Please post a question below that explores the continuities and contrasts of these complementary short stories, possibly stirring Circus into the pot as well. If you desperately want to post about only one of them, feel free. Otherwise I welcome you to respond to one of the questions posted about these texts--whether in this or the previous thread, by you or your classmates.
Be sure to indicate the origin of your question in this case, and do use this thread as a way to try out the thesis of your first reader response paper.
Williams "Desire and the Black Masseur" :
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that Burns is homosexual? What's the significance of his love for Cinema and what role does it play in curing his depression? Why does Burns feel the need to "surrender himself to violent treatment by others with the idea of thereby clearing one's self of his guilt"
In all of the three pieces we have read or watched in class, there were differences and similarities in how black persons were portrayed. How does each piece compare at describing attitudes toward persons of color?
ReplyDeleteEach piece consistently utilizes imagery of color, usually in the case of a contrast between black and white. What is the significance of this imagery in regards to the racial relations addressed in each piece?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance of the fact that the main character of each piece is disturbed until there relation with a black character is resolved? What is each piece trying to say by the way these problems are solved? What does the violent nature of the two American pieces in relation to the one Soviet piece say?
ReplyDeleteCircus was produced by a Soviet, Desire and the Black Masseur was written by a white American, and Going to meet the man was written by a black American. How do each of the stories deal with the forgiveness of sins/ coming to peace with past actions and does this relate to the ideologies these authors might have?
ReplyDeleteBoth readings display white men getting sexually turned on by abuse related to black men. In Baldwin's story, Jesse finally is able to have sex with his wife after a flashback of a childhood memory of a lynching of a black man. In William's story, Burns gets turned on when the black masseur violently "massages" him to the point of breaking his bones. For what purpose do you think these two authors link sexual arousal to racism of the time?
ReplyDeleteBoth short stories have main characters who are very close with a black person. Jesse is good friends with Otis in "Going to Meet the Man" and Burns was close with his black masseur in "The Black Masseur". Even in Circus, Marion Dixon had a black maid that took care of her baby. Do these close relationships between the main character and the black characters represent anything? If so, what do they represent?
ReplyDeleteAll three pieces in some way deal with the problem of race. Circus tries to forget any problems and instead paints the future as a bright one, while the American works focus on the problem. Are the American pieces more effective in prompting its audience to solve the problems? Would solving the issue in the US have undermined the Soviets?
ReplyDeleteBoth Circus and "Going to Meet the Man" include important songs. In Circus, the the refrain "broad is my native land" and in "Going to Meet the Man" the song Jesse hears on the way to the lynching "I stepped int he river at Jordan" prove to be crucial to the plot. Why were these songs included and what effect do these songs have on the flow of the stories.
ReplyDeleteThe main characters in all three pieces have internal conflicts that all deal with racism. Marion is troubled for having had sex with a black man and give birth to a baby as the consequence; Burn is seeking some sort of guilt relief through the physical abuse from a black man; Jesse is frustrated with what used to be the "right" way to treat black people in comparison to the changes that were happening. How is racism presented similarly in their conflicts? Does this tell us the prevalent attitude towards racism across the presented genders, nationalities, time, place, and political ideologies?
ReplyDeleteQuestion from Rebecca Sai: I believe that all of these stories, "Going to meet the man," "the black masseur" and the movie "Circus" all have underlying themes and messages about about race, equality, and morality. My question is that throughout these stories and the people bringing up the problem of segregation,what was more impacting? Movies and pressure from the soviet union, or powerful African American writers like James Baldwin?
ReplyDelete-Rebecca Sai
Two main themes in both "Going to Meet the Man" and "Desire and the Black Masseur" are the issues of race and masculinity. One story identifies the man being tortured as being feminine while the other describes the castration of the man being tortured. This brings me to the question, what role does masculinity play in the context of these stories and could it really be mere coincidence that the men being tortured, regardless of race, are both emasculated in some way by their respective authors?
ReplyDeleteObviously, everyone has seemed to notice that racism has played a major role in the three texts that we have studied thus far. How do you think racism is related to our study of the Cold War? Why do you think that racism has been a major focal point in all of the works that we have studied?
ReplyDeleteIn “Desire and the Black Masseur”, Williams uses sensual language to describe the relationship between Burns and the masseur. In “Going to Meet the Man”, Baldwin asserts that Mr. Jesse feels unparallelled "joy" when he witnesses mutilation, yet unlike the tension between Burns and the masseur, there is a lesser sexual attraction between him and the young man who he beats. To that end, are the masseur and Mr. Jesse similar in that they find pleasure in demonstrating power/authority onto those who they feel "abuse their pride" through the act of mutilation?
ReplyDeleteAll three of these literary pieces pose a debate between what is morally just and the social norms of the time. Do you think each character recognizes what is morally just and if so what prevents them from defying social norms? How does the political agenda of the time affect society's opinion of racism?
ReplyDeleteThe two short stories reinforce the message in Circus that the US is rather intolerant of color. Is Circus not merely propaganda but actually part truth?
ReplyDeleteWhat do the main characters in these works have in common? For example, the German circus director, Jesse and the Masseur are all at least partially racist. What other similarities do they share? Why are those similarities important to the stories and how do they affect the plot?
ReplyDeleteIn "Desire and the Black Masseur" , what was the source of Burns' obedience towards the black masseur? Was it from Burns' timid personality or maybe something else?
ReplyDeleteAll three stories have race involved, but have different ways of showing it. Circus is about race equality while the other two stories are about violence having to do with two black men. Which story impacts you the most and why? Is violence a good tool to get the reader to feel more? Do you feel more emotion when reading the latter two stories or watching Circus?
ReplyDeleteBoth "Masseur" and "Going to Meet the Man" deal with bizarre homosexual attractions. What links the two stories is a certain loss of masculinity and power. In "Masseur," the white man is powerless to the blows of the black masseur; in "Going to Meet the Man," the black man is powerless to the torture of the white men. How is this "loss of power" connected to these homosexual attractions? Why is Jesse "turned on" by torturing a black man?
ReplyDeleteIn "Desire and the Black Masseur", it is mentioned that Jesus sacrificed his body in order to save the sin of the human race. In a similar fashion, Burns demands physical abuse. Is this demand for physical abuse connected to Jesus' sacrifice in the manner that it is to relieve the white man of their sin from enslaving blacks?
ReplyDeleteIn Williams' "Desire and the Black Masseur," similar to how the sins of the world were forgiven as a result of Jesus being nailed to the cross, was Burns seeking forgiveness for his own sins by being devoured by the expert masseur? And why did he feel the need to be devoured as opposed to being violently treated?
ReplyDeleteIn the movie and the two texts there seems to be a struggle that the characters experience in terms of dealing with their own views and some wort of change in the societal acceptance. What insights do theses various conflicts lead us to have?
ReplyDeleteAll three literary pieces that we are studying centralizes around the theme of racism. How is racism a huge factor of the Cold War? How is the battle between white and black people relevant to what was happening to the world?
ReplyDeleteAs similarly discussed in William's piece, how might Sushinsky be perceived as Jesus-like character? How does his coming from an unknown higher place and nightly baptism like rituals support this theory? (Ryan Ginger)
ReplyDelete