I've written elsewhere about Ralph Ellison's Wonderful Book, Invisible Man (New York: Random House, 1995).
Here's the first sentence: I am an invisible man.Just four words and you're in. Invisible man, what could he be talking about? What do you mean, invisible.
What do you think? Tell me. Post a comment. I'd like to know. And follow me on Twitter.com
Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.
Showing posts with label Invisible Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Invisible Man. Show all posts
Saturday, May 9, 2009
First Sentences: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Franz Kakfa's The Trial
What happens when you don't go to what's inside you, but it comes out when you least expect it?
Franz Kafka's "K" found this out in his novel The Trial [New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992, p. 1] Here's how Kafka's insides came out:
"Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning...At once there was a knock at the door and a man entered whom he had never seen before in the house. He was slim and yet well knit, he wore a closely fitting black suit furnished with all sorts of pleats, pockets, buckles, and buttons, as well as a belt, like a tourist's outfit, and in consequence looked eminently practical, though one could not quite tell what purpose it served. 'What are you?' asked K., half raising himself in bed.What a perfect discussion, in highly symbolic terms of course, of meeting up with your subconscious as though it were a person calling on you. Knocking at the door. Mirroring your own appearance. Not having a clue as to what it is. Joseph K spends the rest of the novel trying to get a handle on himself until he dies trying.
Kafka gave Max Brod clear instructions to destroy all his stuff upon his death. What a gift to us that Max couldn't do it. I would be a poorer man today with Kafka's work on my bookshelf.
What do you think? I'd like to know. Post to this blog.
Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, to go www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog
Monday, March 9, 2009
Dostoevsky's Underground Man
Ellison drew much inspiration from Dostoevsky:
I associated him, ever so distantly, with the narrator of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, and with that I began to structure the movement while he began to merge with my more specialized concerns with fictional form and with certain problems arising out of the pluralistic literary tradition from which I spring. [Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, New York: Random House, 1981, p. xix]As I reread this I'm impressed with the way Ellison's writing positively glitters. But I think Ellison's narrator owes more to the Underground Man than he lets on. After all, I think Ellison's narrator is the underground man reborn in a different place. Maybe we're all underground to some extent.
I wanted Will to embody some of this undergroundness displayed by the man with the diseased liver. Or is it diseased? If it is, let it be. If he won't do anything about it,
What do you think? I'd like to know. Post to this blog.
Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, to go www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Even More on Invisibility
Ellison talks more about invisibility:
Despite the bland assertions of sociologists, 'high visibility' actually render[s] one un-visible--whether at high noon in Macy's window or illuminated by flaming torches and flashbulbs while undergoing the ritual sacrifice that was dedicated to the ideal of white supremacy.[ See Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1981, p. ix.]Ellison lived in the days of open KKK demonstrations, lynchings, rand other rampant racist attacks. He knew how blatant visibility meant you couldn't see what was really there. The flash bulbs going off blinded you to what was being photographed.
In our context, Will's attempts to be invisible don't really hide him.
What do you think? I'd like to know. Post to this blog.
Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, to go www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog
Friday, March 6, 2009
Invisibility
What could be more going inside yourself than becoming invisible. There's Henry's compliment back on p. 15.
All of this leads me to Ralph Ellison's fantastic Invisible Man. He says,
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments or their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me.I'm quoting from p. 3, of the 1995 second Vintage Edition, published by Random House. This book is a clinic on writing.
No one expressed the feeling of being ignored and thrust aside more eloquently than this man.
What do you think? I'd like to know. Post to this blog.
Writing is for me an entrepreneurial activity. For my entrepreneurship blog, to go www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog
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Synopsis:
Ian Kearney, the director of the Kearney Music School, an elite musical training school in Philadelphia, dies after a fall from a balcony during a recital. World-famous cellist, Henry Harrier, recently forced from the faculty, returns to investigate Ian's death when his prized former student is arrested. Henry shows through his brilliant and single-minded pursuit of the truth that, as usual, they have it all wrong. This Sherlock Holmes-type mystery leads the reader through the world of classical music and lays bare the conflicts which dominate the lives of talented adolescents when placed under the pressure of studying for a demanding, stressful, and often elusive career as a classical music performer. Henry Harrier is part John Le Carre's George Smiley, part Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes, and part Orlando Cole the beloved teacher, renowned chamber musician, and until his own retirement, the premier cellist of the Curtis Institute.Author Profile:
Tim was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1946. In 1951 he moved with his family to Schenectady, New York, where he lived through high school. He attended Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, from 1964 to 1968. He graduated in 1968 with a B.A. in history and philosophy. He received his Ph. D. in history in U.S. history in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after spending 2.5 years in the U. S. Army. Most of his army service was completed in Wuerzburg, Germany, from 1969-1971. In 1972 he returned to Madison to complete his doctoral study. His dissertation, Those Who Moved; Internal Migrants in American 1607-1840, combined the statistical analysis of genealogical and biographical data with the study of traditional literary diaries, letters, and journals.Tim was a market and survey research consultant from 1983 to 2000 and a smoking cessation researcher from 2000 to 2003. His consulting practice focused primarily on conducting community health needs assessment. He authored hundreds of market research reports and published a number of his assessments in Community Health Needs Assessment published by McGraw Hill in 1996 and in a revised volume published in 1999. In 2000 he joined the staff of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he conducted smoking cessation research. He published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and spoke at national smoking cessation conferences.
In 2003 he moved to Philadelphia and earned his real estate license. He now practices real estate, works on publishing his novels, and studies and teaches entrepreneurship.Tim has written a dozen novel-length stories, a volume of short stories, and about a 3-foot stack of pages poetry. He is currently working on earning his 4th million in real estate sales, publishing his novels, and working on an entrepreneurish handbook as a support for his students.
Tim is a trained violist and an experienced string quartet player. He is an avid listener to classical music and regularly attends classical music concerts. He has two grown children by his first wife and a stepdaughter with his second wife. He likes to cook, read, write, entertain, develop relationships, and help other people. Formerly Tim used to travel frequently. He doesn't so much anymore. Now he regards the combination of real estate practice, writing and publishing, and the teaching and studying of entrepreneurship as enough of a trip.
