James Baldwin Archives - Bob on Books

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The Weekly Wrap: August 17-23

An Alarming Decline

The American Time Use Study came out and it contributes to the evidence of a decline in reading. Between 2003 and 2023, the study indicated that the number of adults who read for leisure dropped from nearly 40 percent to 16 percent. Only 2 percent of adults read to children. The only encouraging statistics was that the time for those who do read for leisure was up from an hour and 23 minutes to an hour and 37 minutes. And those increased book sales during COVID? It turns out, this was not because of more readers but readers buying more books.

So who reads? The highest percentage of readers are found among women who identify as white, are older, more educated, have greater family wealth, live in cities and do not have a disability that would hinder reader. That maps well with the demographics I see at Bob on Books.

So what does this mean for our society? What do we lose when less of us read longer form stories and arguments? Will we become more gullible to the emotional, simplistic appeal? And is that a cultural good?

Finally, I wonder how we change such a culture. I don’t think we can shame people into reading more books. I wonder if other media could offer book tie-ins as a way to pursue something that interested a viewer or listener. But for children, I think there is no substitute for read-alouds, especially in family settings. I’m saddened that many parents are missing the delicious experience of reading together with their children. Also, children like to imitate parents, and so they will tend to read when they see mom and dad reading. Why not do that at least one night a week instead of screen time?

Five Articles Worth Reading

Beverly Gage reminds us that concerns about anti-intellectualism, especially with regard to higher education is not new in “The American University Is in Crisis. Not for the First Time.“

However, our libraries are one bulwark against intellectual decline. “How Libraries Stand the Test of Time” traces the history and continuing evolution of libraries in our digital age.

Having worked in college ministry at Ohio State, I learned of “Origins” an e-zine of historical studies. “James Baldwin and the Atlanta Child Murders” chronicles in text and images Baldwin’s conclusions of the underlying causes behind the murder that constituted his las book, The Evidence of Things not Seen.

Brian Phillips offers a spirited defense of the em dash–that punctuation mark I just used–in “Stop AI-Shaming Our Precious, Kindly Em Dashes—Please.” He argues that people have been attributing the em dash to AI-produced work when it has been a time honored punctuation mark used by writers. And he argues that it likely appears in AI works trained on the output of those writers.

Lastly, I’ve noticed the chorus of cicadas on my evening walks in recent weeks. Little did I know that those choruses inspired ancient poets to write odes to this most unusual creature. Natalie Zarrelli offers an account of this in “‘O, Shrill-Voiced Insect’: The Cicada Poems of Ancient Greece.”

Quote of the Week

While thinking about the decline of reading, I came across this quote from Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, born August 22, 1920.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

I’ll leave it you to decide if you think Bradbury was right.

Miscellaneous Musings

There seems to be a lot of buzz about R.F. Kuang’s book, Katabasis, just about to drop next week. I’m intrigued by a story set in a graduate program, given that I worked with graduate students for many years. Just got a note that my pre-ordered copy is shipping.

After reviewing Ron Chernow’s 1000+ page Mark Twain, I indulged in an enjoyable change of pace in reviewing a delightful 32 page illustrated children’s book, Charlie Can’t Sleep!, a wonderful book for anyone afraid to fall asleep.

Jeff Crosby’s World of Wonders, a book I’ve long-awaited arrived this week. Jeff writes about reading for spiritual growth, a passion of mine. There is more to spiritual life than reading, but the most insightful writers I’ve read on the spiritual life all have one thing in common. They read.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Kevin Vanhoozer, Mere Christian Hermeneutics

Tuesday: Ali Smith, Gliff

Wednesday: Wafik W. Wahba, Global Christianity and Islam

Thursday: J.R.R. Toilkien (translator), Christopher Tolkien (editor), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo

Friday: Tracey Gee, The Magic of Knowing What You Want

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 17-23!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin. New York: Vintage Books, 2013 (originally published in 1953).

Summary: An account of John Grimes fourteenth birthday, centering on his brother Roy’s stabbing, his estrangement from his father, and the Saturday night “tarrying service” at a pentecostal church, revelatory of the lives of those around John and his own “salvation.”

It is John Grime’s fourteenth birthday. He’s the well-behaved older son who can never please his father Gabriel, who struggles with his awakening sexuality, a deep sense of both sin, and resentment of his father’s religion. After doing his chores, his mother gives him some money to spend on his own birthday gift. He goes to the movies. When he returns, he finds his younger brother Roy has been cut up in a knife fight. His father is so angry he takes it out on his wife Elizabeth and John before he finally whips Roy, until Gabriel’s sister Florence restrains him. John slips out to clean the church with his older friend Elisha for the evening “tarrying service,” a pentecostal prayer service on Saturday night before the Sunday service.

The second part centers around the prayer service, and the three prayers of Florence, Gabriel, and Elizabeth, with flashbacks to their earlier lives. Florence, to get away from the town where three white men raped a girl, Deborah, but even more, from her brother Gabriel, always favored, moves to New York, marries Frank who never settles down, leaves her for another woman, and dies in the war. She’s the worldly wise Aunt who sees through her brother’s spiritual facades. Gabriel starts out living a wanton life, then is “saved” and becomes a great preacher. Deborah, the raped woman prayed for him and supported him at his lowest. He marries her in an act of both gratitude and condescension, as no one else will have her. It is a childless marriage and grows cold. Gabriel’s affair with Esther leads to a child. She goes away to have the child with money stolen from Deborah, dies in childbirth, as does the child in his youth–the first Roy (for Royal), named by Esther remembering what Gabriel said he wanted to name his son. Gabriel lives with deep guilt for what he has done and the deaths that resulted, and his deception of now-deceased Deborah. Elizabeth’s prayer recalls the loveless aunt who rescued her from growing up in a brothel, parting her from her father, her flight and affair with Richard who gets her with child, then commits suicide after being arrested for being Black at the wrong place and time. Through Florence she meets and marries Gabriel, who sees the marriage as a kind of atonement for his sin. But he never loves Elizabeth’s child, John like their own son, also named Roy.

The third part begins with John on the floor experiencing a vision that recalls the hostility of his father toward him, his hatred of his father’s religion and struggle with the weight of his sins, and finally, “going through” to blessed salvation, bringing rejoicing from all the saints, and brotherly comfort from Elisha. But Gabriel is yet harsh and disbelieving. One cannot help if he resents the grace he sees in John’s experience that he has never certainly known for himself, for he could never live with Elizabeth joyfully, but only oppressively. There is a lot of guilt here, that centers around Gabriel, but also may reflect the version of Christianity Baldwin experienced. Much of that guilt is experienced around sexuality, even the awakening desires both Elisha and John experience. The alternatives seem to be ecstatic release in prayer at the altar, rebellion via a flight to the secular city, or a stern and censorious form of religion.

One wonders where all this will end up for John, who seems a younger version of the author, caught between the angry step-father and the caring older “brother” (is he more than that, reflecting Baldwin’s homosexual orientation?). Baldwin never takes us beyond that single day in John Grimes life, yet it appears that the day is the first step into a greater freedom that Gabriel can only resent but never know.