The Reason We May Never Have Another bell hooks, Eve Babitz, or Joan Didion

I’m Going to Write About Writing. Sorry In Advance

Once, while researching a piece for the New York Times Magazine , I came across a debate between William Styron and Ossie Davis moderated by James Baldwin. The reason for the debate: Styron, a white guy, had written a first-person historical novel from the point of view of Nat Turner, the real-life historical figure who, as you will recall, led an 1831 slave rebellion in which he and his fellows literally killed every white person they saw including babies and children. Turner even wrote a short pamphlet explaining himself before he was hanged and it really is a primary source that is not taught nearly enough as either an historical or literary work. I guess we don’t really have the stomach for it. But we probably should.

Some 135 years later Baldwin suggested (or maybe “dared” is the better word) Styron to write about the event in the first person and Styron accepted the challenge. The result was 1967’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, a book which enjoyed a wild but brief success — it dominated the bestseller list and won a Pulitzer Prize — before the backlash came. A year later, a compendium of Black authors critiquing Confessions was published and suffice it to say a lot of people weren’t feeling Stryon’s work. Hollywood, however, was all in. In 1968 20th Century Fox and producer David Wolper — who would later produce Roots — paid a whopping $600,000 for the adaption rights…