James by Percival Everett *****

Percival Everett’s James started with Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. He made runaway slave Jim the main character. Like all slaves, James is bilingual. He can speak the dialect (“slave talk”) Twain wrote for Jim (“a language no white person could master”), and the language of the whites. Black people use “slave talk” whenever there are white folk present. Jim is the smartest person in the book, but that doesn’t shield him from the brutality of slavery. James exposes how slavery fostered violence and ignorance.

Here is a language lesson…

You’re walking down the street and you see that Mrs. Holiday’s kitchen is on fire. She’s standing in her yard, her back to her house, unaware. How do you tell her?” “Fire, fire,” January said. “Direct. And that’s almost correct,” I said. The youngest of them, lean and tall five-year-old Rachel, said, “Lawdy, missum! Looky dere.” “Perfect,” I said. “Why is that correct?” Lizzie raised her hand. “Because we must let the whites be the ones who name the trouble.” “And why is that?” I asked. February said, “Because they need to know everything before us. Because they need to name everything.” “Good, good. You all are really sharp today.”

James was self-educated. He read Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke.

The power of reading…

At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.

Quotes…

“Folks be funny lak dat. Dey takes the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares ’em.”

“A distance you know is shorter den one you don’t.”

“If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning.”

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for Omega Cats Press books and book recommendations.