New Black Literary Forum

American author Mat Johnson has been stirring up controversy over his debate about black literary fiction vs. black self-published and commercial fiction. If you’ve been perusing his blog articles on the subject, you’ll know that he’s been taking a lot of heat for his opinion about the myriad of black commercial fiction novels in Amercian bookstores. As a result, he’s taking this debate to a new place to generate participation from people on all sides. Mat has created the Niggerati Manor Forum. Please don’t let the name scare you.

The disturbing thing about this whole ordeal is the fact that people are hurling insults and ill-suited labels, and on worst of all places, MySpace. It seems like supporters of commercial and self-published lit are taking much of what Mat is saying as a personal attack, but hopefully this will change as the dialogue progresses on the forum. If you’d like to give your two cents, I suggest you head on over there, go through the quick registration and post your opinion.

 If you’d like to read a poignant take on this issue, I suggest you take a look at Marlon James’ blog article High Art, Low Art and Critical Thought, a piece that echoes how I feel about the subject. I’m all for creating a healthy balance between the two. To tell you the truth, I’d like to see some discussion about this subject take place in Canada as well, but the problem is that black Canadian commercial literature hasn’t been given the time of day on this side of the border. Therefore, no debate has ever really ensued here.

I also suggest you read James’ blog on a regular basis. Frankly, I think this is some the best blogging and music writing I’ve ever seen on the blogosphere, and I’m not just saying this because, like myself, he thinks Kate Bush rules. Marlon James is a rock star! You can read his blog here.