Can we create a /lit/ canon that isn't composed of white males? Here are some of my picks:
>Aphra Behn - Oroonoko
>Naidine Gordimer - Burger's Daughter
>Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
>Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
>Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes were Watching God
>Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Weep Not, Child
>A.S. Byatt - Possession
>George Eliot - Middlemarch
>>7489975
Iceberg Slim - Pimp, obviously.
And an ooga booga tampon doodoo to you too, anon.
Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delaney
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Native Son - Richard Wright
Black Boy - Richard Wright
Zong! - M. NourbeSe Philip
>>7489975
How can we forget the greatness of black prose
"Mup da doo ditta. Muhfugga bix noods. Muh dick." - Tyrone "We was Kangz" Johnson
Only recent books I've enjoyed in that category are Station Eleven and Drown. By a white woman and a hispanic man.
>>7490000
I think Dhalgren's overrated. Delany has much better novels, but I guess because they aren't confusing doorstoppers like that one is, no one will look smart when they read them.
ITT: people who havn't learned to think past in-groups
>>7489975
>I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged by the color of their skin, not by the content of their character.
the imgurians have arrived. flee you fools.
People patronizing Bell Hooks' lowercase bullshit epitomizes what's wrong with black people.
Think about it. Black person acts like a fucking moron. Everyone tolerates it, and adjusts their well-wrought systems to accommodate.
This is the source of all their problems. Not repressive racism but the "benign" racism of condescension.
>TASHIKI NBWONGO I AM bell hooks THE DEEP ALTERNATIVE ARTIST, EVERYONE REMEMBER TO LOWERCASE MY NAME ALL THE TIME AND MAKE XHOSA CLICKING NOISES WHEN CITING ME!! I AM A CULTURAL ICON
The correct response to this is
>Shut up you fucking bitch. You piece of shit.
not
>Yes [bell hooks] would you like use to do anything else [EGO] | <<[[[XxXBeLLh00kzXxX]]]>> (nosound) (trackball)
>>7489975
Are Italians Caucasian or Hispanic?
Alexandre Dumas, pere and Aleksandr Pushkin.
I be thuggin wit mah niggz - Demarvyeon Brown
>>7489975
This is why /lit/ isn't any better than /pol/.
Are hispanics white? Can't forget about them.
I haven't read much of his stuff, but I know Harold Bloom loves him.
>>7489975
Kek
Diveristy:
>let's say authors/books are good because they are written by minorities or women.
We talk about the literature that is the best, most of the time that literature is written by white men, get over it.
>>7490120
ideology: the post
>>7489975
fuck off tumblr
>>7489975
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kga2soqvMF0
Eldridge Cleaver - Soul on Ice
>>7490120
I never said they were good just because they were written by non-white males. They are all still very important and/or well written works of literature.
I'm not trying to make everyone ignore the classics that are written by white men like some SJWs try to do. I'm merely introducing to people great works of literature by people with different perspectives in life, perspectives which are often ignored in the literary world.
>>7490161
I'll take that.
>>7490133
Problematic: the post
>>7490161
>Can we create a /lit/ canon that isn't composed of white males?
implies you think a canon composed of white males is a bad thing
"let's talk about literature made by minorities" or something would make you sound less like an SJW
>>7490157
This book is so rarely mentioned anywhere, and it's actually beautifully written.
>>7490182
When this board focuses pretty much exclusively on them, I do think it's a bad thing. I'm sorry if I come across like an SJW, but I do think it's important to read about diverse subjects and people.
It's not like these books are just the literary equivalent of a tumblr post. A book like Invisible Man isn't just about the black experience, but about a whole exploration of identity and an individual's relation to society.
And The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Possession aren't even ostensibly about social issues. The former is a study about loneliness and the latter is a post-modern detective story about poetry.
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
Native Son - Richard Wright
I hate when these books are put into the African writer's section at bookstores. They belong in the Literature section, both really great novels who's stories transcend race.
>>7490204
who wrote possession? sounds p good
>>7490215
Wasn't James Baldwin the one who got shit from other black writers for writing some stories about white people?
>>7490204
I genuinely believe that if a minority writes a compelling piece of literature, it will be well-received and valued, without having to force the concept of 'read this because the author is a special color'. Yet this concept is the basis of many a course catalog in academia.
>>7490204
I agree that they're good books, I'm just naturally a bit wary of people that push for diversity, because they're usually SJWs that place their ideology above merit (like /pol/ does)
>>7490237
>I genuinely believe that if a minority writes a compelling piece of literature, it will be well-received and valued
that's p naive desu
>>7490251
Who picks up a book and says 'this story seems good, too bad the author is black' in 2015? Nobody.
>>7490275
Judging from many of the posts in this thread and in others, many people apparently.
>>7490289
No, I'm kind of racist, but I promise you that i don't give a shit what color or gender the author is.
>>7490289
People speak in a racist manner on 4chan because there is such a frustrating stigma and reaction to these natural thoughts in any other setting. It's an outlet and not a reflection of real worldviews. If this were 1815 and an anonymous forum such as 4chan were around in the southern US, it would be an ideal place for people to speak out against slavery and discrimination in society, because it would be difficult to do so outside of an anonymous realm.
>>7489975
Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
>>7490289
We don't hate a writer's colour or gender. We hate annoying identity politics, books being forced and promoted.
>>7490275
do you know where you are?
but also, just for the situation of a generic someone picking up a random book, the book had to pass through the publishing industry, was reviewed, etc. there's all kinds of places for things to go wrong before an average citizen even gets the chance to even decide whether or not to dismiss the book.
>>7490307
>It's an outlet and not a reflection of real worldviews.
Anon, do you not think racism is a real worldview?
>>7490307
that's the most faith i've ever seen in humanity in one post. bless your heart.
>>7490275
>guys
>did you know
>the year
>did you know that the year
>the current year
>is 2015
>twenty
>fif
>teen
First off, Slavic cultures, middle easterners (including Italians, jews, and the Turkish) aren't white, neither are Asians, Indians, etc.
Honestly speaking, it's partially that most cultures haven't had the same amount of time to assimilate into the "white canon" It is also that books written by minorities are often not applicable to other cultures.
Otherwise either A: a/the great minority (or rather group) novel Has already been written and there is little need for crap that reiterates the same thing. Black people and Ellison for example, Or the Jews with will Eisner and art spiegelman and a handful of theature and cinema works.
B: there is no need for one because there really isn't that much special, such as many locale groups, like inhabitants of delaware, lithuanians, fans of the Rams, or most subcultures including /lit/
Or C: the writers/artists of the group just suck out of a lack emphasis on arts/academic achievement. Like the north Koreans, inuits, mongolians, or arguably many ethno-linguistic cultures today.
>>7490317
Cheers to that
>>7490325
What I meant by worldview is an outlook that guides a person's behavior and decisions. People who have racist opinions do not necessarily live to vanquish other races or cause harm. Perhaps they only notice clear differences between for instance blacks and whites in their day to day lives, yet find themselves unable to voice these observations anywhere but an anonymous forum.
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
Murasaki Shikibu - Tale of Genji
Vyasa - Mahabharata
Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
Alice Munro's short stories
James Baldwin's essays
Emily Dickinson
Sappho
Elizabeth Bishop
Hilda Doolittle
Amy Lowell
>>7489975
>all white countries are scrambling to erase themselves
>all white country's media are scrambling to put in black people wherever they can
>corporations and colleges are desperate to discriminate in favor of blacks
>"Hey why don't we try to replace the literary history of white people with our shit"
>"We're destroyed their hope of a future so why not erase their past too?"
No, thank you. I can understand people who want to do this that are black but nobody that's white should support this.
>>7490425
the principles of "equality" and social justice are eroding the moral values of a good society
this sort of this had been happening to societies for a long time now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g
>>7490495
oh well if they said it in a video then it must be true.
>>7489975
Bitch look like Bill Cosby in a moo-moo
>Aaaand the Jellooooo Puddiiiiiing, y'see
>y'see, Theo
>With the wiggle... and... the jiggle
>Of the Jeeello Pudding.... POPS
>y'see
>>7489975
Wardine be cry.
>>7489975
any book with Hermione in it
This thread is awful. But but I can't like the books because the author isn't exactly like me. Stop with the racist shit.
>inb4 tumblr accusations
>>7491311
This. I fucking hate how oppressed I am as a white male. It's reverse racism trying to get me to read blacks.
>>7490204
Based Ralph Ellison. Mah nigga. Juneteenth is pretty good as well, but Ellison will always be judged by the greatness of Invisible Man. I should re-read that soon...
i only read books by white males.
why?
because they have written the books most interesting to me.
I don't read to be culturally savvy or because i was guilt tripped into reading something i didnt want to read.
why the hell does it matter?
shouldnt books be judged by their content and not their covers? why not the same with people?
