Blues Legacies and Black Feminism

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Davis

I picked this up because I liked Angela Davis's Women, Race and Class, and though I don't actually listen to blues or jazz, the whole culture behind the music sounds appealing (after all, Billie Holiday and other musicians have become cultural icons; also, I used to watch VH1 Behind the Music marathons, usually leading me to buy classic rock CDs that I didn't listen to). Davis focuses on Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday as representatives of the blues tradition. While Holiday sang jazz rather than blues, Davis argues that Holiday's musical tradition sprang and resulted from blues. This is not a work of biography by any means, but some of Davis's brief references to the artists' lives certainly seem like a biography of these women would be worth reading as well. Davis at no point tries to prove or state that these women were feminists but instead she analyzes their work, looking at the lyrics themselves as well as listening to the delivery. This works best for Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. While there are cases where she refers to the tone of voice and sarcasm in these two womens' songs, for the most part, the lyrics themselves support Davis's arguments. When it comes to Billie Holiday, however, Davis argues that her lyrics are not important since most of her songs were cookie cutter songs that others chose for her, and Holiday then used her own interpretation to subvert their meaning. The argument itself is sound and convincing, but I am not very familiar with Holiday's work, so I can't judge how accurate it is because I haven't heard the songs. That was my major problem with the Holiday section - due to my own unfamiliarity with the source material, I had to take Davis's word with a grain of salt.

I actually felt that this book was a good follow up to Reconstructing Womanhood. While Carby dealt with the African-American woman novelist, and the more middle class perspective, the blues tradition was the working class side of things. Even though Carby ends her analysis with the Harlem Renaissance, and Davis basically focuses on the '20s and '30s, they still complimented each other rather well. For example, Davis talks about how many of the leading middle class blacks of the Harlem Renaissance preferred the more European sounding Ethel Waters to Bessie Smith (Carby also referred to issue that blacks were copying whites to an extent while simultaneously creating their own culture in her book), and in fact, Bessie Smith couldn't even get a record deal with a newly created black label. This also relates to another argument that Davis refutes in her book: many previous critiques have stated that Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were not very politically conscious. As Davis argues, there are in fact anecdotes about their shows in which these women do speak out against racism, and that the existing records are not necessarily representative of their body of work as a whole. After all, these were black women being released by a white label dominated by men - of course, that is going to limit what they actually put on record vs. what they perform at their live shows. Additionally, Davis points to two protest songs in Smith's collection, and also says that her audience may very well have seen different meanings in them than the white label owners (in other words, her black audience would have seen the reference to the white men keeping her down without her having to say "white men"), something that had been occurring even in slave music when the white owners thought their slaves were singing "nonsense" songs because they were happy when in fact these songs could be rather subversive.

Additionally, these blues women sung of domestic violence in their songs, and were among the first to speak out against it publicly rather than treating it as a private matter. Many of the heroes of their songs acted on their own behalf and displayed agency, and even though many of the songs were about love and men, the women weren't pining away. The blues women's mobile and active lives also served as an example to their audiences. While Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith may not have been feminists themselves, their actions showed women as agents of their own destinies. Another important point that Davis saw in the blues was women's sexual agency. While the middle class novelist were trying to prove that black women were just as pure as white women to the point of taking away all their sexual agency (and Davis argues that this, too, was important in its way), in blues, women spoke of their sexual desires and wants. I noticed that Davis seemed to use certain songs quite a bit to prove some of her different points, but for the most part, she made sure to use a variety of songs for her arguments and this showed that her conclusions and ideas applied to the body of these artists' works, and not just a few anomalies.

Starting Out in the Evening (the novel)

While reading one of Pajiba's discussions of films of 2007, they referenced Lauren Ambrose's performance in the movie Starting Out in the Evening. Lauren Ambrose portrayed Claire in Six Feet Under, so I figured that she would probably pick an interesting, character-driven film rather than a big blockbuster. As a result, I decided to give the book a try (I didn't actually see a review of the film online, so I'm not sure how recent it is).

The novel revolves around three characters. A young grad student, Heather (this is who Ambrose plays in the film) wants to write her thesis about an out-of-print author whose books she discovered as a teenager. She tracks Schiller, now an old man, down, and convinces him to talk to her, partially appealing to his vanity because Heather hopes that her thesis can be turned into a book, and eventually lead to a reprinting of his novels. Heather hopes to begin her career with this while Schiller dreams, though he knows how unlikely, that maybe he won't be forgotten. The third character is Schiller's daughter Ariel, who is nearing forty, and desperately wants to have a child. Her relationship with her father is the most stable and supportive one in her life, and while she worries about his health, he serves as her emotional rock, having already suffered through two breakdowns.

I loved all the name dropping in the book - Heather and Schiller both are avid readers, though I'm not a particular fan of either of their favorites (Henry James and D.H. Lawrence). Through Heather and Schiller, the author explores different literary worlds - the old professors whose heyday was in the '50s, and their careful analysis and reading (this is the category Schiller most fits into), book editors and their oh-so-hip but impersonal bookshelves, and the literary critics and editors of magazines which Heather considers joining.

The character interactions are interesting - Schiller and Ariel have a loving relationship, but they also have little in common with each other. Schiller is an intellectual, whose apartment is filled with bookshelves, while Ariel hasn't even read all of her father's books, and is more of a movie person. They both accept each other's differences, but Ariel notices the connection Heather and Schiller share due to their shared interests, and feels a little disconnected and critical of their relationship. Morton devotes different chapters to all three of these characters as well as one of Ariel's boyfriends later in the novel. I liked all the characters; obviously I understood Heather and Schiller's love of books well, and agree with Heather's assessment that "part of the joy of reading was talking about what you'd read" (118). I would say that Heather is much more ambitious and forceful than I am, though, so I didn't exactly see myself in her or anything. Ariel caused the most conflict in me: I liked and understood where she was coming from in her chapters but the way others described her made her seem different.

Of all the characters, there seemed to be the largest discrepancy between Ariel's view of herself and others view of her. It's not even that her perception of herself was that different; it's just that others focused on certain things that Ariel didn't always. Heather, for example, is rather critical of Ariel's appearance and dress, and honestly, when reading the descriptions, I, too, found myself asking, why would anyone in their right mind wear that? Her boyfriend thinks of her as a "child-woman," innocent and trusting. Her goal in life is to have a child, but she and those around her know that she wouldn't be able to handle single parenthood. When she moves back to New York to look after her father after his heart attack, she thinks taking care of him will be a good distraction though he ends up taking care of her. Ariel is aware of her weaknesses (except when it comes to fashion), but others description of her make her seem even simpler than she is - though these characters think of it as a good thing (her ability to enjoy the simple things in life). She also has perhaps the most difficult decision left to make by the end of the novel, though the novel ends before she actually makes herself face it - since having a child has been one of her driving goals, she needs to determine whether to continue to look for a man who can give her that, though it may never happen, or give up that dream. Since I don't want children, the choice seems obvious to me, especially given the character's unwillingness to be a single mother, but that's me.

I'm kind of curious to see what the movie adaptation is like but given where I am, I'll probably have to wait another year (at least that gives me time to forget the minor details, and therefore not be too disappointed when they cut scenes or parts).

Reconstructing Womanhood

Like Angela Davis's Women, Race and Class, Reconstructing Womanhood was originally part of an assigment in a college class. In the beginning, Hazel Carby discusses white feminist critics' ignoral of texts by black women. She also argues that in many cases half the discussion is always missing when analyzing black women characters or authors because the feminist critics make everything about gender, while the African-American Studies scholars focused on race rather than discussing how the two interact and how both of those aspects affect the work, and the characters within the work (the book was originally published in 1987, so since Carby wrote this, some of the novels she uses have gained more attention, and people have spent more time on the interaction of race and gender rather than just one or the other).

Carby discusses a series of black women novelist beginning from the pre-Civil War era through to the Harlem Renassaince. One of the reasons she chose this topic is because many important activists felt that the novel and fiction were the best ways to reach and influence people (Frances Harper and Pauline Hopkins being two of these). Carby has a few chapters that focus more specifically on the authors and their narratives, but she also intersperses chapters that explain the more general historical and political influences. She also includes a bibliography of works by African American women writers, and between her discussion/allusion to some works and this bibliography, I added a few more books to my wishlist.

I enjoyed re-reading the chapters on Pauline Hopkins (I didn't remember much of the chapters from before, but I still remembered the major plot points of the three novels I had read). I also really liked the discussion of Nella Larsen's Quicksand. I've read Passing but unfortunately, my college bookstore hadn't had the edition with both novellas in it, so I never read the other one. I think that might change now. As Carby describes it, the protagonist feels conflicted almost the whole time due to her race, her gender and her class. Quicksand's main character was critical of the black middle class, and felt that while critical of whites, they were also copying them. This critique of the Harlem Renasaince has been made elsewhere as well. Carby felt that "contemporary feminist historiography" needed to take a more critical look at "the different ways in which racist ideologies have been constructed and made operative under different historical conditions" (18). She succeeds in doing this herself in her book by looking at a variety of texts, some of which were more overlooked, and analyzing the different ways in which African American women confronted the dominant ideology of true womanhood and race.

Evelina

I tend to stick to slightly more recent novels, but every once and a while, I'll venture into the classics. I usually like them, but I also prefer reading them in class because it helps to have teachers explain the historical context. For example, I didn't like Richardson's Pamela for a variety of reasons but if I had read it on my own, I probably would have just given up. Since I read it for class, our professor helped to point out certain things about the text, and actually made the experience better (it's definitely one of those novels I love to bitch about).

Anyway, we also read Aphra Behn and Eliza Haywood in that same class as well as Jane Austen (it was 18th century literature) but though I'd heard the name, we didn't read anything by Frances Burney. I recently finished Evelina, and I enjoyed it a lot. She didn't have the same obsession with sexual purity as Richardson, though certain scenes in the novel show that it still had a very important role in determining women's behavior. When I was looking at Burney on Amazon, I noticed many of the reviewers made comments like "if you like Jane Austen, . . ." while others felt that Austen was clearly superior. I think it's interesting that given that there were several other authors at the time, the immediate focus is to compare the two female novelists who weren't even quite contemporaries (of course, I wrote a paper arguing for a distinct genre of women's literature for that 18th century lit class so I shouldn't comment) - Burney was only twenty years or so before Austen, but that can still be a difference in literary movements - after all, would anyone really compare the Beats and Hemingway? Obviously, Hemingway was still a productive writer then, but he does tend to get grouped in with the expatriates. In fact, Burney is cited as an influence on Austen yet Austen is the much more famous and well-known of the two. Of course, it probably helps that Austen has some shorter novels - Evelina was about the same length as your average Austen, but the other ones I was looking at on Amazon last night were about twice the length.

I have to admit, Burney does fit in well between Behn, Haywood and Austen, though. Behn and Haywood both were more involved with the theater, and while Burney had an interest in theater, and even wrote a few plays, she stuck to the slightly more respectable genre of the novel. Her writing style reflects this because it seems like it would be rather easy to transition many of her scenes to the stage, while Austen has more pages with little action. Similar to Austen, she uses her literature to critique certain traditions, people and attitudes. She combines the theatrics of Behn and Haywood with the developed characters and social criticism of Austen, so it makes sense that she would be in the middle of these authors, especially looking at it purely from a history of woman novelists (not to say that Behn and Haywood didn't critique their society). To be honest, I find the few novels I've read by men of that time rather boring - Robinson Crusoe, Pamela, Joseph Andrews so I guess I fall into the same trap as other Amazon users mentioned above.

As far as the actual novel, I made sure to buy the Oxford World Classic's edition, since I like their footnotes, and I think they usually pick informative, accessible introductary essays. Evelina is the story of a young woman from the country who is the illegimate daughter of a rich baronet. At the outset of the novel, she has never met her father or been acknowledged by him, but some rich friends of her patron decide to take her to London for the first time. Burney uses Evelina to introduce different settings and social circles in London as well as discuss different types of high and low culture. In some cases, Evelina seems rather snobbish, especially towards her cousins who are middle class, and don't share the same types of social sensiblities and sensitivites as Evelina. However, their behavior is rather overbearing as is her grandmother's so it is mostly understandable. As the heroine, Evelina is of course beautiful and intelligent, but there were about five different guys after her throughout the novel so that was a bit over the top. Of course, her suitors presented several social and economic classes so it allowed Burney to critique and poke fun at a variety of mindsets. As in most 18th and even 19th century literature, when seen through a 21st century lense, some of the things that were so important then seem rather repressive and minor, but Burney appears have had a similar opinion. I liked Burney's style, and her satirical and critical view of the events, as well as the fact that she didn't get too sentimental or spend the whole time worrying about her characters purity and the sexual dangers she faced (Pamela!). In fact, I enjoyed the novel enough to give Burney another go, and ordered another of her novels last night (in addition to about nine other books, so we'll see when I actually get around to her).

I Hate Mud

It rained here a few days ago. The whole base is one giant mud pit right now specked with huge water puddles. I really, really hate the weather in this place. It had snowed the previous week with similar results but the ground had dried back up after a few days. It doesn't seem to be doing that this time.

The only good thing is that no one else seems to want to go out unless necessary, so the gym has become less busy, and I've actually been able to get onto my choice of treadmills at lunch rather than coming in to find that the only available cardio equipment was one bike.

Women of Deh Koh

Originally published in 1989, Women of Deh Koh gives voice to some women in a mountain village in Iran. Friedl did her research over a twenty year span so she was there before and after the Revolution, and the women in the book comment occasionally on the different regimes. I especially enjoyed the chapter about Sarah in which her young granddaughter kept quoting her new religion teacher, sent by the new government, and the women just kept responding with normal day to day arguments that the child was not prepared for (I probably would have been that young child, though - I remember coming home from school in first or second grade and preaching about recycling after a class on it). For example, while the adults are discussing a man's desire for a second wife, the girl quotes part of the Koran, about how if a man can fulfill a certain amount of requirements (equal treatment and equality between the wives being the biggest concern), then it was perfectly acceptable. The women just made comments about how that was a lot of conditions, so in other words, there was no way it was possible. For the most part, Friedl tries to keep her voice out of the stories (although in one she appears as the "foreign lady"), but obviously she chose which stories to tell and how to tell them, so that's where her influence comes into the book. For the most part, the book is a series of anecdotes about women's lives in the village, most told from the third person, but a few of the chapters are narrated by the women themselves and not just observed. In one case, Friedl makes a point about changing truths and perspectives and uses four different women's versions of the same situation to portray this.

Unfortunately, the last book I read about women and Islam was also from the late 80's/early 90's so I really need to find a book that has a more recent analysis of Islamic culture and society. I read Reading Lolita in Tehran a while back, and it was interesting, but I think maybe I just need to read a basic history book before I keep reading these more specific books. Also, when I read Reading Lolita in Tehran, I was more inspired to read the novels they discussed in the book than more about Iran (though I do remember liking it). That inspiration didn't last very long, though, since I didn't like Lolita very much.

A Feather on the Breath of God

A Feather on the Breath of God was a short novel that was more character driven than plot based. It was basically a series of memories and impressions broken down into four parts. The first and shortest was about the narrator's father and what little she knew of him, the second was about her mother, the third section was about ballet and her teenage years, and the final part was about her affair with a Russian immigrant. I enjoyed the novel a lot and liked the way it was organized. In the part about her mother, for example, she tells her mother's life story and then has several small paragraphs (sometimes only sentences) that offer for more insights into her mother's life, character and their relationship, apparently just placed where they are as the thoughts and memories arise. She also reevaluates her relationships as she grows up, as for example in the ballet portion: as a teenager who wants to be a ballerina, she sees it as a woman's world, "a world where women not only outnumbered, but bested the men" (102). As an adult, looking back on her experience and watching ballet from the audience, she says "it is men who invented ballet - and the ballerina" (115).

The narrator's father was half-Chinese and half-Panamanian, and her mother was German, both first generation immigrants. The narrator at one point says that at points it seemed as if both her parents were living stereotypes of all the cliches about their backgrounds. Actually, some of her descriptions of her mother reminded me of my mom, so I also liked that aspect of the novel. For example, she talks about how she and her sisters never did chores around the house, and were told to "worry about [their] schoolwork" (60) which sounds similar to my mom. Apparently the narrator and I now have a "lack of domestic skills" in common (169). Another quote from the novel's mother is, "when you are young, you can get away with anything" (68). I remember one time when I went shopping with my mom, I was looking at skirts, most of which were slightly above knee-length, and my mom was getting frustrated because "you're only young once" and I should have been looking at mini-skirts.

The characters were well-developed. Even though the narrator does not reveal her whole life story, and leaves things untold and unsaid, the reader still gains an understanding of her. The other characters are as well developed as possible, but with them especially, there are chunks missing, showing that one person can never completely know another, and also portraying how distant or close her relationships were. If we, the readers, are left with questions, it is because the narrator has them, too, especially in regards to her father.