Ishmael Reed

[Nate Dorward]

Just been spinning the recent Kip Hanrahan 2-CD of Ishmael Reed material, Conjure/Bad Mouth. I barely know Reed's work--just some of the poetry. So thought I'd ask what people thought of it, books they'd recommend, &c.

[ejp626]

I like his earlier stuff, but around the mid to late 1990s, Reed started saying some awful things about Black women and writers in particular who went around dishing the dirt on Black men. He also seems to hate the fact that Black female authors sell better than Black male authors in the US. Frankly, he strikes me as an unreconstructed male chauvinist. Here's a bit of an overview: Reed interview

So I don't have any time for his recent work.

I do like The Free-Lance Pallbearers and Flight to Canada, which are both quite interesting.

[ejp626]

Actually, the interview I point to is a fairly balanced affair (wanted to be fair) but it mentions the controversy surrounding Reed. The book that caused me to lose all interest in Reed was Airing Dirty Laundry, where his basic argument is that the media celebrates only those Black female writers who have the worst things to say about Black men. There are a number of responses one can make, but it essentially devalues large numbers of writers and makes them out to be pawns. It also posits that art should only contain positive images of Blacks, which I think is hogwash.

Ironically, the interview has a short quote from Stanley Crouch --and worse I actually agree with him -- to the effect that Reed peaked with Mumbo Jumbo and it has all been downhill since then.