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I majored in English lit at university and one of my early requirements was a single author course. Having little general knowledge of famous authors, I chose the Toni Morrison class at random. I remember on the first day being surprised to find our that Toni Morrison was a woman and that her writing had such a strong focus on race and slavery. I was rather intimidated. Turned out to be one of the best classes I had…
"Look. Look where your hands are. Now."
In many ways, she embodied the spirit of our current cultural moment. Obsessed with one's own victim-hood and "self-esteem", and the synergistic expansion of one's sense of personal grievance that can be obtained by viewing one in the light of the other, recursively, ad-infinitum. Her death can be seen as symbolic of the diminishing relevance of these qualities. Power via wielding guilt, and resilience via narcissism…
Good lord, man. pull yourself together.
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…
It was the most humbling thing I remember reading. Moving, despite no personal context for the characters' experiences. Written beautifully without feeling over written.
It made me realize how far I was, and probably would ever be, from proper writing talent.
FWIW: Several of my role models - if you include people who are not alive, people I've only read about - are not white males.
I guess in my case it was more important to relate to their background and their skills (or lack of ;-) than who their parents were, and where they grew up.
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…
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/05/comment-6543
tldr: It's complicated. But to over-simplify: the Clintons had black friends, seemed to genuinely believe that black people were just as qualified for prestigious/important jobs as anyone else, and Bill Clinton had both a personal background and expressed himself in ways that resonated with many black Americans.
None of that had ever been even a little bit true of an American President before. And it was a big deal.
All of that is easy to forget, now, after we elected an actual black person President. But man, the 1990s were a different time. Lots of things are bad (really, really bad) now. But lots of things have changed in the last 25 years, too.
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 doesn't mean he wasn't a flawed president, just they he was their president in a way that hadn't been experienced before.
> I had to consider the idea: how would those books have affected me if all characters looked nothing like me? FWIW: Several of my role models - if you include people who are not alive, people I've only read about - are not white males. I guess in my case it was more important to relate to their background and their skills (or lack of ;-) than who their parents were, and where they grew up.
Growing up I identified with many people who I know are not me. And some of the things I identify as bring me great discomfort.
Morrison is a giant among writers, and the world is poorer for her passing.
The NYTimes obituary titled "Toni Morrison, Towering Novelist of the Black Experience, Dies at 88" is unavoidably narrow. Toni Morrison's novels contain universes. [0]
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/books/toni-morrison-dead....
Do real world PoC even ever obsess over white female dolls with blue eyes? It was just a work of fiction, after all. Do white girls obsess over black dolls? We have a black doll, that my white wife grew up with. I don't think it disturbed her in any way.