Share for friends:

Read The Devil Finds Work (2000)

The Devil Finds Work (2000)

Online Book

Author
Genre
Rating
4.11 of 5 Votes: 2
Your rating
ISBN
0385334605 (ISBN13: 9780385334600)
Language
English
Publisher
delta

The Devil Finds Work (2000) - Plot & Excerpts

These are a series of brilliant essays by James Baldwin which examine film, culture and race in American society. He makes enlightening thoughts and comments about people like Betty Davis, Sidney Poitier, and Joan Crawford. He shows how a major film can represent an individual like Billie Holiday in a way that very much differs from her biography. Presenting what filmmakers wanted to see rather than what had actually happened, Baldwin critiques the film adaptation process and shows the power of cinema and the impressions it had on him as a child. One learns about what was key to encouraging his learning and sense of wonder.With the 'stand your ground policy' in the USA giving licence to murder unarmed black people in the twenty-first century, these essays are as relevant now as they were when they were written in the 1970s.In his final essay of this book he says of the Devil, exploring the film The Exorcist, "He does not levitate beds, or fool around with little girls: we do."Powerful and thought provoking.

Somehow I missed the memo that this focused mostly on American film. Don't get me wrong, I liked it - I mean, it is James Baldwin - but the focus on film fell a little flat for me. I was looking for a meaty exploration of race in America, and there are some riveting moments here when Baldwin ties film into this theme. However, more time is spent summarizing and pontificating on the state of American film. I wanted more personal testimonies, more connection to broader themes, a larger scope. However, it's not Baldwin's fault that I didn't get the book I wanted; I just looked in the wrong place. This should be essential reading for film fans and especially critics, to help develop the lens of a viewer who is rarely represented in our current system. Baldwin has a lot to say about that, and it's worth taking a listen.

What do You think about The Devil Finds Work (2000)?

The Devil Finds Work is impeccably organized: it gets better and better. Everything crescendos: the biting sarcasm, the incisive commentary, the clarity of the summaries, etc. What starts off as a good read (to put it as both a slight and a compliment to Baldwin, sub-par based on the standard to which I hold him) begins to pull harder, to engross more, to elicit more investment. The act is, in a way, four separate images coalescing into focus, and the image that results in his measured act of uniting those elements over time into a singular clarity is beyond splendid. The execution of these essays, and the way in which they bring about this effect of increasing the focus steadily, is remarkable. And what an "image" (a tableau, a lesson, an epiphany that feels like divine inspiration, perhaps) one can behold by the book's end. Great stuff.
—Mike

Baldwin has the gift of being able to tackle complex issues in a lyrical and approachable fashion. I found myself wishing he were alive today so I could read about his insights into today's films and other mass forms of entertainment (among many other issues). He is careful throughout the book to separate the work from the person. He is critical of films and how they are framed but he never criticizes individual actors (as far as I remember). His critiques stem from how films represent/ed society as a whole and what that says about us as people. It's very sad to think that not a lot has changed. No matter how much you think you may know about a topic, Baldwin will always help you see it through a distinct lens, for good and for bad.
—Liz Murray

James Baldwin does not seem to like movies very much, nor does he seem to recognize film as an art form, which I have to say does somewhat weaken his arguments in terms of how much he reads into messaging. It's easier to fully dissect something if you're taking it seriously. All the same, his prose is intelligent and wonderfully sarcastic, a good read if you're head over heels in love with the man as I am. The early sections, with Baldwin discussing being a black child at movie theaters playing thoroughly white films, are powerful.
—Sean Donovan

Write Review

(Review will shown on site after approval)

Read books by author James Baldwin

Read books in category Fiction