Invisible Man discussion

If you could ask Ralph Ellison any question about Invisible Man what would you ask him and why?

Here's what I'd ask. Towards the end, in the subway, when that one woman thinks the protagonist is this guy Reinhardt: I'd ask Ellison if that moment was planned, or if it just happened on the spur of the moment as he was writing. Did he know, beforehand, the protagonist was going to be mistaken for Reinhardt, or did he learn that only as he was writing the scene. I'd ask because that moment is so electric. I literally tingle when that moment occurrs. It's so magical and so unexpected that I feel like he couldn't have been planning it.

often when lit and poetry is discussed, it is asked did you have deep thoughts, hidden meanings--i always got in trouble in school for i agrued that they just wrote it that way--what they felt, and is how i felt about the scene when i read it. i am probably naive, but i think when writers over think a piece, that is when a work goes bad. talent flows from that is gifted--that is why we all do not write after taking english classes.

Erik: I'd ask Ellison if that moment was planned, or if it just happened on the spur of the moment as he was writing.

Probably just spur of the moment in terms of the plot point, but the language and symbolizes where probably long fretted over. This passage is from Arnold Rampersad's Excellent biography of Ellison:

" When Ralph began writing his novel, he had no precise ideas where it would go. Unlike the literary masters he admired, he did not work out the details of his plot from start to finish before sending Invisible (the protagonist) on his way. "

pg. 225

And to reply to Noran I think what you say applies to Bob Dylan, but most novelists and poets revise repeatedly and usually purposefully load there work with symbol and metaphor, especially after modernist movement. They don't all do this and even though Ellison didn't write an outline, he still depended heavily on symbols which were pulled from his subconscious and then analyzed to see if they fit the scene. If not, then they were replaced. Of course I wasn't there when he was writing, but that is the impression I get from his biography and from his essays and book reviews. And I would ask Ellison what he thinks of the trend toward minority and female literature being more prevalent in English classes at the expense of the Western Canon? This seems like something the he would abhor even though it put his book on equal footing with Faulkner and Shakespeare.

Yeah, Jesse, I think it was spur of the moment, too, which is why it's such an exciting moment. Spur of the moment is best. It was Flannery O'Connor who wrote that if you the writer aren't surprised by what happens next, the reader won't be.

Jesse, thank you for your kind, detailed reply.

Erik wrote: "Yeah, Jesse, I think it was spur of the moment, too, which is why it's such an exciting moment. Spur of the moment is best. It was Flannery O'Connor who wrote that if you the writer aren't surpri..."

I often write late at night and sometimes with a martini or scotch (not drunk, I can't write drunk) and in the morning I read it and wonder if someone came in during the night and wrote some stuff. I am always surprised. When I go back after a few weeks with fresh eyes, I don't always know what's going to happen.

Ellis clearly did the same. I could see him sitting and just going to town, throwing things up in this guy's way. I mean, he couldn't even throw something in the trash without it becoming a fight. I learned a lot from this book.

I would ask, "Why did you choice to have the narrator so naive?"

I'd ask him, "How much of the electroshock treatment effects did he purposely weave into the protagonist's personality afterwards?" I thought that was a brilliant way to simultaneously wake him up and keep him asleep.

I'd ask him why he wasn't a more prolific writer? Invisible Man was brilliant, as was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, but both authors only published one great work. Why?

I would thank him.

Many writers, Willett, only produce one great masterpiece. Look at Nabokov. Look at BRAVE NEW WORLD. George Orwell. Cervantes. I could go on.

Lydia wrote: "If you could ask Ralph Ellison any question about Invisible Man what would you ask him and why?"

Why on earth did he write about the invisible man? One wonders what may have possessed to do it. It is just one of those intriguing reflections!

I just need to say ...quality over quantity ...hard thought over soft ... he did write it ... and it is majestic ... the stuff of royalty ... just go re-read it and take it all in ....

the smoke ....

Some great novels gain their reputations based on two or three transcendent moments that become legendary. Invisible Man has so many that they hit the reader like a flurry of punches: that stunning Prologue, the “battle royal,” the Trueblood incident, Bledsoe’s letter, the racially offensive doll the protagonist can’t get rid of, and on and on. And yet they all come together brilliantly. One reason Ellison was unable to complete another novel might have been the fact the he had packed so many profound ideas and observations into his first. Invisible Man was a tough act to follow.

I must admit that your response has been a very helpful and insightful response. I must admit that the Invisible Man is definitely a great work of art.

I guess I don't have a question per se, but why would we want to debase this discussion to a prejudicial and divisive topic. Women and so called 'minorities' are not some new development in the history of this planet. We have always been here, and have always done great things; although, often stolen and laid claims to by others. Ahem. Moving on ...

The realism the way I can easily relate to this book as if it were happening today all around me is the first reason I treasure this novel, and the other equally important for me is the poetry, i.e.

"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me ... They only see my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me."

"I found a home a hole in the ground as you will, but do not jump to the conclusion that because I call my home a hole it is damp, cold, like a grave. Mine is a warm hole. And I say this to you because it is incorrect to assume that because I'm invisible, and live in a hole, I am dead."