Episode 48: Go Tell It on the Mountain

It’s taken us a while to get to James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), which is too bad because it is delightful. We wander the many paths of this novel’s points of view, and talk about Pentecostalism, midcentury black literary debates (who’s mad at who among Wright, Baldwin, Himes, Ellison, Redding, et al.), and why Baldwin is enjoying a bit of a Moment. Following some of our many Pod Themes, we talk about bad dads and awesome aunts -- and the process of coming (out) to Jesus.

We read the Vintage International edition. We recommend Baldwin’s own nonfiction writing and discuss both Notes of a Native Son and Nobody Knows My Name. Given our (Megan’s) interest in literature and photography, we recommend Baldwin’s collaborations with Richard Avedon and Truman Capote. We also recommend Carmen Merport Quinoñes’s introduction to the unfinished photo collaboration “Unto the Dying Lamb” in PMLA from March of 2020.

Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at betterreadpodcast@gmail.com. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.