Morrison writes of Melville

Here are some of Toni Morrison’s thoughts on blackness in 19^th century American literature that may inform our upcoming reading of Moby Dick:

“It only seems that the canon of American literature is “naturally” or “inevitably” white…Perhaps some of these [19^th century white American] writers have much more to say than has been realized.  Perhaps some were not so much transcending politics, or escaping blackness, as they were transforming it into intelligible, accessible, yet artistic modes of discourse.  The reexamination of founding literature of the United States for the unspeakable unspoken may reveal those texts to have deeper and other meaning, deeper and other power, deeper and other significances.  One such writer, in particular, it has been almost impossible to keep under lock and key is Herman Melville.”

“…if the white whale is the ideology of race, what Ahab has lost to it is personal dismemberment and family and society and his own place as a human in the world.  The trauma of racism is, for the racist and the victim, the severe fragmentation of the self, and has always seemed to me a cause (not a symptom) of psychosis…”

“I would not like to be understood to argue that Melville was engaged in…simpleminded black/white didacticism, or that he was satanizing white people…What I am suggesting is that he was overwhelmed by the philosophical and metaphysical inconsistencies of an extraordinary and unprecedented idea that had its fullest manifestation in his own time in his own country, and that that idea was the successful assertion of whiteness as ideology.”

Morrison, Toni. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations. Alfred A. Knopf., 2019.

The Bluest Eye discussions

We had a great first round of discussions.  Here are my notes, very loosely organized.  Please comment and add your own thoughts!

Reactions?

Beautiful

Painful

Compelling

Great social observations of class

Who is the main character?

No way that Pecola could narrate her own story

Ensemble piece rather than Pecola as a main character

Other characters flush out the picture of Pecola - the layers build

Do we accept that Pecola is the main character?  We get to know the other characters
because of her 

The novel opens and closes with her - Morrison has provided these other people
to tell her story so that you can see how inevitable her undoing is

Not so sure that there needs to be one main character - the contrast
between Claudia and Pecola is the main thing - she and her sister learn from
Pecola’s experience

Pecola is the main character in that everybody needed her to feel better,
either sexually, or socially or whatever

Maureen Peal

Maureen Peal is an excellent composite of a certain type of person in the black community

How could Maureen be so hateful?

Maureen has the manipulative power and cruelty of an adult, or worse

Soaphead Church

Let’s talk about Soaphead Church - it seemed like he came out of the
blue- he is only alluded to - when Henry abuses Frieda, Claudia asks if he did it like
Soaphead -a foreshadowing   

Why is Soaphead Church in the book?  He’s obviously gay and
doesn’t know what to do with it.  - he’s a vehicle for Pecola’s undoing -
if you accept that Pecola is the main character,then his main role is to push
Pecola over the edge

Pecola is a thing for Soaphead - the only things he connects with are things -
he makes a thing, an instrument of Pecola

Soaphead misquotes the Bible 

Soaphead is seen by the town’s women as untouchable

Soaphead goes further than Job in chastising God - he takes God’s role

Cholly

How should we feel about Cholly

Everyone accepts that Aunt Jimmy died from peach cobbler

Morrison’s description of the old women at Chollly’s aunt’s funeral
almost sounds Buddhist - freedom from striving, fear of pain

Can Cholly be forgiven?

The line after the rape - the only sound she makes is the air coming out of a balloon

Claudia and Frieda

There were no black dolls when I was growing up - a lack of positive images
for African American women

Claudia has conscious disdain for the standards

Difference between poverty and less poverty

Some groups need to feel that there is something lesser than they -
even though Claudia and Frieda care, they liked knowing that Pecola is beneath them

But - only Claudia and Frieda wanted someone to want the baby to live -
they plant the seeds, have more compassion

But - did they want the baby to live so that the cycle of having someone
below them could continue?

Dick and Jane

The Dick and Jane text - sentences collapsed because children couldn’t
make any sense of Dick and Jane

A falling apart of meaning - or is it a taunt

The jammed together words are like a droning that races through her brain

In the 60s the spell was beginning to be broken

Pecola

Where does it actually say the Breedloves are ugly - page 38

Reader sees ugliness as inferior

Pecola is flower that’s a weed

The Bluest Eye

Picture of a couple of places and times

The Bluest Eye has the makings of several books

She put everything into this one first book, it in fact has the makings of several novels

The gorgeous language stands out

Could be the story of many different marginalized peoples

Morrison: beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something
one could do - does this mean ‘beauty is as beauty does’

Idea for the blue eyes comes from: the blue-eyed little girl Pauline
takes care of, Shirley Temple, her mother’s standards of beauty

Is the bluest eye anything that makes us feel more accepted? It could be
any other thing - what is your personal bluest eye?  

You can make a god of anything

Lots of talk about eyes and being seen and not being seen - p 48- shopkeeper
doesn’t see Pecola because for him there is nothing to see

Other topics

Why the sequence of the seasons - beginning with the autumn

The school year?

Seasons may refer to an agricultural year - Pecola has her first period
in the beginning, is impregnated, but it’s all wrong

The prostitutes are good, the preachers are bad

At one time the St. Louis department stores would only hire light-skinned black employees

One reader identifies with the candy store scene - she has had similar experiences

This book has been in the top ten most banned books list several times in recent years

Some wonder whether today’s generation is more obsessed with
material possessions than color

Thursday discussion of "The Bluest Eye"

Some of the things we discussed during the second (Thursday) meeting:

Sense of a class divide as well as race-with Geraldine, her son, Louis Junior, and Maureen Peal, along with the white characters, the Fishers and Mr. Yacobowski, all of whom look down on the rest of the characters.

The MacTeers, Frieda and Claudia and their parents, who are mostly invisible, but obviously pretty good parents
Pecola is invisible and has no sense of self, everyone else sees her as ugly and she is willing to accept the role

Recommended reads from members of the group:
Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles Blow
Well Read Black Girl by Glory Edim, ed.

Other key moments we discussed:
Soaphead Church and his damaged self, damaging others.
Cholly, Pecola's horrible father, experiencing first sexual experience when forced into rape.

Dick and Jane portions at the start of the chapters, with normal spacing at first and then eventually running together, showing disintegration, this is the way the world is supposed to be. Reading Dick and Jane as  a taunt.

China, Poland, and Miss Marie (the Maginot Line), in many ways the happiest and most (maybe) well adjusted characters (most honest?) in the book

Wednesday night:

Not So Much Fun with Dick and Jane

By the time Morrison was writing The Bluest Eye in the mid-60s, Dick and Jane had been under criticism for years.  But Pecola, whose story is set around 1940, would have experienced the readers at the height of their popularity.  It is estimated that by the early 1950s some 80% of American school children had been introduced to the book series.

From our vantage point, it's easy to see what's problematic about these characters:

"Dick and Jane live in a suburban house surrounded by a white picket fence. Mother cheerfully does the housework. Father wears a suit to work and on weekends mows the grass and washes the car. Dick, the oldest of three, is well behaved and always in motion: bicycle-riding, kite-flying or playing fetch with Spot. His sister Jane is pretty and lighthearted and helps care for their baby sister, Sally, while never upstaging her brother. Illustrators chose her stylish and frilly wardrobe, updated about once every five years, from the catalogues of Sears, Roebuck & Company and Montgomery Ward." 
(Gabriel, Trip. “`Oh, Jane, See How Popular We Are.’.” New York Times, vol. 146, no. 50569, 3 Oct. 1996, p. C1.)

More about Dick and Jane can be found at this blog.  

For next week's discussion, or for commenting below, I'm wondering:

• How do you feel about Morrison's use of Dick and Jane as a frame to the novel?  Is it effective?
• If you used the Dick and Jane series as a student, what are your memories?  
• What are your experiences finding reading materials for children in your lives?  Do you visit children's libraries or bookstores often?  How difficult is it for you to find materials that you believe are meaningful for your child?

Why Black Dolls Matter

"The big, the special, the loving gift was always a big, blue-eyed Baby Doll. From the clucking sounds of adults I knew that the doll represented what they thought was my fondest wish. ... Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs—all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. 'Here,' they said, 'this is beautiful, and if you are on this day "worthy" you may have it."

In this passage from The Bluest Eye, young Claudia spells out why Pecola Breedlove so desperately desires blue eyes — because blue eyes, white skin, and blond hair represent the pinnacle of beauty, at least according to popular culture.

Researchers have been studying representation in dolls for ages. In 1947, Kenneth and Mamie Clark published this study, asking young African American children to pick out dolls that represent themselves, as well as to pick out dolls that they consider good and bad and that they'd most like to play with. Considered a landmark study, the findings reveal that a majority of the children associate white dolls with "good," black dolls with "bad," and continue to explain that, when asked to pick out the doll that closest represents themselves, several children broke down crying and would not choose.

There have been more black and brown dolls created and sold in the intervening years — I fondly remember cuddling with my black Cabbage Patch Kid, Vivian, and dressing up Whitney, my black Barbie doll, while my daughter has Doc McStuffins toys that she plays with. Even Disney is making strides toward diversity, introducing Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, Moana, Mulan, and Jasmine from Aladdin. But still, newer versions of the Clark study reveal the same results — both black and white children prefer white dolls to black ones, showing that systemic racism starts early.

Check out this blog post for a really great first-person account of why having dolls that look like you matters. As the author says, "All it takes is for one small thought like 'black dolls are stupid compared to white dolls' or “Superman isn’t Mexican” and little by little, you’ll start to pick apart certain things and relate them back to you."

And for those of us who are not people of color, this blog post offers an excellent reason why we not only need to make sure our kids have toys representing a variety of races and cultures, but also by supporting that with experiences and discussion.

The Bluest Eye...Where to Begin?

Jasmine Ward stars as Pecola at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre, 2018

The great thing about digging into a novel of The Bluest Eye's stature is that there is a wealth of commentary and criticism to consider; of course, this is also the tricky thing.  What to focus on?

The Library provides access to Ebsco Host, a database of both popular and scholarly periodical articles.  It contains hundreds of articles on the novel; this particular one was fascinating to me:



Saunders, James Robert. “Why Losing a Tooth Matters: Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Tooth’ and Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Midwest Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 2, Winter 2012, pp. 193–204.

To read, click on the link above and enter your U City Library card number, then click 'PDF full text' on the left side of the screen.

Some questions:

• The author points to the novel's discussion of the 'conditions' that existed which caused Pauline's tooth to rot.  What conditions would those be?  Are they only physical, or are they spiritual as well?
• The article author compares Pauline's lost tooth to Ahab's lost leg.  Is the comparison appropriate?  
• What is the connection between Pauline's tooth and the 'bluest eyes' that Pecola dreams of?

Please comment below!

Keynote Lecture Q and A

Take a look at the Q and A portion of Dr. Freeburg's talk, for answers to these and other questions:

• In your research, did you find that Melville had any intimate experience with African Americans to absorb the culture?
• Is there any symbolism for feminism that works its way into the book?
• The whalers were primarily New England stock, so how did Pip get on the boat?
• You can pair Ahab and Pip, who is African American, and Ishmael and Queequeg, who is Pacific Islander and dark-skinned.  What is the reader meant to see with these pairings?
• What's the relationship between Nathaniel Hawthorne and Melville?
• How did you get interested in Melville?

And many thanks once again to Dr. Christopher Freeburg for an excellent talk!

Watch the keynote lecture!

If you missed Dr. Christopher Freeburg's keynote lecture, please take some time to watch now.  We'll be returning to many of his ideas throughout the summer. 

We're still working on the question and answer portion of the talk, but will have that posted soon. 

And as always, please comment with your thoughts!

Kickoff Lecture - Some Notes

Dr. Freeburg’s remarks included concepts from: 

 Melville and the Idea of Blackness: Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth Century America. New York: Cambridge, 2012. (Available in the library at 813.3 FRE.) 

"Pip and the Sounds of Blackness." New Melville Studies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 


My lecture notes are below.  Please comment and add your thoughts!


How to put together the moments of racial conflict and angst with the philosophical issues

There are people who don’t see the racial aspects as important - Dr. Freeburg disagrees

Ideas of power: nature and the dark side of romantic reverie come to mind

Scholars of African American history overlook the workings of black experience

Presence of African art forms in Moby Dick - documenting Melville’s exposure to black art forms

What is the relationship between black expressive culture and Melville’s boldest expressive strokes 

He wants to conduct an Inquiry into neglected aspects of Melville’s tour de force

Pip is a symbol of blackness himself Pip’s improvisational skats, tambourine playing, connect him to black culture

Tension between individual and communal interests

Pip and Ahab revolve around moral challenges springing from the violent pangs of isolation

Pip - the most abased of the crew will be elevated

Pip as a figure of black culture - does not fulfill any of these tropes - inarticulate impossibility - Pip physically and metaphorically points to black culture’s centrality in Moby Dick

Toni Morrison and Ralph Ellison - share a fascination with Melville

Discussion of Moby Dick Chapter 40: Midnight, Forecastle: Ring shout movement - Pip’s contribution - readers see the stakes of maintaining a diverse collection of people in the face of violence

In New York, Melville had access to black culture, also via the newspapers

Black people are described as festive and celebratory in Moby Dick

A distinctive view of moral value in Pip Ring shout picture - (Chapter 40: Midnight, Forecastle) - Pip enters the scene at the call of the French sailor - Pip’s tambourine is the foundational beat to the dance - most influential slave dance in 19th century America

The Ring Shout appealed to the ancestors or the gods - reverence for the divine - consecrated social space through ritualistic movement - committing to a life of living for God and for others

Collectivity over individual alienation

A moral affirmation - when the ring is broken and the group falls into a violent disarray - Pip is at the center of the moral affirmation

Melville suggests the need for intimate collaboration

Anxiety of impending doom -   Pip helps him affirm that there is a right side of the fence

Castaway - Pip verifies why black cultural expression matters

If Pip is truly a coward, why doesn’t he fear Stubb enough to fall in line - we are all in the hands of the gods - Pip is an emblazoning diamond - the artist takes care to make him shine - Pip embodies heaven’s sense - and the tragic destruction of social bonds

Pip’s descent into divine madness - related to the immorality of Stubb’s choice to chase the whale instead of Pip

What about the price for the crew - they must live with the price that Pip has paid

Whiteness appears as evil in the novel, generally - but in this area it’s a comfort, beneficence - let us squeeze hands all around strong communal bonds are forged through shared affliction

Queequeg and his coffin - Pip sits there - the coffin turns into a life buoy for Ishmael - Pip will beat Queequeg’s dying march  - his music makes the moment sacred

Link between Pip and Ahab - they are bonded in their madness - Ahab sucks wondrous philosophies from Pip

Development of Ahab’s madness is bound up in his relationship with Pip - the fate of the Pequod is sealed when Ahab pulls away from Pip

Pip is opposite of Frederick Douglass ...His absence of voice

Pip is Melville’s object - we only know his beautiful interiority - it is available through impressions - 

Melville was shaped by black culture - black culture animates the novel’s entire moral center - he provides a forceful way to envision what it means to be black - he asks what type of life is worth living and dying for

Group Questions

Is there evidence that Melville knew a real young black person who influenced him? Ahab and Ishmael show who they are in the unfolding of their relationships with the pairs Queequeg and Pip

Queequeg is the catalyst for Ishmael’s world coming apart - as he communicates with Queequeg

You won’t get the interiority of The Bluest Eye in Moby Dick

Ishamel = what he learns is how to deal with not being able to answer the questions 

Queequeg points out that the social bonds are right here - why does Ishmael want to be focused ‘out there’ - come in here, to the pairing

The black and brown characters give you the final meaning of the novel Moby Dick - Ishmael floating on Queequeg’s coffin

Whaling was a great way to evade slave catching - frequently this tactic was used

How much of what Pip represents is a criticism of middle class American life?  Deep criticism of the marketplace - of capital, gain, but Melville also felt that they over- romanticized nature - Pip is the opposite of the Emerson eyeball - I can see everything but I can’t say anything

The strongest voice in Moby Dick is about people coming together

Find your own monomania - what keeps you away from other people? - that’s your Ahab

What about the dedication - to Nathaniel Hawthorne - Hawthorne and his mosses - grappling with the existential limits of thought