Idleness as Production

Idleness as Production

Idleness. Is it really a state of inaction, or is the truth more nuanced? According to the writer Nicole M. Shippen, “Idleness is determined by the structural and ideological demands of capitalism under which all of us are situated and few of us escape in a liberated fashion.” Throughout the process of slavery, tenant farming, discriminatory workplaces, and disproportionate policing, the struggle of African Americans in the United States has historically been one driven by labor exploitation. This struggle was punctuated by the theorizing of early 20th century African American scholars on the idea of racial uplift to escape their situation. One scholar in particular, Alain Locke, became influential in the Harlem Renaissance for his advocation of racial uplift through the expression of inner subjectivities.

Through having had to appeal from the unjust stereotypes of his oppressors and traducers to those of his liberators, friends and benefactors he has subscribed to the traditional positions from which his case has been viewed. Little true social or self-understanding has or could come from such a situation (Locke, Survey Graphic, p. 631).

Partially in response to Alain Locke’s ideas around racial uplift, a group of young artists in Harlem began to develop an interrelated idea in their works. This group included the writers Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Langston Hughes. In an abandonment of the way that production is valued under capitalism, idleness is established as an emancipatory form of production through how it allows the actor to engage with their inner subjectivities and break free from unjust stereotypes. This idea can be observed in action in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nugent’s “Smoke, Lilies and Jade”, and in Hughes’ “Railroad Avenue” and “Elevator Boy”.

Firstly, idleness is established as an emancipatory form of production through how it allows the actor to engage with their inner subjectivities through action. An instance of this expressed through the writing of one of the trio can be seen in Langston Hughes’ poem “Railroad Avenue” from the publication Fire!! In the poem, Hughes explores the faces and activities of a Railroad Avenue after dark as people get out of work and indulge in recreation.

Dusk dark / On Railroad Avenue. / Lights in the fish joints, / Lights in the pool rooms. / A box car some train / Has forgotten / In the middle of the block. / A player piano, / A victrola. / 942 / Was the number. / A boy / Lounging on the corner. / A passing girl / With purple powdered skin. / Laughter / Suddenly / Like a taut drum.  / Laughter / Suddenly / Neither truth nor lie. / Laughter / Hardening the dusk dark evening. / Laughter / Shaking the lights in the fish joints, / Rolling white balls in the pool rooms, / and leaving untouched the box car / Some train has forgotten.

Hughes, “Railroad Avenue”

The poem begins by establishing the time through the inactivity of the rails that are the namesake of the street and the darkness of dusk, suggesting that the workday has long been over. The spaces that are now occupied are those that are social: fish joints and pool rooms. Despite people being out of work they continue to act creatively, but on their own terms. The usage of the word “laughter” emphasizes the active side of time spent unoccupied and social- it is like a taut drum, like music. It is not judged in the way that things are to produce them as truths or lies, so it is neither. It is not subject to external judgment, so it is simply a deeply personal state of being characterized as inherently active. This state of idleness moves the lights in the fish joints and the rolling white balls of the pool rooms, but abandons the work of moving the box car. The people of Railroad Avenue are no longer possessed by the wills of their bosses this evening.

A second instance of this expressed through the writing of the trio can be seen in Richard Bruce Nugent’s short story “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” from the publication Fire!! Though the work is presented as though fictional, the protagonist Alex is actually a stand-in for Nugent himself. An important stylistic element of the story is that it is written in a stream-of-consciousness style. It utilizes ellipses that causes the sentence structure of the writing to flow from one thought to the next in an unregulated and highly original way. It also gives the reader a sense of relaxedness and unoccupiedness, with the story beginning with Alex smoking in bed mulling over his thoughts. Idleness in “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” and the life experiences it relates gave Alex/Nugent the ability to explore experiences that inspired him to create art.

 . . . they were strangely akin these two . . . Alex thought of a sketch he would make . . . a personality sketch of Fania . . . straight classic features tinted proud purple . . . sensuous fine lips . . . gilded for truth . . . eyes . . . half opened and lids colored mysterious green . . . hair black and straight . . . drawn sternly mocking back from the false puritanical forehead . . . maybe he would make Edith too . . . skin a blue . . . infinite like night . . . and eyes . . . slant and grey . . . very complacent like a cat’s . . . Mona Lisa lips . . . red and seductive as . . . as pomegranate juice . . . in truth it was fine to be young and hungry and an artist . . . to blow blue smoke from an ivory holder…………

Nugent, “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” p.35

Fania and Edith are two of Alex’s friends that often attend and plan parties that he goes to, and he comes across the idea to draw them both while walking down the streets in the early hours of the morning seeing the purple and blue light of the sky. In a very similar fashion to the way these potential portraits are described exists an illustration of Beauty, the man Alex and supposedly Nugent was romantically involved with drawn prior to the writing of the story. There is no question that the idle time Nugent spent going to parties with friends and walking the streets making connections resulted in the creation of “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” and much of the art Nugent produced throughout his life.

A third instance of this expressed through the writing of the trio can be seen in Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Throughout the book, protagonist Janie struggles with living her life as she would like and people attempting to strip power from her along the lines of gender and racial trauma. Inspired since her teenage years to seek out love as she herself defined it, she comes wealthy out of an abusive marriage and upon meeting the young Tea Cake decides to marry him. Feeling stifled by the shop to manage left behind by the late Joe Starks and judged by the Eatonsville townsfolk who think she should pay more respect to his memory, Janie moves with Tea Cake to the Everglades, choosing a life that is considered less materially desirable to have more determination over her own life. Much less busy, it allows for greater time spent idle in the Everglades, allowing for Tea Cake and Janie to have the time to express their individual desires and play with skills and jobs that they do. This causes her love with Tea Cake to blossom. 

Idleness allows the characters in Hughes’, Nugent’s, and Hurston’s work to engage with their inner subjectivities through action in many different ways. In “Railroad Avenue”, through the choice to seek other occupations other than work, in “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” through the ability to explore experiences that inspire Alex/Nugent to make art, and in Their Eyes Were Watching God through the way that it allows Janie to seek out love and have a healthy relationship with Tea Cake.

Lastly, idleness is established as an emancipatory form of production through how it allows the actor to break free from unjust stereotypes. An instance of this expressed through the writing of one of the trio can be seen in Langston Hughes’ poem “Elevator Boy” from the publication Fire!! “Elevator Boy” is about an elevator operator in the Dennison Hotel who finds the life of a service worker repetitive and servile and decides to quit in favor of seeking freeing idleness.

I got a job now / Runnin' an elevator / In the Dennison Hotel in Jersey, / Job aint no good though. / No money around. / Jobs are just chances / Like everything else. / Maybe a little luck now, / Maybe not. / Maybe a good job sometimes: / Step out o’ the barrel, boy. / Two new suits an’ / A woman to sleep with. / Maybe no luck for a long time. / Only the elevators / Goin’ up an’ down, / Up an' down, / Or somebody else's shoes / To shine, / Or greasy pots in a dirty kitchen. / I been runnin' this / Elevator too long. / Guess I'll quit now.

Hughes, “Elevator Boy”

The elevator boy in question reflects upon the notable elements of working as an elevator operator that they wish to free themselves of by quitting. Relating the repetitiveness and lack of engagement in the job, they describe the continual “up an’ down” of the job. It’s also servile, and this comes across when the elevator boy talks about all of their labor simply going to serve other people. They also relate their reason for getting the job as trying their chances at finding a job that would provide them with suitable money to live. Unfortunately, this is not the case and the ups do not outweigh the downs. “No money around…Step out o’ the barrel, boy. / Two new suits an’ / A woman to sleep with. / Maybe no luck for a long time.” Everything that the elevator boy does is on the terms of their employers and customers and the demands are constant. It is the opposite of being idle, where one would have the option of variety, of acting on one’s own terms expressing their subjectivities, better deriving their needs from the world through communication and having the space to think. The elevator boy at the end decides that it would be better to quit their job and be in a place of impoverished idleness rather than an oppressive working situation that doesn’t change or go anywhere. Idleness, through being a mode of fuck-all that is possible if physically possible is always a place that one can go to for creative and possibly experiential freedom.

A second instance of this expressed through the writing of the trio can be seen in Richard Bruce Nugent’s short story “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” from the publication Fire!! In “Smoke, Lilies and Jade”, the protagonist Alex is able to find an acceptance of his attraction to both a white man and a black woman through idleness, viewing both as valid and not internally suffering from societal expectations. 

 . . . the castanets of their heels clicking accompaniment . . . the stranger inhaled deeply and with a nod of content and a smile . . . blew a cloud of smoke ... Alex felt like singing . . . the stranger knew the magic of blue smoke also . . . they continued in silence . . . the castanets of their heels clicking rhythmically . . . Alex turned in his doorway . . . up the stairs and the stranger waited for him to light the room . . . no need for words . . . they had always known each other..................... as they undressed by the blue dawn…….

. . . Beauty could make him believe in Buddha . . . or imps . . . and no one else could do that . . . that is no one but Melva . . . but then he was in love with Melva . . . and that explained that . . . he would like Beauty to know Melva . . . they were both so perfect . . . such com­pliments . . . yes he would like Beauty to know Melva because he loved them both . . . there . . . he had thought it . . . actually dared to think it . . .

Nugent, “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” pp.36-37

On a walk in the early hours of the morning during a period of unoccupied time, Alex encounters a stranger (who ends up being Beauty) partaking in a similar pleasure of smoking and being idle. The resonation that Alex perceives in their body language leads them to have sex and sleep with each other. Alex soon falls deeply in love with Beauty, and pondering the extent of his attraction towards him identifies that he loves Melva as well. In expressing his own desires in idleness, a place void of being told what to do, Alex is able to focus on them and find validity of his love of both people as people rather than categories during a period of history when homosexuality and interracial relationships were looked down upon.

Idleness allows the characters in Hughes’, Nugent’s, and Hurston’s work to break free from unjust stereotypes in many different ways. In “Elevator Boy”, through the ability to be free of a servile mode of existence and in In “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” through an acceptance of Alex’s attraction to a white man and a black woman, viewing both as valid and not internally suffering from societal expectations.

In the end, idleness is a central idea developed in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nugent’s “Smoke, Lilies and Jade”, and in Hughes’ “Railroad Avenue” and “Elevator Boy” that is established as an emancipatory form of production. This is through how it allows the actor to engage with their inner subjectivities and break free from unjust stereotypes.

Bibliography

• Hurston, Z. N. (2006). Their Eyes Were Watching God (Harper Perennial Modern Classics). Amistad.

• Locke, A. (1925). p. 634. In The Survey Graphic: Harlem, Mecca of the New Negro (Vol. 53). essay, Survey Associates.

• Nugent, R. B. (1926). Smoke, Lilies and Jade. FIRE!! 

• Shippen, N. M. (2018, November 18). Idleness: A Philosophical Essay. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/idleness-a-philosophical-essay/