Percival Everett centers a new voice in 'James,' a retelling of 'Huckleberry Finn'

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day: Percival Everett on "James," a Retelling of "Huckleberry Finn"

Release Date: December 30, 2024
Host: Andrew Limbong
Guest: Percival Everett

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Introduction to Percival Everett and His Work

In this episode of NPR's Book of the Day, host Andrew Limbong welcomes acclaimed author Percival Everett, known for his diverse and ambitious literary repertoire. Everett has recently gained recognition for his 2001 novel Erasure, which was adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction. His latest work, James, offers a fresh perspective on Mark Twain's classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Everett's Literary Journey and Background

Andrew Limbong provides an overview of Everett's prolific writing career, highlighting his ability to traverse various genres with ease. From the philosophical musings in Dr. No, a James Bond parody, to the historical thriller The Trees, Everett demonstrates a penchant for blending humor with deep societal issues. His previous work, Telephone, explores themes of loss and grief, further showcasing his versatility.

"James" – A New Voice in a Classic Tale

Everett introduces his newest book, James, a retelling of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of Jim Huck's friend escaping slavery. When asked about his motivation, Everett explains:

"I did read the novel some 15 times in a row so that I could be sick of it, so that I could lose it. I didn't want to, you know, regurgitate the scenes, which are fairly remarkable and entertaining. So I had to own the material." [00:55]

This intense engagement with the source material allowed Everett to reinterpret the story in a way that centers the voice of an enslaved person, offering a nuanced exploration of identity and narrative ownership.

Owning the Material: Everett's Reinterpretation Process

Everett discusses his approach to reimagining Huckleberry Finn:

"My writing James is not in any way an indictment of Twain at all. It doesn't come from any disdain or dissatisfaction that I feel with the novel. I'm writing the novel that Twain was not ill-equipped but unequipped to create. That being Jim's story." [03:13]

He emphasizes that James is a discourse with Twain, aiming to tell Jim's story authentically—a narrative Twain did not fully capture.

Humor Through Irony in "James"

Known for his ironic wit, Everett delves into the humorous aspects of James. When queried about the humor in his new book, he remarks:

"I don't try to write. I don't try to be funny. In fact, when I start talking about humor, everything becomes terribly dry and unfunny. So it's more a worldview than it is anything else." [05:25]

This intrinsic irony naturally infuses James with humor, distinguishing it from conventional retellings.

Language and Communication in Oppressive Contexts

A significant departure from Twain's narrative is the portrayal of Jim's language in James. Unlike in Huck Finn, where Jim often uses vernacular speech to navigate his oppressive environment, in James, Jim can read, write, and speak proper English. Everett explains:

"Oppressed people in oppressive situations use language the same way we always use language to communicate. What they have to do is communicate in a way that doesn't allow their oppressors to have access." [08:22]

This multilingual approach underscores the survival mechanisms employed by marginalized communities.

Addressing the Controversy Surrounding "Huckleberry Finn"

Huckleberry Finn has long been a subject of controversy due to its use of racial slurs and portrayal of slavery. Everett shares his perspective on the debates surrounding the original novel:

"You know, anyone who wants to ban Huck Finn hasn't read it. I understand the bristling at the use of the word 'nigger,' and I say that word because that is the word. Inward isn't a safe word." [11:07]

He argues that the context and intention behind the language are crucial, advocating for a deeper understanding rather than censorship.

Critique of Historical Figures in "James"

In James, Everett incorporates figures like Daniel Decatur Emmett, the composer associated with the Confederate anthem "Dixie." He critiques the historical appropriation of black culture by white performers:

"Decatur was from the North. He wasn't a Southerner at all. He wrote these songs... performing in blackface and doing as is performed in the James," Everett elaborates. This inclusion highlights the complexities and ironies of cultural appropriation and the commodification of black identity.

Everett's Perspective on Literary Impact

Reflecting on the potential influence of James, Everett remains modest yet hopeful:

"We're not a reading culture. Maybe I can participate with this book and some others in changing how many people read. I don't know. That's always our dream, but I don't have any great expectations of that." [14:45]

He acknowledges the challenges of shaping public discourse through literature but remains dedicated to his craft.

Conclusion

Percival Everett's James offers a compelling and innovative retelling of a beloved classic, infusing it with fresh perspectives and critical insights. Through his seasoned storytelling and nuanced explorations of language, humor, and historical context, Everett invites readers to engage with familiar narratives in transformative ways.

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Notable Quotes:

• Percival Everett on Owning the Material:
  “I did read the novel some 15 times in a row so that I could be sick of it, so that I could lose it.” [00:55]

• Everett on Response to Twain:
  “My writing James is not in any way an indictment of Twain at all.” [03:13]

• On Humor Through Irony:
  “It's more a worldview than it is anything else.” [05:25]

• Language in Oppression:
  “Oppressed people in oppressive situations use language the same way we always use language to communicate.” [08:22]

• On Controversy and Language Use:
  “Inward isn't a safe word.” [11:07]

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Whether you're a long-time admirer of Mark Twain or a new reader seeking contemporary reinterpretations, Percival Everett's James promises a thought-provoking and enriching literary experience.

Transcript

[Andrew Limbong]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Today's a big day on the pod. We've got author Percival Everett. If you don't know his work, you might have heard his name recently. His 2001 book Erasure was adapted into the Oscar winning movie American Fiction. But we are, of course, a books podcast, and let's just do a quick review of the types of books Everett writes. We can work backwards here looking at his most recent ones. Last year he wrote Dr. No, a James Bond parody that's also a philosophical inquiry into into the concept of nothingness. Before that he wrote the Trees, which was a thriller comedy about the history of lynching. And before that he wrote Telephone, which was about loss and grief and also happened to be secretly three different books, all of which to say he's prolific and ambitious. His new book is a retelling of the Mark Twain classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

[Percival Everett]

I did read the novel some 15 times in a row so that I could be sick of it, so that I could lose it. I didn't want to, you know, regurgitate the scenes, which are fairly remarkable and entertaining. So I had to own the material. And my way of doing that was to read it until it became nonsense.

[Andrew Limbong]

It's titled James and it tells the story through the eyes of Jim Huck's friend escaping slavery. We talk about the book, the pushes to censor Huck Finn and how he doesn't love doing press. That's ahead.

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This message comes from Charles Schwab. When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices like full service, wealth management and advice when you need it. You can also invest on your own and trade on thinkorswim. Visit schwab.com to learn more. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection hotels. With over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else, Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the [e-mail] Parsifal Everett, thank you.

[Unknown Host]

So much for joining us.

[Percival Everett]

Oh, thank you for having me.

[Andrew Limbong]

All right. So when did you first read Huck Finn? I'm curious what your relationship to the.

[Unknown Host]

Original book is like.

[Percival Everett]

Well, as a kid I read an abridged edition. I don't know how old I was. Wasn't terribly old, you know, it was an adventure story. I don't remember thinking that much of it. I'd read. Shortly after that, I read other Twain, things that I responded to more closely said, you know, roughing it and life on the Mississippi I found far more interesting. And then I read the unabridged version when I was a young teenager, and that was a different experience. It's an interesting novel in that it's somewhat uneven, though at the time, I don't think I recognized that.

[Andrew Limbong]

And so when you took upon writing.

[Unknown Host]

James, when did you think, like, I need to respond to Huck Finn in a way?

[Percival Everett]

Well, to say that as a response to Huck Finn is not particularly accurate. I think I have to say first that my writing James, is not in any way an indictment of Twain at all. It doesn't come from any disdain or dissatisfaction that I feel with the novel I'm writing the novel that Twain was not ill equipped but unequipped to create. That being Jim's story, it was his business and his territory to tell Huck's story. That's the one he understood and the one I wouldn't be able to write, certainly. So I consider this more as being in discourse with Twain, maybe flattering myself, but that's how I like to think of it.

[Unknown Host]

No, I think that's fair. What was their research process like? You know, like, have you spent time on the river or anything like that?

[Percival Everett]

Well, I have been near the Mississippi and on it a few times. That sort of research wasn't necessary. I did read the novel some 15 times in a row so that I could be sick of it, so that I could lose it. I didn't want to, you know, regurgitate the scenes, which are fairly remarkable and entertaining. So I had to own the material. And my way of doing that was to read it until it became nonsense.

[Unknown Host]

Like all the books of yours that I've read. This book is really funny. And the way, in my experience of your work, you have different angles of making things funny. Right.

[Andrew Limbong]

I think the last book of yours.

[Unknown Host]

I read was Dr. No, and it's a very. The sort of hammering on of the philosophical ponderings of nothingness and math on top of the sort of James Bond parody was funny and intriguing. There's a lot of, like, bumbling doofuses along with a couple funny kind of detective characters in it. How did you find your way into.

[Andrew Limbong]

The humor of James?

[Percival Everett]

I don't know if I write humor as much as I'm just pathologically ironic. And so things become funny when irony is involved. I don't try to write. I don't try to be funny. In fact, when I start talking about humor, everything becomes terribly dry and unfunny. So it's more a worldview than it is anything else.

[Andrew Limbong]

James is far from a straight retelling of Huck Finn, and one of the biggest changes Everett introduces is Jim's dialect in James. Jim can read, write and speak proper English.

[Unknown Host]

So can his wife.

[Andrew Limbong]

So can other enslaved people. They just hide it. Here's Everett reading a section where Jim teaches his kids how to talk in front of white people.

[Percival Everett]

Let's try some situational translations, something extreme first. You're walking down the street and you see that Mrs. Holiday's kitchen is on fire. She's standing in her yard or back to her house, unaware. How do you tell her? Fire. Fire, january said. Direct. And that's almost correct, I said. The youngest of them, lean and and tall, five year old, Rachel said. Law de missum. Looky there. Perfect, I said. Why is that correct? Lizzie raised her hand. Because we must let the whites be the ones to name the trouble. And why is that? I asked. February said, because they need to know everything before us. Because they need to name everything. Good, good. You're really sharp today. Okay, let's imagine that this is a grease fire. She's left bacon unattended on the stove. Mrs. Holliday is about to throw water on it. What do you say, Rachel? Rachel paused. Missums, that water's gonna make it worse. Of course that's true. But what's the problem with that? Virgil said. You're telling her she's doing the wrong thing. I nodded. So what should you say? Lizzie looked at the ceiling and spoke while thinking it through. Would you like me to go get some sand? Correct approach. But you didn't translate it. She nodded. Oh Lord. Missums, ma'am, you want for me to get sand? Good.

[Unknown Host]

This scene is essentially like the talk, right? You know, translated to say how like certain families or black families talk to their kids about, you know, approaching the world or law enforcement and all that. But it also to me kind of feels like the beginning of a sci fi movie or like the X Men or something like that, where it's like they're teaching them how to use their special powers and special abilities in a certain way.

[Percival Everett]

If surviving is a special power. I guess so, yeah.

[Unknown Host]

I mean, well, I'm curious. Like how did you approach this sort of bilingual nature of the language in the book?

[Percival Everett]

Oppressed people in oppressive situations use language the same way we always use language to communicate. What they have to do is communicate in a way that doesn't allow their oppressors to have access. Not only are they attempting to make their oppressors comfortable and survive the situation in which they find themselves, but they have a need to be able to move through the world without attention. And so that's why they have a construction of a language that satisfies the enslavers. At one of the There was a film a few years ago, 12 years a slave that had an aspect of it bothered me greatly. And that was a black man who had been apparently freed and lived in the north and had never been on a plantation and never been in the south and was living this idyllic life, which is problematic anyway. He's kidnapped and taken to a plantation, thrown in with people who have been oppressed and enslaved, and he's able to understand what they're saying, which takes away a part of the humanity of these enslaved people. People in circumstances like that again, find a way to talk to each other. He would not understand a word they were saying. It has nothing to do with skin color. And so he wouldn't be privy to understanding them any more than the slave owners would. And so I was disturbed by this theft of the humanity of these characters.

[Andrew Limbong]

More with Percival Everett in just a second. Pretty much since it was published, the original Huckleberry Finn has been under controversy in some way. In 1885, librarians in Concord, Massachusetts, pulled the book from shelves, calling it trash. Jump ahead to 2011, and a small publishing company made some noise by putting out a version where it replaces a particular racial slur with the word slave. I asked Everett for his thoughts on the book attracting controversy, and you hear him let out this very telling sigh. And just a heads up, Everett does use the slur here, but I think it's worth hearing in full to get a sense of his point. Did you follow any of those debates? Like, there's all this brouhaha over Huck.

[Unknown Host]

Finn, and I'm curious what you think.

[Andrew Limbong]

Of it in the center of all these sort of like culture war issues.

[Percival Everett]

You know, anyone who wants to ban Huck Finn hasn't read it. I understand the bristling at the use of the word nigger, and I say that word because that is the word. Inward isn't a safe word. Replacing one word for another is ridiculous. It's a word, and the intention of it is where the problem resides, not in the spelling or the pronunciation. That said, that's the problem that some people have with the book, and those are people who haven't read and understood the context of the use of the word within the novel. I would rather see the word and understand the people I'm dealing with then have to guess.

[Andrew Limbong]

There's one character in James where Jim does kind of have to guess. His name is Daniel Decatur Emmett, the real life composer credited with writing the Confederate anthem song Dixie.

[Percival Everett]

Well, Decatur is. He wrote the song Dixie. At least he's credited for writing the song Dixie and was the leader of a minstrel show. White men who performed in blackface singing what were ostensibly black songs. And the irony of Decatur is that he, he was from the North. He wasn't a Southerner at all. He wrote these songs and it was a mercenary effort to write songs that would make him money. And this group of his traveled around performing in blackface and doing as is performed in the. In James, a Cakewalk. And as James notices the irony of the fact that the cakewalk was a slave performance that made fun of white people. But of course, Decatur doesn't understand that. And I, I don't want to say too much about. About that scene. I have to apologize also, I. When I finish a novel, I fairly forget it. I don't know much of what's there. And so sometimes when you ask me to say, read a scene, I. I feel like I'm seeing it for the first time.

[Unknown Host]

So no, it's not.

[Percival Everett]

So I apologize for that.

[Unknown Host]

And then are you like, wow, this is really good.

[Percival Everett]

I hope that I get that feeling. I look for that occasionally, but, oh.

[Unknown Host]

Wow, whoever wrote this was really onto something.

[Percival Everett]

Mostly it just feels unfamiliar.

[Unknown Host]

You're not one of those people where it's like, sometimes I'll talk to writers and be like, oh, that character sort of hangs out with me when I'm alone?

[Percival Everett]

No, I think I'm not mentally ill, so I don't have any imaginary friends running around.

[Unknown Host]

You've never met those writers that's like, oh, yeah, I'm still hanging out with.

[Percival Everett]

I'm very envious of them. They also say things like, this just wrote itself. I'm waiting for that to happen.

[Unknown Host]

Yeah, it's all you, is what you're saying.

[Percival Everett]

Sad to say.

[Unknown Host]

Yeah, I mean, I think. How are you feeling with all this? I guess like you said, they're making you push this book more so than usual.

[Andrew Limbong]

How do.

[Unknown Host]

Doesn't seem like the thing that you would rather be doing the most.

[Percival Everett]

No, it's not my thing, but I don't. It's just work. Again, I don't take it all that seriously. This is the American culture. How much impact can a literary novel have on the thinking of the people of the United States. Now If I sell 40,000 books, everybody will think that's great. If I sell 40,000 recordings, I'd never record again. If 40,000 people went to see my movie, I'd never be able to make a movie again. We're not a reading culture. Maybe I can participate with this book and some others in changing how many people read. I don't know. That's always our dream, but I don't have any great expectations of that.

[Andrew Limbong]

That was my conversation with Percival Everett. His new book is titled James.

[Unknown Host]

Thanks for listening.

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