Week Thirty Eight: The Nigger Factory by Gil Scott Heron

The Nigger Factory by Gil Scott Heron is not as confronting as you'd think. I'm sure plenty of reviews would refer to the title as the N-Word Factory but when the book was written back in 1972, a mere decade after the civil rights marches, the deaths of King, X and Kennedy (R not J) the language and the placement of the word are fitting.

And the book expresses so much yet leaves me confused on what GSH is trying to say, perhaps the message is nothing. The angry disaffected black youths, the miltant and hip resonate with GSH's poems and songs, but the protagnonist resonates with his obvious intelligence and balanced view, with an air of fatality and futility.

I would like to know what he thought of this work now, 40 years on, but unfortunately he's no longer with us - having died a couple of weeks ago. Which is how this book ended up on my list.

Next Week. The Dragon Tattoo has been calling me - perhaps that.