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You are simply expressing your personal opinion when you say what currently passes for literature "stinks", Chrishayden. In the annals of literature, 20 years is a short period, and - Time is what will tell. Furthermore, fiction doesn't have to be flawless to be classified as "literature. Its prose and its approach to a story is what determines this. To me, Toni Morrison produces literate works, whereas Terry McMillan produces commercial fiction ala Danielle Steele. Terry is a competent formulaic writer whose target audiences are women and their complicated relationships with men. Toni Morrison captivates her readers with her creative use of language and her unique characters who are resolute in confronting their dilemmas. You have to have patience to get through a Toni Morrison book, but that is as it should be. Literature is not for the faint of heart. It is for those who love words and how they are used to weave stories. Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright wrote about street life but it was their command of the language that elevated their books to a literate level.

it has turned out that the education that a black person could get back in the day, not accounting for the deplorable school systems down South, was a lot better. (You don't actually believe this, do you? Do you believe that black people were better educated "back in the day"? When they were using textbooks that were ten twenty years old? When their school days were shortened so that they could work in the fields? This was not in 1850--this was in 1950. At the grade school I went to we got recent arrivals from the south who were 13 and 14 years old who had to go into the third grade--and it wasn't because they were dumb or not trying but they had been deliberately undereducated. Black people are better educated today than ever. How many black people back in the day could have worked a personal computer?) I don't see nothing wrong with looking up words in a dictionary. It's called vocabulary building. But, then I was educated in another age and not the current one. (Nowadays they go online to do that. They don't need a dictionary. Get with the program) We didn't try reading those other books because they were "too hard" (I have said this before. The average person is leading a life of such boredom and tedium you can't even believe. They don't want to sit down and work over some thick literary book--they want to relax. I have said this before--today it's all about getting paid. Who the hell cares if you are reading Proust or Maya Angelou if you are not a teacher or a literary critic. How can you sit here and denigrate black people for not reading when the average white adult does not read a book in a year not even one. They seem to be doing pretty good, don't they? George Bush didn't read books. He did pretty good, didn't he?) I have shown my love for the books from a small independent publisher, Akashic Books. T ( Ain't nobody but you reading them books. The number of people reading them books is statistically insignificant. Literary Fiction is dead. Couldn't have happened soon enough in my book. All it provided was a means for some slackers and slugs to stand around who couldn't tie their own shoes to go to parties and act like they were better than somebody else.) We need to do better than this people. We have got to learn to support our new authors as well as elders. There's really no reason for us not doing our part, because we still have to go that extra mile or extra step to get to where we ought to be, need to be, should be. (All hell is breaking loose. Law and order is breaking down, the economy is in the doldrums, the nation is under attack from terrorists, we are going broke and all you can do is take a pinch of snuff from your silver snuff box, arch your brow, sneer and say how the unwashed masses are not reading Alice Walker. Wonder what you are going to do if you need to use those wonderful volumes to start a fire to keep warm?)

Hello All, There are several reasons why Black Literature is languishing 1.) Education - Let's keep it real or keep it moving; it has turned out that the education that a black person could get back in the day, not accounting for the deplorable school systems down South, was a lot better. Today with all of these fancy new teaching methods and technology, we have a few generations that are a few notches above illiterate. Don't believe me. Sit down with a couple of our children and ask them to read you a story. 3/4 of them, after reading to you out loud, will put fear into you concerning the future. I don't see nothing wrong with looking up words in a dictionary. It's called vocabulary building. But, then I was educated in another age and not the current one. 2.) I don't care how post Obama some industries claim to be, many in the publishing industries are still racist. Let's face it, we, the black audience reinforced their prejudice. That big book boom we had, we destroyed. Because we didn't "spread" the love and stayed stuck on the You-Go-Girl books, and then the thug books, the higher ups in the industry, kept pumping them out. Because in their eyes, these were the only books they could make a profit off of. We didn't try reading those other books because they were "too hard" (this also links back to my first point). And because the publishers were marketing those books just to black women, they figured there's no need to have any quality control or even to make sure the author could actually write and read English at a high school senior level (again, reference back to point 1), we got a lot of books thrown at us that was pure de sh_t!! What was bound to happen next, did happen; these same black women that was so pumped up reading that trash, got tired of reading the same story over and over and over again. This in turned the publishers profits to sh_t, which in turn lead them to the decision that there's not need publishing black authors (because they have all been lumped into the same category now) because there's no money in it. Now this falls under the category of "be careful what you wish for, you might get it". 3.) Not all Black Literature is languishing, it depends on where you look. If you have been following me this year, I have shown my love for the books from a small independent publisher, Akashic Books. This year they've published Jesus Boy by Preston Allan and Glorious by Bernice McFadden. They are still a small, small few still at the big publishing houses like Eric Jerome Dickey. For the most part, the books are out here, you just have to look for them. This is not new for a lot of us who are use to looking for black fiction and black history books. For instance, right now I'm reading The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker by Alice Walker. I am learning, to my great shame, that Alice Walker has a vast literary legacy. There is more to her literary output than just The Color Purple, or the two novels by her that I have read. I did not know Walker had written so much poetry, essays, or short stories. I also did not know that at one time she belonged to a group of black female writers who called themselves The Sisterhood. Walker and Toni Morrison are the only two members of that group whose works are still in print today. We need to do better than this people. We have got to learn to support our new authors as well as elders. There's really no reason for us not doing our part, because we still have to go that extra mile or extra step to get to where we ought to be, need to be, should be.

1) It stinks 2) It is written in a code--like that of Modern Poetry--that afficinadoes of literary fiction or intellectuals understand but nobody else does. For instace, I was rading a piece called "Homesick Blues" in Terry McMillains groundbreaking 1990 anthology, BREAKING ICE that was my Bible back in the day. The story refers to H. L. Mencken. I know who Mencken is, and knew who he was then, because I was in the lit fiction game. But the average person does not know who James Baldwin was, much less H. L. Mencken. (You think I am overstating the case. I spoke to a very well educated Black woman the other day who was puzzled about the hostility between the U.S. and North Korea. "Well, that was that little War we fought with them from 195-1953," I answered. She as unaware of it. Most people read fiction for pleasure. They do not have nice cushy jobs at a college. They work awful boring jobs and do REAL work and don't want to come home, tired and have to work some more looking up every other word in a story. I don't have to. I read and study widely. Chances are I'll come across the name of Mencken by accident. Hemningway didn't go to no college. Shakespeare didn't go to no college. James Baldwin didn't go to no college. They all produced work that is studied in college. Today's college trained, college employed writer cannot produce work that can be appreciated by people who are not in a library 10 hours a day. In other words,in the immortal words of Emil Zola when literary types wonder why nobody reads their dull, derivative works I shout out J'ACCUSE!