Download The Source of SelfRegard Selected Essays Speeches and Meditations Toni Morrison Books

Product details Hardcover 368 pages Publisher Knopf; First Edition edition (February 12, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0525521038

The Source of SelfRegard Selected Essays Speeches and Meditations Toni Morrison Books Reviews

• The prospective reader might at first be dissuaded from reading The Source of Self-Regard when she notices that none of the essays are sourced at their start. Even more so, when one looks at the index containing the year and medium where they were originally published it looks like a mere hodgepodge. Has Knopf simply collected scattered ephemera for the sake of profiting off the name of Tony Morrison?
  
  Thankfully, nothing could be farther from the truth. I believe the lack of explicit sourcing is intentional. It emphasizes that Morrison is not primarily addressing, say, a Faulkner convention in 1986 but speaking directly to the contemporary reader.
  
  And the book has a lot to say to the questions of today. It is divided into three parts. The first of these deals with the importance of the humanities, the second on the black experience and the third on the art of writing.
  
  What becomes clear is that the essays have been chosen in any but a haphazard manner. For example, there is an extended discussion of a Gertrude Stein novel that sandwiches a section about a supposedly dissolute black woman between two sympathetic portraits of white women. Is it pure coincidence that Morrison has placed her meditations on being black in America squarely in the middle of these essays? Could there be any stronger rebuke of literary stereotypes?
  
  Beyond the literary aplomb, the message Morrison has to tell is consistent, relevant and powerful. She believes that the English language, as spoken in the twenty-first century, is inherently racist in its depiction of black America. Her project is to help reclaim the meaning of being black through the power of creatively imagining the unexplored depths of the African-American history.
  
  Some might demure about whether implicit racism truly permeates American culture in
  mediums like the press, politics and literature. Morrison is, however, arguably the most articulate spokeswoman for this perspective. Her project of reclaiming the narrative by imaginatively and creatively depicting the reality around slavery, discrimination and black stereotypes is without doubt a noble and important one.
  
  I only wish I could convey the depth and breadth of these essays but there’s really no substitute for reading them for oneself. If one is interested in understanding the black experience, and Morrison argues that one cannot understand what it is to be white or even American without it, then I highly recommend these collected essays.
  
  Not merely a scattering of different thoughts but a cohesive commentary on the vocation of writing, the power of language to shape inchoate reality and what it has meant and now means to be black in America. Intellectually profound as well as delightful in the artistry which stitches these essays together. Easily a five star rating.
• One of the best known and most appreciated writers of our time, Toni Morrison (THE BLUEST EYE, SULA, TAR BABY, JAZZ, BELOVED, PARADISE and more) offers a collection of her speeches, essays and thoughts about writing.
  
  This array is personal, as when she recalls why she became a writer (“Faulkner and Women”); compassionate, as when she remembers “The Dead of September 11”; feminist (“Cinderella’s Stepsisters”); and, above all, African American, as in a large portion of the book BLACK MATTERS. In the latter segment, in an essay by that name, she presents the compelling idea that American writing has nearly always been about white, male Americans. Yet American Africanism (her term) was always there, on the sidelines, beneath the surface.
  
  One case in point is a work titled VOYAGERS TO THE WEST that describes pioneer William Dunbar, an aristocratic, “enlightened” Scot who acquired his piece of the American dream with the labor of slaves. He once condemned two runaways to a total of 2,500 lashes and “to carry a chain & log fixt to the ancle.” That Dunbar is an American whose accomplishments are extoled is an overt example that, as Morrison suggests, behind every story of a white person’s success there have been the mute voices, the ignored lives of black and native people. Africans, when depicted at all by white writers, were “decorative.” The very designation “American” for most of our history, in all spheres of life, denoted only white people. Yet the Africanist presence, Morrison asserts, is essential to the meaning of Americanism, embodying so well the fine ideals of rights and freedom.
  
  In this wide-ranging assortment, Morrison, who is among the most talented wordsmiths who ever put fingers to typewriter, notes the way that jazz brought American blacks into a kind of public legitimacy; how even Mark Twain couldn’t let Jim free himself, but had to use a plot device to effect what the man obviously deserved; why American and English writers could not speak for people of color, so her and others like her, who had always been imagining themselves, had to break the literary race barrier. In her poignant tribute, “James Baldwin Eulogy,” she honors and thanks this early creator for his language, courage and tenderness “You went into forbidden territory and decolonized it.”
  
  Morrison states that she became a writer without meaning to do so, that she completed her first book “so that I could have a good time reading it.” But when she also avers that “Writers are among the most sensitive, most intellectually anarchic, most representative, most probing of artists,” she surely must be aware that she herself personifies those characteristics, and that her large and loyal readership will recognize her in those words.
  
  Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
• Morrison is one of our greatest minds, that much is clear for any who know and love her work (as I do).
  She speaks with a voice full of primary emotion, aching memory and tremendous brevity that are so needed, particularly in these dark times.
  However, I must admit, I was challenged during the reading of this book of essays, speeches and meditations.
  Knopf has chosen to present them without context, or sourcing, leaving the reader to meander through many of the speeches, essays and meditations grasping for some meaning in regard to the context of when these were given.
  I also found it incredibly challenging that the materials presented were not curated in any particular way (other than through the organizational three part format). I mean that there are entire sections that are shared between essays, one essay serves as a "jumping off point" for another, and in some cases, verbatim from one to the other which leads to redundancy, in my opinion.
  Personally, I would have preferred a more concise version of this book, edited, contextualized and brought to a more manageable grasping.
  Don't misunderstand, this book is vital and a powerful meditation from one of our greatest minds... I was left wanting more.
• I cannot read more than two sentences without closing the book, holding it to my heart and closing my eyes to think and wonder at the meaning of Morrison's prose. She is an exquisite author.
• Typical Morrison must read, perfect timing.
• Great read that gives understanding of the author & ethic identity
• I loved reading. I love her writings. Awesome!
• I haven’t begun to read this but the NYT gave it a stellar review.