Re: Blacks In White America: Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:51:04 -0100
My dear Mr Taylor,
Your message was thought-provoking. When I wrote "A Tale of Two Cities" I
certainly didn't expect astute readers to suppose I meant just London and
Paris. The Paris I depicted was what London might have become, had the
powerful and the prosperous continued so to neglect the powerless and poor.
As I understand it, many American cities today are in fact two contrasting
cities. Which one you inhabit has much to do with the colour of your skin.
The misery of the unhappier city threatens always to overwhelm and absorb
the happier. There are resemblances indeed, between the America you
perceive and the London I perceived, but you, I think, are more optimistic
than I was, more ready to dwell upon solutions than to utter warnings.
Perhaps it is time, my dear sir, for you to write a novel! Copyright
favours the writer today more than it did in my time but, despite that, the
title "A Tale of Two Cites" is out of copyright. You could use it again!
No one, I think, would mistake "A Tale of Two Cities" by Stuart Taylor, for
"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
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>I am a Black American scholar who loves Charles Dicken's works.
>I am curious if you (or someone else) see the contrast and similiarity
>between contemporary Blacks in America living in Two Cities. One city
>reflects the lingering problems of being Black in 1990s America. The
>second city might potray Blacks becoming educated, working hard and
>experiencing upward mobility and success in the same "city" that once
>held them back. Any comments or suggestions from Mr. Dickens?
>
>
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author