Gobsmacked. I'm still slowly reading this but as a writer who grew up in a fundamental religious community, with great memories of our visits to the Black church worship services, this essay really speaks to me. And I'm a Baldwin fan but have yet to read this book, I'm ashamed to say! This is going to the top of the TBR. Thank you for your work.
Unbelievably beautiful essay. I don’t think there is a single person that could read these words and not relate to the struggle of being human. Black or white, religious or non-religious, I think we all wrestle with our angels and our demons and we pray that in the sifting, we come to the place of connection with a holy God that only desires a pure relationship unencumbered by the sins of the flesh. To me the statement that “it’s Christ plus nothing” has been my hearts cry. Not one blessed thing except knowing that “we love Him because He loved us first.” (1John 4:19)
As my mentor Norman Grubb used to say, “you will never know who you are until you know who you aren’t.”
Your term "forced legibility" struck me. The short telegraphic posts that characterize much online communication feed not only algorithms, but also human beings' need to label, identify, and pin things down. I spent much of my life in the political arena, where fluency in social media was a job requirement, and I'm glad those days are behind me. One ambiguous post could mean a need for very public damage control, not to be confused with conversation. I thank God for the fluency of writers who are willing to be patient with me as they walk me though ambiguity and mystery.
Dear Matthew, I was deeply moved by your essay, especially by your willingness to share your own story in a way that invites the rest of us to seek that depth of honesty about our pasts, presents, and futures. I'm finding that this work is a life-long journey, if we accept it -- and I believe that life is richer when we do accept it. I am finding (at age 77) that it's more than worth it, even with bumps along the way. The community you are building on SS gives the rest of us space in which to take those risks for ourselves. I love the intentionality with which you have chosen the books for the deep dive. Your Baldwin review gives me greater perspective about how to maximize the experience.
I am still working my way through the book, but I'm wanting to take it slowly, to savor the beauty of the writing. Baldwin is a giant of American literature, and I'm glad to have this opportunity to explore him more deeply. I read "Notes of a Native Son" as a college sophomore -- and I "got it" at one level, but my 19 year old self probably missed 90% of what was on offer.
I saw your other recent post about the challenges you are facing with trying to maintain some semblance of privacy while also being authentically out there on SS, and I respect and appreciate that boundary-setting. You are also role modeling how that can be accomplished without giving into the constant noise and chatter of social media. Wishing you my best from frozen and very very snowy western Mass.
Matthew, you've written a deeply felt, incredibly moving, and remarkably insightful piece. The sheer amount of ground you cover is breathtaking. You did not just read and write about a book of fiction but inhabited it as if a character yourself, bringing uncommon understanding and empathy to the characters' choices - and your own - and the dilemmas those choices created. You seamlessly wove aspects of your personal life into the mix, and in doing so did what this masterful book itself does, as all great literature does: showed us to ourselves. As one who has had to do a lot of excavation, I appreciate all the more how with such clarity and honesty you relate the experiences that marked your life but were not allowed to determine the kind of man you wanted to and could become. It is a privilege to share this space.
Thank you for writing an insightful, personal, and beautifully written review. Precisely because this is *not* my religious background, I think it’ll be a good novel for me to read to understand the era and Baldwin’s culture better. Like Plain Jane, I think I’ll move this to next in the queue. Thank you!
Just wanted to follow up and let you know I just finished _Go Tell It on the Mountain_, Matthew, thanks to your essay. I loved it. One of the best books I've read capturing the weight of history, the nature of memory, the strength and brittleness of community... and how this entire huge universe of history gets focused onto one day and one fourteen-year-old boy who doesn't even realize the full scope of what he's carrying.
I reread your essay, too, after finishing the book and understand your roots / wings metaphor much better now that I've read the book. I'm really looking forward to more of what you write this year!
What a fascinating and insightful essay. it really resonnated, both your wondrful dissection of Baldwin's novel (definitely on my list now) and relating it to your own experience. My own father was a lapsed Catholic, which he only felt able to do when (ironically) he moved form the more religious North of England to the South, specifically London. He struggled with perpetual guilt and anger as a result, he could never fully reconcile. This is why, I love the notion of the 'third way'. Complete rejection of inheritance, of your roots is, perhpas, not so healthy, leaving one vulnerable and isolated. To discover another way, well, that seems progressive. Nothing stays the same, even religious doctrine shifts and for John to find his own way and, perhaps, to become a more loving and gentle version of Gabriel. To apply some of the more wholesome aspects of religion and spirituality with intelligence, could be the way forward.
A really thoughtful and probing read of Baldwin, thank you Matthew. I read Mountain a couple of years back and really enjoyed it. Your essay is a great reminder of what was stirred in me back then.
I must read your essay in parts. You have written the pages full. Full of heart and mind. I have never read Baldwin, at all. Librarian's daughter, that I am. But it will go on my list, now. Thank you.
I think the work of separating our childhood trauma from the creation of our own adult life is the work of growing up. It does not happen at once. And how true that we are born into a story that is not our own, told through the tears of our parents' own scars, as their parents' lived their own imperfect lives. And on and on and on, into the past.
Matthew this actually renders me speechless... or as below Gobsmacked! Your attention to human behaviours, every intricate nuance that that entails is truly beyond words. I read James Baldwin's 'Go Tell It On The Mountain when it was first published, was astounded then by his words and now by yours. I know have to read it again of course!
Thank you for this beautiful essay and for sharing those parts of your own life that it brought to the fore.
Very nice essay Matthew. I started it the other day, had to pause, and now finally came back to finish. I've read very little Baldwin--I read The Fire Next Time back in 2024 for the centenary of his birth, but I don't think I've ever sampled his fiction. Go Tell It On The Mountain sounds like a very powerful read, based on your description. I especially enjoyed the way you teased out the significance of the individual characters and their relation to their pasts.
I did not expect this book to be so moving, especially in Part Three. Earlier, as in the section called ‘Florence’s Prayer’, the unrelieved suffering rationalised in the tiny box of their religion, becomes almost boring. The writing is good but the subject matter is unrelentingly closed-in. I found myself wondering how this novel could be considered significant.
Several observations in the accompanying essay helped me. One was the (im)possibility of escaping what formed us; another was the nature of pentecostal worship as intensely physical, and the (consequent?) rendering of the interior life in physical terms - perspectives I hadn’t previously considered. The point about the book being structured as a sermon surprised me.
The “forced legibility” with which John is contending and the comparison to our current conditions of social media presentation was disturbingly relevant.
I’m now looking forward to our further reading of James Baldwin’s work.
It's interesting how your nuanced reflection on the "maze of doctirne designed for obedience rather than discovery" so insightfully illustrates the complex algorithmic challenge of untangling personal identity from deeply embedded systems, a struggle I recognize.
Go Tell It On The Mountain is the only big Baldwin book I’m yet to read. Baldwin says that one can only write out of one’s own experience. He’s in the Hemingway camp. I disagree (just look at Shakespeare! Or Dickens, whom Baldwin loves). But Baldwin is wonderfully able to recreate worlds that he knows and let us inhabit them. His worlds of race and religion and reading are still necessary - just look around. Looking forward to reading Go Tell It On The Mountain. And I can hear the incomparable Fannie Lou Hamer singing in my ears!
Brilliant, Matthew. This topic is near and dear to me, as you probably know. I appreciate your in-depth exploration of "Go Tell it on the Mountain." I'm sad to admit I haven't read his work yet.
Gobsmacked. I'm still slowly reading this but as a writer who grew up in a fundamental religious community, with great memories of our visits to the Black church worship services, this essay really speaks to me. And I'm a Baldwin fan but have yet to read this book, I'm ashamed to say! This is going to the top of the TBR. Thank you for your work.
Unbelievably beautiful essay. I don’t think there is a single person that could read these words and not relate to the struggle of being human. Black or white, religious or non-religious, I think we all wrestle with our angels and our demons and we pray that in the sifting, we come to the place of connection with a holy God that only desires a pure relationship unencumbered by the sins of the flesh. To me the statement that “it’s Christ plus nothing” has been my hearts cry. Not one blessed thing except knowing that “we love Him because He loved us first.” (1John 4:19)
As my mentor Norman Grubb used to say, “you will never know who you are until you know who you aren’t.”
Bravo for an excellent book review!!!
Your term "forced legibility" struck me. The short telegraphic posts that characterize much online communication feed not only algorithms, but also human beings' need to label, identify, and pin things down. I spent much of my life in the political arena, where fluency in social media was a job requirement, and I'm glad those days are behind me. One ambiguous post could mean a need for very public damage control, not to be confused with conversation. I thank God for the fluency of writers who are willing to be patient with me as they walk me though ambiguity and mystery.
Dear Matthew, I was deeply moved by your essay, especially by your willingness to share your own story in a way that invites the rest of us to seek that depth of honesty about our pasts, presents, and futures. I'm finding that this work is a life-long journey, if we accept it -- and I believe that life is richer when we do accept it. I am finding (at age 77) that it's more than worth it, even with bumps along the way. The community you are building on SS gives the rest of us space in which to take those risks for ourselves. I love the intentionality with which you have chosen the books for the deep dive. Your Baldwin review gives me greater perspective about how to maximize the experience.
I am still working my way through the book, but I'm wanting to take it slowly, to savor the beauty of the writing. Baldwin is a giant of American literature, and I'm glad to have this opportunity to explore him more deeply. I read "Notes of a Native Son" as a college sophomore -- and I "got it" at one level, but my 19 year old self probably missed 90% of what was on offer.
I saw your other recent post about the challenges you are facing with trying to maintain some semblance of privacy while also being authentically out there on SS, and I respect and appreciate that boundary-setting. You are also role modeling how that can be accomplished without giving into the constant noise and chatter of social media. Wishing you my best from frozen and very very snowy western Mass.
Matthew, you've written a deeply felt, incredibly moving, and remarkably insightful piece. The sheer amount of ground you cover is breathtaking. You did not just read and write about a book of fiction but inhabited it as if a character yourself, bringing uncommon understanding and empathy to the characters' choices - and your own - and the dilemmas those choices created. You seamlessly wove aspects of your personal life into the mix, and in doing so did what this masterful book itself does, as all great literature does: showed us to ourselves. As one who has had to do a lot of excavation, I appreciate all the more how with such clarity and honesty you relate the experiences that marked your life but were not allowed to determine the kind of man you wanted to and could become. It is a privilege to share this space.
Thank you for writing an insightful, personal, and beautifully written review. Precisely because this is *not* my religious background, I think it’ll be a good novel for me to read to understand the era and Baldwin’s culture better. Like Plain Jane, I think I’ll move this to next in the queue. Thank you!
Just wanted to follow up and let you know I just finished _Go Tell It on the Mountain_, Matthew, thanks to your essay. I loved it. One of the best books I've read capturing the weight of history, the nature of memory, the strength and brittleness of community... and how this entire huge universe of history gets focused onto one day and one fourteen-year-old boy who doesn't even realize the full scope of what he's carrying.
I reread your essay, too, after finishing the book and understand your roots / wings metaphor much better now that I've read the book. I'm really looking forward to more of what you write this year!
Thanks Brian. I appreciate that kind feedback. I am enjoying this process as all these books are new to me. All the best.
What a fascinating and insightful essay. it really resonnated, both your wondrful dissection of Baldwin's novel (definitely on my list now) and relating it to your own experience. My own father was a lapsed Catholic, which he only felt able to do when (ironically) he moved form the more religious North of England to the South, specifically London. He struggled with perpetual guilt and anger as a result, he could never fully reconcile. This is why, I love the notion of the 'third way'. Complete rejection of inheritance, of your roots is, perhpas, not so healthy, leaving one vulnerable and isolated. To discover another way, well, that seems progressive. Nothing stays the same, even religious doctrine shifts and for John to find his own way and, perhaps, to become a more loving and gentle version of Gabriel. To apply some of the more wholesome aspects of religion and spirituality with intelligence, could be the way forward.
A really thoughtful and probing read of Baldwin, thank you Matthew. I read Mountain a couple of years back and really enjoyed it. Your essay is a great reminder of what was stirred in me back then.
Very moving and insightful. Esp - authenticity requires archaeology.
I must read your essay in parts. You have written the pages full. Full of heart and mind. I have never read Baldwin, at all. Librarian's daughter, that I am. But it will go on my list, now. Thank you.
I think the work of separating our childhood trauma from the creation of our own adult life is the work of growing up. It does not happen at once. And how true that we are born into a story that is not our own, told through the tears of our parents' own scars, as their parents' lived their own imperfect lives. And on and on and on, into the past.
Matthew this actually renders me speechless... or as below Gobsmacked! Your attention to human behaviours, every intricate nuance that that entails is truly beyond words. I read James Baldwin's 'Go Tell It On The Mountain when it was first published, was astounded then by his words and now by yours. I know have to read it again of course!
Thank you for this beautiful essay and for sharing those parts of your own life that it brought to the fore.
Very nice essay Matthew. I started it the other day, had to pause, and now finally came back to finish. I've read very little Baldwin--I read The Fire Next Time back in 2024 for the centenary of his birth, but I don't think I've ever sampled his fiction. Go Tell It On The Mountain sounds like a very powerful read, based on your description. I especially enjoyed the way you teased out the significance of the individual characters and their relation to their pasts.
I did not expect this book to be so moving, especially in Part Three. Earlier, as in the section called ‘Florence’s Prayer’, the unrelieved suffering rationalised in the tiny box of their religion, becomes almost boring. The writing is good but the subject matter is unrelentingly closed-in. I found myself wondering how this novel could be considered significant.
Several observations in the accompanying essay helped me. One was the (im)possibility of escaping what formed us; another was the nature of pentecostal worship as intensely physical, and the (consequent?) rendering of the interior life in physical terms - perspectives I hadn’t previously considered. The point about the book being structured as a sermon surprised me.
The “forced legibility” with which John is contending and the comparison to our current conditions of social media presentation was disturbingly relevant.
I’m now looking forward to our further reading of James Baldwin’s work.
It's interesting how your nuanced reflection on the "maze of doctirne designed for obedience rather than discovery" so insightfully illustrates the complex algorithmic challenge of untangling personal identity from deeply embedded systems, a struggle I recognize.
Go Tell It On The Mountain is the only big Baldwin book I’m yet to read. Baldwin says that one can only write out of one’s own experience. He’s in the Hemingway camp. I disagree (just look at Shakespeare! Or Dickens, whom Baldwin loves). But Baldwin is wonderfully able to recreate worlds that he knows and let us inhabit them. His worlds of race and religion and reading are still necessary - just look around. Looking forward to reading Go Tell It On The Mountain. And I can hear the incomparable Fannie Lou Hamer singing in my ears!
Brilliant, Matthew. This topic is near and dear to me, as you probably know. I appreciate your in-depth exploration of "Go Tell it on the Mountain." I'm sad to admit I haven't read his work yet.