ISBN-13: 9781926824567 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 240 str.
When an American critic complained that with his new novel, "Juice ," Ishmael Reed had gone "too far," he didn't' realize how far Reed had gone. All the way to Canada Just as the fugitive slaves, who'd found a home in Canada, were able to challenge the prevailing attitude in the America that the slaves were well off under the management of merciful masters, from Canada, where Going Too Far is published, Ishmael Reed challenges the widespread opinion that racism is no longer a factor in American life.In fact, according to Reed, in some ways, the United States very much resembles the country of the 1850's. The representations of blacks in popular culture are throwbacks to the days of minstrelsy. Politicians are raising stereotypes about blacks reminiscent of those that the fugitive slaves found it necessary to combat: that they are lazy and dependent and need people to manage them. Reaction to some of the essays in Going Too Far has been ferocious. Joan Walsh of Salon.com, called his criticism of white progressives, "pernicious." Laura Miller of The New York Times called his essay on Mark Twain, "rowdy." Sapphire, the author of Push from which the movie Precious was adapted, said that his criticism of the movie meant that he was"mentally ill." Ishmael Reed answers by paraphrasing Harry Truman, whose Civil Rights record is examined in this book. He says, "I'm not any of those things. I just tell the truth and it looks as though I'm 'rowdy, ' 'pernicious, ' and 'mentally ill.'"