people”. He deeply relates to his people in what he
believes to be a fundamentally unjust system
citing “the torture of being the unseen subject,
and the constantly observed subject” yet
ascertains his “responsibility to truth and
beauty”. There is also a homology with Spicer’s
shamanic sense when Baraka states “hope is
delicate suffering”. The shaman is known for his
eccentricity and Baraka is willing to risk the
profane to achieve his audience in defining his
spiritual enemy “spokesman for the Jews clutch
his throat and puke himself into eternity". He also
frequently uses explicative language (e.g.
AM/TRAK). This is to draw upon the Derridian
energy or “free variation” of “newness “in the
tradition of Pound, Joyce, WCW, Mallarme and
Lorca (important prerequisite writers for the beat
generation). Baraka's shamanic force is so resolute
he vowed: "When I die the consciousness I carry, I
will to black people". When he died he became one
with "the mind, silver spiralled whirled against the
sun" (An agony, as now) all to raise the
consciousness of his tribe.
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