The subtle nature of genius
The novel tells us right away that Monk is a genius. For one thing, he is named after Thelonious Monk and Ralph Ellison, who are both indisputable artistic geniuses. Monk writes novels about Greek mythology showing the subtleties of the psychology of man—essentially a commentary on archetypal forces, but no one cares. His agent tells him to just write normal "black" fiction, which has a genre audience.
"Black" literature
The novel underscores a serious irony about literature reception. When the market receives "black" literature, they feel virtuous and open-minded, but they still understand it as "black" literature. When Monk wanted to write more broadly about all humankind, his novels were rejected. As a black man, his agent hopes he will just write about the typical story from "black" books. When Monk writes a lampoonish book exposing the genre tropes of "black" books, that book is received as genius. In reality, he knows that the truth is that black people are being treated as a novelty. Everyone wants to read about "the hard life on the streets."
The irony of identity
Although Monk has an authentic artistic identity as something of a neo-Classicist, he is only really successful when he abandons that identity and writes from a more genre-specific point of view. His book isn't really his own 'self expression,' but rather a commentary on the kinds of books black people are allowed to write. He knows that he cannot put his name on it, so he changes his name and does interviews with his nom de plume, "Stagg R. Leigh," a reference to "Stagger Lee," the famous song. He even renames the book.
Novelty and offensiveness
The book is renamed from "My Pafology," which could already be perceived as fairly offensive, because it suggests that his black identity is conflated with pathological issues, and the spelling is intentionally wrong. When it accidentally goes to print, he realizes a better name for it: "Fuck". By renaming the book a curse, he points to its ironic, satirical nature, and the vulgarity and offensiveness of taking it seriously. Because the book is received in earnest, he is deeply offended, but ironically, he cannot easily extricate himself from his success.
The final comment
One might expect that with such incisive, insightful commentary, the book might point to a political purpose, but instead, the final comment of the book shows the opposite. "Hypotheses non fingo" is Latin for "I suggest no hypotheses." With such a unique point of view, one might expect a monologue or soliloquy, but he uses his platform to say, "I don't really have any analytical commentary about this." This decision is ironic but the effect is powerful. Instead of being a political treatise, it is merely an expose, like a roman a clef.
