The illusion of authority from the patriarch, as shown in William Faulkner, Absalom, here analyzed by Toni Morrison

“His authority was borrowed, as it were. Or even lent for a while. Certainly it looked real. Once, however, the absolute control over the lives of the blacks is removed, we see that such power is intrinsically helplessness.
Henry refuses his birthright; does not marry or reproduce himself. Eulalia lies or misleads Sutpen. Ellen dies.
Bon refuses to abandon his engagement to Judith. Rosa Coldfield refuses to marry him. And Wash, the groveling drinking companion, squatter, and handyman, refuses Sutpen all he has left-his life.
The question begs attention. How much of the authority and power construed as the patriarch's is the roar and mane of a toothless, clawless lion?”

#tonimorrison #resist #nokings

Your real job

I tell my students, when you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.

slip:4a1233.

#3GoodThings (students talking about what #Book or #Books, they want to focus on for their final papers; listening to them brainstorm, critique, really work & think hard as they develop an interpretation -- truly the best)

1. Remainder is one of my new favorite books.

2. I love The Sound and the Fury.

3. I want to go back to Beloved and write more about it.

#TomMcCarthy
#WilliamFaulkner
#ToniMorrison
#Teaching
#Reading

Today's poem:

Eve Remembering

- by Toni Morrison

https://www.tumblr.com/ukdamo/815859454695424000/todays-flickr-photo-with-the-most-hits-the?source=share

#Eve #garden #agency #power #woman #personhood #poetry #ToniMorrison

"Waarom je schrijver Toni Morrison (1931-2019) moet kennen

‘Een ernstig effect van racisme is afleiding. Het weerhoudt je ervan je werk te doen’, zei schrijver Toni Morrison, lang voor ze als eerste Zwarte vrouw de Nobelprijs voor de literatuur won. Oprah noemde haar ‘ons geweten’ en Obama leerde van haar ‘hoe te denken en te zijn’. Vandaag zou ze jarig zijn geweest.

Door

Femke van Zeijl

17 februari 2023"

https://www.oneworld.nl/mensenrechten/waarom-je-schrijver-toni-morrison-moet-kennen/

#racisme #ToniMorrison

The genius of fascism is that any political structure can host the virus and virtually any developed country can become a suitable home. Fascism talks ideology but it is really just marketing for power.
-- Toni Morrison (Racism and Fascism)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #ToniMorrison #Fascism #Marketing #Politics #Power

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #LakePowell #SlickRock #Canyon #Utah

Heute in der #Morgenschreibstunde habe ich über Toni Morrisons "Recitatif" nachgedacht und zumindest einen Teil davon aufgeschrieben:

https://mischabach.de/2026/04/16/mit-starkem-nachhall-recitatif/

#autor_innenleben #recitatif #ToniMorrison