More books arrive today. Last week's conference was meant to give me a break from ordering online, but wi-fi + lots of interesting books being discussed meant I sat at the back of each paper, buying whatever was being discussed. Damn.
Today: two peak-oil/climate collapse novels (Edric's Salvage and Miller's Sunshine State. Mary Rubio's biography of L. M. Montgomery, and Gil Scott-Heron's searing, angry 1972 black liberation novel The Nigger Factory. If you don't know him: he basically invented rap, recorded some of the best music of all time, wrote some amazing novels and did a fair amount of time for drugs offences. Here's his stunning piece, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Today, you'd say it won't have a Myspace, a Facebook status update or a Twitter feed. It's a running commentary on the numbing conservative effect of media and capitalism on liberation.
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Another proto- (but as far as my tastes go better than) -rap ensemble are The Last Poets. I first heard their 'Wake Up Niggers' on the soundtrack of Performance (Jagger/Fox movie) and it's a great song that raps (in the, ahem, traditional sense of the word)on the same theme as Scott-Heron's 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'. Their 'Best Of' album contains a long track called 'Doriella du Fontaine' which features, allegedly, Jimi Hendrix. Their first album is brilliant. You may pay homage to my copy tomorrow if you so wish, just after I miss your paper because I'm teaching...
I've heard of The Last Poets, but never heard anything by them. OK, see you tomorrow after you miss my enlightening Anne paper.
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