Many, many years ago, one of my profs told me that you can read too much Baldwin. I said, but he's one of our towering geniuses. She said, sooner or later you're going to read one of his very weak essays, & it's going to take you some time to get over it. She was right.
Conversation
Tonight I reread one of those essays. (Not entirely by choice.) When, say, Charlie Parker sounded like shit, you could say that he was stoned or drunk or jonesing for a fix or a drink. I don't know enough about Baldwin to guess why he sometimes fell so far short of himself.
4
7
Replying to
I'm not sure I know any writer who hasn't at time fallen "far short of himself". I've written shit, but I'm not as famous as JB (or as good!) so no one collects everything I've ever written. They shall remain dead, I hope.
Sometimes, it has to do with needing money.
Replying to
Indeed. This was a U of Edinburgh student publication, so there was no money in it. Maybe that was the problem!
2

