wcaleb’s avatarwcaleb’s Twitter Archive—№ 14,287

                      1. 1. I finally read @NewYorker Underground Railroad piece. A lot to like, but suffers partly from same myopic focus on UGRR that it critiques.
                        Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 6 Favorites Mood 0
                    1. …in reply to @wcaleb
                      2. Agree with author that invented UGRR myths are often "feel good" stories that understate slavery's power. E.g. wcm1.web.rice.edu/fake-tubman-quote.html
                      Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 3 Favorites Mood +4 🙂
                  1. …in reply to @wcaleb
                    3. The other big problem with UGRR stories is that they often focus on white abolitionists, silencing other actors & a much broader story.
                    Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood -2 🙁
                1. …in reply to @wcaleb
                  4. But while demystifying "the UGRR" & showing its actual scale, author implies that few other serious challenges to slavery existed in 19c.
                  Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood -3 🙁
              1. …in reply to @wcaleb
                5. And that seems to perpetuate the myopic focus on UGRR, as though if slaves were seldom freed in the specific way imagined in UGRR myth...
                Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 2 Favorites Mood -4 🙁
            1. …in reply to @wcaleb
              6. ...then they must seldom have been freed at all, & few challenges to slavery must have been mounted by Northerners.
              Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 2 Favorites Mood -3 🙁
          1. …in reply to @wcaleb
            7. The article thus leaves readers with little idea of how slavery conflict could beget Civil War, per @YAppelbaum @YAppelbaum/765585529807265796
            Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 6 Favorites Mood -7 🙁
        1. …in reply to @wcaleb
          8. And it also understates the scope & scale of the antislavery movement: the real one, not the one of myth. (See @ProfMSinha's book.)
          Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 4 Favorites Mood -1 🙁
      1. …in reply to @wcaleb
        9. (P.S. Having now read @colsonwhitehead novel, also not sure "The Underground Railroad," despite title, is primarily concerned with UGRR.)
        Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 4 Favorites Mood 0
    1. …in reply to @wcaleb
      10. (The UGRR functions as important device in the novel, to be sure. But fantastically reimagined, in contrast to realism about slavery.)
      Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 3 Favorites Mood +1 🙂
  1. …in reply to @wcaleb
    11. (That is to say, to see Whitehead's novel as primarily a commentary on UGRR myths is to significantly narrow its scope and power.)
    On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar ❤️ 2 Favorites Mood +2 🙂
    1. …in reply to @wcaleb
      12. (But that could just be my idiosyncratic reading of the novel. /End parenthetical tweet storm within the tweet storm.)
      Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo wcaleb’s avatar Mood +2 🙂