I didn't see a lot of the "there's-nothing-to-do-in-Pittsburgh" crowd last night to hear David Bradley speak at the Homewood Library. A decent enough crowd came, though, to hear Bradley read from the The Chaneysville Incident and take a few questions.
In the few pages the audience heard, we were introduced to Bradley's affections for the language, his fondness for Western Pennsylvania geography and kinship, history, and habits, and the difficulty of bearing them in the modern world. One of my favorite parts . . .
. . . takes place after the young historian and protagonist John Washington humiliates his mentor, Jack Crawley. Crawley had been teasing the college-bound Washington for acting white.
Why you know the mayor hisself set up here an' tole me you was a credit to your race. Yes indeedy, that's jest 'xactly what he said. Course I didn't correct him, an' tell him that you wasn't colored no more,on accounta your read enough a them damn books to turn your head clear white. . . ." And then he stopped. Because I had climbed up on the stand and sat on the bench and put my feet up on the supports.
He sat there on his stool looking up at me, his eyes soft and pained-looking. I nodded at my feet. He kept on looking at me. I nodded again, a short, quick nod, as cold and imperious as I could make it. He reached for the polish , taking up the can slowly, slowly dippping his hands into it, slowly bringing them out. He hesitated then, holding his polish-laden hands over my shoes, and he looked up at me. I nodded again. And then he shined my shoes.
When he was finished I got down and paid him, giving him a dollar and turning away before he could offer change. I went back to the car and sat there in silence.
...
Bill looked at me and said, "I pity them."
"Pity who?" I said.
"Those people where you're going. I bet they took one look at that application and saw all those nice tame things you did, and they looked at your picture, and saw a neat, clean-cut colored boy, and that's what they think they're getting, a nice, gentle, shy Negro, won't be a bit of trouble. Only one day these people are going to find out how dangerous it is to fool with somebody who doesn't know how to do anything but go for the throat."
A masterful passage that goes from tension to relief and throws in some foreshadowing to boot. Bradley may or may not have intended for those literary effects to be so apparent. As masterful as he is, he knows the importance of telling a good story, and Bradley is full of them.
One question Bradley took was from a person who wondered if he found such stories and language on the West Coast, where he currently resides and teaches. His answer went something along the lines of, "I'm out there now, but I'll always be back here." I do think, however, that his response reflects as much of a function of time as of place, and wonder if another Chaneysville Incident will ever be written.
How strange to come back home and watch some of the Frontline show on "The Persuaders," about marketing and advertising people trying to build a cult-like devotion to brands. All that talent and imagination going to selling stuff by appealing to our most inmost fascinations. Doubtless David Bradley would have been good at that. I'm thankful that he took another course.
Posted by mastr at November 10, 2004 09:32 AMThanks for your presence and your words. It's nice to be appreciated, especially in one's home territory.
Sorry your wife couldn't be there, but please thank her for passing along the URL.
David Bradley