Malcolm X by Marable Manning

[fasstrack]

Has anyone read this yet? I think it excellent. It unflinchingly punctures the legend (including the self-generated one) to reveal the man.

Among topics broached: a possibly loveless marriage; a drubbing in a debate by Bayard Rustin; the revelation that Malcolm Little was purely small-time as a criminal. There are triumphs too.

Comments?

[fasstrack]

First mea culpa: I reversed the author's first and last names, not having it in front of me. Apologies to Mr. Marable.

[jlhoots]

I read it when it first came out.

I thought it was very well written.

Provided a lot of information I didn't previously know.

Did it solve his murder? Maybe.

[Leeway]

I haven't read it, but I would be interested in doing so. However, the disclosures mentioned above don't seem very shocking. Biographers are always on dangerous ground when they try to create a picture of a marriage. And, if the marriage was bad, so what? Same for the Bayard "drubbing" Malcolm in a debate. In public life, that's hardly the most consequential of events. How many people remember Malcolm? How many remember Rustin? And isn't well-known that Malcolm was a small time hood in his earlier years? Having said this, I'd still like to see the finished portrait by Mr. Marable.

[fasstrack]

I haven't read it, but I would be interested in doing so. However, the disclosures mentioned above don't seem very shocking. Biographers are always on dangerous ground when they try to create a picture of a marriage. And, if the marriage was bad, so what? Same for the Bayard "drubbing" Malcolm in a debate. In public life, that's hardly the most consequential of events. How many people remember Malcolm? How many remember Rustin? And isn't well-known that Malcolm was a small time hood in his earlier years? Having said this, I'd still like to see the finished portrait by Mr. Marable.

They're not 'shocking' per se, but they give credence to the statement that autobiogrphies are lies. A reviewer in the N.Y. Times review of books opined that Malcolm may have exaggerated his criminal past to make his conversation seem more dramatic.

Anyway it's good to have a book by an African-American author to counterbalance the Autobiography. Especially one so well-researched and written.

[Leeway]

Maybe I'm just being persnickety today fasstrack, but I really don't see what the race of the biographer has to do with it. It's either a good bio or it's not, either well-researched or not, well-written or not.

As for autobiographical lies, that is a redundancy. It's quite well-know in literature not to believe an autobiography at least on the face of it. One should check out this link:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Autobiography

"Autobiographies tell more lies than all but the most self-indulgent fiction."- A.S. Byatt

"All fiction may be autobiography, but all autobiography is of course fiction." - Shirley Abbott

Anyway, I bring it up so as not to leave the impression that somehow Malcolm X was a sole sinner

[jlhoots]

History - the lies the victors tell.

I forget who said that - maybe an English author.

[fasstrack]

Maybe I'm just being persnickety today fasstrack, but I really don't see what the race of the biographer has to do with it. It's either a good bio or it's not, either well-researched or not, well-written or not.

As for autobiographical lies, that is a redundancy. It's quite well-know in literature not to believe an autobiography at least on the face of it. One should check out this link:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Autobiography

"Autobiographies tell more lies than all but the most self-indulgent fiction."- A.S. Byatt

"All fiction may be autobiography, but all autobiography is of course fiction." - Shirley Abbott

Anyway, I bring it up so as not to leave the impression that somehow Malcolm X was a sole sinner

It matters to black folks who wrote it, let's be real.

[fasstrack]

That last statement of mine bears clarification: Of course it doesn't matter the ethnicity of the author if the book is good. Black folks reading it ought to trust the veracity as long as the work is truthful and well-written. However, we're talking about a major black icon here, and there has always been a certain insularity in the black community, a tendency not to want to publicly criticize one of one's own where the white man can see it. There's the desire to have one of one's own write the history. Understandable in view of history.

This reminds me of Spike Lee's defense of having only a black director make 'X'. 'It's too important' said he. Then he made a film IMO gooey with sentimentality and serving up the myth with more smoke and mirrors than the autobiography. Go figure.

Edited November 20, 2013 by fasstrack

[fasstrack]

Guardian review: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/10/malcolm-x-reinvention-review-manning-marable

[fasstrack]

Finished it. I have to say this is one of the best biographies I've read. Marable pulls no punches about Malcolm or anyone in his orbit. Thoroughly researched, it is also moving and harrowing in the chapters concerning Malcolm's death and its aftermath. A must read, especially as a counterbalance to the Autobiography.

The only loose end (unless I missed it): Who took over the Wallace Muhammed faction of the NOI after his death?

Edited December 9, 2013 by fasstrack

[l p]

spike's movie, as deficient as it is, is the best biopic i've ever seen. biopics are usually quite bad.

the Bayard Rustin debate is included in this dvd. it's an unusually good malcolm x debate, because Bayard Rustin uses logic to back malcolm into a corner.

there's a great dvd of audio video malcolm, almost complete. only $20.

http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com/2006/08/malcolm-x-collected-speeches-1960-1965.html

they actually undersell the amount of short video clips. i counted about 1hr40min of short video clips.

note: the video portions are mp4, and will not play on a regular dvd player. need either a media player, or play on your computer. the audio speeches are mp3.

malcolm x is at his best after he left the noi. before that he was kind of brainwashed by the teachings of the noi leader.

luckily for us, most of the preserved malcolm x speeches are from 1964/65 - after the split with the noi.

[fasstrack]

Yes, he was way better post-NOI than during. His perspective was more comprehensive, i.e. Pan-Africanism, and a global view of how U.S. oppression of blacks parelleled the worldwide struggles of the oppressed. What a force he would've developed into in so many ways had he not been cut down.

[l p]

http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com/2013/07/stan-bernard-interviews-malcolm-x.html

here is a good debate. towards the end of the text, malcolm debates this poor Gordon Hall guy into the ground, as far as i can tell. malcolm's just too logical for most of the people who he encountered.
too bad there's no audio of this debate.