In accordance with our meta agreement to have topic challenges and a later meta agreement to have topic challenges lasting for two months and overlapping by one month, it is today time to announce the November – December 2024 topic challenge.
Based on the number of votes (+4/-0), the last topic challenge fully in 2024 will be:
James Baldwin
What's a topic challenge?
See the meta posts linked above, and also this main meta post. In short, during November and December 2024 you are invited to try to read at least one work by James Baldwin and ask questions about it.
Participation is not obligatory in any sense, and questions on other works are more than welcome during November and December too; they just won't count as part of this topic challenge.
How can I take part?
By getting hold of some stories by James Baldwin and
- asking good questions about it or
- answering questions that have been posted as part of this challenge or
- writing a review of the book on our Tumblr blog.
Questions about these works should be tagged with james-baldwin and other tags as appropriate. We'll keep a list of all such questions in an answer to this meta post.
verbose's presentation of the topic is as follows:
James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and activist influential in both the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), is on several lists of the best 100 novels: Modern Library, Time, Franklin Library. His second, Giovanni's Room (1956), likewise has a high position on several lists of the best LGBTQ-themed novels: Publishing Triangle, Advocate, LitHub. His essays, such as those collected in The Fire Next Time (1963) and Notes on a Native Son (1955), are thoughtful and impassioned contributions to the struggle for African-American equality that continue to be relevant today.
The richness and breadth of Baldwin's achievement is staggering. Go Tell It on the Mountain is set in 1930s Harlem, exploring the role of family and the church in African-American life. By contrast, Giovanni's Room is set in Paris and recounts the love affair between David, a white American, and the Italian bartender Giovanni. His works should be readily available in libraries, though they are still under copyright and so largely unavailable online. Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924; a topic challenge during his centenary year would be a good way to commemorate his enduring legacy.
What's next?
- Vote for the next topic challenge (December–January), or propose your own topic!
- Feel free to edit links into this post if you find some good online resources related to the works of James Baldwin.
