Weekly Reader: The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison; The Best Words From The Celebrated Late Author
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with more than 20 letters in the title (57)
When Toni Morrison died in 2019, she left behind a tremendous legacy as one of the best authors of the 20th and 21st century. Her novels such as, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Sula, Jazz, and especially her masterpiece, Beloved are brilliant works with strong themes of racial and gender issues. When one reads a work by Toni Morrison, they are entering the world of a master storyteller.
With apologies to Emily Dickinson, Morrison's book, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations is her letter to the world. It is a collection of her non-fiction essays, speeches, and other works. Published the same year as her death, it is almost set up as Morrison's farewell letter so she can express her views and have the final word.
The book has plenty of great works that express Morrison's views on various topics including race, gender, art, and other issues. The best are:
Part 1: The Foreigner's Home
"The Foreigner's Home"-The majority of the works in Part 1, feature Morrison at her most biting. In many of her essays, Morrison captured a word in its various meanings. In "The Foreigner's Home," she used the term "globalism" in all of its various definitions. She recognized the term as a means for the redistribution of wealth, but she also saw it as a code for forcing Western values and ideals onto other countries and ignoring these other countries' uniqueness. She also noted the globalized view of distorting what is public and destroying what is private.
She cited a book called The Radiance of the King which demonstrates that distorted view of globalism. In the book, a white man is ready to meet the king of an African village. He is possessed with the whole White Man's Burden ideal. It is only after he is humbled and stripped of his conferred dominance, that he is able to achieve Enlightenment and appear before the king.
"Moral Inhabitants"-Morrison took on American History in her works. She often looked at the world from the point of view of people who were considered "the Other" from the white male majority. In this essay, she cited how the writings from the past reflected how many figures really felt about black people, Native Americans, and immigrants. She dryly recounted a statistic from Colonial times which listed slaves right between rice and tar. The statistic also noted how many died, or were drawn back for exportation. (" 'Died', 'drawn back,-strange, violent words that could never be used to describe rice, tar, or turpentine," Morrison wrote)
If that wasn't uncomfortable enough, the quotes from noted historical figures can be an eye opening experience. Morrison used actual quotes from the likes of Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Franklin, and William Byrd to reflect their views on those considered "The Other." Byrd's journal entries noted the number of times slaves were whipped. Benjamin Franklin said "Why increase the Sons of Africa by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red?"
In a time when people want to deify people from the past, it is important to remember their views no matter how negative that they may be. Being clear and honest about the past recognizes the enemy of hatred and helps people in the present challenge that hatred.
"The Habit of Art"-This essay can be summarized into three words: "Art is fierce." Morrison cited several examples in which people used their art to protest and challenge the world view around them.
Two examples in particular stand out.
One took place during the dictatorship in Haiti in which the government declared that it was illegal for anyone to retrieve and bury anyone killed by the Tonton Mascoutes. They were only to be gathered by a government garbage truck. Fed up, a teacher organized the performance of a certain play that was performed night after night. The Mascoutes assumed that they were just performing a mindless amateur theatrical failing to realize that the performance was heavy in significance. The play was Antigone, which was about a woman who risked execution to bury her deceased brother against her uncle, the king's regulations.
Another example involved a conversation that Morrison had with a writer from North Africa. She begged for Morrison's aid because in her home country, female writers were being shot in the streets because they were considered a threat to the regime. Both examples showed how art can be considered dangerous, but can also be used to fight against oppressive ideals and to tell the truth. Many artists consider those ideals worth facing arrest and dying for.
"Harlem On My Mind: Contesting Memory-Meditations on Museums, Culture, and Integration"- Morrison also wrote about the struggles of the artist in society closer to home. In this essay, she wrote about an exhibit during the 1960's at the Metropolitan Museum of New York called Harlem on My Mind. This exhibit was supposed to be reflective of the art and culture of Harlem, featuring photographs, murals, slides etc of Harlem's mostly black residents.
During an era of great political change, this exhibition met with a lot of controversy, particularly from the black community. They protested the lack of representation either on the committee or in the exhibit. They felt that they were not being represented properly and felt that their artists should speak for themselves and not through someone else's interpretation.
Morrison also recognized how artists of color struggled to be recognized as artists and not just representatives of their ethnic group. She recognized that great strides have been made of recognizing different artists and voices, but more strides needed to be done.
"The Novel Lecture on Literature"-Morrison's speech for accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 is certainly her most famous non-fiction work. It has been antholgized and quoted many times. (I personally have several copies of it in my literature collections.) The reason is because it reflects how important language is to not only writers but to anyone.
She began her speech telling a story about three young people holding a bird and confronting a wise blind elderly storyteller with the question of whether the bird was alive or dead. The storyteller said, "I don't know if the bird is alive or dead, but I know the bird is in your hands. It is in your hands."
The bird could symbolize anything to anybody, the future, youth, leadership. But to Morrison, a celebrated and award winning author, the bird symbolized language. In her speech, Morrison recognized the power language has, not just as a means for communication but as something that could create unity or destruction. Oppressive language could be as destructive as any weapon and convey a sense of mastery that does not encourage separate thoughts or ideas. Language can also bring things and people to life, by associating things with words and empowering others. The words allow people and things to live on even after they are physically gone. The word remains.
Like the storyteller, Morrison challenges her Listeners and Readers to recognize the power that language holds and that we give it that power by our words. The bird is in our hands. What are we going to do with it?
"Cinderella's Stepsisters"-Besides racial issues, Morrison also wrote about gender conflicts. In this brief, but interesting essay, Morrison used Cinderella's stepsisters as a metaphor for women turning on other women.
Sometimes women of different ideologies, personalities, ethnicities, etc. attack each other rather than aid one another. Perhaps they see other women as competition. Perhaps they themselves are oppressed by dominating forces and attack other women perhaps to take out their own frustrations or for themselves to feel superior. Morrison asked that women do not participate "in the oppression of (their) sisters."
Interlude: Black Matters
"Black Matters"-This part features questions about race and gender in literature. Morrison discusses how early American literature was created by people who mixed their old world culture and valuesz with their new surroundings to create a distinctly American style. With early African-Americans, that also came from what Morrison called Africanism, being seen as the Other and being forcibly removed from their homes instead of voluntarily. With the exception of a few published authors and slave narratives, much of the 18th and 19th century views of black people came from the words of white authors.
Morrison cited The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as an example. While many Readers saw Jim and Huck's journey as a voyage for their freedom, particularly Jim's, Morrison saw Jim's journey in less idealistic terms. She believed that Mark Twain and Huck could only understand Jim's plight through their own perspective. Because of that, Jim is seen less of a complete character, but almost as a plot device what he represents to Huck not who he is on his own. She finds Huck and Tom's mockery of Jim to be unconscionable and reflective of him as a device not a character.
This essay shows how American Literature evolved with the times and how different creators can be used to capture those voices to create a complete picture about what it means to be an American.
"Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature"-It means something when an author who is considered "canon literature," questions that term. In her talent for words and language, Morrison considered calling this essay "canon fodder." She was interested in the double meaning, because the term cannon fodder referred to soldiers, usually from poor or ethnic backgrounds, who were sent to the front lines to die without their sacrifices recognized. The other meaning is canon, the works that are considered the shape of literature, the classics. "When the two words faced each other, the image became the shape of the canon wielded on (or by) the body of law. The book of power announcing an officially recognized set of texts," she said. Morrison recognized how hard it can be for canon literature to be opened to include female writers and writers of color.
Morrison broke down many of the arguments others have had about African-American art such as "African-American art exists but it is inferior." She challenges these assumptions and recognizes how African-American artists and writers use their sociology, culture, history, and struggles to convey their works and how the presence of African-Americans reshaped the American canon.
Morrison analyzed the opening lines of her own works and how she drew from her culture and experiences to convey her literature. For example the opening line from The Bluest Eye is "Quiet as it's kept there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941." Morrison said that this line comes from a familiar phrase urging the listener to keep a secret. She aimed for that cultural intimacy from her own background to draw the Reader into this story of violence and incest. The reference to marigolds suggests a child's way of interpreting the world around her. The narrator recognizes the violent acts towards her friend and uses a superstition that she hears from others to find meaning. This opening line from The Bluest Eye illustrates how an African-American author used her own culture and experiences to shape contemporary literature.
"Gertrude Stein and the Difference She Makes"-One of the best tributes are the ones that one artist pays to another. This essay demonstrates Morrison's tribute to Gertrude Stein, the author who was identified with the Modernist movement.
Morrison particularly analyzes Stein's book Three Lives which tells about three women, Good Anna, Melanctha, and Gentle Lena. Morrison was particularly intrigued by Stein's characterization of Melanctha, the African-American character as compared to the other two German-American women.
Morrison acknowledged that Stein's book dips into some of the racism of her day. Anna and Lena are indentified by their country of origin as German immigrants while Melanctha is American, but is identified by her skin color. There were also comparisons between the light-skinned Melanctha and the darker-skinned, Rose who is considered more dangerous than Melanctha.
However, Morrison also noted that Melanctha is the most developed of the three protagonists in Three Lives. She is the most active and strong willed of the trio. Melanctha also makes the strongest stance for freedom of sexuality and knowledge. Morrison compares Stein's protagonists "Three Lives moves from the contemplation of the asexual spinster's life-the Good Anna-in its struggle for control and meaning, to and through the quest for sexual knowledge (which Stein calls wisdom) in the person and body of Melanctha, an Africanistic woman; to the presumably culminating female experience of marriage and birth-the Gentle Lena."
She also said that while the three women come to sad ends, it is only Melanctha that learns from her experience. She learns about love and acceptance from her friends. Even though Stein wrote like a forward thinking woman of her time, Morrison recognized her ability to capture the voice of a woman that she would have considered The Other.
Part II: God's Language
"God's Language"-In this section, Morrison covers art and literature and where such inspiration comes from. This essay recounts how Morrison created her novel, Paradise and what a word like "Paradise" means to some people. She had to find a way to define such a term that had been seen through religious and spiritual eyes they don't reflect those of her characters. "How to render expressive religious language credibly and effectively in postmodern fiction….which represents the everyday practice of nineteenth-century African-Americans and their children, nor lends itself to postmodern narrative strategies. The second problem then is part of the first: how to narrate persuasively profound and motivating faith in and to a highly securlarized, contemporary "scientific" world. In short, how to reimagine paradise."
Besides defining paradise for her book, Morrison also wrote on a larger scale what it has grown to mean in general. It has been overimagined and overused. Modern religion and narratives fail to capture the early flowery language of Paradise's meaning, in an attempt to claim and own the ideal. Morrison chose instead to reveal the consequences of such terms instead of just defining it.
"Grendel and His Mother"-Like "Cinderella's Stepsisters", Morrison used an older story to find meaning in reality. She looks at the antagonists from Beowulf, Grendel and his mother to analyze how villainy is portrayed in ancient and Postmodern literature.
Grendel is seen as evil incarnate, no history, no motivation. He just is. His mother on the other hand can be identifiable. She seeks vengeance and is driven by love for her son.
John Gardner's novel, Grendel gives a much needed analysis on Beowulf's villain. Morrison saw Grendel as a native, someone perceived as The Other, trying to defend his home from invaders and understanding his place in the world.
"On Beloved"-By far, Morrison's greatest work is Beloved. Morrison often began her works by asking a question. In Beloved's case, the question was how other than equal rights, access, pay etc. does the women's movement define the freedom being sought particularly over control over one's body and how the women's movement involved encouragement of women to support other women.
Morrison recognized these struggles when she chose to tell the story from the point of view of a former slave who killed her daughter rather then return her to slavery. Morrison used her imagination to picture the life of a woman who had to make the decision to save a child from a fate worse than death and to rely on other women when she is haunted by the spirit of that late child. She used Beloved's haunting of Sethe as a metaphor for the past of slavery haunting the people who lived under those institutions.
"Tribute to Romare Beardon"- Morrison recognized artists of many types from Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart to funny man, Peter Sellers. One of those was artist, Romare Beardon.
Just as Morrison saw truth, wisdom, and beauty through words, she felt that Beardon saw those things in color, form, and images. She saw the "aesthetic implications," as Beardon described also in jazz and blues music which was an inspiration for both hers and Beardon's work. She saw the dialogue between Bearden and music as a union between art forms.
She believed that Beardon should be viewed in galleries and recognized as a canon artist.
"Goodbye To All That: Race, Surrogacy, and Farewell"-A true artist knows how to say goodbye in their own way. David Bowie and Johnny Cash summarized their illustrious careers with the music videos for "Lazarus" and "Hurt" respectively with images that called back to the two men in their prime contrasting to their frail appearances. The Beatles ended their partnership with the hit, "The Long and Winding Road" coming full circle with the mournful echo of "yeah, yeah, yeah." (Calling back to the more joyful "She Loves You.") This essay could be considered Morrison's goodbye. After all, it is not difficult to read about her legacy as an African-American female writer and how characters of different races said farewell without thinking of Morrison's own end. Though she died from complications from pneumonia and this may have been unplanned, this essay, the second to the last in this book, is a fitting final word.
Morrison mused on being thought of as an African-American female writer (as though she had a choice to be either African-American or female). She knew that she recognized that her works were going to by definition be about race and gender, so she sought to create works that opened those discussions. She allowed those topics to draw people of all races inward so they can recognize those experiences.
One of the ways that Morrison explored this concept was discussing the relationships between black and white women. Her own work, Beloved involved a powerful moment when Sethe, a former slave, and Amy Denver, a white woman who helped her escape and give birth to her daughter, Denver, have to leave each other. "They speak not of farewell; how to fix the memory of one in the mind of the other or as with Sethe, how to immortalize in the encounter beyond her own temporal life. ...Washing up on the bank of the Ohio River is our knowing that if both women had been the same race they could have, they might have, would have stayed together and shared their fortune."
Morrison recognized the change in paradigms for reading and writing literature and that writers are a part of changing those paradigms. Morrison said, "To the racial anchor that weighed down the language and its imaginative possibilities. How novel would it be if in this case, life imitated art….If, in fact, it I was not a (raced) foreigner but a home girl, who already belonged to the human race."
And she did. Toni Morrison was not just one of the greatest African-American writers, nor one of the greatest women authors. She was one of the greatest human authors.
