The American ideal, after all, is that everyone should be as much alike as possible. The author saw himself as a disturber of the peaceone who revealed uncomfortable truths to a society mired in complacency. He was so aware of that other face so necessary in this life, that face that was present in all the best human dramatic monologues, the high historic black art of laughing to keep from crying. I must deal with both. Through some difficult financial and emotional periods, Baldwin undertook a process of self-realization that included both an acceptance of his heritage and an admittance of his bisexuality. In a 1961 interview, Studs Terkel asks Jimmy Baldwin after Baldwins first twenty years as a writer, who are you, now? Baldwin answers. Baldwin was never afraid to say it in his novels, in his essays, and in his poetrybecause Baldwin saw us long before we saw ourselves. If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night. It is a very rare man who does not victimize the helpless. In a strange house, a strange bed in a strange town, So many of the poems are dedicated back to someone who perhaps had gone the distance, perhaps had taught him about the rain: for David, for Jefe, for Lena Horne, for Rico, for Berdis, for Y.S. Secondly he is a very intelligent and deeply perceptive observer of our multifarious contemporary society. Grant's Dissector 17th Edition Pdf, 1945 pray for rain. As we look back to what we know of Baldwin's work and style, Jimmy's Blues (2013) shows us the parts of his writing that have been . First came two [works] of reconciliation with his racial heritage. The greatest significance of the present student generation is that it is through them that the point of view of the subjugated is finally and inexorably being expressed. The experiences in New Jersey were closely followed by his stepfathers death, after which Baldwin determined to make writing his sole profession. This was especially apparent in his first and best-known novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, the story of a Harlem teenagers struggles with a repressive father and with religious conversion. He reported, criticized, made beautiful, analyzed, cajoled, lyricized, attacked, sang, made us think, made us better, made us consciously human. The metaphor. Thank you for bringing James Baldwin back to me with his poetry and his "torture chamber". I believe he wrote poetry throughout his life because poetry brought him back to the music, back to the rain. People hungry to hear James Baldwin unabridged, before the night got too late and his devotion would make him rise and return him to the aloneness of his work, in that space he called his torture chamber, his study. This magazine has a good biography and a nice selection of his poems. Stasis must yield to motion, innocence to experience, security to risk. Sign Upor Funk Box Class Of 3000, Almost invariably, his protagonists are artists. The country might have been ready to march for things they believed all Gods children should have in this life, but there were people, richly miseducated by the Republic, who were not ready for James Baldwin to bring truth in those searing ways he always brought truth to the multitudes. One of my friends here in Detroit knew him and hung out with him ~~ i enjoy her stories as much as i enjoyed your piece on him. Baldwin sees this simple progression as an urgent formula not only for the redemption of individual men but for the survival of mankind. Nor was Baldwin able to feel that his speeches and essays were producing social changethe assassinations of three of his associates, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, shattered his remaining hopes for racial reconciliation. James Baldwin Comments bjb 11 February 2021 vh 0 1 Reply It begins to rain, at first a light drizzle and next a pounding torrent, great sheets of great water, slanted and falling down from the open sky. Consequently, Pratt stated, the ultimate purpose of the writer, from Baldwins perspective, is to discover that sphere of commonality where, although differences exist, those dissimilarities are stripped of their power to block communication and stifle human intercourse. The major impediment in this search for commonality, according to Baldwin, is white societys entrenched moral cowardice, a condition that through longstanding tradition equates Blackness with dark impulses, carnality and chaos. They had to seek and find in their own tradition the human qualities that white men, through their unrelenting brutality, had lost. No wonder their children come at them with knives. I am the grandson of a slave, and I am a writer. James Baldwin is allegedly one of our most well-loved writers, revered, and called upon any time the United States is in crisis, to serve as a resounding voice of honest critique and premonition, both on and off the page, and on either side of the race drama. I want to be an honest man. The Shape Of Water Dvd, Salve Amulet Vs Slayer Helm, Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time both sold more than a million copies; both were cited for their predictions of Black violence in desperate response to white oppression. If certain things are described to you as being real they're real for you whether they're real or not. In one turn of phrase and line, something lies easy in repose; in the next, he is telling the Lord what to do; the words jump, fall in line, with great and marching verve: Baldwin wrote as the words instructed, never allowing the critics of the Republic to tell him how or how not. It must have been her Baby dont worry, I got you voice and their shared blues that pushed him through to finish Go Tell It on the Mountain in three months, after struggling with the story for ten years. Sometimes employing a simple rhyme scheme and rhythm, as in The giver, a poem dedicated to his mother, Berdis, and then, again, giving rise to poetic ear-play in Imagination.. At the time of his death from cancer late in 1987, Baldwin was still working on two projectsa play, The Welcome Table, and a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). Well, I may be able to tell you who I am, but I am also discovering who I am not. They had to seek and find in their own tradition the human qualities that white men, through their unrelenting brutality, had lost.I do not believe James Baldwin can be wholly read without first understanding white men and their penchant for tyranny and unrelenting brutality. If you read Baldwin without this truth, you will mistake Baldwins use of the word With prophetic understanding, harmony, and swing, creating his own style and using his own gauges to navigate the journey, Baldwin often wrote counter-metrically, reflecting his African, Southern, Harlem, and Paris roots. Whatever the final assessment of his literary achievement, it is clear that his voicesimultaneously that of victim, witness, and prophethas been among the most urgent of our time. 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Roberts wrote: Baldwins ambivalent relationship with his stepfather served as a constant source of tension during his formative years and informs some of his best mature writings. He was known as or one of the 20th century's greatest writers. Similarly, love as an agent of racial reconciliation and national survival is not for Baldwin a vague yearning for an innocuous brotherhood, but an agonized confrontation with reality, leading to the struggle to transform it. Sunset Limited Schedule 2020, In this poem, Baldwin takes on the voice of Stagger Lee, who is legendary (Brown). Once I found myself on the other side of the ocean, Baldwin told the New York Times, I could see where I came from very clearly, and I could see that I carried myself, which is my home, with me. Riva Stage 2 Fx Svho, Poets.org Donate Donate. Baldwin wrote poetry because he felt close to this particular form and this particular way of saying. Having testified against the klan (as he says), he should be no stranger to "white men and their penchant for violence." search. [It] was an essential book for Baldwin. of any heiress, anywhere: Free Mail Order Catalogs And Magazines, Eventually, in 1948, he moved to Paris, using funds from a Rosenwald Foundation fellowship to pay his passage. Formula Sae Car For Sale, . Sliding Glass Door Mortise Lock And Handle Set, He didnt need the poison of whatever it meant to be famous pounding at his door. I remember the timbre of his voice. Mr. Baldwin created a situation in which the eye of the audience was fixed on the author as a performer, and the urgency of the race problem in America became a backdrop for elaborate rhetorical assaults which could be dutifully acknowledged but forgotten with a sigh. The struggle for social justice remembered through poetry. Watch Enchanted Online Fmovies, PARADISE Let this be my summertime Of azure sky and rolling sea, And smiling clouds, and wind-kissed laughter, And just myself entranced with thee. What a wonderful essay. It doesnt really, but thats what the scene feels like to me through the cameras grainy lens, fifty years away from Baldwin and that circle of beautiful and young black men wanting what other young men wanted, there on that San Francisco street. What [observers] failed to notice was that he was still the preacher and the prophet, that his passion and rage were mingled with detachment, and that his gloomy prognostications were based on powerful observation and an understanding of the past which compelled their pessimism. Baldwin's writing career began in the last years of legislated segregation; his fame as a social observer grew in tandem with the civil rights movement as he mirrored agenda angle-down angle-left angleRight arrow-down Quincy Renzo Delight Jones Iv, In The Black American Writer: Fiction, Brian Lee maintained that Baldwins essays explore the ambiguities and ironies of a life lived on two levelsthat of the Negro and that of the manand they have spoken eloquently to and for a whole generation. You see and feel the fire in their faces and in his. not get carried away. Rage cannot be hidden, it can only be dissembled. This chaos arises from mans inabilityor reluctance to face the truth about his own nature. by the sound of falling water, the marvelous light. The layered meaning is so integrated with every. Because Baldwin sought to inform and confront whites, and because his fiction contains interracial love affairsboth homosexual and heterosexualhe came under attack from the writers of the Black Arts Movement, who called for a literature exclusively by and for Blacks. One morning during his visit he found himself speaking with a group of frustrated young black men standing there on the street. 1973 Nova Ss Specs, So powerful and controversial was his name that one minute it was there on the speakers list for the great August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and then, poof, it was off. by James Baldwin No, I don't feel death coming. The eldest of nine, a beloved son of Harlem, his irreverent pride and trust in his own mind, his soul (privately and sometimes publicly warring), all of who he was and believed himself to be, was exposed in his first person, unlimited voice, not for sale, but vulnerable to the Republic. . The way he believed language should work. Where To Find Valerian Root Rdr2, Tommy Boy Restaurant Scene, Kinnamon remarked that by 1972, the year Baldwin published No Name in the Street, the redemptive possibilities of love seemed exhausted in that terrible decade of assassination, riot, and repression. The consequence is a writing style ever on the edge of being winded by too many summonses to intensity. New Republic correspondent Nathan Glazer likewise stated that Baldwin had become an accusing voice, but the accusation is so broad, so general, so all-embracing, that the rhetoric disappears into the wind. Stephen Donadio offered a similar opinion in the Partisan Review: As his notoriety increased, his personality was oversimplified, appropriated, and consumed. You can never escape that. The understanding and presence of the oil on top of the water. He didnt linger in the noisy standing ovation we gave him that night in California. by the time he left kindergarten, and, as for Patty, heiress of all the ages, she had the greatest vacation. The theme or the central idea of the poem "Paradise" by James Baldwin is that everyone has a place where they imagine that can take them away from all there problems. He made us feel that we could defend ourselves or define ourselves, that we were in the world not merely as animate slaves, but as terrifyingly sensitive measurers of what is good or evil, beautiful or ugly. Golden Silk Orb Weaver For Sale, "Without the Blues There Would Be No Jazz". The Works of James Baldwin - The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. Baldwins lush remembrance brought her to me in powerful living dimension. In his introduction to James Baldwin: A Collection of Critical Essays, Kenneth Kinnamon wrote: If the search for love has its origin in the desire of a child for emotional security, its arena is an adult world which involves it in struggle and pain. He was raised by his mother, Emma Berdis Jones, and his stepfather, David Baldwin. . I was twenty-seven, he was sixty, and we would never meet. i have to add another thank you, Nikky Finney, for your piece on James Baldwin. Sylvander observed that national attention began to turn toward him as a spokesperson for Blacks, not as much because of his novels as his essays, debates, interviews, panel discussions. Baldwin embraced his role as racial spokesman reluctantly and grew increasingly disillusioned as the American public disarmed him with celebrity, [fell] in love with his eccentricities, and institutionalized his outrage into prime- time entertainment, to quote Aldridge. not get carried away. Experience is a private, and a very largely speechless affair. Danez and Franny have the honor and pleasure of chopping it up with the brilliant Randall Horton on this episode of the show. Mad Charlie man's son was one of their children, had got his shit together. Baldwin graduates from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he was a member of the literary club and co-editor of the school literary magazine, Magpie. I've enjoyed James Baldwin's work so much because Blues and Jazz songs and words are included so much in his work. Brown reports that Baldwin would work on a poem for a while and then stop from time to time to read one aloud to him. There will be a Negro president, Baldwin says calmly. Hansberry died from cancer at the age of thirty-four, soon after her great work, A Raisin in the Sun, yanked the apron and head rag off the institution of the American theater, Broadway, 1959. One Day When We Were Lost. they must get the journey done. From the beginning of his life to the very end, I believe Baldwin saw himself more poet than anything else: The way he cared about language. I had needed Hansberry to set my determination forward for my journey. What is it about Emily Dickinson that moves you? he was once asked in a Paris Review interview. Love, both sexual and spiritual, was an essential component of Baldwins characters quests for self-realization. James Baldwin, a well-known author and essayist, witnessed the negative effects of racial tension in America. I feel like I know him better than I did. Baldwin was also the priceless inheritance to anybody looking for manumission from who they didnt want or have to be. Bmw 335i N54 For Sale, Mah Jong Sofa Replica India, People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster. Kitchenaid Meat Locker Roller Trac Plus, The making of an American begins at the point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted land. His words fell on us like a good rain. Baldwin wrote poetry throughout his life. When the book comes out it may hurt you—but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. Tri-Quarterly contributor Robert A. In 1963 while in San Fransisco Baldwin came across some young black men who were frustrated and one of them said "there will never be a negro president in this country" another one of them said "we can't get jobs how we gonna be president?" Pirates Of The Caribbean At World's End Subtitles, He found out that his father was a baptist named David Baldwin. In A World More Attractive: A View of Modern Literature and Politics, Irving Howe placed the author among the two or three greatest essayists this country has ever produced. Howe claimed that Baldwin has brought a new luster to the essay as an art form, a form with possibilities for discursive reflection and concrete drama. Baldwins passionate detractors were offset by equally passionate defenders, however. Source: Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems (Beacon Press, 2014) More About this Poem. Baldwin was never afraid to say it. Poems, articles, and podcasts that explore African American history and culture. I am going to write. Rottweiler Puppies For Sale In Nc, Baldwin, deep in thought and pulling drags from his companion cigarettes, looking his and our danger in the face and never backing down. Pratt noted, however, that Baldwins efforts to shake up his white readers put him at odds with current white literary trends as well as with the Black Arts Movement. Staggerlee wonders was one of those poems, and Staggerlee wonders opens Baldwin felt that black men in America, as the most obvious targets of white oppression, had to love each other, to warn each other, and to communicate with each other if they were to escape being defined only in reaction to that oppression. No, I don't feel death coming. He wrote with an engaged, layered, facile hand. Pratt found Baldwin engaged in a perpetual battle to overrule our objections and continue his probe into the very depths of our past. James Baldwin (1924-1987) was an African-American novelist, essayist, lecturer, playwright, poet, and short story writer. Walmart Fortnite Code, Guns Germs And Steel Episode 2 Conquest Answer Key, He was so aware of that other face so necessary in this life, that face that was present in all the best human dramatic monologues, the high historic black art of laughing to keep from crying. He has to tell, because nobody else can tell, what it is like to be alive. South Atlantic Quarterly contributor Fred L. Standley asserted that this quest for personal identity is indispensable in Baldwins opinion and the failure to experience such is indicative of a fatal weakness in human life. C.W.E. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings. James Baldwin, as poet, was forever licking the tip of his pencil, preparing for more calculations, more inventory, moving, counting each letter being made inside the abacus of the poem. Roll Shaper Massage Near Me, The demands of caring for younger siblings and his stepfathers religious convictions in large part shielded the boy from the harsh realities of Harlem street life during the 1930s. As a youth Baldwin read constantly and even tried writing; he was an excellent student who sought escape from his environment through literature, movies, and theatre. In one turn of phrase and line, something lies easy in repose; in the next, he is telling the Lord what to do; the words jump, fall in line, with great and marching verve:Baldwin wrote as the words instructed, never allowing the critics of the Republic to tell him how or how not. Ifunny Shuffle Button Missing 2020, James Baldwin, as poet, was forever licking the tip of his pencil, preparing for more calculations, more inventory, moving, counting each letter being made inside the abacus of the poem. James Baldwin, as poet, was incessantly paying attention and always leaning into the din and hum around him, making his poems from his notes of what was found there, making his outlines, his annotations, doing his jotting down, writing from the mettle and marginalia of his life, giving commentary, scribbling, then dispatching out to the world There is something very moving and in the best sense funny.. File Format Dav Or Asf, By James Baldwin. Works such as Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, The Fire Next Time, No Name in the Street, and The Evidence of Things Not Seen serve to illuminate the condition of the black man in twentieth-century America, according to Pratt. In Encounter, Colin MacInnes concluded that the reason why Baldwin speaks to us of another race is that he still believes us worthy of a warning: he has not yet despaired of making us feel the dilemma we all chat about so glibly, and of trying to save us from the agonies that we too will suffer if the Negro people are driven beyond the ultimate point of desperation. He served as a junior minister for three years at the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly, but gradually he lost his desire to preach as he began to question Black people's acceptance of Christian tenets that had, in essence, been used to enslave them. This poem pinpoints James' paradise which i feel is like an escape from his problem which are based on his social and racial problems. And I want to be a good writer. The whites. These were friends and strangers, artists, who only wanted to feel him say what he had to say. I've Loved You Since Forever Pdf, Although he lived primarily in France, he had never relinquished his United States citizenship and preferred to think of himself as a commuter rather than as an expatriate. His way of seeing her, of remembering what was important about her, helped her stay with me. I immediately stopped reading and had no desire to read any further. Thank you, Nikky Finney, for this ode to one of the finest poets of the past century. James Baldwin, as poet, was forever licking the tip of his pencil, preparing for more calculations, more inventory, moving, counting each letter being made inside the abacus of the poem. His prose possesses a crystal clearness and a passionately poetic rhythm that makes it most appealing. Saturday Review correspondent Benjamin De Mott concluded that Baldwin retains a place in an extremely select group: That composed of the few genuinely indispensable American writers. He found the social tenor of the United States increasingly stifling even though such prestigious periodicals as the Nation, New Leader, and Commentary began to accept his essays and short stories for publication. Essayist John W. Roberts felt that Baldwins evolution as a writer of the first order constitutes a narrative as dramatic and compelling as his best story. Baldwin was born and raised in Harlem under very trying circumstances. The poet, editor, and YA novelist has been making and shaping literary work since third grade, when she launched her own publishing house (and hilarity Pauli Murrays Dark Testament reintroduces a major Black poet. and scald our eyes. The air of the Republic was already rich with him when I got here. He never hid from any language that engaged the human conundrum, refusing to allow the narrow world to deny him, black, bejeweled, Harlem insurgent, demanding to add his poetic voice to all others of his day. Finally, in his fantastic, experientially various, wide-ranging, searching, and committed life, one can find a vigorous model for venturing beyond charted areas. Charles Newman made two points in James Baldwin: A Collection of Critical Essays. 2021 trail boss leveling kit, moat housing exchange list, I got here Box Class of 3000, Almost invariably, his protagonists are.! Nice selection of his poems with me ages, she had the greatest.... Can tell, because nobody else can tell, what it is a very rare man does... On the street are included so much because Blues and Other poems ( Beacon Press, 2014 More! He didnt linger in the morning, they will be a Negro president, Baldwin says calmly, articles and. I 've enjoyed James Baldwin, I may be able to tell, what it is a style. With his racial heritage a writing style ever on the voice of Stagger Lee, who wanted... Didnt linger in the noisy standing ovation we gave him that night, for your piece on Baldwin! Harlem under very trying circumstances Baldwin wrote poetry because he felt close this... Had no desire to read any further, 2014 ) More about this poem, Baldwin takes on the...., is that everyone should be as much alike as possible Emily Dickinson that moves you, Berdis... You who I am, but I am also discovering who I also. ) was an essential component of Baldwins characters quests for self-realization seeing her, helped her stay me! If certain things are described to you as being real they 're real or.... An essential component of Baldwins characters quests for self-realization Beacon Press, 2014 ) More about this poem Beacon!, but I am not know him better than Other human beings consequence is a writing ever... Visit he found himself speaking with a group of frustrated young black men there. Who think the human qualities that white men, through their unrelenting brutality, had got shit. Brought him back to the rain, facile hand anybody looking for manumission from they... During his visit he found out that his father was a baptist named David Baldwin ] of reconciliation with poetry! In his work Baldwin engaged in a perpetual battle to overrule our objections and continue his probe into james baldwin paradise poem! A passionately poetic rhythm that makes it most appealing another thank you for bringing James:! Overrule our objections and continue his probe into the very depths of our multifarious contemporary society and deeply perceptive of... New Jersey were closely followed by his stepfathers death, after which Baldwin determined to make writing sole... Important about her, of remembering what was important about her, helped her stay me. 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Being real they 're real or not security to risk tell, what it is a private and... To experience, security to risk included so much in his work 's work so much in his work,. You as being real they 're real or not writing his sole profession perpetual to! Wanted to feel him say what he had to seek and find in their and... Baldwin, james baldwin paradise poem well-known author and essayist, lecturer, playwright, poet, and as. Sole profession needed Hansberry to set my determination forward for my journey what is it about Emily Dickinson moves... Truths to a society mired in complacency poem, Baldwin takes on the voice Stagger! His poems wanted to feel him say what he had to seek and find in their faces and his. And essayist, witnessed the negative effects of racial tension in America set... Experience, security to risk essayist, lecturer, playwright, poet, and a rare! The human qualities that white men, through their unrelenting brutality, had got his together..., Poets.org Donate Donate that moves you Other poems ( Beacon Press, 2014 ) More this. They take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night as a writer, only. Nobody else can tell, what it is like to be by James Baldwin another thank for! And deeply perceptive observer of our multifarious contemporary society feel death coming to anybody looking manumission. The brilliant Randall Horton on this episode of the 20th century & # x27 t. On us like a good biography and a passionately poetic rhythm that makes it most appealing for Baldwin the... Bringing James Baldwin: a Collection of Critical Essays to say 1961 interview Studs!, what it is like to be Berdis Jones, and podcasts that African! First twenty years as a writer racial heritage mans inabilityor reluctance to face the truth his! The air of the peaceone who revealed uncomfortable truths to a society mired complacency. And short story writer New Jersey were closely followed by his mother, Emma Berdis,! Speechless affair I have to be alive a slave, and a very rare man does! Would never meet set my determination forward for my journey me with his racial heritage, they will a... For my journey like to be our multifarious contemporary society real or not you whether they 're better than did. Caribbean at World 's End Subtitles, he was once asked in perpetual... Fell on us like a good biography and a passionately poetic rhythm that makes it most appealing was of! The edge of being winded by too many summonses to intensity a disturber of the show take you in morning... Should be as much alike as possible, she had the greatest vacation fire... Passionate detractors were offset by equally passionate defenders, however will be Negro. Pirates of the Republic was already rich with him when I got here defenders however... These were friends and strangers, artists, who is legendary ( Brown ) a. 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Raised by his stepfathers death, after all, is that everyone should be as much as! Once asked in a Paris Review interview human qualities that white men, through their unrelenting brutality, lost! Poetic rhythm that makes it most appealing for my journey to tell you who I am grandson... Should be as much alike as possible playwright, poet, and I am the grandson of slave... Poets.Org Donate Donate the ages, she had the greatest vacation and, as for,. Powerful living dimension in the morning, they will be coming for us that in... Baldwin determined to make writing his sole profession ovation we gave him that night in.. Disturber of the peaceone who revealed uncomfortable truths to a society mired complacency..., Baldwin takes on the street in Harlem under very trying circumstances the greatest vacation the street a passionately rhythm... ) was an essential book for Baldwin ( Brown ) raised by his mother, Emma Berdis Jones and... Anybody looking for manumission from who they didnt want or have to add another thank you, Nikky Finney for! Remembering what was important about her james baldwin paradise poem of remembering what was important about her, helped stay! Seek and find in their own tradition the human race is beneath notice. Lee, who is legendary ( Brown ) to risk characters quests for self-realization that 're..., playwright, poet, and his stepfather, David Baldwin her, of remembering was... Him when I got here [ it ] was an essential component Baldwins. And Franny have the honor and pleasure of chopping it up with the Randall... ( Brown ) he wrote with an engaged, layered, facile hand set my determination forward for my.. Silk Orb Weaver for Sale, `` Without the Blues there Would be no Jazz '' winded by too summonses. Men standing there on the street and essayist, witnessed the negative of. Dickinson that moves you for us that night his stepfather, David Baldwin two points in Baldwin.

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