danicapage's review
5.0
WOW! How have I not read this before? I'm always shocked by what holes I find in my literary studies/analysis. This one was a huge hole.
This is extremely powerfully written. Very fascinating and thought-provoking. Glad I finally got to it.
This is extremely powerfully written. Very fascinating and thought-provoking. Glad I finally got to it.
andy_0001's review against another edition
reflective
sad
4.5
this book is divided into two parts/essays. the first one is Baldwin's letter to his nephew where he expresses the contemporary situation of US racial politics in an easy, raw and personal manner. The second essay was more complicated and heavier than the first where he talked about his rise and fall from being a religious Christian and how religious institutions preach hate psychology to manipulate the wounded souls which also complimented his visit to Elijah Muhammad where he once again got close association with the hypocrisy and double-faced reality of the supposed unifying organisation. I was also glad to see that even though Baldwin lived in an age when many renowned personalities were sexist, he recognised the error and considered the inequality unjustifiable.
<blockquote><i>Protect your women: a difficult thing to do in a civilization sexually so pathetic that the white man’s masculinity depends on a denial of the masculinity of the blacks. Protect your women: in a civilization that emasculates the male and abuses the female, and in which, moreover, the male is forced to depend on the female’s bread-winning power.</i> </blockquote>
Overall very relevant and well-rounded critique, in my opinion, it is an eloquent piece of personal anecdote, not an undecipherable rant.
<blockquote><i>Protect your women: a difficult thing to do in a civilization sexually so pathetic that the white man’s masculinity depends on a denial of the masculinity of the blacks. Protect your women: in a civilization that emasculates the male and abuses the female, and in which, moreover, the male is forced to depend on the female’s bread-winning power.</i> </blockquote>
Overall very relevant and well-rounded critique, in my opinion, it is an eloquent piece of personal anecdote, not an undecipherable rant.
epaulette's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
incredibly moving, I want to get a paper copy so I can properly mark up the quotes that stood out to me!
bananzabean's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Good book, lots to think about. I definitely need to reread this in a few years. I will definitely find new things to think about and will find new appreciation for this book.
Fav Quotes:
Whatever white people do not know about negroes reveals precisely and inexorably what they do not know about themselves. - James Baldwin
But in order to deal with the untapped and dormant force of the previously subjugated in order to survive as a human, moving moral weight in the world, America and all the western nations will be forced to re-examine themselves and release themselves from many things that are now taken to be sacred and to discard nearly all the assumptions that have been used to justify their lives and their anguish and their crimes so long. - James Baldwin
There [the police] stood, in twos and threes and fours, in their Cub Scout uniforms and with their Cub Scout faces, totally unprepared, as is the way with American he-men, for anything that could not be settled with a club or a fist or a gun.” - James Baldwin
“I might have pitied [the police] if I had not found myself in their hands so often and discovered through ugly experience what they were like when they held the power, and what they were like when you held the power.” - James Baldwin
“It is not he who has done it, but time. Time catches up with kingdoms and crushes them, gets it teeth into doctrines and tends them; time reveals the foundations on which any kingdom rests, and eats at those foundations, and it destroys doctrines by proving them to be untrue.” - James Baldwin
“All of us know, whether or not we are able to admit it, that mirrors can only lie, that death by drowning is all that awaits one there. It is for this reason that love is so desperately sought and so cunningly avoided. Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” - James Baldwin
“The only thing white people have that black people need, or should want, is power — and no one holds power forever. White people cannot, in the generality, be taken as models of how to live. Rather, the white man is himself in dire need of new standards, which will release him from his confusion and place him once again in fruitful communion with the depths of his own being. And I repeat, the price of the liberation of the white people is the liberation of the Blacks, the total liberation.” - James Baldwin
“I am proud of these people not because of their color but because of their intelligence and their spiritual force and their beauty. The country should be proud of them, too, but, alas, not many people in this country even know of their existence. And the reason for this ignorance is that a knowledge of the role these people played—and play—in American life would reveal more about America to Americans than Americans wish to know.” - James Baldwin
Fav Quotes:
Whatever white people do not know about negroes reveals precisely and inexorably what they do not know about themselves. - James Baldwin
But in order to deal with the untapped and dormant force of the previously subjugated in order to survive as a human, moving moral weight in the world, America and all the western nations will be forced to re-examine themselves and release themselves from many things that are now taken to be sacred and to discard nearly all the assumptions that have been used to justify their lives and their anguish and their crimes so long. - James Baldwin
There [the police] stood, in twos and threes and fours, in their Cub Scout uniforms and with their Cub Scout faces, totally unprepared, as is the way with American he-men, for anything that could not be settled with a club or a fist or a gun.” - James Baldwin
“I might have pitied [the police] if I had not found myself in their hands so often and discovered through ugly experience what they were like when they held the power, and what they were like when you held the power.” - James Baldwin
“It is not he who has done it, but time. Time catches up with kingdoms and crushes them, gets it teeth into doctrines and tends them; time reveals the foundations on which any kingdom rests, and eats at those foundations, and it destroys doctrines by proving them to be untrue.” - James Baldwin
“All of us know, whether or not we are able to admit it, that mirrors can only lie, that death by drowning is all that awaits one there. It is for this reason that love is so desperately sought and so cunningly avoided. Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” - James Baldwin
“The only thing white people have that black people need, or should want, is power — and no one holds power forever. White people cannot, in the generality, be taken as models of how to live. Rather, the white man is himself in dire need of new standards, which will release him from his confusion and place him once again in fruitful communion with the depths of his own being. And I repeat, the price of the liberation of the white people is the liberation of the Blacks, the total liberation.” - James Baldwin
“I am proud of these people not because of their color but because of their intelligence and their spiritual force and their beauty. The country should be proud of them, too, but, alas, not many people in this country even know of their existence. And the reason for this ignorance is that a knowledge of the role these people played—and play—in American life would reveal more about America to Americans than Americans wish to know.” - James Baldwin
gourmandguin's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
Baldwin’s work will forever be timeless but there’s something about The Fire Next Time that is so rattling, that will cling onto you forever. It really bites you and digs into your skin. I’ll never forget this text. I’ll even come back to it because it will never lose relevance and for him to write this when he did and for it to remain relevant in 2023 is a feat. It’s also sad but Baldwin is not devoid of hope. And his hope spurs mine on as well. I’ll make the hope as bright as the fire. It will burn brighter and stronger. We owe it to Baldwin. We owe it to all of our ancestors.
fenemiestolovers's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
The only reason this gets three stars for me is I realized the audio format was not the best for me to read this! The essay was moving and poignant and I hope to go pick up a physical copy ASAP. As an essay (without chapters or other stops) it just felt hard to follow by audio. Can’t wait to check it out in a physical copy and pick up all the things I missed.