Just finished this, let's talk about it
It really did help me, as a white person, understand race in the United States. I don't mean that in a meme-y way, it's that I genuinely felt I understood better what it was like to be black in America after reading it.
It's also a great novel in its own right.
Great book, Ellison's prose flows like water, cracks like a whip. The social commentary is oddly still relevant.
What you think of it, OP?
I haven't read it but I've heard SJWs hate it so I might check it out.
>>7820362
Do they really?
If they do I bet I know why. I bet it's because Ellison fucking nails the fact that they're racist too, and their racism is in its own way more insidious and crippling than the naked racism of southerners/rednecks.
I agree with both of you. I can't say I've read much lit dealing so explicitly with racial issues but I was pleasantly surprised at how Ellison wrote such a racially charged book without turning the narrator into a meme. Definitely an engaging story with memorable and unique characters. The chapter in the beginning (2 maybe?) with Mr. Norton's exchange with Jim Trueblood was one of the most pleasurable reading experiences I've had in a long time. Absurd, funny, shameful, depressing, uplifting. And yeah, the prose was great.
>If they do I bet I know why. I bet it's because Ellison fucking nails the fact that they're racist too, and their racism is in its own way more insidious and crippling than the naked racism of southerners/rednecks.
Yeah found his exposition of this concept like 1000% relevant to a lot of cultural stuff happening right now.
I read it like 4 years ago, it sucked. He was never even invisble, just black.
Can someone fucking explain to me what the last sentence means?
>Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?
I didn't comprehend it when I was 14 and I don't comprehend it now. And no, the context doesn't help.
as always, the white man does it better
>>7820362
If that's your attitude you won't like it
Shit but one of the better books of my sophmore year of high school.
>>7820553
I read it as, even though he was black and most of the situations in the book where he was "invisible" were be because of it, the idea of being seen as a symbol of people's virtues,guilt,weaknesses etc is a universal one that applies to everyone.
>>7820572
While Wells was more straightforward, Ellison is more nuanced and is the better storyteller.
I remember high school; book was about 6.5/10, but I'd say better than Catch 22. I read Catch 22 on a lot of adderall and straight through though, so that might have been why.
>>7820774
I agree with your ratings.
Ellison could have been an 8 but he bullshitted too much in the second and third act.
i loved it. everyone seems to take it as an examination on the black experience of a certain part of american history, and it absolutely is that, but on another level, and what i found most remarkable about it, was its musings on the broader issue of 'identity' in general.
>>7820806
Yeah, the protag is as interesting as Dosto's Underground Man, while focusing on distinct subjects, no coincidence too.
Translating the black experience as an existential problem was a neat relatable spin, the book takes a dip in quality in the last third though.
>>7820858
The last chapter is pretty strong, though.
>>7820323
Black people don't like it because the very end of the book says that even as a minority, you still have a place in society and need to contribute.
