(no subject)

[skygiants]

I can't remember what it was that recently put a couple of Tweets regarding C.L.R. James into my orbit recently -- it does not seem to have been a major anniversary of his birth or death any time in the near past -- but somehow I got to an article that mentioned Rachel Douglas' Making the Black Jacobins: C.L.R. James and the Drama of History, which compares the drafts of James' fiction plays about the Haitian Revolution against both the original printing of The Black Jacobins in 1938 and the 1963 updated edition to examine the evolution of his narrative project.

So obviously I got that out of the library, and while I was at it I also got out James' Beyond a Boundary, his memoir about cricket, a.) because it has always fascinated me that James' two most widely-known works are the most influential history of the Haitian revolution and also memoir about cricket, and b.) because nextian told me I should.

Making the Black Jacobins was intellectually interesting to me but a bit dry -- it's been a long time since I read an academic book of the kind that makes the whole book's main points over again every chapter because each chapter was originally published as a short article, and so after about the third chapter I was like "yes, I understand, James increasingly wanted to write history from below rather than focusing on Toussaint and also you think the unfinished/collaborative nature of drama is inherently the most socialist medium of art, I understood the first ten times you said it." On the other hand everything I learned about James' various process of rewriting and staging his plays was fascinating and I would genuinely love an entire book about the first production of the stage version of The Black Jacobins, which premiered in Nigeria, in 1967, during the Biafran War, while because holy shit! The original director, Wole Soyinka, was arrested for Biafran sympathies, partway through the process; the new director had to deal with not only navigating university politics during a civil war, but also with C.L.R. James constantly airmailing him letters suggesting new scenes and staging up to like a week before opening night. When the author talks about the palimpsest of the drama of history she is really not kidding.

By contrast I think I actually finished Beyond a Boundary understanding actively less about cricket than when I began, but I kept turning pages because every other one I'd get hit with some casual anecdote or aside from James that completely bodied me. The book is more or less a meander through James' personal experiences with and opinions regarding cricket, including but not in any way limited to:

- detailed, thoughtful, and extensive discussions of the racial dynamics at play in the amateur-to-professional cricket pipeline in Trinidad
- a history of how cricket came to popularity in England, combined with a cultural examination of Victorian social mores as expressed through sports
- a passionate argument for Sports In General But Cricket In Particular As Art Form
- a reading list of Teen CLR James' Favorite Novels
- a comparison of sports ethics as variously (and subjectively) experienced by CLR James in Trinidad, the UK, and the US
- mini-biographies of several of James' favorite Trinidadian cricketers
- a casual, slightly apologetic discussion of how James' activities towards West Indian independence impacted his friend and host's Learie Constantine's cricket career

It's fascinating; I'm thrilled to have read it; I love to page through a cricket book and suddenly get hit out of nowhere by James' description of T.S. Eliot as "of special value to me in that in him I find more often than elsewhere, and beautifully and precisely stated, things to which I am completely opposed" -- not only a perfect burn but all the more charming because so contextually unexpected. However, please do not ask me to explain to you anything about cricket.

Comments

[esmenet]

oooooh is beyond a boundary the book that has the "long, low ah" in it?? i read that bit for a cultural history class years ago and still remember it.

also, all of your above listed points plus "understanding actively less about cricket than when i began" is truly an incredible recommendation

[skygiants]

Yeah that's the one!! He's really good at writing about the way that sports make one feel such that I, Personally, Not A Sports Person, could also read it and be like 'okay yes I get you' (about the feelings, not, as aforementioned, about any of the details of the sport)

[nnozomi]

This was all completely new to me, thank you! Added CLR James to my never-ending list of books to get hold of. I love the list of "included but not in any way limited to."
Although I think it's got to be after James' time, you might enjoy the "Victory Test Match Calypso" celebrating the West Indies' win in cricket against England in 1950, which is both catchy and touching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFl9x3XzKSw

(The little I know about cricket I learned from Antonia Forest's Cricket Term, which is a wonderful book but also part of a ten-book series, otherwise not much cricket-related...).

[nineveh_uk]

Seconds the excellent Victory Calypso.

[skygiants]

Thank you for the link, that is indeed both catchy and touching and I enjoyed it very much!

(I learned the very limited amount I know about cricket from the scene in Diana Wynne Jones' Homeward Bounders where the protagonists are kidnapped and forced to play in a prep school cricket match, much to their confusion and dismay.)

[ceitfianna]

The memoir sounds fascinating and unexpected.

[skygiants]

It was indeed both those things!

[melita66]

My knowledge of cricket--they wear white, the games take a long time, and it shows up in British mystery tv shows. Is it a way to pad out a shorter-than-expected storyline? A way to show that the policeman/detective is extra-manly that he can step into a cricket game and score?

I was reminded of this recently when I rewatched Heat of the Sun, about a London detective who gets sent to Kenya or face a trial. It made me remember that at least one of the Barnabys (Midsomer Murders) was involved in a cricket game too.

[davidgillon]

I did see an episode of Midsomer Murders a few months ago involving one of Barnaby No.2's ex-sergeants turning up undercover on a local cricket team. IIRC it was quite restrained for MM, only three murders. The cricket seemed quite nicely observed with lots of controversy about shorter match formats and a plot involving match-fixing.

[lokifan]

I think it helps create a ~vibe of traditional (and probably middle-class) English summer. I wouldn't say being good at it is manly? More like, athleticism and probably intelligence, esp from a bowler. But I mean I don't watch Midsomer Murders etc so large pinch of salt :)

[skygiants]

Now I do love many baseball episodes of non-baseball TV shows (the baseball episode of Deep Space Nine, the baseball episode of Steven Universe, etc.) so I wonder if the cricket episode fulfills the same cultural niche of "Enjoyably Watch Unlikely Protagonists Partake In Iconic Cultural Sport?" On the other hand maybe it's just because Peter Wimsey did it so now all the other detectives have got to as well.

[davidgillon]

Unrelated, but I saw this yesterday and thought of you: Charlotte Philby: ‘We visited Kim in Moscow’ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/19/charlotte-philby-we-visited-kim-in-moscow

Kim Philby's granddaughter on her relationship with her grandfather, and 'Edith and Kim', her new novel about him and Edith Tudor-Hall, the female NKVD agent who recruited him and the rest of the Cambridge spies.

[skygiants]

Dang, that's fascinating! I had no idea that Philby's granddaughter was a novelist or that she was writing about him -- what a fraught and interesting project. (My mother has occasionally pitched to me that I should write a book about my grandmother, and my reaction has broadly been 'no, yikes, you and your sisters would read it? no?!?!')

[lokifan]

the first production of the stage version of The Black Jacobins, which premiered in Nigeria, in 1967, during the Biafran War, while because holy shit! The original director, Wole Soyinka, was arrested for Biafran sympathies, partway through the process; the new director had to deal with not only navigating university politics during a civil war, but also with C.L.R. James constantly airmailing him letters suggesting new scenes and staging up to like a week before opening night. When the author talks about the palimpsest of the drama of history she is really not kidding

What omg!!

[skygiants]

RIGHT??? the author mostly talks about this in context of how frustrating it was for James not to be able to attend the premiere and have to provide his notes through airmail because there was no funding for travel because of the Biafran Civil War and I'm like "wait, rewind, tell me everything else about this backstage process please immediately?!"

[chestnut_pod]

What a great double bill! I might have to try out at least one of these, and I can't decide which!

[skygiants]

I would love to hear your thoughts on either one!