Preface to Notes of a Native Son

This work is available here on the internet: http://books.google.com/books?id=HDnxq1cyEq4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=notes+of+a+native+son&source=bl&ots=zJokBpzFPJ&sig=XKaN0ttz52zmN_qB_6EavsO6LZc&hl=en&ei=Ys6vTJeCEoOesQPdk9z8Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

I read through the preface and two things stood out to me.

First his reasoning for publishing the book being tied to the sudden realization that things had changed, that writing which may have described self evident truths at the time now provided a valuable look back. Made me wonder when I'll be old enough to feel I have a scope of understanding of things.

The second thing that stood out to me was his mention that "The savage can, now, describe the civilized: the only way to prevent this is to obliterate humanity."

This seems like a pretty wonderful leap, one whose consequences have snowballed with new forms of media allowing all classes to be observed and defined. He continues, "Neither a person nor a people can do anything without knowing what they are doing". Again this is even truer today, where Wikipedia allows history to be documented before it's done happening. Wacky.