Toni Morrison's "Beloved" pulled from class because of racism

Maybe. But isn't it equally condescending to presume their parents can't or won't read the book?

I'll say it again: "Getting" Beloved involves reading the text for what it is: A neo-slave narrative that insists through its prose that the original slave narratives were either insincere or, at the very least, forced by the hands of their white publishers. The problem I have with the selection of the novel that it's meant as a definitive slave narrative - not a revisionist. If you talk about the characters without appreciating or understanding the prism through which the book is intended to be read, I'm not sure what point it has.

An equivalent would by Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated." A terrific book, but if you're honestly gonna read that book as a Russian guy and an American guy banging through the Russian countryside for a lost part of the Holocaust, you're touching on about 2% of the text.

 

Thank God that's the 2% they used for the movie.

 

I went to a Christian Liberal Arts college and some idiot in one of my classes tried to get the professor fired for making us read Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The kid was told by administration to shove it.

 

Alma --

I'll preface this by saying that I read the book for an AP English class in 1995, when I was a junior in HS.

I'll agree with much of your interpretation -- that the book was indeed a meta narrative, designed as much to attack traditional jeremiads as it was for story. And I'll also admit that the circular structure of the book makes it difficult for HS students who are accustomed to traditionally forward-spatial narratives.

But isn't that OK in an AP class? Shouldn't the reading list for such a class stretch the best students to their limits. In other words, isn't this type of class exactly where a student's reach should exceed her grasp?

For the same class, I read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. In no way did I understand all of what O'Brien was accomplishing with that book. Granted, his prose sang a much sweeter tune than Morrison's, and I'd agree that she is a vastly overrated author in that regard.

My perspective has been colored by further study of O'Brien's book, and by further reading of slave narratives. So it's hard to go back and remember exactly what I "got" from Beloved in HS. But I do remember the gory ending sticking with me. And I remember feeling that ending was more "real" than most of the stories we read about minorities in my completely white school. Because it didn't have a happy ending. The protagonist didn't turn out OK in the end, didn't go on to non-violently work for racial harmony.

So while I see your point regarding Morrison's artistry, I don't think there's anything wrong with offering such a book as a choice to overachievers. Hell, the first time I read The Catcher in the Rye, I thought it was about a kid wandering around New York City. And you know what? I loved it then, and I continue to love it every time I read it.

 

Not based on my experience. I've been involved in a number of school book bannings and in 99% of the cases, those seemingly offended haven't read the book because they don't read. Period.

Learning about literature in high school is confronting challenging texts--particularly if you're in the top percentile of the student population.

It's the job of the teacher to provide the context that you're referring to. Using your argument, I'd suggest that Hamlet is totally unsuitable for the same age group.

In any case, this issue is not a literary one, it's a political one.

 

If your teacher actually taught the book like that, then I'd argue they taught it the right way. So long as they added why Morrison attacked original slave narratives. The book is as much a political statement as it is fiction.

 

Would you assign somebody Gravity's Rainbow?

Well sure it's political. The book's raw, and parents object to it. They're not allowed or something?

Look, I love literature. I know you do, too. My perspective is this: Just because an educator has read more literature and taught a class doesn't necessarily mean they know better.

Morrison's book is so often read as the definitive story of slavery. To which I can give equally well-written original slave narratives (like William Wells Brown "Clotel") that aren't raw and dirty, aren't needlessly complex, and were actually written by a former slave.

My point is this: Having the kneejerk response that parents are overreacting to strong material isn't always the right one. Schools should at least consider alternatives to the source texts. Is The Scarlet Letter is a good alternative? No. Is Ann Petry? Yeah, maybe.

 

While we mostly agree about the literary value of the text, I must disagree with you vehemently here.

Having an advanced degree in literature precisely means that they should know better. Unless we want to start dealing with holistic car mechanics and the like, credentials matter.

I have no problem with Beloved being on a list for AP students to choose from. I have a problem with it being assigned directly, but it's largely a literary one.

Neither is the operative factor here.

 

Gravity's Rainbow has at least one coprophilic passage in it, if I recall correctly, and some other pretty nasty passages besides. It's no Last Exit to Brooklyn, but it wouldn't shake me if someone's parents were uncomfortable with that. It would take a pretty extraordinary set of highschoolers to read that book with full understanding, in my opinion.

 

I appreciate your POV, but education is just too much of a racket for me to agree. Beloved's on that list because of three words: Pulitzer. Nobel. Oprah. It's same reason that Willa Cather's "My Antonia" gets on list, but "Death Comes For the Archbishop" doesn't. Same reason everybody reads Hemingway, and hardly anybody reads Crane.

 

I read Hemingway because it doesn't feel like a chore to get through one of his books; it's actually a pleasurable experience. Can't say the same about Crane.

 

That much, we agree on.

My Antonia is tripe. Death Comes only marginally better. Professor's House is what should be assigned, but can you imagine the parental reaction to that one?

And no one reads Hemingway anymore, at least not at the university level. And everyone has to read Faulkner, which is a crime against humanity.

By all means, keep assigning Light In August. Heaven forbid anyone should like what they read, or, I don't know, maybe major in English. Drag them in for one class and then force that unreadable shit down their throats.

Not that I have strong opinions, or anything.