Reading Response 11/17

Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine is a short novel by Amiri Baraka which uses the perspective of an unborn narrator who recounts events that occurred to his grandfather Tom Russ. One thing that stood out was the vibrations that occurred throughout the story and from class we concluded that repeating certain words or phrases means that it was such of importance, repeating the words or phrases signified the importance. I might be way off here but I can't help but think that the vibrations had to do with music. Not literal vibrations felt like with earthquakes. There are music with sounds that you might like and some that you don't. I interpret the situations experienced by Tom Russ to be something along those lines. It started in Dothan, Alabama in 1898 which was typical of the time having heavy anti African American sentiment with Tom being beaten up, having his store burned down. Later in the story, it talks about Tom moving north, "go to hunt them vibrations down. Got to find out where the music goes when we don't hear it no more" tells me that the vibrations are tied to music. Later in Newark, NJ, Tom has a store "Russ Produce-Super General Store,' 'Music While You Shop." I can't help but interpret the vibrations as sort of like music in which there are so many, some you can't interpret, don't understand and don't like. You eventually look for music that you might like.