Maya Angelou interviews James Baldwin

I love James Baldwin - but this quote is hard to understand to the point of gibberish. What is he saying?

R1 “The closet kills.”

R1 Watch it. It’s a short 20-minute plus interview but it’s fascinating.

I agree this sounds like blather.

And obviously “went on the needle” is referring to becoming addicted to heroin.

Mee-ow.

[quote] And obviously “went on the needle” is referring to becoming addicted to heroin.

No, Rose: it's a reference to vinyl records.

The greatest gift that being gay can give one is to find the courage and strength to let go of the self-destructive need for other people's approval giving those people all the power over your own well-being.

One cannot invent something groundbreaking when staying within society's boundaries and holding on to its sometimes outdated status quo. You don't push the envelope when you don't see any reason to look for something better outside society's boundaries. Progress can only come from looking for something new that's just slightly out of reach and you have to take a step out of your own and society's comfort zone.

R8 Love your take.

James Baldwin was a rock star. Just being willing to be out was heroic. Taking on Buckley to debate gay rights was beyond heroic. He was brilliant and brave. We need more activist like him. Not whining - just intelligent, coherent, logical and proud. He never played the victim.

Well he certainly read her beads there.

I stopped reading Baldwin after the disgusting descriptions of his hero in Another Country beating the shit out of his girlfriend.

Like Chester Himes, you could be a talented writer and gay--and still despise women.

Amen, R10.

I hate that Maya bitch.

Clearly he said "If I love you and duck it, I die" NOT suck it.

Totally changes what he says for me. OP - be mindful of your typos.

Oh shit. That was autocorrect, R15. I hadn’t even noticed it changed my initial transcription.

Wow, that's a huge typo. OP, turn off your auto-correct. Seriously.

He's speaking in the 70s about something that could get anyone else killed in white or black communities then.

So if he's saying it's ok but sounds circular in the process, I get it.

America didn't deserve James Baldwin. What an absolute hero; a fearless trailblazer, for whom we should all be forever in his debt. I love him and his work, more so than any other American writer. And I know this isn't a controversial opinion on the DL, but I've always thought Angelou was an overwrought hack.

Toni Morrison, on the other hand, was an artist touched by the gods. Her eulogy for Baldwin is an incredible piece of writing.

[Quote] This then is no calamity. No. This is jubilee.

R17 I’m tempted. How dare it mangle a Baldwin quote! It fucked up the whole point and reason I posted it!

R19 Why do you think Maya was a hack? Curious.

R21. I think Angelou wrote one great book—“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” a tough-minded, deeply felt memoir of her childhood. The rest of her memoirs are simply not as interestingly written—Capote did a far more evocative rendering of the international tour of “Porgy and Bess.” Her poetry lives best in her own performances of them—this does not make them hack work, but they do require voicing, like much “oral or “performance” poetry (though she ain’t Homer, either). Her imagery and language is accessible to the point of not giving me much of interest to do as reader or listener—day, as compared with such other Black women poets as Gwendolyn Brooks or Audre Lorre, who are also not obscure (like some other contemporary poets like Jorge Graham), but who create worlds of depth and experiences that feel authentic and specific. All that said, my college students lived Angelou’s poetry and I could always count on at least one doing “Still I Rise” or “Phenomenal Woman.” I think Nikki Giovanni is much better as a poet celebrating Black female life, but if Angelou got them excited about poetry, who, to quote Pope FrannyandZooey, am I to judge?

Is he related to porcine hater Alec?

His contemporary Gore Vidal said the same thing about homosexuality: that it's a verb and not a noun. Many gay intellectuals back then spoke about homosexuality in those terms because it was still criminalized. They had to be careful how they spoke about it in public.

And, R10, that debate between WFB had more to do about race and voting rights for blacks at the time than gay rights. Nevertheless, Baldwin scorched the so-called "great" conservative intellectual in that debate.

Isn't that just recycled Vidal nonsense that denies the reality of gay identity and reduces homosexuality to the physical act of sex between men which technically any man could do at any time and would under the right circumstances? Of course, the same goes for "gay" men - they can be straight just as easily by having sex with women so there is no such thing as sexual orientation - no innate sexual desires - everything is a matter of social forces that can change on a dime. Of course, this was very convenient for the lecherous types like Vidal who loved to hire "straight" rent boys and bugger them out of some twisted self-loathing sadism. Those straight rent boys weren't getting much pleasure - and probably much more physical pain - out of the transaction but if you divorce sex and sexuality from innate desire and elide mutual pleasure the definition, then sex is really only about power and dominance (and not in the kinky BDSM way)...

Baldwin always came across as self-loathing to me - and he had every reason to be - the black power macho assholes were quite cruel to him and he didn't really know to rebut them without ever challenging the assumption that homosexuality is inferior or weak. He was nothing compared to Bayard Rustin who was by far the most important black gay man of that era and never showed any shame when it comes to his sexuality.

Also, I never like Giovanis Room - to me it was pure pathos and self-loathing and while groundbreaking, it offered no hope or positive vision only pain and tragedy. Bladwin was much better at non-fiction in general anyway...

I'd be tempted to watch it if there was some way of editing Maya Angelou out. She's terminally insufferable and a complete fraud.

R26 Baldwin is worth the watch.

But was he Queer?

Baldwin is on my Mr Rushmore of American writers. I remember reading Giovanni's Room in college. I couldn't put it down. My straight best friend read it too and he fucking cried over it. He was that moved.