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Toni Morrison Has Died

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Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#11
I love reading, but only a handful of books have really changed the way I look at the world. The Bluest Eye was one of them.

Minor spoiler: in the bluest eye a young black girl obsesses over a white female doll with blue eyes. Before I read it, I never considered the impact that the idealization of white beauty could have on minorities. After reading that book, I realized how important it was for children to be able to look up to role models (fictional or otherwise) that look like them.

In my own life, I have had my own share of fantasy role models (I am a huge Tolkien fan, and when I was younger I loved all things fantasy) that shaped my own identity, and after reading The Bluest Eye I had to consider the idea: how would those books have affected me if all characters looked nothing like me? I do not think the effect would have been positive.

Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#13
I had to read The Bluest Eye in college. That is one book I'll never read again, and that's because it's so brutally honest about the characters' experiences. It's too real.

Great book. Highly recommended. I'm afraid to read any more of her books, but I probably should.

It contrasts with The Awakening, also required reading. It's like the other side of The Bluest Eye. What did Edna Pontellier's awakening cost the black servants who enabled it?

Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#15
post #13

I had to read The Bluest Eye in college. That is one book I'll never read again, and that's because it's so brutally honest about the characters' experiences. It's too real. Great book. Highly recommended. I'm afraid to read any more of her books, but I probably should. It contrasts with The Awakening, also required reading. It's like the other side of The Bluest Eye. What did Edna Pontellier's awakening cost the bla…

A lot of African-American fiction can have that effect. Corregidora by Gayl Jones is a book that blew me away and made me really upset. It took me almost twenty years to read it a second time.

Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#16
post #15
post #13

I had to read The Bluest Eye in college. That is one book I'll never read again, and that's because it's so brutally honest about the characters' experiences. It's too real. Great book. Highly recommended. I'm afraid to read any more of her books, but I probably should. It contrasts with The Awakening, also required reading. It's like the other side of The Bluest Eye. What did Edna Pontellier's awakening cost the bla…

A lot of African-American fiction can have that effect. Corregidora by Gayl Jones is a book that blew me away and made me really upset. It took me almost twenty years to read it a second time.

[deleted]

Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#17

Can anyone explain/summarize who this person was? I've never heard of them.

Very famous author. She won the pulitzer prize for fiction. Her books are both beautifully written and hard to read because of their often brutal depiction of the racism African-American's experience in the U.S.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison

Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#19
My first intro to Morrison was thru 'The Bluest Eye'. Afterwards I read many of her books incl 'Beloved'. I loved all of them.

One thing I could however never understand was how a person with such deep insights into the African American experience could call Bill Clinton, 'the first Black President'. I thought at first maybe there was something I didn't understand. But as years passed, I've been increasingly feeling that perhaps that wasn't the case.

Re: Toni Morrison Has Died

#20
post #17

Can anyone explain/summarize who this person was? I've never heard of them.

Very famous author. She won the pulitzer prize for fiction. Her books are both beautifully written and hard to read because of their often brutal depiction of the racism African-American's experience in the U.S. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison

And (minor detail) she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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