What do you think the book’s title means?
To be honest, I am not absolutely sure what the title of the means to convey to the readers. Somewhere in the book the title might be revealed, but it escaped me.
I think it’s kind of buried in the book, in the section where he talks about The Exorcist. He writes:
In our church, the Devil has many faces, all of them one’s own. He was not always evil, rarely was he frightening - he was, more often, subtle, charming, cunning and warm.
He then goes on to talk about the “pleading of the blood,” saying that the ritual was “…to engage Satan in a battle which we knew could never end.”
So to me I think he believes that the devil is using the movies to constantly display false images, thereby leading people astray and causing disharmony.
… And of course, I could be totally off base.
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Kim, exactly how I interpreted the title!!
I missed the point Baldwin raised about the devil using movies to display false images and lead people astray which is an excellent point. I missed that in part because I was so focused on his political, cultural, and racial points as well as trying to understand how his adolescent perspective on the church (in the first chapter) influenced his life later.
I think two points other points made were also made in his discussion about The Exorcist, including how we can see “the devil by day and by night…in you and me: in the eyes of the cop and sheriff and deputy, the landlord, in the eyes of some junkies, … some governors, presidents…” (p. 126). I think he also meant that we’re all capable of being the devil and we know it when we see it. He later added “…he who has been treated as the devil recognizes when they meet.”
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The Devil Finds Work is referring to racism, abuse of power, hatred that is alive and active in our society. It’s inherent, like a seed planted in us just waiting to grow, to go to work doing evil.
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The devil is busy finding someone to devour. He is known to a liar that is his language. He is a murder, and much more immoral and deceptive, trying to destroy everything God created or was good. He is prideful and ambitious. Thus, as in life, the devil is always finding work in art, music, religion, science, politics; in our culture, belief systems, and society to give false promises, hopes and dreams. There was a time that some conservative or devout Christians forbid or thought it was a sin to watch cinema. It wasn’t truthful or would discuss immoral topics or lead folks (especially the young, impressionable or feeble-minded) astray. It may plant ideas in one’s subconscious mind contrary to one’s hearts desires. Thus the directors and screen writers presented false values, beliefs or limitations of people, male/female, different races (here black/white), class, roles/beliefs or reactions. Some we would may want to believe were attainable, given certain unrealistic or ideal expectations.
I believe that Baldwin used the devil as a metaphor for the way Black people have been shown in movies starting way back with Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind. I watched Birth of a Nation on TCM a few months ago and was shocked. The stereotypes of how all characters were portrayed was unbelievable to me. Blacks were either lazy, shiftless, ungrateful, and uncivilized or loyal, kind, and pretty dumb. Whites were heroic and Yankees and Southerners were also stereotyped in so many ways.Reconstruction was just carpetbaggers trying to ruin the lives of the noble southerners who were just protecting their way of life. Seeing that movie was a real eye opener for me.