Author Explores Faith,Desire,and Black Subjectivity in New Novel
A forthcoming novel delves into complex questions of faith,desire,and the artistic process,aiming to spark debate about Black subjectivity and portrayal.
A new book is poised to challenge readers with its exploration of faith, desire, and the intricacies of Black subjectivity. The author, speaking recently, revealed the project initially carried the working title “Black Portrait of a White Man,” a concept ultimately deemed “too much.”
The narrative centers on a compelling dynamic between two characters, Wyeth and Keating. According to the author, Keating serves to “destabilize everything that Wyeth thought he knew about his life, about his motivations for art-making, about desire, about faith, about God-to offer him a chance to reëncounter his life, maybe.” This destabilization is key to the novel’s exploration of deeply personal and ofen fraught territory.
The author observed a common tendency among “Ex-Protestant Americans” to view serious faith as incompatible with intellectualism,often dismissing a crisis of faith as a precursor to atheism and progressive politics. This observation lead to a broader discussion of ideology, referencing the work of Louis Althusser and his concept of “Ideological State Apparatuses.”
“Althusser talks about this in ‘Ideology and the Ideological State apparatuses,’ where he is giving the example of how people who have ideologies don’t think they have ideologies,” the author explained. “And to illustrate this point, he’s, like, ‘Well, if you were talking to Christians and you are an atheist, you would think, Oh, but fellas, you don’t take this really seriously. We all know that it’s a joke.’ and Althusser’s point is that to the Christians it’s absolutely not a joke.” This highlights the importance of respecting beliefs even when they differ drastically from one’s own.
The novel grapples with the challenge of understanding perspectives radically different from one’s own, presenting a scenario where a character must decide whether to “humor” someone’s beliefs or genuinely acknowledge them as valid. “He’s not a perfect guy,” the author stated.”I didn’t want to write a book where he just instantly gets it and he’s just, like, ‘Oh yeah, I respect you.’ Honestly, that’s not real.”
The conversation extended to a specific example within Catholicism: the doctrine of transubstantiation. The author recounted a discussion with a partner about the concept, initially dismissing it as metaphorical. This sparked a reflection on the profound significance of the belief for many Catholics. “There have been wars over that, lauren. People have gotten killed over this,” the author emphasized. “For Catholics, it is decidedly not a metaphor.not even close. It is his body and his blood, and it is present everywhere on earth concurrently.”
This led to a broader contemplation of the awe inspired by the unwavering conviction of some faiths, contrasting it with what the author termed “jeans-in-church culture” – a more relaxed, nondenominational approach. The author confessed a personal preference for a more stringent spiritual framework, stating, “I think I need a mean sky daddy. I think I want there to exist consequences wherein God would love me slightly less if I wore shorts to church.” This sentiment stems from a upbringing rooted in “a very strict, very mean God,” fostering a need for clear boundaries and accountability.
The author acknowledged a degree of apprehension about how the book will be received.”I feel like I wrote a whole book about how I fear the book will be interpreted,” they admitted. Tho,the primary hope is that the novel will “provoke people to talk about questions around Black subjectivity and the things that go through the minds of Black artists and Black people just trying to get through the day as a perceived being with agency and subjectivity.” Ultimately, the author’s ideal outcome is to “fire up the discourse machine,” sparking lively debate and critical engagement with the themes explored within the book.
