There are enough underlying issues to make the point that Colson Whitehead is making much the same point that bell hooks is emphasizing; that many of the issues in african-american discussion are glossed over, forgotten or ignored completely. Worse still, they are misunderstood. Why not bring up the fact that Black power never disappeared but simply faded from the journalists favor? Why not argue that the only real discussion of key points in postmodernism and black culture are fought out in segregated ranks? One could say just about anything to make note of any number of uncomfortable subjects; or Colson Whitehead could make fiction a more forceful means of portraying the issue.
Instead of blasting the reader with that idea and almost certainly alienating people like those at the same dinner table that hooks was at, Whitehead turns the issue into one that exists only in fiction. Instead of standing himself on a soapbox and trying to make a critical argument about it, Whitehead combines Science Fiction, Fiction and Non-fiction to make a valid social argument. What is the separation between what is seen and what is intuited? When do people stop basing their conclusions on established knowledge and begin taking a step into the darkness towards an unseen conclusion?
I don’t believe Whitehead is attempting to make any concrete pronunciations or judgments on the topic. On the contrary, he leaves the reader the task of sifting through the conspiracy theories, the social issues and the fictional plot lines for meaning. In this way, the book is not a modernistic ploy to validate one simple ideal or goal. Instead it is a multifaceted attempt at instigating any number of discussions from the abilities of a African-American middle class, the preconceptions of a colonial culture, and a feminist argument in White or African-American cultures.
In the name of making things uncomfortable, there is also a bit of a comic book tint to this novel, and Colson Whitehead must be a comic book fan. There are too many little insinuations and hints that shout out that he (and me in the process) a fan. One giveaway is the infatuation with New York (unnamed as it is) and the heights to which it soars. another is in the character aspect of Lila MAe. While the issues that she faces are definitely based in race, there is also an aspect of the lonely hero; following a quest and goal only she understands and betrayed by even those she considers to be friends or closer. Most blatant though is Ben Urich, who appears in almost every Marvel comic as the outside, very human reporter of the meta-human activities of Daredevil, Spiderman, The Avengers, etc.
I think comics (or graphic novels for the fanatics out there) are a misunderstood social platform. the campy golden age comics of Superman and Batman were pretty much what-you-see-is-what-you-get, but the way in which Whitehead references them proves that they can make a valid point. He never names the city in the novel, but it could easily be New York. The "Imaginary City"; the simulacrum that has come about in the world of comics is one in which the city mirrors the actions of the heroes. Like the high flying caped crusaders, Lila Mae’s thoughts soar, and the city is again recreated; a simulacra recreated of a simulacra. Comics are a constant recreation of the world which they initially mirrored, to the point where they have embellished it beyond recognition. DC comics contain Metropolis and Gotham, both created in the image of New York, but two cities whose names are now part of everyday conversation (they’re not in the OED, but I think they will be soon).
In other words, Colson Whitehead is doing more than making this novel simply another commentary on racial issue; he’s making a novel that is part of a world that mirrors ours in its sensibilities, it detractions and even its own little underground, misunderstood mediums.
There’s my soapbox for the day.
I like the talking heads 