Customer Reviews

Negrophobia: An Urban Parable

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In one passage of Negrophobia, the rotting corpse of Malcolm X (referred to as "the rotting corpse of Malcolm X")does the "Time Warp" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and each occasion of "time warp" is replaced with "swine pork". This book is full of similar hilariously bloodthirsty satires. The humor is very offensive (to most races I can think of) and will have you either gasping in horror or rolling on the floor. The comedy value of this book is extraordinary, but there's much more to it as well: it is genuinely insightful, original and provoking when it comes to the philosophy and history of race relations in America.

I personally think James is a journalistic genius! The book was excellent. Anyone who gave this book a bad rating has his/her own issues about race relations. Darius James found an artistic way to define how we as individuals subconciously think and cope with regard to dealing with people of opposing races. This book is definitely a winner. I recommend this to everyone.

This novel brings every steryotype to life in an energized and hyper-real format that is more along the lines of a Terry Gilliam movie than it is any other 'novel' that I have ever read. First: this may be the funniest book ever written. Although at times it is harsh and scatological, it is just.... funny..... In the way that the author switches from style to style (a la Joyce at his finest... or Ballard at his....) you have avant-guarde literature at its best. Adding to this, it has the kind of humor and brilliance that would be brought by an author whose other major work was on..... Blacksploitation....

I never put this book down once I picked it up... till I had it read.... twice....

Someone who really liked this book might also like the music of Keith Thorton (a.k.a. Kool Keith, Dr. Dooom, Dr. Octagon). The two men are cut from the same mold.... though James might be at least (partially) sane....

The children may leave the reading room now.

If anyone wants to read a Hype Williams video come to life, this is it...and a half decade earlier than the musical version to boot.

I thought is was possibly the most far-fetched but not entirely unreal and untrue take on racism and the way some Caucasians see Afro-Americans. I thought it was brilliant, funny, and I couldn't take my hands off of it until after reading it the whole way through. And I fully intend to read it again.

Negrophobia is a debilitating mental disorder characterized by the creation and vilification of "the other".

This is a patchwork of science fiction, poetry, history, staged dramatics and many of the -ologies. When it all comes together we have an extraordinary quilt embroidered with the power of perspective.

Why is everyone calling Negrophobia a novel? It's not a novel, not even a novel "written in the form of a screenplay."

It IS a screenplay. An unproduced screenplay.

A screenplay with no story, no real characters. There's this white girl, Bubbles, about whom we learn nothing. The entire script is her stream-of-consiousess, a succession of surreal racial stereotypes.

Negrophobia may have worked as a short story or short film, but its gets boring after 10 pages. The author makes one point: there are many ugly racial steroetypes out there. Okay, we get it after 10 pages. We get it after 40. But silll...nothing happens. No story develops. Just more stream of consciousness till the end.

Basically, this book an ultra-pretentious, masturbatory, ego-driven, literary freakout of extreme proportions.

The author writes a bunch of unintelligible psycho-babble having to with Black people and race, which condescends to the reader. The cruel joke here is that while you can't make heads or tails of this literary vomit, you never admit it becuase doing so means that you're not "smart enough" or "hip enough" and the author's intellect is leagues beyond yours.

...and that's simply not true.

These are the writings of an individual of questionable sanity. He strives to be Ishamel Reed, except Ishamel Reed has a point, a narrative, and talent. James has none of that. I can say that honestly as someone who doesn't really care for Reed's fiction, either.

The truth is James and people who like this book are basically the Emperor and those who love his new clothes.

There are much more worthwhile authors and books that examine race that will not insult and assault you.

Please, don't waste your time.