P and Invisible Man

[Mark Kohut]

Talk about Whiteness as a concept......

On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 3:37 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not as precocious as you, I read *Invisible Man* at college age (but not
> for a course). I, too, remember that brightly, so to shine, and
> other scenes....He reached mythic levels of meaningful scenes....he had
> trouble with 'transitions' in his fiction he wrote....
>
> I saw a room more lit up---I mean 13, 000---than at any amusement park,
> all with bright white.......
>
> I will bet it did helpp Pynchon conceive of Byron the Bulb.......endless
> power
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 3:21 PM beverly fairchild <bwfair73 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Ellison's book... I read it decades ago, as a high school student.  That
>> this analysis cites the lightbulbs is so compelling for me, as this is one
>> of the images that seared itself on my mind, even at that young age.  (I
>> measure the power of books I have read by the strength of the images that
>> imprint on my brain and last, forever.)  Thanks for resurrecting this one.
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 2:49 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Plist fave reader-critic Tony Tanner has a
>>>  terrific long essay on Ellison's *Invisible Man*, which I
>>> am rereading for a course I am teaching on Roth (*The Human Stain*
>>> which is indebted to IM).
>>>
>>> In Tanner's what might I call the sometimes metaphysical reach of his
>>> criticism, he observes this.
>>> You may recall the elaborate light arrangement for his room , 13
>>> thousand some bulbs run off a stolen line from the power
>>> company that the invisible man has set up proudly and elaborates on.
>>>
>>> He, Tanner, finds the deep genius of this scene and metaphor to be to
>>> show the power connection that even an
>>> invisible man needs to exist in the US. Power, energy from the system,
>>> the grid (but he doesn't use that term) and
>>>
>>> it made me think of Byron in GR. Anyone, anyone?
>>>
>>