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@bookswithwes

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i worship at the altar of toni morrison

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corregidora is about a blues woman on the move. the novel moves like the songs she sings: fragmented, polyphonous, all while making no sense, but all the sense in the world at the same time. it is no surprise we end where we began, because maybe that’s the point. by @bookswithwes

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4 months ago

while reading sula, i kept thinking about kierkegaard and his ideas on the ethical vs. the aesthetic life (sorry, i am a huge nerd). in either/or, kierkegaard argues that we must choose between an “aesthetic” life which is centered on pleasure and immediate experience, or an “ethical” life which is a commitment to moral principles and responsibility. during this read of sula, i’ve come to recognize the aesthetic/ethical binary as a false one, especially as it relates to black womanhood. the category of aestheticism, is contingent upon its opposite to be defined— these categories are inherently fragile. we can see this playing out in sula, when sula refuses to conform to the ethical life, and instead pursues the aesthetic. women vilify her, and she’s no longer considered a “Black woman” in the conventional sense; because she refuses to conform, she is removed from the category entirely. black womanhood in sula was defined against aestheticism (which is represented by sula), mothers are defined as “defending their positions as mothers” solely due to “sula’s scorn for the role” (153). sula’s rejection of the ethical life— her commitment to countless sexual relationships, rejection of traditional gender roles allows for the construction of the category of “proper womanhood” in medallion (which can be characterized by motherhood, churchgoers, etc). when sula dies, the aesthetic structure upon which the ethical life is built collapses, and the community of the bottom descends into chaos. without the fundamental tension between the aesthetic and ethical, the social fabric of the bottom is destroyed, through this we are able to see how fragile the construction of ‘proper womanhood’ really is. sula’s existence was necessary to hold these fragile categories in place. with her death, the facade of moral order in the bottom is shattered.

wow… i can’t post all my thoughts about this book in the description; check out the comments for the rest of my rant by @bookswithwes

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2 years ago

i love americanah. one of my favorite books of all time. by @bookswithwes

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2 years ago

i love yaa gyasi. i loved transcendent kingdom. by @bookswithwes

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2 years ago

i’ve always been taught: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. this review will be two sentences, in total, for that reason. by @bookswithwes

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3 years ago