An Introduction Plus: <i>Come by Here—</i> Clarence and Inez Major’s Passing Narrative That Isn’t One

In a racialized world, people and things have to fit. They must belong to racially defined categories. Many of us maintain, patrol, guard, and contribute to this world of racial boundaries, often unknowingly, but sometimes eagerly or defensively, and more of us than we’d like to admit do so more often than we’d like to admit, no matter what sides of racial boundaries we are on. Blurring of those boundaries makes many uncomfortable as it would require renegotiating the world we think we know. Thus, to go back to the recent past, Barack Obama could not be both black and white, never mind that neither one of these categories is clearly definable. Thus, Rodney King’s famous 1994 plea “Can’t we all get along?” became the butt of jokes—how naïve to even ask such a thing. Thus, Paul Gilroy’s Against Race was greeted with skepticism or even hostility in some quarters as it dared to at least imagine a future “beyond” race and pointed out that race tends to imprison the very people who champion the concept, whether they be oppressed or oppressor. It is worth remembering that the race concept was developed to rationalize exploitation—that was its major function.At some point not so long ago, it appeared ever so slightly possible that we were in the beginnings of the twilight of the era of “race”—no more. Rigid categorial thinking is having a heyday, and “race” and race-like constructs continue to structure, often severely so, the lives and possibilities of billions of people globally. While “overcoming the stratification, the hierarchy, the taken-for-granted injustice and inhumanity that so often accompanies the race-concept” continues to be one of the crucial challenges for US democracy, an anti-essentialist view of race and identity seems further away now than even just twenty years ago (Winant 316). Political developments are never inevitable, however, and the era may yet dawn in which “[l]ike religion or language, race can be accepted as part of the spectrum of the human condition, while it is simultaneously and categorically resisted as a means of stratifying national or global societies,” as Howard Winant proposes (316). It is such a world that Clarence Major has been writing toward—and his mother has been waiting for. Glimpses of that world appear throughout Major’s work, for example in his 1997 novel Dirty Bird Blues, in which the protagonist, the blues musician Man, reflects on his time working at an importer warehouse that contained musical instruments from all over the world:Similar to such resistance to the categorizations engendered by the race concept, there is a long history of resistance to categorization in African American literature, and in this sense, Clarence Major’s refusal to fit neatly into any established artistic or genre categories that has been characteristic of his career is part and parcel of African American literary history from at least the Harlem Renaissance onward (though discussions about the very meaning of Blackness go back much further). The Harlem Renaissance saw vigorous debates about what African American literature ought to be or do among luminaries like Du Bois, Hughes, Locke, Fauset, Weldon Johnson, and McKay, among others, with most agreeing that African American literature should be looking to its folk roots, others insisting it should primarily put itself into the service of African American social advancement, and some arguing for it to do both at the same time (Japtok and Jenkins 18ff). Such debates flared up again in the late 1960s–70s, which also saw Clarence Major’s emergence as an important figure who weighed in on questions about what, how, and why African American writers should write. While championing and celebrating the new Black writing, such as in his editing a collection of The New Black Poetry (1969) or by publishing a Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970), Major also maintained his independence, arguing, for example, in “Formula or Freedom” that “the writer who ‘owns’ his own mind stands the best chance of doing real, solid work. And the critic who wishes to see with a clear eye is the one who dismantles the self as much as possible of old notions about what black writing should or should not be. Such a person does not oversimplify such matters—or any matters—strictly along racial lines” (The Dark and Feeling 31).From the beginning of his creative years, it has been difficult to categorize Clarence Major, if one were so inclined. In his The Art and Life of Clarence Major (2012), Keith Byerman points out that “the transgression of boundaries . . . has been the trademark of Major’s artistic career” (6). Major’s artistic creations have straddled several boundaries from the time—and before the time—he started publishing. As Byerman has chronicled, Clarence Major was a multidimensional “child artist” who, from “the late 1940s . . . began writing poetry and short stories and continued drawing and painting” (16), having taken “private art lessons from Gus Nall, a South Side African American painter” (17), beginning at age twelve (Major, Necessary Distance 20). When he was merely seventeen, in 1954, he “put out his first volume of poetry,” The Fires that Burn in Heaven, in a booklet printed and bound by his uncle who ran a business making stationary” (Byerman 22), and he began editing the literary magazine Coercion Review at age twenty-one (1958) (Bunge xxi). His first novel (All-Night Visitors) was published in 1969, and his first book of poetry (Swallow the Lake) in 1970, the same year that saw the appearance of his Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (also published a year later by Routledge and Kegan Paul as Black Slang: A Dictionary of Afro-American Talk).I am taking the liberty to not start this issue of Pacific Coast Philology with a strictly traditional introduction, which would list all of Clarence Major’s accomplishments and honors (such as his being a winner of the Western States Book Award and of a National Book Award Bronze Medal [1999]). So I will not dwell on the fact that he received a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Award for “Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in the Fine Arts” (2015) and a PEN-Oakland Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Literature (2016), or that he was elected to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame (2021), or that he was selected writer of the year by the Georgia Writers Association in 2022. Instead, I will make a brief case for Come by Here: My Mother’s Life, his 2002 memoir of his mother, as being central to or paradigmatic of Major’s work. I would like to make that case despite the fact—or rather because of it—that it has been almost entirely neglected by scholars, which is why I am taking the above-mentioned liberty (I have not been able to locate a single essay devoted to it; however, Keith Byerman does discuss it at some length in his biography of Major, and I will return to that discussion later). Part of the reason for the memoir’s neglect, I suspect, is that it does not neatly fit into any generic category, which is exactly what makes it a befitting center piece of Major’s oeuvre. Bernard Bell, who calls Major “one of our most compelling, challenging, prolific and multitalented contemporary American artists of African descent,” emphasizes Major’s “transgressive voice,” which Bell defines as “boldly moving beyond traditional literary limits and cultural boundaries in experimenting with different . . . narrative voices” (Bell 1). In keeping with that assessment, I argue that Come by Here represents many of Major’s transgressive impulses in terms of taking risks with form and genre as well as in his—and the book’s, and his mother’s—search for freedom from imposed notions of identity.Come by Here takes the form of a memoir: it is by Major, it is from the point of view of his mother of this narrative on the in the era of from was in to in the South and that narrative is up to the beginnings of the and the takes for white, a by with and the book on a even When taking first as a black rather than as a black for white, that all It was a I a I up now that for the first time as a I was being a by Here that continues to be than with that was for a world in which as would be the most important about a is was waiting for that So we a that we be moving in the a short a of to that and are and into . . . I will first . . . the for will a over years of My will a for been for years, for us and for The emphasizes both and it in one but a to put it The memoir is in that the narrative is often by that can the form of or the book a and it is on Major with his mother, as his to the book by Here: My Mother’s Life, like a of Major’s work, genre boundaries and while in the of a It is not a narrative in that the does not the of the to African in as many African American have It is also not a of a to be or about who or a about a and the memoir the of a who that is black in while is not defined by the of Come by Here “beyond” being to its Major, is a sometimes sometimes that but that does not from Major’s Come by Here does not champion a form of or even to it; it an an beyond defined categories of as it while also being of In of Major’s published his like a for his own as Keith Byerman an of the of racial and social but he not think or primarily in terms of . . . Major’s career that he neither as an of The is whether it is for the at terms of genre Come by Here an that even Major has it as a often as a of but with of that Come by like and of an with an or is it a biography of Major’s mother by but in a or is it The which many of the narrative of the and the novel is a one in any and Major in his to the at the he in his in its and is a so, it many years to see what was in of by Here Come by its of the point of view despite its and the by the can be to a of a the narrative emphasizes and is even in the later of the with having been from by an and a self was being out of the of that self that so long to this And I new self with I now new new and to and more in I was In its and the has often been the genre of for writers from as it has been an for questions of terms of literary the an the with and as and of its the history of a sometimes from sometimes from his years, into his and his of a the in which he Writers from have the genre to point out that some such a of difficult at best for some of its and Come by Here in that genre making the a for a of the and of a while at the same time the often what will In the of writers of and of whether or the has a genre than its makes as the of the be taking into what it means to be a and a of an or racially defined that Thus, such the of the to much of others the and that the with a for the of which the is a (Japtok by Here to that back to Major’s work, for example to My the of which the people who must has that all of Major’s to My with of identity and a of (Bunge Dirty Bird Blues, with and also his of (2021), in the (2021), and The of continue to in different and with African to and in that to the of that are to Come by Here most with in that it represents a to the a while being in the narrative is of the of My and Dirty Bird Blues, and of the and of and of Major’s Come by like is and that ought to the Major, of in and must have his for writing such a contained work. part of this is Major’s to keeping with his as a and of of African American to to those about he in a that honors and view of the world, a world that is by what the is about also its on the form of the work. The on the of Come by Here a beyond the and the the narrative us it is a that points to a that does not yet while it with that are of the with such a narrative may the in his or it to the and in its matter with and but to and And that is one of the accomplishments of Come by It is an to for Major has in an with that is very that the writer should the world to see things his rather than to the of the (Bunge by Here also the of form and the boundaries of of and the of social and racial categories. In his to the Clarence Major how, as a he to his mother is a for yet a as he on to on the one is bound by the into which is but on the lives as as can this about art Major has from on in his In a with Major that see any of with the an along racial lines” (Bunge When to in he that is but a (Bunge are lessons he may have his by form is very as one would from an who has about form all his In the Major reflects on the he writing about his that on to or Major which he as artistic and and which he to be more to the of memoir a on that the novel does is an to the of the form the book for which no yet has about Major’s more may also to Come by Here: Major and of thinking about black that will . . . among more memoir with a of a from to is thinking about and first the possibilities of being able to Thus, from the very identity a in the the in a or the narrative are in in the a as I up and The to was he was the same just before we out of his now was so by Here 1). The very of the memoir that to as the by of not the in the by to the reflects on his to his I was a The was and a time for black than for My mother was black and of was what I as I very about and his of there was such a by Here as is a can for black or for what is Thus, questions the very concept of whether there is such a as or of the same black of as of whether others may The memoir in with African which to the of the concept of if one can the and what does the but which simultaneously for of racial and often with of racial even the concept of is as must on yet is taken to be As Hall that cultural identity is an but a . . . there is a of a of which has no in an of The is not a in a racial identity as it is in a of social and has to these and but and the of identity is to even in to some while others to the by from the has a was having first of being And I the that with that I In I to that I was taken to be I was When I was as I was by Here Here Weldon in The of an as by is in the of the reflects the social of race as not being but one from the As was like one of those I saw on the our I was of on the was these categories to be for by Here The is is like a that is does not at is by others, the that in the of the people on whether they categorize as black or In that of like the Man, also any for not and for being on the of the does not to who does not categorize the categories have for there is no of In Major has to Clarence Major’s with a for many African American Thus, Major’s to be that neither people artistic should be by imposed categories. of boundaries also to Major’s of a of art which in is in his points out that Major’s itself in who are paradigmatic not wishes to racial but also challenges established as they do not to up in I to in and have to be and I these things but I more. . . . I I was not like most of the I . . . I to by Here and all and to be in to this the memoir I could to own of and independence, I would not have to ever again be on a or who I most and the form of that can be the the in the of that the to a will get a of that a on an out of in the of the the The to as one of the of as an from the of as to the of not as a whether black or or in the first of the of for that of in a world, and in a world, to that different of identity be In an of to to racially fact that to is a one well a in to While never in the African American does that that has its and of is first to by a a who to up can be have to and be all which never to have by Here does not and from does not that any established of the first things a black or white, in the South was that there were these of and that they were to be . . . it was for as as I became of as I became of also as is of as and that the of racial to that a of a and of a is and the of an and mother, who was to at the for what he be the at age by that a . . . is one who and about So I am that they start by Here The does and is . . . think so They in And it was a very and They and because I The is that first from African American who do not as one of and the in South by on who as a of for mother was in a in in which they not with more than a by Here mother that like it and he so, many And I was about and he was to people would not put up with our being even if I a would have a but it that they to the on race as a of When about from they than the in . . . They all but the Georgia they it like it was a by by Here does not a racial characteristic but is one can like a piece of Thus, it can be in and is not an also has a and a black His was one of an African American to as who was a that he a to and in a is not his history is as is an old as in to this of being the and black being the up and the old by Here In the Come by Here it out that was in years the of that and have to before the of the and continued well it or started was not any In both and at a fact in that and black that were more than or as of an that put the to the of and racial and to be first mother, Major, was the of an African and a who not but a with that such a have been of from a . . . never any folk who the would have been on the black who ever a to about narrative over with of and in an that and not and black but and the they from the of black and Thus, the itself not to be a at and the the South on racial boundaries to be so because it itself on an of racial and it to be a as much of the on the racial they must be maintained because it is the of is defined by the of the into making that up and that the seems much on it in terms of and Byerman his biography of Major with a that is a of Come by a that its for Major’s work. Major, in his to the points out that his was . . . the and of his with his mother and to the of . . . up entirely and that for his of by Here the book is . . . Byerman does not view it as or not as that While Major the as his Byerman that Major of the it is his even if it is It reflects his of and structure, like all his artistic I would also in some sense, is a for his career” that Byerman the book as to an of Major’s but even more so to an of his as a to as Major’s of racial Major’s of a racial in of an for both his and his It also his to being defined in racial however, much of African American literary with one example being Paul be as a writer of and being for his While I with that Come by Here is central to Major’s work, I do so for slightly different As I to have even the of Come by Here and why it is paradigmatic of Clarence Major’s in a of both the memoir and much of his on the of social They do not the and of such categorizations but to be bound by They at beyond such categorizations yet also in and others and They are as well with genre and boundaries, with and very of Come by Here both race and Major’s to both is also important to and characteristic of his as a but in an in his memoir of his this introduction, the issue out with an with Clarence Major, which was in late and and in which Major a of such as his and of the of different of writing and different to and the of for his work. The on some about the and some of his as they are throughout the is by in which the novel Major as the of his by in on the on the of the novel and Major’s own on it have to on what the novel does not refusal to and its of on on by and and his essay to Major our on this as points by the of the novel and its on and that Major’s on and more us to the of the social the and the of in Clarence Major’s in a discussion of Major’s collection of short and its to the of its of more and short stories in with Major’s to in a with Major’s Such the one should this and what it have for Major’s to the concept of race and its to his writing, he has resisted of African American writing all his essay of The as in Clarence Major’s Such the on the novel that to some as in this Bernard Bell Major’s or Major’s from a more in his to more a his would the of the the form of and of to a new to what be this to the era of the which also saw a of a creative of literary by black writers that started in the and that some can be of the and that literary the of this issue devoted to Clarence Major, of A of Clarence Major’s Jenkins Major’s novel or a of American about such as that in such must be or that such are a to Jenkins into about and of in the States and this Jenkins Major’s novel is not be for an that whether one challenges notions of or of this issue of Pacific Coast Philology is to a of the of Clarence Major’s art and to further of My is that the the of some of his and these selected will further in to and view Clarence Major’s work.