showing the real life of poor Black and Latino LGBT people. It introduces the ballrooms, the categories, the houses, the voguing, and the dreams and ambitions of these people who are systematically excluded from society; They fight to conquer the right to be and to reinvent themselves in a world starring straight and white people. They use the balls to show their creativity, have fun with their community and family, shining, and having their names recognized in the ballroom scene. Setting: New York 1987. Dragqueens. Ballrooms. Dance competitions. Documentary. “Peper Labejja.” The legendary mother of the house of Labejja.” “The Ball Circuit.” “You go in there and you feel 100% right about being gay, and that’s not what its like in the real world.” “Those balls are like our fantasy of being a superstar.” “I came. I saw. I conquered.” “I like the competition. It makes me stronger, It makes me think more.” “To be ‘legender’ is the goal.” “To become a legend, you have an Oscar.” “Freddie Pendavis.” “Dorian Carey,” “It’s like a physical high.” “It’s an addictive high; But it's a high that won’t hurt you.” Categories: “Winter sportswear,” “Luscious bodies,” “School boy/School girl/Realness,” “Town and Country,” “Executive Realness,” “High Fashion Parisian,” “Butch Queen/First Time in Drags At A Ball,” “Military Theme,” “High Fashion/Evening Wear,” “Realness,” “Shade,” “When I grew up, black stars were stigmatized?” 29  “When you are gay, you monitor everything that you do?” “Realness - to be able to blend. You can pass the not trained eye - or even the trained eye and not give away the fact that you are gay. That's realness.” “It’s not a take-all or a satire” One LGBTQ person talks about how his mother was embarrassed by his drag queening. “Venus Xtravagenza.” “A lot of these kids come from sad backgrounds.” “House.” They are families for a lot of children who have no families. Hippies used to have families. A group of human beings with a mutual bond. A gay house street fights in a ball by walking in a category.” Houses started because you wanted a name; They are made up of ball walkers that are known for winning. The House of Xtravaganza. Angie Xtravaganza is the mother of the house. I ran away from my house when I was 14. The House of Ninja. To be the mother, you have to have the most power, The mother gets the most respect. The House of Labejja. They all “read” each other and give each other “shade” which is like fighting “Voguing” came from shade - it's a dance between 2 people who don’t like each other. It’s a way to fight without bleeding. “Voguing is like a safe form of throwing shade.” “They took it from the magazine Vogue.” Some men want to take their voguing and become choreographers. “Octavia St. Laurent” “Mopping” - you go into a store and steal. “I want to live a normal, happy life.” “I want to be a complete woman. I want to be a professional model.” New York 1989, fast forward. One gay man discusses how he has become a model. Venus is murdered - strangled under a bed in a sleazy motel. Discussion Question: Did Madonna take the term Vogue for her song of the same name from these Ballroom voguing dance competitions of the 1980s? (Madonna’s album and song “Vogue” came out in 1990 - after this culture was already established). In what ways did the ballroom culture of New York in the 1980s influence modern day culture? ○ Ballroom culture helped bring to light the phenomenon of vogueing which was popularized after Madonna's single Vogue and through terminology like “throwing shade” and “reading” became widespread in 30  popular culture. Rupaul's Drag Race brought the ballroom culture into the mainstream media with its continued use of categories and judging What is the film’s main argument? After Octavia and Venus (transsexuals) talk about all the things they “want,” the film fast forwards to 1989. Why does it do this? Tuesday, November 26. The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020) The Forty-Year-Old Version is a 2020 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Radha Blank, in her feature directorial debut. Loosely based on Blank's own life, the film sees her playing Radha, a playwright and teacher who turns to rapping when she finds herself nearing her 40th birthday. Radha lives and teaches high school in NYC. Radha is a playwright who hasn’t written a play in a while. She is trying to get a regional production of a play. She won a “30 under 30” award. J. Whitman is doing a production and Radha has to suck up to him. Her play, Harlem Ave, is about a young black couple about gentrification. “Did a Black person really write this?” “I still need a writer for my Harriet Tubman musical.” She attacks him. She cries to her mom for help (her mom is dead) asking: “Mommy help me.” Archie is her agent. She writes a hip hop play about a 40 year old black woman. She thinks she’s got a hit. She wants to create something that is hers. She finds a guy on Instagram named D from Brownsville who sells “beats” to music. She writes a rap on “poverty porn.” Constant references to mothers who have died. Whitman is willing to produce her story “Harlem Ave” but wants to cut it a little bit and put more white characters into it. “I’m 3 months shy of 40; so I need to stay in my lane.” Radha keeps avoiding her brother’s calls She goes back to rapping. Whitman and Archie can’t get a black director. She keeps agreeing to all the changes b/c she is promised that she will be on Broadway with the play. D takes R to a “Queen of the Ring” event & she really likes it. 31  R’s father was a jazz drummer who did plumbing work; Her mother was a painter who taught school. They struggled with money, and even squatted in places to live. D and R start making a rap together called “Mamma May I” because they both miss their deceased mothers. “It’s the play; It’s not mine anymore.” “That rapping shit made me feel good about myself.” “You’re not above being a sellout.” R goes to see her brother at their mother’s apartment. “She came to New York to be a famous artist. What does she have to show for it? “Us, you dummy;She said that we were her greatest creation.” The play is a success, but R gets up there and tells the audience that it was a piece of shit. Cheryl L, Keyes, “Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance.” 2000 Keyes’ article examines the critical role of Black female rappers in redefining their identities within a traditionally male-dominated music genre. The author discusses the historical context of rap music, which, despite being associated primarily with male artists, has always included contributions from women who have shaped the genre since its inception. Keyes introduces the concept of the "interpretive community,” a term referring to a collective of Black women actively involved in creating or engaging with cultural productions that highlight their experiences and perspectives. The article identifies four distinct categories through which Black female rappers express their identities: "Queen Mother," "Fly Girl," "Sista with Attitude," and "Lesbian." The "Queen Mother" category comprises artists who adopt themes of African heritage, empowerment, and respect, often associated with images of royalty and nobility, such as Queen Latifah and Sister Souljah. These rappers use their music to advocate for the respect and acknowledgment of Black women in society. Keyes highlights that the lyrics of these artists often engage with political issues and the socio-economic struggles faced by Black women, challenging societal norms and expectations. The "Fly Girl" category reflects a contemporary and fashionable persona that emphasizes independence and sexuality while also critiquing traditional beauty standards. Artists like Salt-N-Pepa embody this category, flaunting their curves and demonstrating a newfound agency over their images and bodies. This reclamation of the "fly" identity is a direct counter to stereotypes of Black 32  women’s desirability and contributes to a broader dialogue about body positivity and eroticism in female empowerment. In contrast, "Sista with Attitude" encompasses female rappers exhibiting assertiveness, confidence, and often defiance against patriarchal structure. Artists like Roxanne Shante and Da Brat exemplify this category through their aggressive lyrical styles and challenges to male authority in the hip-hop sphere. They redefine terms traditionally used to demean women, transforming them into affirmations of strength and empowerment. However, there remains internal debate within this community about the implications of such reinventions, particularly regarding the use of the term "bitch," which some embrace positively while others reject. Keyes also discusses the emerging category of "Lesbian" rappers, marked by increased visibility and representation of queer identities in rap. Queen Pen serves as a noteworthy example, whose music addresses lesbian love from an authentic perspective, thus breaking new ground in a genre previously characterized by homophobia. This move toward inclusivity challenges lingering stereotypes and expands the conversation surrounding sexual orientation in the hip-hop community. The author stresses that despite the progress these artists have made in articulating their identities and experiences, they still confront stark sexism and structural barriers within the music industry. Many female rappers have to navigate a landscape that often devalues their contributions based on gender, leading to calls for recognition of their creativity and artistry. Keyes emphasizes the importance of viewing female rappers not merely in juxtaposition with their male counterparts but through their unique dialogues about feminism, sexuality, identity, and empowerment. Keyes concludes that Black female rappers are actively redefining the contours of their representation within hip-hop. By reclaiming narratives about themselves, these artists not only challenge the societal norms that marginalize them but also create spaces for other Black women to do the same. The article not only sheds light on how Black female rappers navigate and shape their identities but also highlights the broader implications of their work for understanding race and gender dynamics in contemporary American culture. Gwendolyn D. Pough, “What It Do, Shorty?: Women, Hip-Hop, and a Feminist Agenda 2007 33  Gwendolyn D. Pough explores the intersections of hip-hop culture and feminism, focusing on hip-hop feminism's potential to address issues related to race, class, gender, and sexuality. Pough argues that hip-hop feminism offers a critical lens through which to interrogate women's roles within the hip-hop industry, encompassing the representation and objectification evident in music videos. The piece acknowledges the complex dichotomy between conscious and commercial rap and highlights voices from women rappers, critics, and activists, such as Jean Grae and Joan Morgan, who advocate for a nuanced understanding of women's experiences in hip-hop. Pough contends that while many contemporary female emcees may not identify as feminists, their works raise significant feminist concerns when examining the nature of gender representation. The essay al