Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations by Toni Morrison review – a bracing reminder of what words do

The Nobel prize winner on how she would rewrite Beloved, and who gets to decide what’s in the canon

“A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity,” says Toni Morrison in “Peril”, the brief, remarkable introduction to her newest book. In this collection by the Nobel prize winning author – widely, ardently considered to be one of the world’s best writers – there are 40 years of her essays, speeches and meditations, including her thoughts and arguments about politics, art and writing. The book contains exhortations and transcribed question-and-answer sessions, reflections and analyses, exegeses and commencement talks. In other words, it’s a large, rich, heterogeneous book, and hallelujah.

Organised into three parts titled “The Foreigner’s Home”, “Black Matter(s)”, and “God’s Language”, each section begins with a moving address to the dead: respectively, to those who died on September 11, Martin Luther King and James Baldwin. “The Foreigner’s Home” is centred on politics, particularly on questions of otherness, foreignness, citizenship and nationalism. Of who, especially in the US, gets to belong. Morrison makes plain that racism, tribalism and bigotry are nothing new – are, in fact, inherent to the broken foundation on which the nation was formed.

Continue reading...

from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2I0yL7F

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mine management and predictive maintenance are top priorities for miners

Image
While miners are starting to trial and make small investments in technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and cloud computing, the traditionally conservative mining sector remains focused on improving efficiency and productivity by continuing to invest in mine management software and predictive maintenance. GlobalData’s latest report, Global Mine-Site Technology Adoption Survey 2018 , reveals that while investment by the majors is currently well ahead of mid-tier miners and producing juniors, higher shares of the latter two groups are planning investments in mine management software and predictive maintenance given their immediate impact on improving productivity. Source: GlobalData Mining Intelligence Center The report includes data and analysis from the company’s survey of over 200 worldwide mine sites which investigated the extent to which mines had invested in 13 different technologies ranging from communication systems to drones, predictive maintenance
Read more

Life Insurance for Older Parents

Image
You never stop being a parent. Even in old age, we still worry about our children and what their future will look like once you are no longer in their lives. Fortunately, with a secure life assurance set up, you are given the opportunity to take care of them even after you are gone. If you are an aging parent and you have dependents who will suffer financial loss if you were to pass away, life insurance can help you find ways to safeguard your loved ones from any financial hardship when you are not around. Normally when you are older, you are settled and enjoying retirement or your golden years Your children are most often older and are now providing for themselves, leaving you only to take care of yourself and your spouse. This usually enables you to save in order to provide for your dependents in the case of your death. However, this is not always the case, which is why many older parents look into purchasing life insurance. Aging parents who are still working
Read more