Black Coffee discussion

A comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness by an unlikely band of African American adventurers

Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes is obsessed with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel. When he discovers the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that seems to confirm the reality of Poe’s fiction, he resolves to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes imagines it to be the last untouched bastion of the African Diaspora and the key to his personal salvation.

He convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym’s trail to the South Pole in search of adventure, natural resources to exploit, and, for Jaynes at least, the mythical world of the novel. With little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes, Jaynes embarks on an epic journey under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries. He finds that here, there be monsters.

I read this book a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.

Who all will be joining in?

We will start reading on April 15th for those of you would like to join in.


Reading Schedule:

Volume 1 (Ch. 1 - 6) -- Discussion Start Date: 4/22 ** Msg 26
Volume 2 (Ch. 7 - 11) --Discussion Start Date: 4/29 ** Msg 33
Volume 3 (Ch. 12 - 16) -- Discussion Start Date: 5/7 ** Msg 39
Volume 4 (Ch. 17 - 24) -- Discussion Start Date: 5/14 ** Msg 40
Book Blast Date: 5/16 ** Msg 41

I'll join. I'm looking forward to this read - so far out of my comfort zone.

I'll try to squeeze this one in this month. Already had it on my TBR pile.

Don't we live in the ultimate world of Whiteness now?
What's to imagine?!
Lulu, do black people 'win'?

Toni wrote: "Don't we live in the ultimate world of Whiteness now?
What's to imagine?!
Lulu, do black people 'win'?"

In the book or in reality?!

haha!

Toni wrote: "Don't we live in the ultimate world of Whiteness now?
What's to imagine?!
Lulu, do black people 'win'?"

this reminds of the conversation we had at work (and these were white coworkers, except me) about when we were little and during black sitcoms like the Cosby show and living single, ALL the commercials stared black people. how it amazed us in the 90's. we were like "wow, look at all the black people on TV!" how Friends didn't even have nonwhite folks as background. how when i was young i thought all the slaves had left the UK and no black people were there because i never saw any in the BBC programs. (they are still pretty rare.)
Now ads are a lot better but still during the show Blackish almost every commercial will feature black or biracial people. so it's not like they don't know....

yes! do we not have t.v.'s? do we not buy what they advertise, as far as our needs go? do we not use tampons, to!iet paper, batteries, etc that life runs on?
why are we still mostly invisible? we must support each other, even if it's just in our writing! hugs. toni mariani (pen name)

We're invisible, but our dollars aren't. Our struggle is invisible unless it involves one or two whites. I better not start in on this soap box. lol

Lulu wrote: "We're invisible, but our dollars aren't. Our struggle is invisible unless it involves one or two whites. I better not start in on this soap box. lol"

IKR! we could go on for days, years on this topic.

Do ya'll watch Rebel? It's on.

What's that?

A female black cop, very much of today. On BET! Tuesday night's at 8-10pm.

Oh cool! I'll have to check it out.

You guys ready to jump into this read? I'm doing the audiobook this time around.

I'll be starting as soon as my copy is available for pick up from the local library.

I'm starting Wednesday-ish, and looking forward to it.

Ok! We will read volume 1 and start discussing on Sunday.

Oh wow! So glad to find this. I have the book and would like to participate. This will be my first buddy read; so I'm open to direction. Since today is Day 3, I should be able to catch up. Where do I start? Thanks.

Hi! Welcome! We're just getting started. So jump in when you feel like it. We'll start the open discussion on Volume 1 Sunday.

Hey Lulu! I'm going to join in on this one.

I am listening to the audiobook. What chapters are included in Volume 1?

Hi Londa! Glad you'll be joining us. Volume 1 is chapters 1-6.

Great! I'm listening to Chapter 6 now. Can't wait to discuss

Count me in. Looking forward to a great discussion.

This book really makes me want to read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". (view spoiler)[

The story opens up with Chris Jaynes basically getting fired because (he being an African American) refuses to teach African American Literature and sit on the campus Diversity Committee. He appears to have an obsession with Edgar Allan Poe and books (appears to be an avid collector). He unknowingly meets his replacement, Hip-Hop Theorist, Mosaic Johnson who tells Chris to play his part because "Poe. Doesn't. Matter."

So then we get a little more into "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" and we come to Chris's argument that "Tsalal, the great undiscovered African Diasporan homeland, might still be out there, uncorrupted by Whiteness"

Chris does more research on Dirk Peters (a black man and the only other survivor in Gordon's Pym adventure) and comes across a singer, actor, poet, novelist, dancer, actress, etc by the name of Mahalia Mathis who in some way is related to Dirk Peters although she denies any African ancestry.


Q: Why doesn’t Mahalia Mathis include African ancestry in her list of ethnic/racial bloodlines? Is she delusional or is her omission ideological or practical?

So from here on, we get more insight into why Chris's obsession w/ Poe and the Pym narrative and we are also introduced to the "crew" .

What do you guys think of the story so far? (hide spoiler)]

I know. Right? I didn't want to hold up reading it until after I read the Poe work, but I'll definitely want to read Poe after this. I'm around page 65 and looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts. I am a big fan of Johnson's humor and writing style. Very fast reading.

Lulu wrote: "This book really makes me want to read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket".

The story opens up with Chris Jaynes basically getting fired because (he being an Afric..."

The entire section with Mahalia Mathis and the others in the meeting with the professor from Chicago who had done DNA sampling was brilliant.

This portion of Pym reminded me of this: "“I Got Some Indian In Me”: 9 Celebs Who Want You To Know They’re More Than Just Black."
http://madamenoire.com/233618/i-got-s...

Even though Johnson mocks them, and Mathis is the most extreme, isn't her behavior just another form of passing, with the same motivations? The practical wrapped up with self-denial and a host of other very real motivators. What do you think?

This book actually reminds me why I didn't like The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. I actually blocked bits of it out until Johnson jogged my memory in his book. I have to say, the criticism his main character, Jaynes, has about Poe's short story are pretty accurate.

I Love EAP! I have a collection of his work and I used to read through it all the time. One of the ONLY things I didn't like was Pym of Nantucket. I agree with Lisa, that Jaynes criticisms are spot on.

As for the story so far, I really am enjoying it. Mahalia Mathis was a perfect caricature of someone who, despite the obvious, wants to claim everything BUT their African heritage. BTW Thanks for the article Carol I don't care if people claim every ancestor they have but it becomes ridiculous when someone calls an Apple Pie a Cinnamon Pie just because it contains a pinch of cinnamon. I wonder about those ancestor.com or 23 and Me commercials sometimes. I find the DNA testing and marketing curious for a lot of reasons that I haven't fully thought through yet.

I think the crew he has put together should be an interesting mix of characters. I can just imagine people doing this in real life.

What is the next stopping point?

Londa: I've never really heard it put as simple as calling an Apple Pie a Cinnamon Pie just because it contains a pinch of cinnamon, but that is really spot on. I've been curious about these testings as well!

Carol: Passing is exactly what it is!!!

Volume 2: Chapters 7-11 -- Discussion Start Date: 4/29

Ok...here we go Volume 2 discussion. FYI, this was taken from a blog that I found to be insightful.

(view spoiler)[

Apocalypse Now

While immersed in Volume I, I had been wondering about Johnson’s preoccupation with disaster. On his way to meet Captain Jaynes in Manhattan, Chris confesses, “I didn’t like going near Wall Street. More specifically, I didn’t like going near high-risk bombing targets, it just wasn’t my thing” (71), and a few pages later, “I’d reserved a hotel room in Queens for the night; it was cheaper and safer than Manhattan” (75). In Volume II, we begin to understand these earlier moments as set-up for the Armageddon that finally arrives:

“It was familiar trauma … But this time there wasn’t just one place identified in the chyron, one nation, one landmark in flames. This time there was Tokyo, and Paris, and Berlin. And then there was London, and New York, and L.A., and Sydney, and Seoul…” (97)

We don’t yet know much about the destruction up north, but one thing is clear: we’re at war.

Who/what are we at war with, both literally (plot) and figuratively (theme)? Who is the “we”? Is Johnson intentionally commenting on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (the horror, the horror!)? If so, how? If not, where the heck did I get this crazy idea?

Love as Adventure … or something

I’ll admit it. Angela is a confusing character for me. Clearly, she’s important—otherwise, what’s she doing there?—but I’m not yet sure how. (I’m hoping we’ll see more of her in Volume III.) She represents a failure in Chris’s past, for sure, one which he feels he must correct in order to prove his own self-worth, and also something more.

“But the way Angela looked at me,” Chris says upon discovery of the Tekelians, “was the greatest treasure and maybe the whole point” (130).

What is the something more? “The whole point” of what? How is Angela’s character serving the story?

Fun with Footnotes

Johnson makes unusual use of footnotes throughout. When they’re not straddling the line between academia and entertainment—of Mahalia Mathis’s letter, Chris notes, “Although represented as three, there were in truth at least a dozen exclamation points at the end of the note’s final sentence. And each of those had a frowning face drawn carefully into its base dot, which I am both unable and unwilling to re-create here” (83)—they’re calling into question the very narrative they’re supplementing.

“The events that follow are fantastical and challenged the imaginations even of those of us who experienced them firsthand. I will therefore attempt to relay them to you in the most straightforward manner I can manage, taking on the same level of distance I did on that day, simply to avoid being completely overwhelmed.” (129)

What an interesting inclusion. Why does Johnson feel the need to provide this disclaimer? What is it accomplishing? How does it affect our reading of the events to follow? (hide spoiler)]

coming in late to say how much I loved this book. In my case I read Poe's novel immediately before I read Pym, and it really changed the reading experience. A lot of the joy of the contemporary novel is in the way it exactly, perfectly riffs on the many weirdnesses and continuity errors of the original.

BUT--much to be said for doing it the opposite way, too. I saw "Pork Lips Now"as a short just before watching "Apocalypse Now" in a movie theaters and it made the longer movie interesting in completely new ways!

What do you guys think of the crews first encounter with the "Snow Honkies"? Lol

Lulu wrote: "What do you guys think of the crews first encounter with the "Snow Honkies"? Lol"

I thought their encounter was a little too calm. There should have been some fainting, involuntary bodily functions, and a whole lot of screaming. No one just pops into a room of abominable snow men and acts like they did.

They should have been more suspicious that the snow men did not seem too terribly shocked to see them.

I agree with you Londa...I would have been freaking out. lol

Volume 3: Chapters 12-16 -- Discussion Start Date: 5/6

Volume 3 Discussion:

(view spoiler)[

Meta, Meta and More Meta

“Turns out though that my thorough and exhaustive scholarship into the slave narratives of the African Diaspora in no way prepared me to actually become a fucking slave” (160), says our scholarly narrator Chris.

Aside from being a great standout line—I’m a fan of the cadence—it calls our attention to two important elements at play throughout the book: 1.) the meta-narrative, the way that Chris’s account of his Antarctic experiences mimics the slave narratives with which he is so familiar, and 2.) the limitations of scholarship, and by extension literature, to fully capture actual lived experience.

What statement, if any, do you think Johnson is making about the limitations of scholarship and/or literature? In this context, what role does Chris’s modern-day slave narrative play?

All the World is a Stage

Captain Jaynes is full of surprises in Volume III, from his apparent comfort with slavery to his … ahem … relationship with the Tekelian Hunka and refusal to escape. To wit:

“He seemed more at peace in [his work] than I had seen him in any of his Creole desk duties … There was relief in his voice. As if the man’s worst fears in life had been realized and justified all in the same moment” (173).

“‘No point in running anymore, can’t you see that. We stay, and we struggle. Because the struggle is who we are’” (210), Jaynes tells Chris.

How are we to make sense of Captain Jaynes’s behavior knowing what we do about his strong feelings regarding black vs. white and what he believes to be the prescribed roles of each? Do his actions represent a reversal of these beliefs or are they a natural extension of them?

The Perils of Whiteness

Stranded in the Antarctic tundra, preparing to die and/or be cannibalized by Pym, Chris has an epiphany:

“That is how they stay so white: by refusing to accept blemish or history. Whiteness isn’t about being something, it is about being no thing, nothing, an erasure. Covering over the truth with layers of blank reality just as the snowstorm was now covering our tent, whipping away all traces of our existence from the pristine landscape” (225).

Wow. What a passage.

Who/what is the “they”? It’s more than just the Tekelians or Caucasians, isn’t it? How does this revelation relate to Thomas Karvel’s paintings and the overwhelming feeling of whiteness therein? Perhaps more importantly, what does it say about Chris’s development both as a person and a scholar? (hide spoiler)]

Volume 4 Discussion:

(view spoiler)[

Emotional Truth (again)

Chris deems Poe’s Pym “a book that at points makes no sense, gets wrong both history and science, and yet stumbles into an emotional truth greater than both” (22). Will Johnson’s Pym take the same form, or will he seek to revise Poe’s authorial missteps in service of a more technically successful piece of literature?

Black, White, and Everything in Between

Also in Volume I, book club member Laura Roberts raises the interesting question of what our artistic tastes say about us as people, if anything.

In response to a conversation about character roles, Jenna Cooper comments: “I think Garth is a foil for Chris; Garth appreciates art on an aesthetic level (i.e. Karvel paintings), and his likes and dislikes aren’t determined by critical analysis.” Or the delineation of white vs. black.

What conclusions are we meant to draw from Chris’s and Garth’s opposing points of view? Are these stances clearly demarcated or is the issue akin to the crew’s approach to Tsalal during which “There is only gray” (319)?


Even More Fun with Footnotes


“The events that follow are fantastical and challenged the imaginations even of those of us who experienced them firsthand. I will therefore attempt to relay them to you in the most straightforward manner I can manage, taking on the same level of distance I did on that day, simply to avoid being completely overwhelmed.” (129)

What an interesting inclusion. Why does Johnson feel the need to provide this disclaimer? What is it accomplishing? How does it affect our reading of the events to follow?


The Fate of Humanity

Pym opens with a preface in which C. Jaynes—gotta be Chris—introduces the narrative to follow as a true account framed as fiction. This implies that a.) Chris eventually leaves Tsalal, and b.) civilization still stands, at least in some form.

What effect, if any, does this realization have on our reading of Chris’s account? (hide spoiler)]

BOOK BLAST!!!

Want to do a quick review of the Group Read? Already done with the book? Blast your answers to the following! Remember to use the (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] tag!!

1. How did you experience this book? (Paper, e-book, audio)
2. Was this your first time reading Persia Walker?
3. Favorite/Least Favorite character(s)? Anyone you would want to meet?
4. Favorite quote(s)?
5. Did you find the ending satisfying?
6. Will you read others in the series?
7. Would you recommend this book to others?
8. Copy or link to your review if you have written one.