I mentioned the issue of white writers discussing the black experience here. You can find more thoughts on the issue here, in a commentary by Steve James, the maker of Hoop Dreams. Check out previous posts in that thread for more commentary. Be careful for spoilers in other entries, however, if you have not seen all of The Wire.
An interesting short essay written in 1947 by one of my favorite writers. He was very much a man of his times, but I wonder what he would make of the current international political climate. This passage from the end of the essay is amusing when you think about the fact that Orwell's next and final book was 1984, the work for which he is best known today:
In any case I find that by the time you have perfected any style of writing, you have always outgrown it. Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. I have not written a novel for seven years, but I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write.
