Strange Fruit

They hosted parties and events together.

Lillian inscribed and dedicated strange fruit to Paula.

I mean, it was, it was, People, her family, the other Smith siblings, when Lillian was traveling to India to research a book, they literally raised the money so that Paula could accompany her.

They knew, even if they didn't want to fully admit the sexual relationship that the women had, they knew that they were together in every other sense of the word.

But, you know, when she, especially when she started, they started the writing for the magazine and started becoming more and more outspoken about white supremacy and combating any kind of inequality and, She thought that there would be a lot more girls, you know, whose parents pulled them out of the camp.

And that simply just didn't happen.

I think after she published Strange Fruit, which should have made half of them go running, I think she had like two or three drop out.

And but there are, you know.

You know, I hadn't thought of it as a trilogy, but now that you mention that, it's a great way to look at it.

It really is, um, 'cause they're three such different books, and, you know, addressing different things in her life.

But there is this kind of continuity of, of, you know, what do we do with white supremacy? How does it affect us, not just psychologically, but even physically? I think it's interesting in both of her novels, the two white men that she deals with who, who are racist themselves have some kind of physical handicap because that's her metaphor for their kind of spiritual handicap as well.

And of course, she gets cancer for, uh, in, sorry, in 1953, she, she's first diagnosed, and so by the time she's writing The Journey, she'd al- already had, like, a major, major surgery where they took out so many of her arm muscles, and it was her right arm that she used mainly to write, um, and had started going through treatments that made her, you know, paranoid at best and, and just almost unable to work, which depressed her greatly, you know? And so yeah, these, these are all interrelated themes, and I think, you know, something that we all talk about even today when we look at the people that are the most hateful in American society or anywhere else today, like, if you really get down to the root of it, what, what are they, what are they doing, right? It's fear.

It's fear of change.

You know, I hadn't thought of it as a trilogy, but now that you mention that, it's a great way to look at it.

It really is, um, 'cause they're three such different books, and, you know, addressing different things in her life.

But there is this kind of continuity of, of, you know, what do we do with white supremacy? How does it affect us, not just psychologically, but even physically? I think it's interesting in both of her novels, the two white men that she deals with who, who are racists themselves have some kind of physical handicap, because that's her metaphor for their kind of spiritual handicap as well.

And of course she gets cancer for, uh, in, sorry, in 1953 she, she's first diagnosed.

And so by the time she's writing The Journey, she'd al- already had like a major, major surgery where they took out so many of her arm muscles, and it was her right arm that she used mainly to write.

Do you think, I don't know if you see it that way, do, but do you think Lillian saw it, saw her works in that way? I'm just curious about how you see the trajectory of her.

You know, I hadn't thought of it as a trilogy, but now that you mention that, it's a great way to look at it.

It really is, um, 'cause they're three such different books and, you know, addressing different things in her life, but there is this kind of continuity of, of, you know, what do we do with white supremacy? How does it affect us, not just psychologically, but even physically? I think it's interesting in both of her novels, the two white men that she deals with who, who are racist themselves have some kind of physical handicap because that's her metaphor for their kind of spiritual handicap as well.

And of course she gets cancer for, uh, in, sorry, in 1953 she, she's first diagnosed, and so by the time she's writing The Journey, she'd al- already had, like, a major, major surgery where they took out so many of her arm muscles, and it was her right arm that she used mainly to write, um, and had started going through treatments that made her, you know, paranoid at best and, and just almost unable to work, which depressed her greatly, you know? And so yeah, these, these are all interrelated themes, and I think, you know, something that we all talk about even today when we look at the people that are the most hateful in American society or anywhere else today, like, if you really get down to the root of it, what, what are they, what are they doing, right? It's fear.

It's fear of change.