Morrison, Toni - Beloved

[oyceter]

I first read this as an assignment in tenth grade, which was not optimal in many ways, one of the foremost being how tenth-grade boys will giggle at the mention of the word "fuck," particularly when it has to do with cows. The other is that Morrison's prose is very dense, so much so that I had a difficult time following it even now. Technically, it's not actually the prose that's dense, but the way Morrison will slip from one timeframe to another in a sentence, go on for a few pages, and then return.

I think I would have done much better had there been manga-esque black borders marking each flashback.

Sethe is an escaped slave with a past more horrifying than most, and when her old friend Paul D shows up, the ghostly presence haunting her house begins to get a little less ghostly and a little more physical. This is a story about how the past haunts us, figuratively and literally, how it can steal into the present and poison it, how something like slavery just keeps echoing and echoing and echoing.

I admired the way Morrison slipped from past to present; even though it was confusing, it felt very appropriate for the book, since Sethe and Paul D can't keep themselves in the present all the time as well. I also liked the feeling of love so thick it suffocates, both Beloved's and Sethe's. Denver was always my favorite when I read it for class, and she remains so on rereading. I like that she's the one to not just avoid the past (Paul D) or succumb to it (Sethe), but goes out to do something about it, balancing between remembering the past without being consumed by it.

I wish I had more to say about this book -- I felt like I missed tons while reading it, as it is not a good book to read when one's brain is not working, like mine.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Beloved. I wish I'd read it more recently, so I could actually have something intelligent to say. The section that's Beloved's POV of the slave ship, if I'm remembering it correctly, is brilliant.

[oyceter]

I wish I loved it! I think I admire it greatly from a distance right now; the prose is amazing, especially the section you talk about (and how it goes with Sethe's section and Denver's), and I like the focus on rememory and the imagery. But I'm not sure I was able to parse all of it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read August Wilson? He's a playwright, which may be a bit weird if you're not used to reading plays. But he's brilliant and covers a lot of similar territory in his black history cycle (one for each decade of the twentieth century) in terms of the way that the past is not past, the sense of history being real and present, and magical realism.

My favorites are Joe Turner's Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson. You might also like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which is about a woman singer and the struggles of being black and in show business.

By the way, do not, as I initially did, confuse him with the prominent playwright Lanford Wilson, who often writes about the struggles of white New Yorkers. I briefly thought they were the same person due to them being shelved next to each other, and was amazed at the very different subject matter and voices!

[oyceter]

I haven't! I'll check those out.

[seraphcelene]

Reading Toni Morrison is always an excercise in active participation, more so than with many other books. Regardless of whether of not I am reading one of her books for a class or for pleasure I always end up with notes all over the margins. I find that it helps me to organize my thoughts and gain a better hold on what's happening and on what levels. An interesting thing about Beloved, I don't know if you know, is that it's part of a sort of series. The character of Beloved shows up in different incarnations in two other Morrison books: Jazz and Paradise.

[oyceter]

The character of Beloved shows up in different incarnations in two other Morrison books: Jazz and Paradise.

Oh, I didn't know that, cool!

I think I would have fallen in love had I read this for a good college class, but right now, my brain sort of fails.

[heresluck]

Yeah, I fell in love with the book precisely because of reading it in my first college English class; there was so much there that I didn't get, but what I did get I LOVED, and I WANTED to get the rest of it. When I returned to the book, I was so much more ready for it -- and now I teach it in my senior research seminar, and one of the joys of the class for me was watching students fall in love with Morrison and want to read her other books.

I'm not sure that Beloved is the best introduction to Morrison, actually. Sula and Song of Solomon are also complex and satisfying (in different ways) without being quite so overwhelmingly packed with narrative information; I think you're right that Beloved is really rather difficult to parse. (Plus Song of Solomon draws on the myth of the flying Africans -- always a good time!)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Song of Solomon is ten kinds of awesome and indeed a better introduction.

[oyceter]

Hrm, ok, maybe I will try that one. Though maybe after March so my brain has time to unwind!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That might not be a bad idea!

[oyceter]

Yeah, there's so much there that I feel is completely going over my head, which makes me feel guilty for not being able to dedicate enough brainspace to it. I'd really like to be able to just listen to other people talk about it.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Lorain the school systems here love to assign Morrison novels. I have read Sula and Song of Solomon while my sister was assigned Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Sadly, I have absolutely no interest in her novels. While I think some of that can be attributed to the forced-to-read-in-school thing, I never felt changed by her novels in the same way that Cat's Cradle or the other required reading changed me, independent of my enjoyment of the book.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Beloved is always in an interesting mental place for me, because of where and when I read it. My eleventh-grade English teacher thought it was a giant metaphor for the black community needing to get over the legacy of slavery, which struck me as a bit wtf at the time and as completely batshit now. It's really dense, and I think I should probably re-read it at some point, but at the same time there are a lot of layers of unpleasant there, too, and I'm never sure I want to go through it all over again just to get what I missed.

[oyceter]

My eleventh-grade English teacher thought it was a giant metaphor for the black community needing to get over the legacy of slavery, which struck me as a bit wtf at the time and as completely batshit now.

Um. OK. That is... very interesting....

How in the world did s/he come up with that?

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I was seventeen, so it was like, 'oh, okay.' And then I got older and reread the book and went...um. What.

Oh, and she was Southern and white, and I think it retrospect it was more about how she felt about blacks and slavery. Which was...interesting.

[oyceter]

Yes, that is definitely not the message I was getting from the book ;).

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

It's been interesting to realize how much and how quickly I lost respect for her-- this being one of the symptoms-- as I got older.