I Don't Discuss Sex, Politics, and Religion

"Preston,

It was good meeting you at Elizabeth Nunez's reading. She is amazing, isn't she? Hearing her dynamic presentation and having read the glowing reviews of your novel as I was ordering it on Amazon caused me to wonder at the state of African American literature today. Is it just me, or is anyone else disturbed by the preponderance these days of African American pulp posing as literature? Go to the African American section of your local bookstore and look at the overs, all of which are brightly colored and almost always seem to feature a sexy black woman or a bare-chested, musclebound, tattooed black man pushing tales of sex, infidelity, and a ghetto-fabulous rendition of the Amerian Dream. Is this the only kind of black novel that the publishers will sell? I don't mean to sound angry, but what happened to great black literature? What happened to great black writers? Why are there so few of those books being published and so many of the other? R.T."

Thanks for the email, R.T.

Yours is a good question, but one that I am reluctant to answer, for as a boy I was warned by my mentor that there are three subjects never to discuss in public: Sex, Politics, and Religion.

He could have added a fourth--the history of race in America--which is the issue your question is begging me to address, but which, cleverly, I shall skirt, as I explain, R.T., how you should regard the preponderance of those "colorful covers" in the African American section of your local bookstore.

Be thankful that they are there, for unlike the presence of "great black books," the presence of, or rather abundance of "medium tier black books" is a true sign of progress and/or advances in the field of writing. Allow me to explain.

Great writers shall always be published--great black writers, great white writers, great Asian writers, great Latino writers, great Afghan writers--because great writers shall always find a receptive audience among the learned and those who would learn. Books by writers of great talent abound in college classrooms and on the shelves of those who desire a "good" read. Great writers make their own way, and therefore they are not a sign of progress for the racial identity from which they hail.

Popular books, on the other hand--and I think you mean "popular books" when you say "colorful covers"--indicate a broader reading audience. And a broader reading audience indicates that more people (in the represented racial identity) are reading.

In order to state my point more clearly, let's go to the "white" section of the bookstore. Amazing. It looks a lot like the African American section of the bookstore.

Among the popular "white" books, I see covers with scantily clad women, I see sexy studs, I see guns and knives and blood on the covers, I see sports-themed books, I see self help, I see pop psychology, I see religion. This is what the masses want to read. This is also a sign that there actually still exist masses capable of and willing to read--in this world of TV, movies, and Youtube vying for your entertainment dollar, that sign is a great thing. It shows that reading still matters and that writing is still a viable medium for the transmission of information of interest to the masses.

Then I see the great "white" books and the towering "white" classics, some of which, but not all, are popular. Does this mean that the state of "white" writing is in despair?

Are you getting the point?

See, a popular African American novel is successful because there is a large audience (of African Americans and others) willing to patronize it. Its success indicates that its writer is writing about what the masses (of African Americans and others) want to read. More importantly, its succes indicates that there actually exist masses (of African Americans and others) capable of and willing to read. Its success indicates that reading matters (to African Americans and others) and that writing is a viable medium for the transmission of information of interest to the masses (of African Americans and others).

In fact, if we argue that a particular African American popular novel is NOT A GREAT BOOK we are actually helping to make the argument that its success, then, depends on a large audience eager to read book after book about this particular subject matter or by this particular writer or by writers of this particular racial identity, rather than on the book's own merits as a great work.

In other words, and finally, it should be clear to you now that a popular African American novel is about the audience; a popular African American book says that black people are reading.

However, a great African American novel--by the likes of a Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson, Ernest J. Gaines, Elizabeth Nunez, or heck even a Preston L. Allen--is about the writer. It says that black people can write great books.

So don't despair, R.T., for those colorful covers that you speak of are a sign of progress.

Black people are reading in record numbers. Now, it is the job of people like you and me, teachers, to get them to read better books.

I hope I was not too political.

Thanks,

Preston