I finished Invisible Man on Monday. What an incredible book, and oh so relevant even today, and even beyond race. Who doesn't struggle with identity in general? Who doesn't struggle with the identity others want to hang on us? It is something I continue to struggle with, even at this age. People, particularly white men, see what they want to see, what they see of all black women, while ignoring so many evident signs of who I am as an individual. As a black woman, there is always the question as to whether I'm where I am because I am the token, who serves a purpose, but might be come dispensable should I no longer be needed.
Elison manages to capture the angst of life and identity in a world where it's so easy for all people to pigeonhole people quickly and proceed as though the initial charactization has to be correct.
I also finished Vanity Fair. Very well-written, with lively language, although the story dragged at the end. The social commentary is again, relevant even today. Did the world create a schemer like Becky, or did Becky have to scheme to adapt to a world that would otherwise constrain her. Silly women, like Amelia Sedley, abound, failing to "love the one they're with." I liked it.
So, what's up next. On the ipod, Middlemarch, by George Eliot. Reading, along with K2, Ivanhoe. Both have complex sentence structures, but Ivanhoe in particular, seems to be a good, adventurous story. We shall see, said the blind man.
