James Baldwin as revolutionary?

The book I mentioned today, about the gay actor who has a heart attack, is called "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone"; it was published in 1968. The writer is James Baldwin, who is both black and gay. There's a nice relationship between the narrator (Leo Proudhammer) and a character nicknamed "Black Christopher" in the third and final chapter, but if you're more interested in gay literature, I would suggest you read a book I haven't read (also by James Baldwin) called "Giovanni's Room." As I say, I haven't read that book but my relationship with James Baldwin's books goes all the way back to high school, to a time when I read two books by him -- both works of genius -- "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "Another Country." Another Country teaches us that love is another country, and that all acts of love should be seen with equal standing; there's much more to it, but that's all I can remember, which makes me believe that I'd like to read that novel again. By the way, Ivar teaches Baldwin's book (an essay, really) called "The Fire Next Time" at Willamette, a book I read at Rockland Community College, in my free time. I plan to acquire a book of James Baldwin's essays, published by The Library of America, at Christmas-time from Amazon.com. This volume includes the fire next time, as well as some of his other most famous essays, like "No Name in the Street" and "Nobody Knows My Name." ---------- Next time you come east, call me ahead of time and we'll grab a beer (or lunch) at Cabbyshack or the East Bay Grille, two fine places on the waterfront very close to where I live. [August 1st, 2013 - Jerry Garcia's birthday.] --------------- I have read more of James Baldwin's work since I sent the email above, specifically a book of essays published under the handsome, hardbound Library of America series; specifically I want to touch on the essay, "The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy", an essay where Baldwin reflects on his relationship with Norman Mailer. He criticizes Mailer for writing in his book, _Advertisements for Myself_ that James Baldwin did not have the ability to say "Fuck You" to the reader. I think perhaps Mailer criticizes Baldwin for not being a truly revolutionary writer, which to me echoes Baldwin's own critique of Richard Wright's shortcomings as a writer who, Baldwin says, placed too great a faith in achieving the liberation of the black race through the creation of "protest literature." Another criticism of Baldwin is that, while he criticizes American society for making the black male into a 'walking phallic symbol", he has written many books where black men are sexually avaricious, see _Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone_, _Another Country_ and the above-mentioned _Giovanni's Room_. Mailer's critique of Baldwin, vulgar as it is, perhaps points to the fact that Baldwin's preoccupation with sexuality, with his own homosexuality, reflects the disappointing realization such a preoccupation inhibits a truly revolutionary coming to power. That being said, Mailer wasn't truly revolutionary either. He went to Harvard at sixteen years of age, a time when he did not have the intellect to really work. He spent his days at Harvard University counting the number of letters in Thomas Mann's _The Magic Mountain_, rather than looking for philosophical-critical cognates and parallels to be found in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance. But then again, who is a truly revolutionary writer?