GRGR(4): "I Wanna Be Black"

[David Morris]

Paul Mackin:
>P seems to be quite fearless about these things. No place he
>fears to tread. Essential to drawing us in. Essential to his
>teasing , implicating style.  Where Indians are concerned he
>works both sides of the street as with the remark about the
>Cherokee lyrics. Seems to constantly run the risk of being
>called a bigot or a bleeding heart. But we know better.
>Or do we? We don't really KNOW anything. The game is exciting.

Lorentzen / Nicklaus:
>> "(...) up through the smelly water, comes the sound of a of a whole dark
gang of
>> awful Negroes come yelling happily into the white men's room, (...)" (p.
64)
>>
>> The ethnic ambivalence here like in this episode in general reminds me of
Lou
>> Reed's "I wanna be black". An expressive live-version of that song can be
heard
>> on "Take No Prisoners" (1978), - here are the lyrics:

(62.38) A woman turns to look at him from a table.  Her eyes tell him, in
the instant, what he is.  The mouth harp in his pocket reverts to brass
inertia.  A weight.  A jive accessory.  But he carries it everywhere he
goes.

Me:
The message in her eyes is:
1.  You are NOT us.
2.  You are one of THEM.
3.  You aren't fooling anyone, JAMF.

Slothrop's trying to be black with that harp of his.  Just as "Cherokee" and
the rose colored lights transfom "pale Harvard boys and their dates" into "a
lotta dolled-up redskins."