The devil finds work

James Baldwin was interested in cinema and its power, especially regarding its ability to pass on and reinforce dominant culture in a society, with its racism, stereotyping, and preferences. This interest is evident in one of his late long essays, "The Devil Finds Work," in which he blends his childhood memories of cinema and its magic and influence on his life, with an analysis and deconstruction of the racist structure in Hollywood cinema, in the style of Edward Said's deconstruction of the orientalist structure in Western literature and arts. Issam Zakriya discusses the roles of race, film, and truth around each other throughout the hundred pages of the essay, where Baldwin tries to reconcile the cinema he loves, which represents the country he loves, with its duality and lack of sincerity. In an unforgettable description of the McCarthy era in the middle of the essay, he marvels at the thick, sticky depths to which the majority of white Americans allowed themselves to descend loudly, emptily, corrupting patriotism and lacking virtue. Noah Perlatsky I cannot determine whether my reservation about describing "The Devil Finds Work" as "more than just film criticism" lies in my amazement and admiration for the vastness of the essay or in the claim I learned somewhere that criticism should not go far beyond the text being criticized. Claire McBride