#Notes of a Native Son

[quotespile]

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also so much more than that. So are we all.

James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

#literature #quotes #James Baldwin #Notes of a Native Son #quote #books #lit

[luthienne]

James Baldwin, from Collected Essays; "Notes of a Native Son"

[Text ID: It began to seem that one would have to hold in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are: in the light of this idea, it goes without saying that injustice is commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one's own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one's strength. This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair.]

#james baldwin #collected essays of james baldwin #notes of a native son #words #lit #essays

[belpheg0r-luna]

I be walking around minding my own business and then randomly remember "Love has never been a popular movement and no one's ever wanted really to be free" and just collapse

#james baldwin #james Baldwin quotes #giovannis room #go tell it on the mountain #the fire next time #love #freedom #notes of a native son #if beale street could talk #another country #belphegor luna

[newvision]

— James Baldwin, from Notes of a Native Son

#James baldwin #notes of a native son #mine

[hiyutekivigil]

― James Baldwin, Collected Essays: Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays

#james baldwin #essays #notes of a native son #nobody knows my name #the fire next time #no name in the street #the devil finds work #words #literature #quotes #academia #academia aesthetic #dead poets society #dead poets society aesthetic

[typewriter-worries]

Made by @RoomofOnesOwn on Twitter 

#'wanna be happy go read a different author' iktr! #james baldwin #giovanni's room #if beale street could talk #the last interview #the fire next time #notes of a native son #the price of the ticket #nothing personal

[quotessentially]

From James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son

#quote #quotes #James Baldwin #Notes of a Native Son #words #books #philosophy

[spiritofwhitefire]

“I had told my mother that I didn’t want to see him because I hated him. But this wasn’t true. It was only that I had hated him, and I wanted to hold onto this hatred. I did not want to look on him as a ruin: it was not a ruin I had hated. I imagine that one of the reasons that people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they realize, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain”

- James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

#james baldwin #notes of a native son #quotes #books

[ciquery]

"One is always in the position of having to decide between amputation and gangrene. Amputation is swift but time may prove that the amputation was not necessary - or one may delay the amputation too long. Gangrene is slow, but it is impossible to be sure that one is reading one's symptoms right. The idea of going through life as a cripple is more than one can bear, and equally unbearable is the risk of swelling up slowly, in agony, with poison. And the trouble, finally, is that the risks are real even if the choices do not exist."

James Baldwin's metaphor for American racism and the challenges of social justice in 'Notes of a Native Son'.

Baldwin, James. “Notes of a Native Son.” James Baldwin: Collected Essays, edited by Toni Morrison, Library of America, 1998, pp. 83. 

#James Baldwin #Social Justice #notes of a native son #grief #rage #collective trauma

[mosscollector]

Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.

James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

#james baldwin #notes of a native son #sentimentality #cruelty #dishonesty #arid heart #quote

[disceautdiscede]

I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain.

-James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

#james baldwin #notes of a native son #quotes #lit #hate #racism

[pineconecowgirl]

Then, perhaps they imagine that their crimes are not crimes? Perhaps. Perhaps that is why they cannot repent, Why there is no possibility of repentance.

James Baldwin, “Staggerlee Wonders”

#James Baldwin #giovanni's room #the fire next time #go tell it on the mountain #if beale street could talk #sonny's blues #notes of a native son #another country #nothing personal #nobody knows my name #going to meet the man #just above my head #the price of the ticket #poems #poem #poetry #spilled ink #black poet #black poets #black art #black history #black history month #blackout #literature

[floatingsaturn]

"...but one of the real troubles with living is that living is so banal. Everyone, after all, goes the same dark road—and the road has a trick of being most dark, most treacherous, when it seems most bright—and it’s true that nobody stays in the garden of Eden. Jacques’ garden was not the same as Giovanni’s, of course. Jacques’ garden was involved with football players and Giovanni’s was involved with maidens—but that seems to have made so little difference. Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don’t know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare."

-Giovanni's room, James Baldwin

#giovanni's room #james baldwin #quotes #words #poetry #poems and quotes #literature #another country #notes of a native son #baldwin #spilled ink #writeblr #poems

[newvision]

James Baldwin, from Notes of a Native Son

#James baldwin has a direct line to my thoughts and feelings and voices them in ways I can’t #James baldwin #notes of a native son #mine #🌿 #on writing

[pirateacademia]

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (1955)

#non-fiction #notes of a native son #james-baldwin #pdf

[youmaycallmeasha]

#james baldwin #notes of a native son #black lit #essays