Confessions of Nat Turner

Reading Road Trip 2020

Current location: Virginia

How can a man be allowed to feel such emptiness and defeat?

I'm starting to realize that the people I attract in real life are the same types I seek out in literature: the broken people who can be honest about their brokenness, maybe laugh a little about it, too.

It's not that I want to be broken, or delight in my tribe of broken members. It's more about an acceptance, finally, on my part. The world is full of imperfection and broken parts. I've come to terms with my reality. I'm never going to be on the “shiny, happy squad,” and neither are my people. The woman standing at the school drop-off in her power suit and stiletto heels, shouting rhyming mantras to her matching children, is never going to attract my attention. I want the mess in the corner, the woman with coffee stains on her sweatshirt, a big messy tangle in her hair, laughing because her child won't stop crying or release the sticky death grip on her hand.

Don't get me wrong, though. My people have integrity. I make no allowances for liars or lies. As soon as a character, real or literary, starts lying to me. . . they're out of my tribe.

My people are honest, and they “strive for high ideals,” (to steal from “The Desiderata”). They are heroic in behavior, but anti-heroes nonetheless: the Holden Caulfields, the Gus McCraes, the Olive Kitteridges. . . the Nat Turners.

Yes, a new character has joined my team: Nat Turner. A man who, in two weeks time, has won me over and wrecked me with his steadfast devotion to the Holy Spirit and his determination to look up, always, when everything is looking down. “Lord, please?”

I should have known that Nat would be a natural addition to my group. He was born. . . feeling different. In a good way. Made to feel special by the different way he was treated, then made to feel awkward, for the rest of his life, because of his differences.

Nat is like a shiny, black spider on a web. A work of art. Superior to the flies buzzing around him, yet dependent upon them for his food source; vulnerable to the human who can knock him from his web at a mere whim.

He was hopeful as a child. It was, in fact, in Nat's childhood that I started to fall in love with him. If a young Black slave in 1810 can look out in enthusiasm on a new day and think, “I feel wildly alive. I shiver feverishly in the glory of self,” then, by God, anyone can do it.

But, when Nat's kindhearted slave-owner (an oxymoron for sure, but true), takes a shine to the boy and decides to make him his project, prove to the naysayers for once and for all that a slave is only hindered by his environment, Nat becomes different from both his Black peers and his white owners. He grows to be a Renaissance man, but a Renaissance man, minus the enlightened country.

In case it is unclear to anyone reading this, especially to someone less familiar with U.S. History, Nat Turner was a real man, a man made famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) by carrying out the only known slave rebellion in American history. This, William Styron's 1966 novel, is a fusion of facts and fantasy. What this Pulitzer Prize winning novel does. . . is make Nat Turner real for you.

Well, he certainly became real for me, “the center of an orbit around whose path I must make a ceaseless pilgrimage.”

And, as for William Styron. . . well, sir, you're one of my kind, too. I admire the way you brought Nat Turner to life in such a vivid and powerful way. Your ability to blend fact and fiction to create a truly engaging and thought-provoking story is truly remarkable. I look forward to reading more of your works and continuing my journey through the world of literature with you as my guide.

Overall, my Reading Road Trip 2020 has been an eye-opening and enriching experience. I've discovered new characters and authors that have touched my heart and expanded my understanding of the world. I can't wait to see where this journey takes me next.

Styron's Nat Turner appears to be mired in controversy, which makes me reluctant to add my opinion to the mix. However, what the heck? I thought the book was well-written.

It presented another aspect of possible antebellum history. Styron included the old cliché of a black man desiring a white woman, which gave me a headache. The book opened up a complex set of moral issues for me.

Who would condone murder, but then who in their right mind would own another person? To contrast this book, I'm also reading Stephen Oates' "Fires of Jubilee," which is a historical account of the same time and incident and is helping me distinguish between fact and fiction.

I also have a copy of "Ten Black Writers Respond" on its way. If nothing else, Styron's book promotes a need to know and understand. Even if it hadn't done this for me, I'd still read it because of its literary value.

The controversy surrounding Styron's Nat Turner is intense, but I believe the book has its merits. It offers a unique perspective on a dark period in American history and forces readers to grapple with difficult moral questions.

While some may object to the portrayal of certain characters and events, I think it's important to approach the book with an open mind and consider the context in which it was written.

Overall, I found Styron's Nat Turner to be a thought-provoking and engaging read that has left a lasting impression on me.

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron is a truly remarkable and thought-provoking work. It presents a stark and disturbing account of the impact of human kindness in the context of the harsh reality of Negro slavery in pre-civil war America. The story is told through the first-person narrative of Nat Turner, who shares the details of his youth and young adulthood as an enslaved man. He also reveals his vision of a holy war between the blacks and the whites, believing that he was divinely called by God to lead a revolt against slavery and annihilate all the white people in southeastern Virginia.

The revolt that Nat Turner led in 1831 was relatively small in scale and was quickly quelled. However, unbeknownst to him at the time, it served as a crucial tipping point for the Civil War. This book offers a deep and poignant exploration of the complex and tragic history of slavery in America.

Author William Styron originally published this work in 1967 through Random House. It falls into the genres of literary fiction and historical fiction. The book has received numerous accolades, including the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was also nominated for the 1968 National Book Award for Fiction. It is available in various formats such as hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio cassette, making it accessible to a wide range of readers.

I didn't really have a liking for it at all. In fact, I found it extremely weird, and I don't understand why Styron felt the need to write this. However, I have to admit that it was well-written, so I'm kind of in a dilemma.

Discussing it in class was truly crazy. I'm pretty sure that half of my classmates are actually just racist.

On the positive side, there was an analyzation about code switching, although it was a confusing and likely inaccurate portrayal since it was written by a white guy writing what seemed like fan fiction. There was also some exploration of gay themes, which I personally enjoy, but it was extremely odd because why would you write multiple excerpts of gay fanfiction about a real man who had endured struggles far beyond what the author could possibly imagine and who had also orchestrated the murder of around 60 people? There were some compelling thoughts about God, and the writing was occasionally so poetic and amazing, delving into themes of repression, lust, Christian values, and fear.

On the negative side, what the hell was this? Nat Turner must be absolutely rolling in his grave. There was a nice gay relationship that was immediately ruined and replaced with a white fetishist molester of Nat, which could potentially be a self-insert character for Styron. This is all truly insane. It's literally just fanfiction. It's very weird for a white man to write this book completely unfounded. To me, it feels like trauma porn. It made me deeply uncomfortable. I hate class and feel awful for everyone with basic concepts of critical race who had to A) read this weird trauma porny fantasy, B) listen to everyone's truly insane opinions, and C) our teacher keeps making us read sections aloud about the brutalization of slaves, including multiple students saying "Negro." It's all very odd.

JANUARY

4.
  
by
  
William Styron

Finish date: 06 January 2022

Genre: historical fiction

Rating: D

Review:

This book, "The Confessions of Nat Turner" by William Styron, is loosely based on a historical slave revolt. It attempts to tell the story from a slave's perspective, yet it is written by a white man. While W. Styron won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968, this particular work just did not resonate with me at all. It has been languishing on my Kindle for 5 years. I'm glad to be done with it. #GoodRiddance

I found the narrative to be somewhat forced and lacking in authenticity. The author's attempt to step into the shoes of a slave and capture his experiences and emotions felt a bit off. Maybe it's because of the inherent differences in perspective and background. Overall, it was a disappointment and not a book that I would recommend.

When I embarked on reading this book for my Durham book group, I had entirely wiped from my memory the history of how this work was received. In fact, this aspect might be even more crucial than the brilliant way the piece is written. After all, it won the Pulitzer Prize. I firmly believe it's an extraordinary work. However, I was aware that Styron was treading on certain minefields by imagining the inner workings of a black man's mind in 1831.

Subsequently, I read the 1992 afterword by the author and grasped the nature of the controversy he had stepped into. He was actually labeled as a racist by many African-Americans. From my white perspective, this (perhaps understandably) eludes me. To this day, African-Americans have scorned this book as unworthy of a read. As part of my review, I will post a lengthy 2016 Vanity Fair article about the whole affair. Styron was clearly scarred by the experience. “Bill’s going to catch it from black and white,” Styron's friend James Baldwin asserted as the book came out. “Styron is probing something very dangerous, deep and painful in the national psyche. I hope it starts a tremendous fight, so that people will learn what they really think about each other.” And we're still striving to have that extremely difficult dialogue today, albeit with limited success. Nevertheless, \"Nat' is still a very important work for all Americans to read: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/20...

This novel, if it had been translated in 2023 with the 2023-style patrols like BLM & Co., would have been a work of science fiction... but fortunately that didn't happen, so welcome the ignorant blacks who speak strangely and are beaten by the whites. Then the blacks rebelled, but the rebellion was a flash in the pan.

Styron was attacked by the black intelligentsia because, according to him, a white man couldn't tell the life of a black slave, but he was defended by his personal friend James Baldwin and by Steiner who wrote in the NYT.

Pulitzer Prize in 1968.

It should be clear that if a novel was written a century ago and is translated in 2023, I want to read the word "negro". But also if the novel is written in 2023 and set in the 1930s.

Welp, this book is indeed quite problematic.

It was penned during a period when the attitudes regarding appropriation and projection were on the verge of undergoing a dramatic transformation, and it unfortunately bears the印记 of well-intentioned whiteness.

Interestingly, James Baldwin had challenged Styron to narrate the novel from the perspective of Nat Turner. However, precious little is known about Turner aside from a few documents written by whites during the time of his trial. For me, it is the point of view that constitutes a major flaw because Nat doesn't truly possess a distinct voice. There is a languid, pastoral voice that recounts the natural beauties of the land, a more straightforward plot-driven autobiographical voice, a dialect-heavy voice intended to appease whites, and bizarrely, that same aw shucks dialect when speaking to Nat's enslaved peers. Add in some religiosity as well.

Unsurprisingly, there are several race and gender issues that are jarring. Despite numerous physical descriptions that mention "high yellow" skin tones, the frequent rape of black women by white males goes unmentioned, even in the case of an overseer strong-arming Nat's own mother. And of course, Nat's one attraction is to a young white girl.

So many things had a different impact in 1967 compared to today. But perhaps even a flawed novel can contribute to the learning curve.