Toni Morrison is a beautiful writer, period, full stop. The subtext of this article-cum interview appears to be her silences. Of course, she writes about the African American experience, then and now, and she is herself an African American. Above all, she is an artist, not a polemicist. As such her work speaks for itself and herself and the voices she gives life to. That said, Toni Morrison and Langston Hughes, the latter from one of the most fertile creative periods, The Harlem Renaissance, of the last century, are national treasures.
5
I read this beautiful article and was sad when it ended - it was like a remarkable book that I didn't want to put down. What a truly remarkable article. I pictured myself sitting alongside the author of the article with Toni. I discovered Toni Morrison's books in high school. I should not have discovered them - they weren't being taught in my English class but I stumbled upon an Ebony Magazine or Jett magazine article that included a list of books that every African-American person should read - or at least that's how I remembered over two decades ago. I read them all of the books not even knowing that I needed them in my life. I loved many of them but it was Toni Morrison's books that had the most profound impact on me. I carry them with me and I am looking forward to sharing them with my daughter when she gets older. Thank you. This article is going in my treasure chest. It may not have been your love letter to Toni (as some has suggested) but it is my love letter to Toni. Thank you.
14
One white guy who certainly "got" Toni Morrison was my cousin, the critic John Leonard. He championed her early works and declared after Beloved appeared that one could no longer imagine American literature without it. He also understood that he was a visitor in her literary worlds, whose authenticity and lyricism he deeply admired. Leonard and Morrison were also friends, and he was honored to be asked to accompany her to Stockholm for her Nobel prize. I am much more optimistic than Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah that Morrison's place in literary history is assured, and not only because African Americans do, of course, read.
7
I spent the morning and have only just now, at nearly 2:30 in the afternoon, reading your long and encompassing article. I laughed and I cried. I read out loud as I usually do to get every nuance that might otherwise go un-sounded. Your article seemed endless, and I did not want it to end. I did not want to finish reading it. You shared so much and illuminated such a comprehensive overview of perhaps, our finest American writer, that I am spellbound. I am grateful to you, very grateful and to the New York Times for publishing this thoughtful, poetic and illumined discussion. Thank you. Of course, I sent the article to a close friend from Belize who is a new writer making her way, and to my sister who will love each and every sentence you have written. I am certain of that. You illustrated the history, the background of our race relations and so richly detailed the unbridled truth of Toni Morrison's fellow writer of distinction (Junot Diaz), and in bringing forward, what he had to say, what others have also said about her focus and her work. I am amazed by the entirety of this discussion, and would otherwise not know of that open letter published in the Times. It was like pulling a rare pearl up from the ocean floor. I felt as though treasure had been unearthed. The quality of light, the lightness you have brought to Toni Morrison in this portrait of her, illumined in so many way, at the same time, a sense of the mystery of Morrison remains. Thank you for this.
8
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah - beautiful and illuminating essay. Thank you.
8
I have never read a book or anything that portrays slavery and human degradation as well as Ms. Morrison's "Beloved". It is a classic; a masterpiece that fully merits a place in the canon of world literature. I experienced it all at once as a novel, a poem, a document with visual imagery as powerful and distinct as painting. My mind can instantly bring up pictures of the "smile" the quilt with one colorful square, the slave child who only saw her mother once, bent in a field "from the back" and many more. The book is one of my favorites along with ones from Austen, G. Eliot, Hardy, Kafka, Philip Roth and some others.
1
I was told i was trash by someone whose opinion of me meant the world-he said it was because i was being demanding of his time~ hearing that about yourself is soul crushing .
1
And know that Big Lunch was a real man who hung out at the bus stops at the intersections of Canal Street at St. Claude and St. Charles. He was big and had a stink cloud meters around. I always wondered what happened to him exactly.
About Morrison, if one has already endured too much suffering in this life, she's not for you. For those with courage, who can handle the pain her characters mete out, her books leave a reader with an extra lifetime of understanding.
About Morrison, if one has already endured too much suffering in this life, she's not for you. For those with courage, who can handle the pain her characters mete out, her books leave a reader with an extra lifetime of understanding.
7
I've often found that readers and critics confer such holy status on subject matter that they insist any criticism of a particular work about it is some sort of savage disrespect for the agony of a person or a people.
It's possible to write an abysmal novel about the slaughter of Jews in WWII, or a woman's rape or a man's enslavement.
One can be horrified by the reality of slavery and remain completely unmoved by a book that seeks to convey that reality, but fails in the opinion of particular readers. Disliking Toni Morrison's artistic endeavors is not to disrespect the suffering of real human beings.
It's possible to write an abysmal novel about the slaughter of Jews in WWII, or a woman's rape or a man's enslavement.
One can be horrified by the reality of slavery and remain completely unmoved by a book that seeks to convey that reality, but fails in the opinion of particular readers. Disliking Toni Morrison's artistic endeavors is not to disrespect the suffering of real human beings.
4
Well said. I, for one, would go with Europa, Europa over Schindler's List anyday, or A Tomb for Boris Davidovich over The Book Thief.
And on the other foot, liking Morrison's work is not to confer holy status on the author, or is not the result of political correctness.
And on the other foot, liking Morrison's work is not to confer holy status on the author, or is not the result of political correctness.
1
Al: "Schindler's List" the original novel by Thomas Keneally was a fine book; Keneally is a writer worth reading.
1
I read fairly widely and like a lot of different writers, which makes the extraordinary consistency with which the NYT magazine publishes fawning profiles of writers whose work I've never enjoyed or been interested in (Ms. Morrison, G. Saunders, A. Carson, Lydia Davis, Karl Ove, etc.) that much more remarkable.
2
If you want to begin to know the excruciating challenges faced by all writers and humans every day, simply continue to read through these COMMENTS. The voices of fear, joy, curiosity, pain, inspiration, doubt, anger, confusion, pride, intellect, judgement, and all the shades of individual human experience and expression writ both large and small, each in our own text boxes.
We each bring what we bring to the table, no two exactly the same, and in finding our own place here it is also our daunting task to find the collective in that beautiful chaos. The proof for me of the "greatness" of Toni Morrison, the writer and the human, is how forcibly she provokes the conversation that enables that great and most necessary work, going on right before our reading eyes.
We each bring what we bring to the table, no two exactly the same, and in finding our own place here it is also our daunting task to find the collective in that beautiful chaos. The proof for me of the "greatness" of Toni Morrison, the writer and the human, is how forcibly she provokes the conversation that enables that great and most necessary work, going on right before our reading eyes.
16
What a lovely way to look at it. So right you are!
2
“Michelle,” she said with a smile that extended to places more important than just her face, “is one of the biggest brains in this country.”
“You think?” I asked her, not doubting her assessment but merely wanting a bit more. “Oh, I know,” she smiled, refusing to reveal a thing.
I am in complete agreement with Ms. Morrison on this; Michelle Obama is a very, very brilliant woman - and one of the most undervalued, under-utilized and underestimated. Her greatness, untapped - mostly latent in the shadow of her husband's historic ascent and presidency. Her brilliance, at once keen and insightful, and rare in the way it's securely wrapped in wisdom, warmth, humility and authenticity.
I often think that her husband President Obama, in primarily focusing on himself - and advancing and promoting himself - has quite short-changed the country and the world, and done her and himself a great disservice by largely excluding and relegating his highly intelligent and extremely perceptive wife, to the periphery of his presidency - and this important historic period.
I look forward with much excitement to the time when Michelle Obama in all her brilliance, wit, charm, integrity, strength and wisdom can fully and finally be. The world desperately needs Michelle Obama - and more big brains like hers.
“You think?” I asked her, not doubting her assessment but merely wanting a bit more. “Oh, I know,” she smiled, refusing to reveal a thing.
I am in complete agreement with Ms. Morrison on this; Michelle Obama is a very, very brilliant woman - and one of the most undervalued, under-utilized and underestimated. Her greatness, untapped - mostly latent in the shadow of her husband's historic ascent and presidency. Her brilliance, at once keen and insightful, and rare in the way it's securely wrapped in wisdom, warmth, humility and authenticity.
I often think that her husband President Obama, in primarily focusing on himself - and advancing and promoting himself - has quite short-changed the country and the world, and done her and himself a great disservice by largely excluding and relegating his highly intelligent and extremely perceptive wife, to the periphery of his presidency - and this important historic period.
I look forward with much excitement to the time when Michelle Obama in all her brilliance, wit, charm, integrity, strength and wisdom can fully and finally be. The world desperately needs Michelle Obama - and more big brains like hers.
48
Reading the comments -- I'm struck by how any mention of race, ANY, even about a writer whose work is astonishing and the product of a full imagination, seems to draw, yes, DRAW (having fun with capitals today) the unhappy posters whose antipathy toward minorities seems to know no bounds.
I doubt many of those who complained, and sent arch criticisms of her work as "unreadable" had in fact ever read one of her novels.
I can't think of a sadder fact, reflecting on our nation, than finding this even in a story about one of our greatest American authors.
I doubt many of those who complained, and sent arch criticisms of her work as "unreadable" had in fact ever read one of her novels.
I can't think of a sadder fact, reflecting on our nation, than finding this even in a story about one of our greatest American authors.
15
Gee Mr. Scott--should I reassure my fellow commenters that though I think Saul Bellow is awful, I'm not anti-Semitic? Or that it's safe for me to dislike his work since I'm of Jewish heritage myself?
Are you saying it's not possible to find the works of an author, who happens to be black, mediocre without some evil deep-seated hatred for minorities?
Widespread acclaim isn't a guarantee of greatness. Sometimes it's just a guarantee of fitting the trend of the times. I don't like Raymond Carver either, though his stuff has earned plenty of accolades. If I were black, would that be a sign of anti-white animus?
Are you saying it's not possible to find the works of an author, who happens to be black, mediocre without some evil deep-seated hatred for minorities?
Widespread acclaim isn't a guarantee of greatness. Sometimes it's just a guarantee of fitting the trend of the times. I don't like Raymond Carver either, though his stuff has earned plenty of accolades. If I were black, would that be a sign of anti-white animus?
5
Can't wait to get my hands on this book. I will give as gifts to every woman I know!!!!!!
5
"comfortably as one of the greatest authors in American history"
History? Really? I was taught it takes a little bit to make sure of that: Richard Wright was unquestionably the most important black literary writer of the 20th century. Until he wasn't.
I have met and spoken briefly with Toni Morrison, and heard her speak, and what I found was the opposite of this uncritical plaudit: she is polite indeed, but she is indeed self-satisfied and self-segregating, dismissing outright the idea that, say, the first read of a book might actually be relevant to whether it was truly great (I challenged her, gently, on the subject when she made a bold statement saying the opposite. She dodged and switched to talking about something else, to universal [just continued] adulation, in our panel. Later, the same admirers asked me with some sympathy if I felt my question had been adequately addressed--to which I indicated a polite 'no' and change of subject, myself. This was five years ago)
History? Really? I was taught it takes a little bit to make sure of that: Richard Wright was unquestionably the most important black literary writer of the 20th century. Until he wasn't.
I have met and spoken briefly with Toni Morrison, and heard her speak, and what I found was the opposite of this uncritical plaudit: she is polite indeed, but she is indeed self-satisfied and self-segregating, dismissing outright the idea that, say, the first read of a book might actually be relevant to whether it was truly great (I challenged her, gently, on the subject when she made a bold statement saying the opposite. She dodged and switched to talking about something else, to universal [just continued] adulation, in our panel. Later, the same admirers asked me with some sympathy if I felt my question had been adequately addressed--to which I indicated a polite 'no' and change of subject, myself. This was five years ago)
4
Weird. We're talking about her writing, not her personality. By that token, we wouldn't have any great American authors, because so many of them have been notoriously badly behaved.
6
Shouldn't black people tell you whites when WE think a black writer is good, not the other way around? Morrison's fawning white fans make mockery of black anguish, as if buying her books gives them a pass. As for Morrison herself, she was haunty, and stuck up and never was around when Rodney King was beaten or when true organizing needed to be done. As for her greatness, she is a cut above the "Mandingo" series. No more. Give me Baldwin, who made Hoover's list, not Harper's.
3
I'm a writer, and I would give almost anything to borrow just a tiny bit of the talent this woman has. It blows my mind that someone could be born with that kind of talent. And she's still writing!
8
Like the author of this article we all have to come to grips with the story. Fastening our attention on the author is just a way to avoid the full implications of just that. The story.
5
Civil Rights and Black Power icon, Stoklely Carmichael {Kwame Ture}, in his biography, "Ready for Revolution", had this to say, "My freshman English teacher I've never forgotten. She was an instructor and a challenging teacher who was really down with black literature and our people's culture. But this teacher was unusual in one other important respect: she was young, stylish, and really fine. Her name was Toni Morrison."
Thank you Ms. Morrison for enriching us and keeping us connected and grounded to Black culture, Black struggle, and the Black experience.
Thank you Ms. Morrison for enriching us and keeping us connected and grounded to Black culture, Black struggle, and the Black experience.
17
The 1st book I read by Toni was the Song of Solomon when I was 25. I bought it thinking it was about King Solomon! As I began reading it realized this was not what I thought. I could not put it down. I then had to continue reading her books. I was lucky to hear her speak at the U. Of South Carolina around 1982. Listening to her read from her books sent goosebumps down my arms. The next day I stood in line with my 2 toddlers to have her autograph my books. I'm not a literature major, or African American or one that reads a lot but love Toni's novels.
8
I'v not much opinion on Morrison's writing but this review is contradictory, a fluffy love letter and it seems to me way to much about the reviewer, so what else is new? Oh, and what is Morrison's radical vision?
1
Ghansah has written a beautiful piece on a beautiful woman. Morrison has demonstrated a skill and courage that should cement her forever in the pages of American letters. Ghansah deserves praise for an honest and enlightening piece.
9
As a literature professor who has taught Toni Morrison, particularly BELOVED, THE COLOR PURPLE and THE BLUEST EYES in a number of non European settings. I and my students find the depth of the human experience revealed, particularly that of women. My international female students love her. She is a master of the narrative, a wise interpreter of history. A wonderfully written. perceptive essay
6
As a literature professor you should know that "The Color Purple" was written by Alice Walker...
3
Toni Morrison didn't write "The Color Purple." That as Alice Walker.
6
As a literature professor you should know that Alice Walker wrote THE COLOR PURPLE
5
This story reminds me of a really sharp comment Toni Morrison made about writing and reading in a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey about 25 years ago. The two women were discussing "Beloved" and Oprah confessed to Morrison that she found the book "hard" to read. Morrison didn't miss a beat and replied (this is paraphrased): 'Of course it's hard. It was hard to write. Why should it be easy to read?' I love that quote and have thought of it so many times when I'm reading a book that is particularly challenging.
17
A wonderful writer.
The young journalist, eventually realizing after glimpsing the trembling hands of this old woman that Morrison is here to write her books and not to explain things or give succor to her acolytes, learns an important lesson. Morrison is to be valued as a writer, rather than a symbol. It's a pity that such an important artist is now treated as an institution. The rarified air around Morrison may explain why her earliest novels up through Beloved were her best. She did not yet seem to be writing for posterity.
The young journalist, eventually realizing after glimpsing the trembling hands of this old woman that Morrison is here to write her books and not to explain things or give succor to her acolytes, learns an important lesson. Morrison is to be valued as a writer, rather than a symbol. It's a pity that such an important artist is now treated as an institution. The rarified air around Morrison may explain why her earliest novels up through Beloved were her best. She did not yet seem to be writing for posterity.
Greatest American novels: Huck Finn, Moby Dick, Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, Catcher in the Rye, and of course Beloved.
5
It is ironic to read this article during the same week of a black shooting. Toni Morrison's books are treated as historical fiction yet her stories are as relevant as ever. We as americans must do better so that her books do become fiction and not our reality.
5
Toni Morrison - one of our great American literary treasures! God bless you and may you continue to write many more wonderful stories.
7
Toni Morrison does not respect her own people. I have read all her books and none have stayed with me. TM probably does not even like herself. Sorry to be so blunt, but for me, something is lacking in her work.
1
It's funny to read the comments here resisting the idea that Toni Morrison is not just a good but a great writer. What could possibly be the reasoning, I wonder. Her novels are breathtakingly original and gorgeously written. I write for a living and have a Ph.D. in comparative literature and would absolutely say that Toni Morrison is in the top 5 of the greatest writers in American history, alongside Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Henry James. It's hard to imagine many of my colleagues disagreeing.
P.S. Sula, The Bluest Eye, and Beloved are all stunning, but I encourage readers to go out and read Jazz and Mercy, too. They are beyond worth it.
P.S. Sula, The Bluest Eye, and Beloved are all stunning, but I encourage readers to go out and read Jazz and Mercy, too. They are beyond worth it.
42
Your appeal to your authority doesn't make Ms. Morrison what you say she is. She's an intelligent woman, but if you really can't imagine many of your colleagues disagreeing with your mistaken assessment, that shows only that you have a rather poorly developed imagination.
1
I don't disagree with your inclusion of Morrison, but excluding Twain is quite beyond my comprehension.
Thank you for this beautiful portrait of Ms. Morrison. I have long been an admirer of her work after reading Song of Solomon in my high school English class. I used to teach The Bluest Eye to students in Massachusetts who loved her multifaceted characters and truths about beauty and sex and living as much as I did. I took a hiatus from teaching her work when I began teaching in international schools seven years ago, thinking students would have a difficult time connecting to the subjects. This year, however, I brought The Bluest Eye back to my senior classroom in Hong Kong where I have been shocked and touched by how the students have responded. The boys and girls alike from Hong Kong and elsewhere label it a 'must read' and one that has 'changed their perspectives on the value of literature.' They respond to the beauty and abuse, the sadness and empathy, as if these were life changing views on the world, ones that have given them reasons to keep reading.
22
Morrison is not an easy writer to read --- she demands a lot from readers. She asks that you set aside personal bias and defenses and see her characters as human beings - individuals who struggle like every human being - some days with untold grace and others with sad and savage hate. It is the human condition. After reading Morrison one comes away with knowledge of an abominable past and its afterglow -- called racism. She is not saying all blacks are good and all whites are bad - there is no guilting here - she simply gives a character's clear-eye perspective (as in Beloved) of an ugly history. And if in the process of reading her stories one examines their soul --- so much the better.
25
I love Morrison's writing, but I couldn't make it through this piece. Part unadorned adulation of Morrison, part polemical essay on the state of African-American literature, part pedantic college term paper, it lacked focus. I kept waiting for the point and finally gave up.
11
Their was no point in this essay. Just an angry rant mostly.
1
Your narrow expectations would deprive other readers of the scattered nuggets that give us less demanding folk multi faceted glimpses of Morrison's life & art digestible in a single reading.
Wow..short sided. What would be the point of any piece of writing? To hear and listen to another, to extend yourself beyond the margin of self. I think this is an evocative and comtemplative piece of writing and I'm embarrassed that I have not heard of Rachel Kaadzi Ghanash. She is wonderful for all the things you seem to struggle with in this piece!
5
Toni Morrison, makes me smile, she always has, as an African American female, her writing has told the story of the women in my family, I am so grateful. I too am an Ohioan, born and raised. When I moved to NYC in my 20's after finishing gradute school, over 20 years ago, it was her writing that helped me to make that transition, it helped me to believe I could do anything. Having moved back to Ohio, I met Ms. Morrison in July 2005, at a reception given for her for the opening of the Opera Margaret Garner at the Cincinnati Music Hall. There was a reception line to meet her, but it was so long, so I moved up behind the line in a position that was right in front of her and I stood so that she could see me and I just waved and she saw me and smiled and I smiled back. I truly enjoyed this article.
10
"Thematically chained"?
Astoundingly poor choice of words.
Astoundingly poor choice of words.
1
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You write what we intuit about Ms. Morrison. She is American Nobility. She is bedrock solid and America's mightiest gift to our Dear World.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You write what we intuit about Ms. Morrison. She is American Nobility. She is bedrock solid and America's mightiest gift to our Dear World.
8
Ms. Ghansah: Don't trust spellcheck. And your editor was asleep at the wheel.
Did you really mean "impervious?" I think "imperious" was the word you meant...
Did you really mean "impervious?" I think "imperious" was the word you meant...
4
A professor of mine in Literature once stated, unequivocally, that she thought Toni Morrison's "Beloved", which we would be looking at in depth during the course, was the best American novel of the second half of the 20th century.
I thought, "Well, that's a statement lacking the usual scholarly conditional endorsement."
As it turns out, I was convinced she was right by the time the course ended.
Beloved is a novel beyond any identity-politics balkanization that remains the most seditious of criticisms of novels writing from a position of marginalization with a dominant culture. Yet in Beloved, her imagination astonished me, her ability to display the interiority of disparate characters was a deep pleasure and a source of admiration, the reach of the novel was what I believed all novels, the Great America Novel most especially, aspired to. That is, this is a novel of the world...a kind of Canterbury tales in its variety, a kind of Canterbury tales in that, if the reader can read those tales, and Beloved, in its contradictions and in their subtle intimations, one can also a little better read the world. Or at least, read it a little more competently.
I defy anyone to read the Clearing Scene in Beloved, read those words, and then tell me we aren't witnessing one of the greatest novelists of our times, and we were lucky enough to be here when she was amongst us, and writing.
We should count our blessings, and thank our lucky stars.
Toni Morrison is here.
I thought, "Well, that's a statement lacking the usual scholarly conditional endorsement."
As it turns out, I was convinced she was right by the time the course ended.
Beloved is a novel beyond any identity-politics balkanization that remains the most seditious of criticisms of novels writing from a position of marginalization with a dominant culture. Yet in Beloved, her imagination astonished me, her ability to display the interiority of disparate characters was a deep pleasure and a source of admiration, the reach of the novel was what I believed all novels, the Great America Novel most especially, aspired to. That is, this is a novel of the world...a kind of Canterbury tales in its variety, a kind of Canterbury tales in that, if the reader can read those tales, and Beloved, in its contradictions and in their subtle intimations, one can also a little better read the world. Or at least, read it a little more competently.
I defy anyone to read the Clearing Scene in Beloved, read those words, and then tell me we aren't witnessing one of the greatest novelists of our times, and we were lucky enough to be here when she was amongst us, and writing.
We should count our blessings, and thank our lucky stars.
Toni Morrison is here.
24
I once sat next to Toni Morrison while we waited for a flight at an airport headed for Lawrence, Kansas. When I finally realized it was her for sure I told her excitedly that I admired her a lot and that I always spoke about her work to my students even though I taught Spanish literature. She snubbed me and took a pair of sunglasses out of her purse and put them on. I asked her white assistant if she just didn't like being recognized. And her assistant said yes. But then a group of students came to say hello and Morrison was gracious.
I was disappointed. Perhaps it was my Hispanic accent when I think back. Then, I was full of hopes and dreams headed for one of my first conferences.
We finally got in the plane, she to her first class seat, I to my coach seat.
I was disappointed. Perhaps it was my Hispanic accent when I think back. Then, I was full of hopes and dreams headed for one of my first conferences.
We finally got in the plane, she to her first class seat, I to my coach seat.
12
Does Toni Morrison deserve to be ranked with Hawthorne, Melville, James, and Faulkner? Of course, not. But for people who don't know the difference between politically correct views and art? Of course she does!
4
Toni Morrison is the most uncompromising voice we've ever had. This literary century owes its conscience to the most penetrating voice: that of Toni Morrison's.
There is truth in the plot, in the literary artifice. Truth abounds in Ms. Morrison's writing. There's plenty truth in every one of her creations: truth for whites, for blacks, for women, and for men; for unborn children of any era, for historical casualties, for the supposed winners, and the perceived losers.
Ms. Morisson is a living recording icon as Nadine Gordimer was in the struggle for human liberation in South Africa.
Viva Toni Morrison and Nadine Gordimer!
Viva Pablo Idahosa, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Modupe Olaogun!
There is truth in the plot, in the literary artifice. Truth abounds in Ms. Morrison's writing. There's plenty truth in every one of her creations: truth for whites, for blacks, for women, and for men; for unborn children of any era, for historical casualties, for the supposed winners, and the perceived losers.
Ms. Morisson is a living recording icon as Nadine Gordimer was in the struggle for human liberation in South Africa.
Viva Toni Morrison and Nadine Gordimer!
Viva Pablo Idahosa, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Modupe Olaogun!
7
The glory of timeless literature is its ability to make the reader feel and understand the reality of The Other. That is not dependent on the writer's own personal identity or heritage; the most profound reading experiences make you forget who and what the writer is, and enter into and believe the world of the story.
Grown men have written movingly and convincingly in the voices of little girls and of mother mice; black women have conjured the souls of white boys, etc. etc. etc.
When identity politics are the selling point of an author's work--the magic is lacking.
Grown men have written movingly and convincingly in the voices of little girls and of mother mice; black women have conjured the souls of white boys, etc. etc. etc.
When identity politics are the selling point of an author's work--the magic is lacking.
6
Sometimes a particular people's experience is so singular and so profound that specifically addressing it, in any medium, is much more than mere "identity politics".
We're not talking about a bright-line rule here, and it's certainly a matter of subjective judgment. But I treasure Jean Toomer's Cane, and Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man (among other books by African-American authors). And they are books about being black in America.
We're not talking about a bright-line rule here, and it's certainly a matter of subjective judgment. But I treasure Jean Toomer's Cane, and Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man (among other books by African-American authors). And they are books about being black in America.
2
And ... have you read her work and believe that her work is about identity politics? I cannot fathom anyone reading something as rich and expansive as Song of Solomon and coming to that conclusion.
2
I find it hard to believe and accept that there are readers who do not and cannot identify with Toni Morrison's writing, that her stories do not speak to them on some level. Whatever your age, gender, color, or walk of life, surely you've felt jealously, rage, sadness, love, and happiness. I think the power of literature is exactly that: you learn about people who seem to be vastly different from you and find that at our core, we are the same.
And even if you somehow can't anticipate ANY common ground between yourself and these books, you should at least make the attempt. My first Toni Morrison novel was Sula, which was assigned to my AP Lit class, senior year of high school. I still vividly remember a scene from the book, in which a mother dumps kerosene on her sleeping adult son and lights him on fire, because she would rather kill him herself than watch him slowly succumb to his heroin addiction. I was 17 at the time, and what does a sheltered, coddled teenager know about the ravages of addiction or the depth of a mother's love? Still, I found myself sobbing as I read. I didn't understand what had just happened, but I got an inkling of the beautiful and terrifying power of love, and an appreciation for the complexity of our relationships with others. And of course, not to diminish her incredible contribution to black writers and readers, but for me Morrison's legacy is that she put womankind's suffering and strength into such moving prose.
And even if you somehow can't anticipate ANY common ground between yourself and these books, you should at least make the attempt. My first Toni Morrison novel was Sula, which was assigned to my AP Lit class, senior year of high school. I still vividly remember a scene from the book, in which a mother dumps kerosene on her sleeping adult son and lights him on fire, because she would rather kill him herself than watch him slowly succumb to his heroin addiction. I was 17 at the time, and what does a sheltered, coddled teenager know about the ravages of addiction or the depth of a mother's love? Still, I found myself sobbing as I read. I didn't understand what had just happened, but I got an inkling of the beautiful and terrifying power of love, and an appreciation for the complexity of our relationships with others. And of course, not to diminish her incredible contribution to black writers and readers, but for me Morrison's legacy is that she put womankind's suffering and strength into such moving prose.
12
Mother love is not exemplified by barbequeing one's child.
Perhaps many unimpressed readers feel, as I do, that Toni Morrison's writing is filled with the unbelievably theatrical rather than the universally enthralling.
Perhaps many unimpressed readers feel, as I do, that Toni Morrison's writing is filled with the unbelievably theatrical rather than the universally enthralling.
2
Hmmm, slavery as theatre....let me think about that for a minute and I'll get back to you.
What is unbelievable is that men can and did get rich off the buying and selling of another men, women & children. Oh - BTW Would you prefer the slave owner do the barbequeing?
What is unbelievable is that men can and did get rich off the buying and selling of another men, women & children. Oh - BTW Would you prefer the slave owner do the barbequeing?
5
Well stated, Gwen. Brava. How many other metaphors for the dehumanizing horrors of enslavement do readers miss -- or is it that they avoid? How sad.
"What I’m interested in is writing without the gaze, without the white gaze." Okay, I can read something else.
3
Thank you.
I haven't read Miss. Morrison's books yet, but per the article, I love her style & manner of moving through this world.
I haven't read Miss. Morrison's books yet, but per the article, I love her style & manner of moving through this world.
2
Sorry, I find Ms. Morrison unreadable.
But I do not challenge the authenticity of others' claims that they find transcendence in her works. I envy them.
But I do not challenge the authenticity of others' claims that they find transcendence in her works. I envy them.
4
Perhaps they should envy your discernment...
1
W.E. B. DuBois noted the non -fiction Black African American "twoness" of race and nationality in "The Souls of Black Folks". While Ralph Ellison recorded the " invisible man" from a fictional Black African American perspective. And James Baldwin in fact and fiction bridged sexual orientation and race. Richard Wright brought a fictional focus on Black socioeconomics and politics. Toni Morrison wrote with compassionate insight about Black African women in fiction.
What is "black" literature is an enduring question? In the wake of Toni Morrison's Nobel Laureate recognition Saul Bellow infamously queried "Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?"
Being uniquely and individually human while Black is a challenge in a nation that both denied Black humanity and equality as an innate unique racially colored group phenomena. As a physically identifiable colored caste race and socioeconomics and politics and education became inextricably intertwined. Barack Obama is not and never will be half-white in America.
Toni Morrison makes me think and introduces me to people whom I both know and do not know nor understand. Thank you for this thoughtful insightful perspective upon the "curious marvel of making a poet black and yet bid him to sing.'' God bless you Toni. And thank you so very much.
What is "black" literature is an enduring question? In the wake of Toni Morrison's Nobel Laureate recognition Saul Bellow infamously queried "Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?"
Being uniquely and individually human while Black is a challenge in a nation that both denied Black humanity and equality as an innate unique racially colored group phenomena. As a physically identifiable colored caste race and socioeconomics and politics and education became inextricably intertwined. Barack Obama is not and never will be half-white in America.
Toni Morrison makes me think and introduces me to people whom I both know and do not know nor understand. Thank you for this thoughtful insightful perspective upon the "curious marvel of making a poet black and yet bid him to sing.'' God bless you Toni. And thank you so very much.
13
I read black text on white paper, sometimes with much red ink.
There are no black writers, or white writers; black literature or white literature, or people of color literature. There is just writing and red blood.
If it survives the test of time, it's just literature.
This article is about Toni's art, not a black art. Her moving stories are about human beings, not the racial bias in the publishing industry. Her stories are about an African-American experience that my blue eyes experience and feel and understand, not the black arts of witches and warlocks.
It is a pity that some see value in divisive color and gender distinctions.
They distract us from the essence of the writer's soul, their story and our collective evolution. I enjoy a world without those distinctions, but I do not deny they exist.
Toni, perhaps there is a poignant story there.
There are no black writers, or white writers; black literature or white literature, or people of color literature. There is just writing and red blood.
If it survives the test of time, it's just literature.
This article is about Toni's art, not a black art. Her moving stories are about human beings, not the racial bias in the publishing industry. Her stories are about an African-American experience that my blue eyes experience and feel and understand, not the black arts of witches and warlocks.
It is a pity that some see value in divisive color and gender distinctions.
They distract us from the essence of the writer's soul, their story and our collective evolution. I enjoy a world without those distinctions, but I do not deny they exist.
Toni, perhaps there is a poignant story there.
22
You're wrong. Morrison wrote for white people, not us blacks. She entertained them with lurid scenes, scenes we blacks live. A great entertainer for white readers, not an articulatory for blacks to understand and survive their suffering. This article is about "Toni's" black art, and how it titillated the white senses while doing nothing to uplift blacks.
I enjoyed this tribute to Toni Morrison - I was quite captivated by it, actually.
5
"At 84, she sits comfortably as one of the greatest authors in American history"
That's a pretty bold statement. Is she that good? I never read any of her books, I'm more drawn to writers like Pete Dexter, Richard Russo, Paul Theroux, and not to be sexist, I started reading Lorrie Moore. Maybe I'll pick up one of her books.
That's a pretty bold statement. Is she that good? I never read any of her books, I'm more drawn to writers like Pete Dexter, Richard Russo, Paul Theroux, and not to be sexist, I started reading Lorrie Moore. Maybe I'll pick up one of her books.
5
Stunningly effective exploration of Morrison's elusive magic. My white gaze is stopped in it's tracks. Do I read to watch, or read to live and breath life that's lived in the mud of this earth?
6
Thank you so much for this beautiful essay.
5
Here's another reason college kids graduate without having developed critical thinking skills or the ability to write well. They have been fed politically-correct versions of "great literature," and mistake adulation for a person's public persona as an intelligent and thoughtful critique of literature.
I'm not all that fond of the literary establishment, and I don't think the acquisition of a prize necessarily correlates to the value of a work, but I especially don't think that acquiring a prize because of the bullying demands of a special interest group is much of an imprimatur of greatness.
Shakespeare may have been a white Elizabethan, but he wrote to and about the human experience, and that's why he remains a best seller, and why Russians and Nigerians and Pakistanis and Swedes can quote him with pleasure and appreciation, many centuries after he was first published.
He didn't need a market niche, and no truly great writer does.
I'm not all that fond of the literary establishment, and I don't think the acquisition of a prize necessarily correlates to the value of a work, but I especially don't think that acquiring a prize because of the bullying demands of a special interest group is much of an imprimatur of greatness.
Shakespeare may have been a white Elizabethan, but he wrote to and about the human experience, and that's why he remains a best seller, and why Russians and Nigerians and Pakistanis and Swedes can quote him with pleasure and appreciation, many centuries after he was first published.
He didn't need a market niche, and no truly great writer does.
28
Couldn't agree more. Both Morison and Angelou are basically black American writers whose careers exist mainly due to their books being made required reading by Left leaning academic depts. Something like 90% of all their book sales are required course materials. As to their literary talent, slight to none. As others have said 'Beloved' is basically unreadable.
6
Not being a fan of literature, by your own account, can we assume you have not read Toni Morrison, not "Beloved" or any other novel of hers?
I think you'd be quite astonished.
Her imagination isn't limited, and her characters are not polemics. They are flesh and blood. If you liked Shakespeare, if you were entranced by his various periods, and got hung up at all in the Jacobean, well, drama is found in Morrison's novel, too, with people who have everything at stake, not just serving as cut-outs to make a political point, and you'll care about the characters.
I promised you.
And I rarely make such a promise.
In the attempt to bring new voices into the Canon, the books that are studied in lit. classes, so that not only white men were represented, there were perhaps a few rushed into study whose works were not, in my view, particularly mature. That is, the craft was lacking. One professor said, obliquely subtle but nevertheless devastating as a critique: "They ignore certain problems with the text."
Yes, the characters were cardboard cut-outs, the dialogue hackneyed, the plot, obvious. Yes, I'd say there were a few problems.
But throw the baby out wit the bathwater?
That would be as foolish as honoring every writer, simply based on a representative minority status. There's so many fine writers, Toni Morrison being the very best.
I think you'd be quite astonished.
Her imagination isn't limited, and her characters are not polemics. They are flesh and blood. If you liked Shakespeare, if you were entranced by his various periods, and got hung up at all in the Jacobean, well, drama is found in Morrison's novel, too, with people who have everything at stake, not just serving as cut-outs to make a political point, and you'll care about the characters.
I promised you.
And I rarely make such a promise.
In the attempt to bring new voices into the Canon, the books that are studied in lit. classes, so that not only white men were represented, there were perhaps a few rushed into study whose works were not, in my view, particularly mature. That is, the craft was lacking. One professor said, obliquely subtle but nevertheless devastating as a critique: "They ignore certain problems with the text."
Yes, the characters were cardboard cut-outs, the dialogue hackneyed, the plot, obvious. Yes, I'd say there were a few problems.
But throw the baby out wit the bathwater?
That would be as foolish as honoring every writer, simply based on a representative minority status. There's so many fine writers, Toni Morrison being the very best.
12
Mr. Scott: I promise you that you need to reread my second paragraph...
Morrison, Obama (both), Henry Lewis Gates have kept in touch with the past to inform the present. My family's history of slave ownership and "polite" 20th century racism has informed me as well (with the same horror though necessarily--I'm white-- not of the same degree). Reading "The Bluest Eye" not until I was 50 in 1996 is illustrative of both the necessity of Morrison's writing and the daunting gap that remains to be bridged.
Using both the Presidential Pardon and Executive Orders I hope the Obamas establish meaningful fait accompli to further bridge the gap.
Using both the Presidential Pardon and Executive Orders I hope the Obamas establish meaningful fait accompli to further bridge the gap.
4
There were several points that struck me as I read this article. The first of which is that, yes, Morrison does write black literature and that it is ignored by the industry. I think however that people have set things up to be divisive. I grew up during the time of segregation and in the South but it wasn't until coming north in the 1990s that I felt I lived in a segregated society. I was told that I couldn't teach in an inner city because I, as a white person, couldn't teach "our children." That attitude was totally foreign to me. I never thought about race that way. I had students tell other students "No, she's not prejudiced except against people who don't try." Secondly, I never remember feeling that black literature was subject to different criteria than any other. What makes literature great is that it has a universal appeal to something within us as humans. If that doesn't come through in a book, I don't care who wrote it. Finally, younger people are fearful of the future and tired of looking back to find answers. Sad but true. Getting them to read any book is a struggle. Morrison's work is exceptional but I don't know how to prepare the next generation to appreciate it.
3
In 1959 (1960?) I took an English course at Howard University. The instructor was a most-attractive and much-admired young woman named Chloe Wofford. She was known throughout the campus as Miss Wofford but also known as Miss Morrison. The male students in the class routinely arrived early so that they could sit in the front of the room. She was indeed attractive (foxy). She was widely known to be interested in poetry and art, and I recall one classroom discussion that prompted her to ask whether anyone knew how to define cubism in relation to fine art. No one knew. What followed was an impromptu discussion of cubism illustrated with chalk diagrams on the blackboard. After I graduated from Howard University, I lost track of Miss Wofford, but I knew about the African-American writer Toni Morrison, and I often wondered whether they were the same person. I resolved the issue in 1969 (1970?) while listening to (but not actually watching) a PBS television broadcast about African-American writers. A journalist was interviewing a female writer whose name I did not hear. Listening to the writer respond to the interviewer’s questions was a jaw-dropping moment. I immediately recognized Miss Wofford’s voice, but as I moved to the room where the television was, I saw Toni Morrison’s name at the bottom of the screen. Mystery solved. I remember Miss Wofford with so much fondness and will forever be proud to say that she taught me at Howard.
78
I hope Toni Morrison is celebrated for years and years and years. Her writing is beyond important for our society and for understanding a very dark and often pushed aside part of our history.
5
For powerful black fiction a great book is "Another Country," by James Baldwin. It evokes the NYC and Harlem of the 1950s wonderfully.
4
While being educated in an eastern boarding school I would take day leaves into NYC to see Nana who lived on lower Park at the time. It was in her living room that I was introduced to "Another Country." What a spectacular book to have read as a young and unsophisticated white female in the early 60s.
I grew up on Dreiser, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Bellow, Wouk, Malamud and Bellow and have never been able to make the transition. I guess we all have our time. What does it matter anyway? Who's really reading anyone's serious novels these days?
5
It matters a lot. Hemingway's United States was also Jean Toomer's and Zora Neale Hurston's. I love In Our Time and I love Cane and I love Their Eyes Were Watching God.
1
Regal. Unsparing. Wisdom. Humor. Sadness. Humanity. All words come to mind when I think of Toni Morrison. There are some, not too many, authors for whom I am so grateful and she definitely is one of them. God bless her and every one of her days that she spends on this earth.
3
A wonderful author, yes. One of the greatest in American history, no.
24
This article reads as if Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah had dictated it on on her therapist's couch, constantly prompted with the question "And how did that make YOU feek?" I expected a piece about Toni Morrison (and perhaps the context(s) in which she belongs), and I read about a piece about a narcissistic journalist: her dreams, her fears, her sadnesses, and how Toni Morrison participates in THAT context.
17
I agree; this article isn't very well written. There were even some English problems, for example referring to the interviewer in the third person ("Rather than the whole of literature she asks") and then a few sentences later in the first person ("She told me that the books she edited..."). Oh well, at least it's still better than the Daily News...
I think there`d be more prominent women in literature if less of em were jesus freaks. The limited christian perspective has dominated literature this whole time, kinda boring & redundant.
1
I'm struck by the perhaps accidental juxtaposition of the two stories about writing in this morning's Times, a bio of Toni Morrison and an examination of MFA programs, their pros and cons.
I imagine Morrison sitting in an MFA class, reading from her work. The jealousy, the dread, of her fellow writers at the sound of those languorous, unwinding sentences ripe with the beauty of art and the pain of black life would have been palpable.
I imagine Morrison sitting in an MFA class, reading from her work. The jealousy, the dread, of her fellow writers at the sound of those languorous, unwinding sentences ripe with the beauty of art and the pain of black life would have been palpable.
If we celebrated in true fashion an Emancipation Day, I think I would at some point include in the liturgy the transcendent sermon delivered by Baby Suggs in the heart of the novel Beloved. All of it. That wondrous exhortation to pride and celebration of self. And at the heart of it is that eternal wisdom to envision dreams and hope and grace. Morrison writes of Baby Suggs: "She did not tell them to clean up their lives or to go and sin no more. She did not tell them they were the blessed of the earth, its inheriting meek or ts glorybound pure. She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it." Amen.
5
Sadly, it is not simply a matter of black literature...we don't read any longer. We don't imagine and we don't enjoy expression in an artful form. We, for the most part, have a young generation that is not inspired easily by intimate prose. It is a culture of shouting and reaction. There is no way to nurture gentleness and ideas to share.
9
Beautifully stated. When I was young, I hated not having a TV. I was made to read instead. Today I am profoundly grateful.
3
Just as some hate Hemingway and others hate Faulkner, Morrison's books aren't for everyone. I despise Pynchon, but don't think to deny him his status as a great writer just because I don't get him. Morrison's work is challenging and brilliant. Just because her style isn't your thing, doesn't mean she isn't phenomenal. Maybe it isn't her limitations you are seeing in her writing, but your own.
50
Thanks Jane. You found a very nice way to say this.
6
"Maybe it isn't her limitations you are seeing in her writing, but your own."
Of all her books, Paradise probably proves your statement most easily. I can't count how many times I've heard "I just didn't get it," and how every time my heart broke a little. We all needed to "get it" and feel Paradise hard.
If ever I could talk with Toni Morrison, I would have to ask her about Circe in Song of Solomon. What an enduring, fascinating character, and I'm sure I know, but I'd have to ask what she meant about taking care of it. I mean I want to know how she took care of it ------ what told history was Morrison relying on then? That line must have stopped some hearts.
Of all her books, Paradise probably proves your statement most easily. I can't count how many times I've heard "I just didn't get it," and how every time my heart broke a little. We all needed to "get it" and feel Paradise hard.
If ever I could talk with Toni Morrison, I would have to ask her about Circe in Song of Solomon. What an enduring, fascinating character, and I'm sure I know, but I'd have to ask what she meant about taking care of it. I mean I want to know how she took care of it ------ what told history was Morrison relying on then? That line must have stopped some hearts.
1
Or maybe it IS her limitations, not ours. I find problem with not her style at all--she's indeed a very good writer in that sense--it's the content some of us find narrow-minded (though also unique in a positive way--not enough to justify what I find close-mindedness).
1
"Long poetic sentences" are the bear-trap catching those not very familiar with or uncomfortable with the great forests of literature.
In good writing, every word serves its purpose with clarity and economy. Too many writers--especially those on whom the title "great" is conferred without real discernment--use words as though there was a warehouse sale on adverbs and adjectives.
Elmore Leonard might be considered a "genre writer," but his "Ten Rules," while there to be broken by exceptional writers of confidence and skill, ought to be memorized by everyone.
Richard Wright was a great American writer who illuminated the often-horrific experiences of black people without tying us up in knots. It's telling that much criticism of his work comes from those who dislike his becoming an "internationalist."
Great writers use the particulars of their background and experiences to illuminate the universal human experience. That's why they endure; that's why Russians love Shakespeare and the English-reading world reveres Tolstoy.
Filling a political and cultural need of the moment doesn't make one a great or enduring writer.
In good writing, every word serves its purpose with clarity and economy. Too many writers--especially those on whom the title "great" is conferred without real discernment--use words as though there was a warehouse sale on adverbs and adjectives.
Elmore Leonard might be considered a "genre writer," but his "Ten Rules," while there to be broken by exceptional writers of confidence and skill, ought to be memorized by everyone.
Richard Wright was a great American writer who illuminated the often-horrific experiences of black people without tying us up in knots. It's telling that much criticism of his work comes from those who dislike his becoming an "internationalist."
Great writers use the particulars of their background and experiences to illuminate the universal human experience. That's why they endure; that's why Russians love Shakespeare and the English-reading world reveres Tolstoy.
Filling a political and cultural need of the moment doesn't make one a great or enduring writer.
9
While I generally agree with your comments about concise writing, you have to admit that Shakespeare's writing advertises his "warehouse sale on adverbs and adjectives" more than just about any writer. He even hawks innumerable adverbs and adjectives of his own coining, and his writing is profits from it.
A beautifully written piece. I'm glad to make the acquaintance of the writer.
2
It is not entirely accurate to say, as the black writers charged in their signed statement in the Times in 1988, that as of then Toni Morrison had not yet received the "national recognition" she was due. In 1981, seven years earlier, Newsweek featured her on its cover, along with a discerning article, "Toni Morrison's Black Magic," by Jean Strouse. In it, Morrison defends her role as a specifically "black writer," adding that "categories like black writer, woman writer, and Latin American writer aren't marginal anymore." Strouse's groundbreaking piece also cited the importance of predecessors of Morrison's, such as Zora Neale Hurston, and the compelling work of younger black women writers, including (as I recall) Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker and Gayle Jones. This article implies that Toni Morrison, magnificent as she is, is something of a lone female voice about the American black experience when, in fact, she is part of a significant tradition.
12
I have been fighting racism for 50 yrs. I have never read anything by Morrison that lived up to the hype. I know I am tadpole trying to swim up th Columbia Gorge, but I have never understood her aclaim.
9
You've got company, Will.
3
Will, have you read Beloved? I can understand your feeling the hype was a bit much pre-Beloved. But if you fully experience Beloved, I think you appreciate her achievement. It does require some work, as does some of Faulkner's best.
Toni Morrison has praised Edward Said, author of Orientalism. I have no respect for anyone ignorant enough to be impressed by Professor Said. However, Morrison has a Nobel Prize in Literature so facts and logic need not intrude.
Literature has always been about the intersection of the specific (the individual, the cultural, the ethnic, etc) and the universal (or human). Looking at it from either of those viewpoints alone is always reductive. I think Ms. Morrison gets that.
2
Well--sorry. Aching earnestness doesn't translate into good writing. Read--or tried to read--"The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved" and felt like I was back in middle school, suffering through what was fed to me as "great literature."
Always trust your gut. The worshipful bearing accolades, not so much.
Always trust your gut. The worshipful bearing accolades, not so much.
26
So ... what does your gut like? And what other items of literature during middle school that were labeled as great did not meet your taste?
I tried reading The House of the Seven Gables in high school and gave up; I thought it was torture. I just read it last year (20 years later) and loved, loved, loved it. Guts sometimes change, I guess. I see the stuff my kids and their peers read in high school nowadays (John Green, The Book Thief, Hunger Games, etc.) and my brain aches.
I tried reading The House of the Seven Gables in high school and gave up; I thought it was torture. I just read it last year (20 years later) and loved, loved, loved it. Guts sometimes change, I guess. I see the stuff my kids and their peers read in high school nowadays (John Green, The Book Thief, Hunger Games, etc.) and my brain aches.
I love reading anything by or about Toni Morrison, so it was nice to spend an afternoon in her studio. However, I was mystified by two pronouncements in this article:
1. "Morrison wears her age like an Elizabethan regent or a descendant of Othello": really, OTHELLO?
2. "three of [her works] — “The Bluest Eye,” “Sula” and “Song of Solomon” -- are now considered classics": Again, really???? Not "Beloved," at least?
1. "Morrison wears her age like an Elizabethan regent or a descendant of Othello": really, OTHELLO?
2. "three of [her works] — “The Bluest Eye,” “Sula” and “Song of Solomon” -- are now considered classics": Again, really???? Not "Beloved," at least?
12
Just to clarify re. #2-- the sentence is specifically about 1984, and Beloved was published in 1987.
But I agree with you entirely about the Othello reference-- weird!
But I agree with you entirely about the Othello reference-- weird!
2
wow.. what an amazing article! so well written ... thanks Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah and thanks Toni Morrison. I am a white European woman and for some reason I just feel incredibly close to Morrison's writing. Beloved and The Bluest Eye are two of my favourite novels ever. Please Mrs. Morrison keep on writing.
4
I enjoyed reading about how writers have always had an opportunity to write themselves into the moment and the power of transforming reality and perception through the written word, despite various cultural barriers in the publishing world and the wider audience that yearn for a familiar narrative and experience. Morrison truly is a standard bearer for literary output for our diverse, rapidly changing world.
4
......yet for the first time I understood Morrison was a person with real human concerns.
And what exactly did you think you might have been reading?
And what exactly did you think you might have been reading?
5
Amazing
5
I was looking at Toni Morrison's 1992 book of essays, "Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power," and I was struck by the question: "Has any famous novelist ever been a worse writer of nonfiction prose?"
26
Steve--"Famous" isn't a synonym for "good"...
7
I remember thinking after reading "The Bluest Eye" that I had never read language like that, many sentences hurt to read like bee stings; so much pain in a child's illusions.
What has always been remarkable about her work is that every word she chose to put down on paper. even the funny ones, were in a minor key. It is musical writing after all—from a completely educated mind, which is to say completely educated in experience as well as learning. So many writers have the language but hide behind their talent but don't have courage to feel true suffering. That is never the case with Toni Morrison.
What has always been remarkable about her work is that every word she chose to put down on paper. even the funny ones, were in a minor key. It is musical writing after all—from a completely educated mind, which is to say completely educated in experience as well as learning. So many writers have the language but hide behind their talent but don't have courage to feel true suffering. That is never the case with Toni Morrison.
16
On this rainy NYC morning, I have joyful tears. I have learned a little more about one of my favorite authors, and the article is well written. Thank you for telling a truth and publishing it for the world to read. Bravo!!!
7
Thank you for providing so much the context of Ms. Morrison. It's what I hope for from the NYT; a good dose of the historical, personal, literary surrounding an icon. I want more interviews and articles of this depth from this writer and the NYT. And to the writer: Don't let the bastards grind you down. I'll see more of your name, I'm betting I won't see more of theirs.
11
Wow! I come away from this piece with a really strong impression not only of the subject but of the reporter who wrote it. I am impressed with both.
5
I love this photograph of her; its very rich. She such an excellent writer, whose work I've enjoyed through time.
5
Stunning photo of a truly beautiful woman.
8
I've never read any of Ms. Morrison's books but have admired her greatly as someone who has had to fight for the oxygen that she gets to breath. I remember an interview in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle magazine, I believe it was, where she stated how some of the basically white, male literary establishment at a point was admonishing her about "she needed to read all those great white male authors in order that she become something," blah, blah. At which point she said: " I HAVE read them, I had to to get my education." Sort of hilarious! This was the 1990's, and people were still trying to discount her talent.
5
I have to disagree with most comments here. I have read her stuff and find it only OK. I wanted to like it, I wanted to admire it, but could not. "Beloved" was just unreadable.
38
I've often said the same thing about Faulkner, which only means I guess that we all have our preferences.
6
Its not easy to TRUST the writer, that she will tell you everything you need to know until that moment when all is suddenly revealed like a lightening bolt and the journey continues. That is what reading Toni Morrison is about. Breathtaking.
1
Mike, the first 30 pages or so are tough at first. You may have to reread them and pay close attention. The first time I picked up the book, it was summer and I wasn't willing to invest in it. I remember telling friends it was unreadable. Second time around, I found it to be a revelation, honestly.
4
When I saw Toni Morrison’s face on the front page, I almost had a heart attack. “Oh, no! Not her!” I repeated. I thought she was dead. I know she must die, but still.
So I am very happy that Toni is alive and well. What a wonderful piece this is! Thank you!
I listen to Sarah Vaughn often and wonder: how on earth did anyone decide – after hearing her voice – that he or she would or could sing? Really? You want to sing? Hmph.
I feel the same about Morrison: how on earth did anyone dare to pick up the pen after reading one of her novels? Of course, many have. But still.
So I am very happy that Toni is alive and well. What a wonderful piece this is! Thank you!
I listen to Sarah Vaughn often and wonder: how on earth did anyone decide – after hearing her voice – that he or she would or could sing? Really? You want to sing? Hmph.
I feel the same about Morrison: how on earth did anyone dare to pick up the pen after reading one of her novels? Of course, many have. But still.
9
The boxing in of Ms. Morrison's work into a category of "black literature" seems to be too confining and limiting.
31
....and an effort to diminish, even though after reading this profile I think it is a category she would warmly embrace.
2
"one of the greatest authors in American history" Really? Influential in contemporary literature, very good, insightful? Sure. But, 'greatest' in our history? Perhaps if the list contains a thousand names. A bit less hyperbole, please.
48
One thousand? That is hyperbole. Beloved is a towering achievement in all of literature and evokes the gaping wound of slavery that still pains our nation in an unparalleled manner. American literary history is short, and so it easy to argue that Ms. Morrison is one of the greatest, and would be on a list as long as the number of fingers on my hand. But Beloved is a world masterpiece comparable to Ulysses, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and even my own favorite Invisible Man. There are not that many authors that seem indispensable to our culture, but Toni Morrison is unquestionably one of them -- a world without her contributions would be meaningfully diminished.
10
It said "ONE of the greatest" not the greatest. Have you ever even read a Toni Morrison text? People hate to read that a person of color is considered "one of the greatest" but I am sure the "greatest Black/African-American authors" would have been more pleasing to you.
You have to give credit where it is due and Morrison is GREAT!
You have to give credit where it is due and Morrison is GREAT!
12
What beautiful pictures of Ms. Morrison in this article. They really capture the essence of her spirit.
11
What is great about Toni Morrison's writing is that it is real and genuine and when you read it, it becomes you and you know that the words she has written was the way it was. Her direct sincerity is more precious and rare than all the contrived writing that passes as literature today.
7
I had always loved the cadence of Toni Morrison's prose. It served as a sustaining bass line that supported the astonishing lyricism that inevitably took flight above it. It was not until Beloved, however, that the bass line became the profound song and powerful melody for me. At times I set it down, overwhelmed by its pure literary force. It made me shiver and I needed a break to catch my breath, to walk about for a bit. There is no other novel that has had such an effect on me. In it she captures the incomprehensible depths of slavery's pain and evil, and what can happen when a human is held in bondage and is a thing. Jackson is right. It is the most important American novel of our lifetime.
41
Fully agree. She is one of the most important novelists of our time.
2
I had exactly the same experience...had to just put the book down and remind myself to breathe at times; cried at points, sometimes at random places, especially when simultaneously experiencing beauty and terror. I don't think people who haven't read Beloved can understand the reverence she engenders.
1
Wonderfully put -- having to stop, walk around a bit, breathe -- my experience of her novel also included a shivering, and a recognition that I was reading the finest American novel written after the WWII.
2
I read Beloved soon after it was published -- it took me two days, during which I hardly slept. That book changed my life, permanently. I don't think I realized before that reading how powerful novels could be -- not just the stories told, but the methods and styles used in the writing -- the very words themselves, in magical combinations. My literature and writing students have Morrison largely to thank for having me as their instructor. The debt I owe her is immeasurable. She taught me he power of shared history, of memory, of motherhood, of love of self. Toni Morrison taught me that I am my best thing.
40
You write beautifully of Beloved, Tess, and I fully subscribe to your embrace of it in every way. Your students are indeed quite fortunate.
2
No artist, no intellectual, has looked more keenly and more closely into the abyss of race, gender, and class than Toni Morrison. Her intellectual ferocity, her ancestral wisdom, cut across American Letters like a lightening strike on a dark summer night. From her first novel, Toni Morrison asserted herself into the discourse of this of this country. By writing out of her cultural experience, she taught us all something about humanity. No artist intellectual has ever spoken to me, or this country, more profoundly than Toni Morrison. She is like a sun holding an entire solar system together. The lifeblood of American letters has resided on her pen for the past quarter century. No one has come close to the High Priestess of Literature, the Grande Dame of the Written Word. This profile is an excellent one, and offered a take on Ms. Morrison that I had been dying to read. Toni Morrison is as unapologetic as ever. Her command as present as ever. As a student of Ms. Morrison, who published a major critique of her last year when I questioned her decision to not leave her papers with her Alma Mater, Howard University, I found it interesting that the writer realizes how greedy it is for her to want from Toni Morrison. I, myself, have no interest in meeting Ms. Morrison personally as I feel she had been more than generous with her writings over the past years. I hope that she continues to write and write and write. There is still so much to say, and only she can say it.
34
Your insights are very illuminating, thanks. I agree wholeheartedly that Toni Morrison is a force of nature, and that the NY Times has done us all a great service by presenting this majestic presence of the world of letters in such a fascinating light.
4
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon
O cant you see it, O can't you see it
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon
... When the sun goes down
"Karintha," Jean Toomer, Cane
Toni Morrison's art is redolent. Thank you Ms Morrison!
O cant you see it, O can't you see it
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon
... When the sun goes down
"Karintha," Jean Toomer, Cane
Toni Morrison's art is redolent. Thank you Ms Morrison!
5
As a native of northeastern Ohio, I find veracity in Ms. Morrison's description of Lorain, OH. It was a city of great steel mills, auto manufacturing, and large shipbuilding. Lorain was where George Steinbrenner's family made the money to buy the Yankees.
Charles Dickens' disdain for and description of the area as being populated by morose people does not surprise me. The grey skies that come off the lake induce that sensibility. His visit came before the wholesale industrialization of northeastern Ohio. However, he had seen those types before in industrial England. During the same trip to the U.S., Dickens compared smoke-filled Pittsburgh to Birmingham, U.K.
Industrial Ohio was best of places, and it was the worst of places. It enabled destitute, hardscrabble people to become middle-class overnight. But that security came at a price of dirty, hard labor, poor health, and cheek-by-jowl philistinism. Some very tough ballplayers came out of Lorain.
In the past, Ms. Morrison has said that she encountered racism in Lorain. I have no doubt that is true. But I am also confident that she and her father got a much better deal in industrialized Lorain than on a sharecropper spread down South. Nearby Oberlin College graduated its first black student in 1844.
Ohio had the most active network of the underground railroad of any state. Several stops were close to Lorain. Perhaps that was the source of the merriment in the black man observed by Dickens.
Charles Dickens' disdain for and description of the area as being populated by morose people does not surprise me. The grey skies that come off the lake induce that sensibility. His visit came before the wholesale industrialization of northeastern Ohio. However, he had seen those types before in industrial England. During the same trip to the U.S., Dickens compared smoke-filled Pittsburgh to Birmingham, U.K.
Industrial Ohio was best of places, and it was the worst of places. It enabled destitute, hardscrabble people to become middle-class overnight. But that security came at a price of dirty, hard labor, poor health, and cheek-by-jowl philistinism. Some very tough ballplayers came out of Lorain.
In the past, Ms. Morrison has said that she encountered racism in Lorain. I have no doubt that is true. But I am also confident that she and her father got a much better deal in industrialized Lorain than on a sharecropper spread down South. Nearby Oberlin College graduated its first black student in 1844.
Ohio had the most active network of the underground railroad of any state. Several stops were close to Lorain. Perhaps that was the source of the merriment in the black man observed by Dickens.
24
An absolutely outstanding piece about one of our--America's, African America's, the Black Diaspora's, the globe's--greatest visionaries and artists. Beautifully written. Thank you, New York Times.
71
I loved what I read about one of the greatest novelists of our time.
4
Agree. And thank you Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah!
1
I read The Bluest Eye in my early 20s in the mid-80s, and it so altered my view of the world as to change the very trajectory of my life. I've never yet read a review of her work or treatment of her personality that comes anywhere close to doing justice to her contribution to American letters and consciousness. No offense intended to the author, but the fact that the NY Times allowed such an uneven, unseasoned writer to write this article says I'm-not-sure-what about the people in a position to make those assignments. I would expect something far more nuanced and mature from the NY Times Magazine. I bet Morrison is shaking her head at her erroneous belief that the NY Times was worthy of her time.
22
It is a weak, self-serving review, but, in my mind, because the reviewer spends so much time insisting on Morrison's greatness one begins to suspect it's not as assured as she thinks. She doesn't trust Morrison's own work to carry the day on that issue. Personally, I'm not sold on it, and nobody should be pleased with the fact that she received a Pulitzer only after 48 black writers and intellectuals insisted she should have one, least of all Morrison herself. No artist should be denied recognition because of her race or gender, nor granted it.
37
How anyone could call the writer of the article "uneven" and "unseasoned" is beyond logic. The article is beautifully written. I was captivated and moved by the words of the NYTimes writer. I came to a better understanding of the works of Toni Morrison. It is an excellent piece.
43
I disagree with you. The article was well written.
3
Thank you for this essay. It gave me goose bumps reading about Morrison's greatness, and shivers to think of the loss of her stories, and others' stories left untold.
11
"Uncompromising Royalty", is how I describe "Miss" Toni Morrison. The fullness and brevity of her body of work, has yet to be fully absorbed not just by the African-American AND African community, but throughout the rest of the world. The Universal culture of future millennium will reach for her works, in their attempt to understand the behaviors of our primitive culture.
7
Marva, thank you for highlighting the tradition of how to address our elders, one that is as familiar to Black people as the wooden-handled cardboard fans found in our churches: Miss Morrison or even Miss Toni is the accepted, not the too "familiar" Toni or the genderless Morrison. As my grandmother used to remind us, and once was usually enough, "Put a handle on that name."
Miss Morrison's ears must sting each time a staffer refers to her as Toni, unless they have been invited to do so.
Miss Morrison's ears must sting each time a staffer refers to her as Toni, unless they have been invited to do so.
2
I too felt sadness at reading this great profile. Thank you.
8
I was wondering why Saul Bellow wasn't mentioned as he was awarded
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976.
Thank you for providing me with a glimpse into Toni Morrison.