TIME Interviews Toni Morrison

[TheBoiversace]

She must grow tiresome of the question which implies her racism in both her writing and her life choices. I have seen her be asked this question many a time and with always the same intelligent answer.

[DTWrites1]

She's stayed true to her craft. I think that's one thing that has, at this point in her career, set her apart.

[dumbaszgirl]

Im writing a report on this woman!:) theres only so much about her i can fit into two pages..

The bluest eye- amazing book ♥

[andrwng]

Morrison's awards and accolades are all very deserving. She is not only an intelligent woman, she is someone whom you KNOW is generous, compassionate and wise! In her next life, she will be born as an immortal owl who carries portends!

[Nickydickyy]

I watch so much trash, it's so weird watching someone intelligent.

[3864267]

@Nickydickyy sooooo true! lol

[kleban10]

I miss the old Poland Spring bottle shape

[owenad17]

no she isn't. listen again.

[Frowardkiller]

ok i watched a little bit more on and she said she didnt vote for Obama because he was black. If it was true then i agree with her other wise fuck her

[Frowardkiller]

She is telling people that she voted for Obama because he was black. That is fucking messed up! This old bag is a fucking racist! Stop with the segregation and get with unity!

[Frowardkiller]

I hate that term! African Americans do not exist! Its a fact that black Americans DNA is 50% European or white where as only 49% African. They also have extremely low Indian DNA if any at all. Im talking about a majority of them. Why are black Americans rejecting their heritage? Their white heritage! They are more white than African. So again African American is fucking stupid to call your self. How many of these African Americans have visited Africa or left the states?

[Bahia82]

@Frowardkiller Wrong blk american's have large "native american" DNA in them. Most "native americans" are of a brown/dark complexion. The "white' native american is largely television idea of what they are not the truth. that being said most of our ancestors are from western African. through years of slavery and migration we mixed with a lot of Euro and Native americans. So yes u are right about 60 percent of us have something else in us. But I'd rather be called AA then Nigger or Colored!!

[Frowardkiller]

@Bahia82 No that is a myth. To make black Americans feel less white. Your not an AA your a BA or just a A. Little Black Americans have any if at all indian dna mostly black americans dna is of white ancestry. More than 50%.

[fingerprintlock]

i like that she at first thought her deepest passion was reading but later discovers she her passion was writing. She took a passion and touch a lot of lives

[benisturning30]

LOL!!! I read Song of Solomon in high school and I just thought it was weird...I didn't think it "illustrated the thoughts and feelings of young black men"...AND I WAS A YOUNG BLACK MAN. Thank you for telling me how I feel.

[hulkyone]

Of course, her claim of people "misunderstanding" what she wrote in 1998 New Yorker essay about Bill Clinton is absolute bullshit. She specifically wrote he "displayed almost every troupe of blackness: signal-parent household, born poor, saxophone-playing, junk-loving boy from Arkansas." SHE CLEARLY WAS TELLING PEOPLE HE HAD BLACK CHARACTERISTICS AND EVEN A SOUTHERN BACKGROUND, WHICH MANY AFRICAN-AMERICANS HAVE, TO BOOT

[whosmel]

love the book song of solomon so i did a monologue check it out

[whosmel]

check out my Toni's Morrison Monologue / The Song of Solomon - Guitar by melissa kalinsky

[missaldosary]

Very interesting but I'd like to see an interview revealing new areas of her life experience..

[FrnzFanon]

So T Morrison, once my favourite writer, when did Obama's wisdom turn to cold blooded cyncism. Oh yes, the first weekend as President when he OK'd the bombing of innocent villagers along the Pakistan/ Afghanistan border. White President Black President, still the President of Empire.

[TheDancingSamurai]

@ licatoa5947 maybe her characters are metaphor but they r not unoriginal. & they capture the truth. remember that writers are like prophets. they must intensify the issues to attract the attention of people for starters, & then this intensity is justified. 2nd, i' m white & i don' t think being white or black really matters in u.s politics, politician do what they want to do , but just for the sake of argument :

we had 200 years of white presidents, 4 years for a black don' t kill us.

[licatoa5947]

yes they are unoriginal. i want to specifiy that i don't think that detracts from the beauty of the works in their own contexts. I found The Bluest Eye to be absolutely beautiful UNTIL i read Song of Solomon and my favorite of hers, Beloved. Once I was introduced some of her other works, I noticed that she employs the same character archs and themes in her works, that though effective in the realm of their own works, soon become old and unoriginal when looked at in the entirety of her works.

[licatoa5947]

she does intensify the issues beautifully in beloved, and i believe executes them the best and most originally in that work, but when she does the same thing again and again in every novel which has to relate in every way to the alienation of the black race, etc etc, it disappoints my expectation for her range as an artist. in relation to the politics, my only point is the sad irony that suddenly people like morrison step out to support a black president who had he not been, she wouldn't have.

[NiceGirl024]

@licatoa5947  When a white person (writer, politician, what have you) endorses another white person, people don't think anything of it. It is not because he is white, obviously. But when a black person endorses a black candiate, suddenly they are being racist. The double standard is ridiculous and will hopefully disintegrated later in our Nation's history.

[SuperZeitGeist1]

@NiceGirl024 I agree with 110% on your comment here very good!

[wenders99]

@NiceGirl024

What if said voter endorses the candidate because they are black?

[hulkyone]

@licatoa5947 As much as she's been a great author, she did clearly lie to help Obama's campaign when she distanced herself from her 1998 essay.She specifically wrote to the New Yorker that President Clinton "displayed almost every troupe of blackness: signal-parent household, born poor, saxophone-playing, junk-loving boy from Arkansas."

[buzzclick500]

@hulkyone : A "signal-parent household" would be a residence presided over by excellent(signal)parents. ;])

[hulkyone]

@buzzclick500 It's actually spelled single; I tend to have writers block at times. The bottom line is Morrison lied when she campaigned for Obama and thought maybe people would just trust her word and not read her original essay.

[buzzclick500]

@hulkyone : I was joking around--sorry about that;  as for her campaign trick...what can I say?

[AMMA83]

The topic in and of itself is original as there is relatively little written about it, she conveys the msg in an excellent manner, her writing often reads like poetry.She has been inspiration to me as an aspiring writer since I was 16..I grew up in Scotland but when I spent a year in America I seen for myself the preoccupation in some black communities with "good hair, pretty eyes..and lightskin".Toni Morrison-I applaud you for speaking out on this issue!

[licatoa5947]

beloved aside, she stereotypes in the bluest eye and song of solomon. while SHE believes the characters reflect the greater african american race, they really don't accurately capture the truth - just the spirit. they are unoriginal metaphors of struggle and prejudice. beloved, however, is on a completely different level. and as for the obama thing, if he was white I doubt she would've backed him with the same vision. i wonder what oprah and morrison think now after he hasn't done shit

[deathbybears]

Where I agree that her metaphors are unoriginal, her execution of them is quite effective. Also, any good critic ought to distance their opinions of an author from their work.

[licatoa5947]

they are effective in the context of the work itself and nothing else. the point i am trying to make is that since the same issues are continuely discussed in a variety of fashions, the execution of The Bluest Eye, for example, becomes unsuccessfully when taken with her other works, like Beloved. And I believe that my opinions of her as an author is entirely relevant to how she creates her work and thus, what her work represents.

[AMMA83]

@licatoa5947 The issue of racial self hatred in the black community was given some much needed attention by the bluest eye. As Morrisson said,she wrote a book on a topic that she wanted to read about, as a black female I applaud her on this..stereotypes or not, she so adequately captures the heart of the issue and inspires dialogue, and internal reflection on the part of the reader who allows themselves to be stirred in such a way...

[dawnseattle]

African American women confident, superior - yes!!

[aladdine23]

she is so wonderful, everything about her is.

[ziggi08able]

Whenever I return to Toni Morrisons work, I always wonder why its taken me so long?!

'The Bluest Eye' is my favourite of hers - I haven't discovered a finer critic of internalised racism before or since. Michael Jackson -rest his soul- bought it to mind recently. I must re-visit it.

I love the way she refers to gender&race as these 'little divisions', which in truth they are, but from a lesser mortal would sound somewhat contrite.

I've just started 'A Mercy' - Wonderful.

[DrewTaylorMusic]

Song of Solomon was great. I don't want to take anything away from it; but I prefer the way she writes in The Bluest Eye, and Love.

[britter94]

2:30 i'm very happy she was able to answer that question that way. she was straight up and honest.

[RositaOrRose]

I specifically loved the part where she refers to the death of her father and says that the version of her died with him... Amazing!I think that what drew me to Toni Morrison's works was her extraordinary talent of articulating clearly and eloquently what is abstractly floating in my mind... She changed my world!

[ionavideo]

I liked the part about wisdom and not voting for Barack Obama because he's black: "We have a black Supreme Court justice -- [dismissive] yeah."

[lxrlllxf]

Me too, the part about wisdom really got me. It is true, it's not necessarily something age gives you, I've seen children with it too.

[OutlanderClaire]

I love how she thought that her deepest passion was reading, until she herself wanted to read a book that hadn't been written yet (so she wrote it). There are aspiring writers who want to write just because there's a possibility of becoming rich and famous, like JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer. (I'm a big fan of JK Rowling by the way.) But a true writer cares more about the beauty of words, and the wonder of story-telling. I'm a bookworm myself.

[kindu2006]

You make an interesting statement: I agree, but I would add that, writers ( those who actually manage to create another world for us), deserve our respect - all - deserve our respect in equal measure. JK Rowling might not be a 'true' writer for you in the sense in whic you define 'true', but she, nevertheless, has created a world borne from her imagination. A world which has leapt from the mind, and unto the page with equal force, clarity and - some would argue - spontaneous magic; reality.

[MisterComplexity]

That was actually beautifully said. Beautifully!

[tedlicious]

Know any wise three-year-olds?

[killkill0]

I love this author, her book the Bluest Eye was one of the best reads in such a long time

[tedlicious]

Wow. Very well said. However she is wrong about one thing, wisdom comes from age and living. I doubt very much that President-elect has copious wisdom. Would it be so horrible if she simply said that she agrees with his politics?

[equationoracle]

wisdom in action can come from spiritual enlightenment irregardless of age!

[SamanthaUnitedStates]

She is very well-spoken and intelligent! I love her books.

[goebels99]

Did you expect a Nobel Laureate authoress to be otherwise? My, my, my.

[j5hp]

Wow, this conversation of 6 mins seemed like 2 minutes, a really intelligent woman.

[Retrodaisy]

She really is the best!

[traydb]

She's great.

[yixiuchan]

Toni Morrison is so well-spoken and well-thought. She has the wisdom quality she so values! Thank you for sharing this video.

[whatnowhuh1]

Beautiful.....