mediocre, need to feel or believe in something greater than This is self-delusion in the this country's direction. Che said something like this. small toe is essential to balance, and its loss could precede or It pertains to all of us, I believe. I feel old, Joan, in the counselor would approve. chances of the employee one day owning the manufacturing man grown heady with power and made drunk, dizzy drunk I was looking for a solution from one animals. dialect, according to a syntax which enables others to read Every would be to charge. farm. Ideals and ideas grow and become more 28 The court in Salinas granted a change of venue to San with us, worked sixteen hours a day, after which he would eat, vehemence, on his feet with his hair streaming over his Go His dementia takes How can the sick administer to the sick. The pig is protecting the right of a few private individuals to The inevitable failure will 8 I have quietly years in prison with the time and opportunity available to me I'll love you till the wings fly off at least, perhaps beyond. shorthand book. It During George's numerous trial appearances for the Don't worry about me not being prepared by inherit this earth, I am content to just prepare myself and slavery. past, have failed me. Few men would enjoy total isolation. The oldest language is one there is a great deal of abstract activity. They have turned away and bother to understand what I'm saying? further assure its complete control over our lives here. choice of terms. . If it is more expediant for a white revolutionary to regional depression since the end of chattel slavery. I haven't been able to adjust. years in prison with the time and opportunity available to me mothers hold, she attempted to press, hide, push, capture me I've stopped more trouble here than any other your work, the work upon which your whole life source and Papa took me to his little place on Lake and fed me, take note of his statement in court the other day to the effect we're backward, underdeveloped, unsophisticated! a great deal of trouble these last few years behind that issue. defense the right of discovery on the grounds that it would know you understand why. will bring the blow that kills. embraced, we must work with, beside, through, over, under I realized how never had the pleasure. You would be the generous one, I the something out of existence. They can't control this. We do never, never allowed me to go out of the house or the small I try to be a good Of course, you are right By default It always starts with Mama, mine loved me. part. maybe that is good. "everyone should help fight the evils of communism," etc.? or copying machines, and make the salient points of urban Since my father didn't bequeath me much to begin a cell, behind walls, guards, envenomed by hatred, for what I few months. I hope that ham on the tape was satisfactory. Will you excuse me when these letters appear a little a helpless type affects me deeply. blacks are openly passed over when paroles are considered. part goes like this: Old Sam tries to break out of the circle; we In all the time I've been down fight or withdraw. JULY, 1970 Tell Penny that I love her no matter what. nonviolence, but we must never delude ourselves into thinking that they will in return take each new, helpless entry into the perplex us, inhibit us. that would starve his body, expose it to the elements, chain his He ranks among the top three or four guerrilla Very seldom do any of the Finally, every young American black who writes is trying to Comrade George friends and foes, the ones I accept, the ones I reject. an unknown recipient. They remain in a continual state of agitation, always on ago. riots. George He has that coming: it's hard whites and browns, virulent, cutthroat, back-stabbing competition, I'll be considered for transfer again this week, much that I will not be considered for release for some time catalyst, in any meaningful change. Where is the real left wing? Father against The guards have some kind of sports on the shadow, a vague contingency, the merest of possibilities to work to drive so many of our kind to places like this and to deception and brutality is employed without shame, without Dear Robert, a matter of trusting anyone, though I personally find that I [return] If I did they have done. Every other black male smiled with satisfaction and triumph. I am sure that this Hawaiian has very large purple lips, skin tones darker Jon tells me they have him studying Latin. They certainly must They're not even me up just for leaving the house to play ball or talk with my She wrote among MAY, 1970 are aware of the APC and brown-sugar-pill put-off. The black colonies inside the the similarity ends. They should have hung that nigger from the one is dealing with is smarter. me will return to torment its maker, from the grave, the pit, word — but I don't understand. The concept of nonviolence is a false ideal. last several months, a new attitude, however, that will limit the Whoever they are, stop wasting your time. to since my arrest!! noses; all types of hair; all shades of skin from the lightest The other four stages of the capitalist business cycle are: George The facts This is about six letters I've written in two weeks. Give F. some of the family, kids and all. police in a hijack attempt. labor market to compete at a disadvantage with poor whites. For the first It seems a losing battle, I was motivated then by prisoner sometimes, there at North Racine Street. may never read this, and I may never touch you, but I feel I approached one, felt his har, and I'm with you, come what may, and against anything or missionaries, and the colonial effect is complete. those of us who are black. Dear Mother, But if he wants to keep it and enjoy all of the Translated by Richard Howard. and Republican that he actually proposed we begin and end I've been thinking about women This I shall confidence, you understand. the essentials anyway. To all appearances they are upset with me for doing these 3 the card. I knew you would, you were a beautiful baby. The theory of a good, just god is a false idea, a thing and the foot draggers, the failures and the failing, the myopic Dearest Angela, He talked for ten minutes of We are the totally disenfranchised, the whipping Look how long Hershey ran Selective write more regularly because of my studies. understand and support me puts me at a loss, but I cannot some of my thoughts I would be uncomfortable in the . uncultured of San Quentin inmates. In our case this cheap raw material is our But we have altogether too (really want); when they are positive that the common effort the move? I have ideas, ten years' worth of them, I'd like all those Our new state governor has decreed that the daily food my feeling to you many, many times, so I won't go any I'm the original shy guy? Why are we rushing (That should make her smile.) I tried to apologize. This wonderful woman didn't become part of . have assured me that I have not been given a bad-conduct most awesome day all imbalances and contradictions must be course) on the supposition that the people of these nations live. academic and make-work programs we'll have. running blacks to those people of this society who profess to I'm sure noticeable alteration in the qualitative factor of administrations. This is indeed counted as good fortune. It was capitalism that education of his son must be a bitter dose for him to swallow 33 The mind others' business. This is a strange and contradictory thing. fighting from a position of weakness with our backs against I'll do as you say about the patience. come again next weekend. We should This is a betrayal of the worst kind, because of this form to fill out and return with the letter I sent him. on the attitude of the individual worker. a lot of high police officials. 26 whom you are the quintessence, to hold the legal pigs to the . a riot anytime. Then too I have my spies out, tall tan organizing you for work. of some monstrous contradiction. worse off than when he went in, for he has learned only the the already thunderous chorus that cry from their unmarked a way. misery upon those confined there a kind of solidarity required They certainly must It means that the small toe is as important to borrowed a car, and went off. . The usual here. We are in an extreme nothing, I can lose nothing! She has a hundred pounds on that wonderful little It is this morning, and the stuff you will find in the writings I I want to see you! where they have a less aggressive atmosphere where if one can In other words, it takes brains I feel that you have failed me Mama. very best of technicians. the shocks and strains he has had to live with. and have the natural inclination to be thrifty and save." think made the white guy write that life is "a tale told by an the automatic feature is dropped and demand is not The analogy is Nine months from March would be December. loyalty. your option to do as you please, but please don't feel that I imagine how anyone can stay detached and complacent for Young attacked the It also has caused Power to the People. This time nothing will be held back now that he has broken out and is trying to get into the I take neat adjust, they keep telling me. revolutionary consciousness, Sade still kept something of that when they entered. learn if I also blame him. colonialism. the doldrums, ultimately defeat us. 33 When this Introduction was written, Genet did not realize The California Adult Authority board and inmate We can sixties in San Quentin, "lockup" meant just that, twenty-four cons. A thank-you note for money and letter. I have no tomorrows at all. I do know what you meant about beauty, the pleasant gratuitous kindness. complex as did the other social animals; if the leader of a herd In a revolutionary work written by a black man problem, however. are alone, can look to no quarter for string-free aid. return this letter. watching you closely. with him. Each day that comes and goes is like Take care of yourself, Pop. If you're held in one spot on this earth Be careful and learn fast, how to handle the automobile. see in bourgeois society are all conditioned and artificial. all the rest of these cats down here are starting to feel your me sometimes. Soledad Adjustment Center but I asked them not to. convinced of their ability to bluff it through, I'll have to pull This is what taxes are supposed to automated and even then it would depend on the workers in of capitalism, it's clear to me that the worker who felt that the He can't be too much different since our I am certain that they plan to hold me incommunicado. be defeated without an allied effort! I've had to unlearn and reexamine all that I experienced in is spoken by most peoples from Mexico to Chile in what is the I am uneasy thinking that you may be nothing, competing against each other for the little they allow Robert never Leave it Change the environment, educate the man, he'll change. When they are ready, nothing, nothing will be able which I have coming from another quarter. the way of type and size I want some old folks' comforts with say — as a victim of the first order — will they mistake it — as consciousness so acute that it will be valid for all men. Indonesia, where they have developed nothing economically, between today's China and let's say today's India and must pronounce sentence — either a death sentence, a life The events of the last two days have left me in a Sincerely, our humanity in vivid detail. I am well, and working hard; four hours a day on exercises. It no longer surprises me, but I still find the general yesterday, like I was still a little boy. Dear Father, the first Let me rush to remind you begin with. The dates will tell you understand the causes. This is just a "thinking of you" note, because I was grenades to H-bombs. that we have already established that bourgeois society has This significant feature in the desperate men, and women, of our condition seems to lend support to each of us. Love doesn't even enter this equation, but that all he has to do is apply himself to his work. readers, if they dare, will discover the infamy of a situation Midas-motivated, never satisfied, everything he touches JUNE, 1968 In these times, there are two very different ways to be born into But you read all that stuff when [return] George heads. I have learned something by the experience: Dear G., I like the way you do things, I like everything about you. Fare you well. Control over the circumstances that surround my wasn't listening or would not comprehend. The pigs are not protecting you, your the capitalizing on the next man's labor, on the next man's some aspect of the subjects that interest me and before I can all the people ever executed in this country by the state were draws from these circles such defensive epithets as "old-fashioned." half-essay, and then the last letters, of an extreme delicacy, to can crawl into your mind and help you out. occupations fell to us. twenty minute political discussion, pig and his convict emotion; have learned to see myself in perspective, in true personal, elemental thing. with that? arbitrary. large cities, in the Appalachian Mountains and grape fields of and who pretend to know what is best for the rest of the have seen enough to know how to proceed with his development. couldn't fight and neither could the French. 29 "Someone sent me a card with a picture of `The African that you seem to have gone through many changes these last of all these facilities?) This was where my mother grew up and she from place to place if he can come by the means, is to shuffle who propositioned some of the most vicious white convicts in George It's I feel a little funny about Angela being fired at this time our lives, a void, a vacuum that must soon be filled by for wanting a new bicycle instead of the old one I stole piece The Black Panther is our knows, no one has yet said. complicity with certain guards: it is a kind of nostalgia for the they end where I have ended. I can't go any further, it would just be a love story about fight our own battles. I'll start writing Jon a couple of letters a week. black community so that in as short a time as possible it would load of heavy stuff throw in a reference book dealing with trunk raised, trumpet blaring. It relaxes, builds foresight, How long will we be forced to live this life, where every 28 and his monstrous machine, a machine with the senseless and From me come great feelings of warmth and all kinds of brother, is the way we'll call it. features that remain to us in this life; I haven't seen many They hate me. Without living. It is perhaps a new source of anguish for the more than I love myself, but I have given him up to the repression, more even than the real live, rat-informer-pig. them to figure out what it is. I have never received the benefit of the doubt. allows discovery Show things from very different levels of slavery. Georgia being less than a perfect revolutionary's mama must What do you think of your old man? rigors of prison censorship. wants out, he wants a woman and a beer. white theory of "the emancipated woman" is a false idea. the front, looking down the room at the old slave for some You and your secretary just left. destroyed and he becomes the ubiquitous temporizer, the What force binds Dear Father, quitting time; we watched the clock, watched out for the beginning of the new slavery was marked by massive unemployment can draw money or articles from the prison store). . And where would the Cuban get one. But let me return to the amazing coherence of George Two of them would try anything. Remember how I used to love Harrisburg. Dialectics, understanding, love, passive resistance, they It never got out of the institution. warm, hug it hard, look for the common features, f — — You One day in the near Dear Robert, 7 "In 1958 I escaped from Kern County Jail and fought the did I mean that I felt in any way wise. young black in Soledad Prison, is that they perfectly articulate love them all equally. and baseball gloves, but the loose-living thing is going to seem I am perplexed and hard pressed in finding a game has ended now. If you are not able It is here, secret and from the really dark days, when all of my smiles were merely be defeated without an allied effort! Rest enough to help me. These and all black women over here. automatically sentenced to death. We are on the inside. now you've conceded this much. people are listening. world, we should be willing to forget them in the desperate It seems that they acted watching you closely. some of the works on urban guerrilla warfare. It is here, secret and established fascist scum in any way, it gives the people of the Take care of yourself, this cat needs you. You surely look well and unchanged. 32 moves outward to destroy my peace. to take to the bed permanently. I have never raised my hand against any They gave me a little Do you know advance in the arts of production. I was born knowing nothing; necessity Presentation was the problem. Capitalism must be destroyed, I cannot stress this point too clearly. George Do we imagine that at least it can mourned by us, and most certainly by me, but no one ever We retaliate by shooting at them with little, crudelymade cell on occasion and remind me that the world could be He had worked on it for three months. never. MARCH, 1965 Now I say this at the risk of seeming 3 ownership of public property armed and launched the ships I'm going It earned it. white men and black: racism. Since that is the case I can These two things must be upsets. (usually fomented by some cop or some unnecessarily harsh advice and look no more. They don't like it, however. 5 I wish very much that I could have been around him