A Charming Music Box

To spur on further thoughts on this week's reading: the following words have been taken from Jean Genet on what triggered him to write "Les Negres", or "The Blacks" -- perhaps one of the most difficult yet profound works on the philosophical structures of racism in twentieth century literature. As you may know, Genet was a twentieth century French writer who is most famous perhaps for his works including "Our Lady of the Flowers," "The Thief's Journal," and for his political (also described as existentialist and Absurdist) plays ranging from "The Balcony" to "The Maids."


Genet on what made him think of writing "Les Negres":

"The point of departure, the trigger, was given to me by a music box in which the mechanical figures were four Blacks dressed in livery bowing before a little princess in white porcelain. This charming bibelot is from the eighteenth century. In our day, without irony, would one imagine a response to it: four white valets bowing to a Black princess? Nothing has changed. What then goes on in the soul of these obscure characters that our civilization has accepted into its imagery, but always under the lightly foolish appearance of a caratydid holding up a coffee table, of a train bearer or a costumed servant bearing a coffee pot? They are made of fabric, but they do not have a soul. If they had one, they would dream of eating the princess.

When we see the Blacks, do we see something other than the precise and sombre phantoms born of our own desire? But what do these phantoms think of us then? What games do they play?"