Replay: Nicholas Buccola shares Five Things He's Learned about Love, from James Baldwin
Check out the first five minutes of his recent class.
“Our time together will be no mere philosophical exercise. You will leave this class with an altered sense of what love means and this new understanding just might change your sense of self, your relationships, and your understanding of how you ought to live. Don’t get me wrong, I am not interested in turning the great James Baldwin into a guru of ‘self-help.’ But I am interested in sharing some of what I have learned from Baldwin about what living a life of freedom, love, and dignity might look like… Love is the answer to many of the questions that Baldwin thought ought to concern us most.”
– Nicholas Buccola, Five Things I've Learned about Love, from James Baldwin
Nicholas Buccola is the celebrated author of The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America, which explores how the clash between the civil rights firebrand and the father of modern conservatism continues to illuminate America's racial divide. Here’s the first five minutes of Nick’s two-hour class in which he shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the meaning of love from the life and thought of James Baldwin, incorporating modern day context and theory.
Five Things I’ve Learned about Love, from James Baldwin considers five questions to get to the heart of Baldwin and his enduring message:
What might Baldwin have meant when he called his first novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain, a “love letter” to his father?
What can we learn from David, the protagonist in Giovanni’s Room (Baldwin’s second novel), whose fatal flaw is his unwillingness to accept love where he finds it?
What can Baldwin teach us about what love has to do with our quest to become our best selves and our pursuit of meaningful relationships?
What did Baldwin mean when he described the artist as a “lover” who is at war with his society?
What did Baldwin mean when he said he loved his country and what can this teach us about true patriotism?
The result is a fascinating, inspiring, and informing session about one of the world’s best writers and thinkers.
Want to know why James Baldwin remains such an important and essential figure? This class is for you.
Nick is a veteran at Five Things I’ve Learned, having hosted our four-part series, Five Things I’ve Learned about the Power of the Written Word. His other 90-minute class, Five Things I’ve Learned about Freedom, from Frederick Douglass, is another great introduction to an essential American.
Nick is a professor of political science and the Elizabeth and Morris Glicksman Chair in Political Science at Linfield University, the author of writings that have appeared in both scholarly journals and the New York Times, Salon; and Dissent; and the author of the acclaimed book The Fire Is Upon Us, for which he received an Oregon Book Award.
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