The Jazz Singer/Catchup Readings

Because we had so many different readings, I will try to just hit on what was interesting to me, and, hopefully, we can discuss lots of other stuff covered in class.
I was really interested in what Lott had to say about capitalism and blackface. I was sad that the chapter on the working class was missing. (Although, don't get me wrong. I felt overwhelmed by getting caught up on the chapters and articles of the coursepack this week, well, few days.) It got me thinking that slavery would probably not, might not, have happened if our country wasn't so strictly capitalist and anti socialist, both those things. In fact, what I found myself thinking through our few class discussions thus far was that the actors of vaudeville and blackface were completely controlled by the fact that they were making money doing blackface, and, to live as a member of a capitalist society, one has to make money to simply live. As we learned fromAnn Douglas' Black Manhanton, that possession of money changed the way people lived their lives. There was an especially potent line from her, something about the number of alcoholics in the white and black communities during the Harlem Renaissance. Two out of about ten black literary types had been alcholics; whereas, only two of about ten white literary types had not been alcoholics. I think this bit of statistical evidence tells a helluva lot about both white and black people. The burden of capitalism, having to make money to be able to survive, is trying on the soul. There was another line, I can't exactly remember which reading it was from, may Douglas again, that Hurston? didn't find any nurishment for her soul among the white community. I can really see this; it rings true to me because the white community has a longer history of capital investment than the black community ( as far as I know, which might not be right. I'm not sure how capitalism figured in a traditional west African setting.)
This following is a sort of aside. I believe it's okay to do a bit of rambling in the blog setting, right?
Anywho, my girlfriend made a comment this week that really brought my attention even more so to this subject. She moved here about a month and hasn't yet found a job. She's been listless, unhappy, moping about meaninglessly in the house. At first, I thought it was because I did the horrible thing of letting her move to Lubbock. But, we talked about it, and it's because she doesn't have a job. And, I thought about how her and most of America 's (especially your traditional bring home the bread sort of masculinity) meaning and purposefullness in life is mixed up in how much capital they are able to provide for themselves and their families, how much money they make. It was really disheartening.
And, I heard these same sentiments in how Douglas discussed those Harlem Renaissance writers- how they, unlike their white counterparts, could not make a living off a literary endeavor. Hell, we know it's still hardly possible today, whether one's white or black. In fact, it might be argued that, because of the revival of the cannon, it may be more possible to make it, i.e. make enough money to live off, being a black writer. That argument could easily be disputed by simple statistics of black college goers.
Okay,
I was also glad that a few of our readings noticed the seductive and romantic quality of Jak and his mother's relationship. When he kissed her on the lips, I was uncomfortable. When he did it again, I just thought it was weird or some cultural difference I didn't quite understand. But, the oedipus complex makes a lot of sense for me here. This makes Lott's ? discussion of how Freudian theory could mostly not be applied to African American families even more interesting.
I don't want this to be too long, so I won't go into the things I noticed about The Jazz Singer. Some of them were covered in our readings, and I'm sure that others in the class noticed some of the same things I did it.
I would like to say that, in my copy of the Jazz Singer, there was a Plantation act, vaudevillian in nature, of Al Jolson and a cartoon that I thought would be helpful for all of us. The Plantation act was discussed in Blackface, White Noise, but, still, it's something to see. His unsuccesful dialect was just hilarious. The whole picture was absurd. There was a cotton field in the background. there were chickens around his feet. His outfit was a plaid shirt and overalls. I think all of us should see it.
Anywhoooo, see you all tomorrow.