Black Culture Book Club discussion

December read-along: "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin
http://swcta.net/moore/files/2012/02/...

I normally don't read short stories so this should be interesting for me.

Where do I begin?

How do I adequately describe how superb Baldwin's attention to detail is. Not, trivial things like the color of someone's shoe or hair, but internal and external descriptions in terms of dealing with urban issues and how it affects individuals and the community.

He gets into it right in the first pages...

When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he'd had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and privacy. I wondered what he looked like now. He had been picked up, the evening before in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin.

I couldn't believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn't find any room for it anywhere inside me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn't wanted to know. I had had suspicions, but I didn't name them, I kept putting them away. I told myself that Sonny was wild, but he wasn't crazy. And he'd always been a good boy, he hadn't ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can, so quick, so quick, especially in Harlem. I didn't want to believe that I'd ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I'd already seen so many others. Yet it had happened and here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head. Maybe it did more for them than algebra could.

He continues on about Harlem and how it gets a hold of boys and spits them out, robbing them of their "light". To compare Sonny to his students, and their potential to fall into the same trapping, is humanizing Sonny in way. Him being and addict or criminal doesn't make him any different than anyone else.

Kinda made addiction a reality. A reminder that it could happen to anyone.

I'll post more later, but i really loved the first two pages i just had to post.

I'll start by saying: This is one of my favorite short stories by James Baldwin. I agree with Zellie's post where he implies that addiction can happen to anyone.

In the Black community, traditional ballads are passed on orally from one generation to the next; however “Sonny’s Blues” set the tone of this brotherly love song.

The elder sibling was unsure of when his younger sibling experimented with drugs, but he tries to relate and find a reason why a young Black male would want to escape life-- by way of narcotics. He alluded to “ . . . two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone”. While he continues contemplating about Sonny’s future, he’s confronted by a childhood friend who admits to passively enticing Sonny with drugs. The unnamed character “still spent hours on the street corners, was always high and raggy” Although he abruptly cuts the man off when he tries to share his personal story, they both shared a combined emotion, guilt. This dialogue sheds light on the conflict that young Black males faced during this time, and it further explicates the relationship between Sonny and his older brother. The two hadn’t seen or communicated with one another for a year yet the bond was still apparent.

I really haven't read much Baldwin, so this was a great intro. The attention to detail was amazing. I've really got to reread it, but I was touched by the idea of these two brothers who have never really connected trying to rebuild their relationship.

Kaleb wrote: "I'll start by saying: This is one of my favorite short stories by James Baldwin. I agree with Zellie's post where he implies that addiction can happen to anyone.

In the Black community, tradition..."

I'm glad you mentioned that quote. When you look at the aforementioned quote and the one I quoted earlier you see something being early on, a theme of light and dark.

Sonny's brother said Sonny's face "been bright and open, " and that he didn't want to "believe that I'd ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out".

and you mentioned the " . . . two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone”.

This keeps reoccurring throughout the whole story and it creates a real sense of nihilism and divide. I really applaud Baldwin for being able to subtly have this and other themes in the story without beating you over the head with it. It's real natural, so natural you don't even notice it at first.

Well crafted themes in a short story is masterful.

I absolutely agree. It is a classic and should be revered.

I am always fascinated by James Baldwin's novels and short stories. "Sonny's Blues" was the second piece I had ever read by him, and it was one of the most beautiful connections I ever had with words--James Baldwin knows how to use words, take them in the palm of his hands and treat them with such care that his stories begin to tell us things about ourselves...about what it means to be human.

For me, the most poignant lines occur when Sonny and the narrator talk about suffering. The narrator says "But there's no way not to suffer--is there, Sonny?" and Sonny responds "I believe not...but that's never stopped anyone from trying." These lines struck me because it is at this moment that we realize that, although, Sonny is suffering (from addiction etc.) so is our narrator. Furthermore, this dialogue brings up issues regarding how people cope with suffering, and what is "socially acceptable" suffering. I think by the end the narrator understands Sonny's pain, and sees that Sonny's music is a soothing remedy for those who keep that pain locked inside. Suffering might be more transparent for some people, however, we all suffer. And although, by the end of the story the pain does not end, the pain, collectively, seems to garner a connection for the two brothers.

Spoiler Alert for “Another Country”!

Having recently read “Another Country”, I think it's interesting to compare Another Country's Rufus to Sonny. Both characters flee from Harlem in an attempt to escape its harsh realities but the effects of growing up in an environment that stifles and eventually destroys its inhabitants, seem almost impossible to escape. Both are jazz musicians who sought release and escape through music and drugs, but the other ways in which both characters handle being Black and male during the mid twentieth century greatly differ.

Towards the beginning of the story the narrator mentions that Sonny read books on India and wanted to live there and achieve wisdom. To me this shows Sonny, from a young age, attempting to find within himself the answer to ending his suffering. This is further evidenced in the two brothers' conversation after witnessing the revival meeting. After his brother asks him if there is a way out of suffering, Sonny responds, “No, there's no way not to suffer. But you try all types of ways to keep from drowning in it-to stay on top of it, and to make it seem- well, like you.”

Sonny's internal struggles don't manifest themselves as overtly as Rufus', whose constant paranoia about others' reactions to his blackness and his family's reactions to his life decisions, leads him to violent outbursts of physical and mental abuse on his lover, and finally causes him to take his own life.

Just found it very interesting to compare Baldwin's two protagonists who have very similar backgrounds but very different ways of responding to their reality.