DUKES FANS:
“If you surrender to the air,
you could ride it.” The Song of Solomon
“There is a loneliness that can be rocked.
Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a
ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind — wrapped tight
like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it
down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound
of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.” Beloved
“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming
ownership of that freed self was another.” Beloved
“Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings, had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like an artist with no art form, she became dangerous.” Sula
“Because each
had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all
freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating
something else to be’ Sula
I am a reader: I have always been a reader.
I don’t know exactly when I learned to read, but I cannot remember a time when
I did not read. Comic books, newspaper comics, magazines, books, poems, cereal
boxes, street signs, historical markers, advertisements: if it had words in
English and it was in my sight, I probably read it. It is and has been one of
the most joyous and important parts of my life. I interact with words, and I
interact with them in a number of different and meaningful ways. That means, of
course, that I love libraries and bookstores: those two institutions have
helped me read a hell of a lot of books in my life. Dramas, history books,
brochures, mysteries, fantasy, pamphlets, biographies and autobiographies,
comedies, and fiction from any and all genres. And I collect quotes, quotes
from movies, friends, historical figures, historical sayings, plays and
especially from books. I find that authors, especially novelists, often have
ways of saying and expressing things that capture me, touch me deeply, and lead
me to new realizations. The above five quotes are among my all-time favorite
literary quotes. They give me much to reflect upon, and they have been with me
for years. And they all come from the mind and vision of one incredible and
powerful author: Ms Toni Morrison.
I have been a fan of Toni Morrison for over
45 years. She has been and is a voice that causes me to pause, to look at
something differently or more deeply, and to become more aware of my own
expectations, biases, and assumptions. She surprises me, and she helps me look
at myself, sometimes even against my own will. She has a way of assembling
words in ways that build images, share feelings, evoke scenes, paint
landscapes, and allow you to hear the voice and meaning of her characters and
what their lives really show. Sula, set mostly in a small Ohio town,
was the first of her novels that I read, and the way her narration mixed poetic
language, imagination, keen imagery and observation had me stop on page after
page to re-read a particular passage again out loud-to hear it and to taste it
and to feel it. Her ability to make us deeply feel and know the struggles and
choices her two heroines go through in their attempt “to create something else
to be” is almost painful. And the ways we are shown how loneliness, anger, and
self-doubt, as well as determination, can sometimes be “dangerous” ring true
throughout the novel. Sula is a relatively short book: 194 pages. But it
seems full and deep. It is truly a
“weighty” book. It was also one of the first novels that had me seriously and
deeply connect with female characters, and that opened up a whole new literary
world for me.
Song of Solomon, with its richly and
multi-layered, symbolic language and mix of folklore, Biblical references,
mysticism, and harsh reality is probably my favorite of all her books. As with
all of her works, one of its major themes is identity and how we come to
appreciate and learn our various ones. There is also incredible word play in
the work, starting with the names of characters and the specific ways each of
them speaks, and going on to include irony, puns, and the quiet power of the
unsaid. The way Macon Dead discovers he has to look back and down, not only to
his cultural past but also to his own childhood while on his quest, resonated
with me on many levels. It amazed me that one writer could not only have all of
these thoughts and ideas and themes going on in her head, but that she could
somehow express them on paper in such a way that they speak to real people
and to their real lives. It is one book I truly regret never having had an
opportunity to teach.
But the book which first exposed me to Toni
Morrison and helped deepen my own searches for identities wasn’t one she wrote.
It wasn’t a novel, and it was not a book of literary criticism and analysis. It
was a massively researched and beautifully pulled together scrapbook she helped
edit and nurture into being. It was a joyous, painful, celebratory,
anger-producing, angry, and proud collection of words, facts, records, and
pictures called, The Black Book, that she helped edit and publish in
1974 while she was an editor at Random House. I encountered it at the old
Robins Bookstore on 13th Street, and I had never seen anything like
it. It was a trade paperback with a cover that was a collage with pictures of
Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington and Satchel Paige, racist stereotyped advertising
labels for products, a Black cowboy with a rifle and saddle, an African bronze
sculpture, and the words, “The Black Book” proudly front and center. In time
frame it ranged from the pre-Columbian history of Africa and South America to
the black movies and music stars of the 1930’s. It also included descriptions
of slave whippings, escapes, stories about Black soldiers, pioneer farmers,
seamen, athletes, inventors, and scientists, pictures of all black towns in the
Midwest: it was literally a book of just
about all that we as a culture have seen, been through and done. As a 24 year-
old in 1974 that book sent my ADD and curious mind in a thousand different
directions at once, searching and looking at things, reading, researching and
listening to hundreds of new things, and increasing my own knowledge and
understandings of African-American cultures and experiences. (And, yes-we are
way more than just one “culture.”) I wore the pages out of two editions of that
book, and I later lost my remaining well-worn one during one of my many moves.
But hearing of Toni Morrison’s death On August 5th took me to the
library to take out a copy. And once again it did its magic, reminding of so
much about heritage, triumph, struggle, and the incredible, simple resiliency African-Americans,
and indeed, all human cultures need to have in order to survive in this world.
It is a joy to re-encounter it, and I am joyously working my way through it
again. It never gets old.
There is so much more I could say about Toni
Morrison and her importance to United States literature, cultural studies, and
intellectual development. She was a prodigious writer: she wrote 11 novels,
wrote and/or edited several books of literary criticism and analysis, co-wrote
5 children’s books, and penned numerous articles. She also taught at several
colleges and universities including Princeton, Rutgers, Cornell, and the State
University of New York. Her output lasted from the 1970’s until now, and
several generations of readers, thinkers, writers, and fans got to read, meet,
and encounter her ideas. I cannot begin
to catalog the ways in which she has influenced me, She is one of my many
inspirations and starting points. So many of her quotes and ideas have become a
part of me and how I look at the world. If you are not familiar with her, I
encourage you to take the time to encounter her. She is not an easy read by any
means. But she is a read that will give you much to think about, will amaze and
dazzle you with the power of the written word, and just maybe have you look at
the world around you and yourself in different and rewarding ways. She is
simply one of the best and most important thinkers and authors it has been my
good fortune to read. Rest in Peace, Ms, Morrison. Rest in peace. And thank you,
so very much.
Here
is a link to the Wikipedia biography of Toni Morrison:
The
Toni Morrison Society:
Link to
review of The Black Book:
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