Wednesday, August 10, 2016

August Not Fiction Book Discussions

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a memoir written in the form of a letter from an African American father to his adolescent son. Coates describes for his son his own coming of age and awakening of consciousness to his place in American history and culture. He also expresses his concerns for his son as he makes his way through a society that is still fraught with danger for African Americans. His work challenges all readers to contemplate our country's painful history of slavery and racism and our current civil rights crisis by considering what it is like to live in America in a black body, in a culture built upon the exploitation of black bodies.

Coates chose to write his memoir in the form of a letter to his son in the tradition of James Baldwin's Letter to My Nephew in his book The Fire the Next Time. Why do you think Coates chose this literary format? What was the effect for you of reading about Coates' life and thoughts on our history and culture through the intimate format of a letter addressed to his son?

Coates writes to his son, "When I was your age, the only people I knew were black, and all of them were powerfully, adamantly, dangerously afraid" (14). The title of the book, Between the World and Me, is taken from Richard Wright's poem of the same title. How did fear shape Coates' life and view of the world? Why do you think he chose this title for his book?

Coates argues in Between the World and Me that race, which has been such an important and controversial concept in American history and culture, is a flawed concept. He says, "Race is the child of racism, not the father" (7). How does discrediting the concept of race change how we understand our past and present?

Coates uses several terms that have been important in American culture and in the civil rights movement, the Dream and the Struggle, but he complicates and questions what they mean. What do the Dream and the Struggle come to mean to Coates? What connotations did these terms have for you before reading Coates' book? Has he complicated their meaning for you?

In Between the World and Me, Coates says, "I have spent much of my studies searching for the right question by which I might fully understand the breach between the world and me. . . . the questions matter as much, perhaps more than, the answers" (115-16). While Coates sees himself as a writer rather than an activist, critics of Between the World and Me have argued that because he is so well respected, he should attempt to offer answers to and provide hope for the troubling questions surrounding America's race relations. Do you think he holds any responsibility to offer answers, solve problems, or offer hope? Why or why not?

We hope you will join the discussion of one of the most timely and talked-about books this year: Tuesday, August 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, August 18, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

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