Mouth Full of Blood

Sometimes, when I open a particularly engaging book and read the first page, I’m enthralled enough to keep going and going for hours at a time, stopping only because external circumstances dictate I must. It is a very rare occasion however, when I read the first page of a book and have to stop; put it down. Pick it up and re-read that first page again; because I know each word matters. Each syllable hangs in a delicate balance like poetry. It is more important to reflect on their magic, on their meaning, than to charge forward and miss a single beat. This is one of those books.

It is split into three sections: The Foreigner’s Home, Black Matter(s) and God’s Language. The first explores themes of migration, racism, religion, facism, the slave trade, capitalism, the self, borders, public debate, identity. Classes of immigrants, acceptable foreignness. The dichotomy of a global market that absorbs threat and encourages difference, versus a global movement of bodies that inspires fear. The necessity of art, language, writing. She begins with The Dead of September 11 - a quick, lyrical, tragic ode to those killed on 9/11.

“And I have nothing to give either - except this gesture, this thread thrown between your humanity and mine: I want to hold you in my arms and as your soul got shot out of its box of flesh to understand, as you have done, the wit of eternity: its gift of unhinged release tearing through the darkness of its knell.”

Her first full essay in this section explores the foreigner within all of us, focusing on African literature as a foundation for this journey. This sets a precedent for the collection, as she largely utilises existing artistic works byAfrican or African-American artists/authors for her writing throughout this book. “No more apologies for a bleeding heart when the opposite is no heart at all. Danger of losing our humanity must be met with more humanity.”

Black Matter(s) begins with a moving and eloquent tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, and is followed by a series of longer essays exploring African-America identity, power, race and representation within literature. Morrison posits that without the foregrounding of African slaves “deployed as rawness and savagery”, the identity of the ‘pioneering’ American could not have existed. It was designed within a staging area of black and white, whereby a white man of any kind can be considered a ‘gentleman’ because “there is readily at hand a bound and unfree, rebellious but serviceable black population by which Dunbar and all white men are enabled to measure these privileging and privileged differences.” This exploration into Black Matters, with detailed examinations of various texts scattered throughout as a means of magnifying certain linguistical tropes or themes culminates in a central point -

“African American studies could, but need not, confine itself to itself because the project was like the so-called race problem itself. It was not a neighbourhood thriving or struggling at the edge of town, at the edge of campuses, at the outer rim of intellectual thought, nor was it an exotic, anthropologically interesting minority pulsing at the extremities of the body politic. It was and is at the heart of the heart of the nation.”

The final section, God’s Language focuses on Morrison’s own works, her writing process, how and why she penned certain characters and focuses on certain themes. I haven’t yet a read a lot of Morrison’s fiction, so this last section was a bit of a spoiler - but I imagine if you have read the novel first these pages would provide much welcome insight. She utilises nordic mythology as a tool to explore crisis and chaos, “because narrative is probably the most effective way knowledge is structured.” The following mediations are shorter than those that precede, and focus on memory and re-memory, literary criticism and encouraging audiences to use context to read between the lines.

The essays, speeches and mediations throughout this collection all vary in length and aim. She frames big issues in racial context, continuously reminding the reader where the heart of political and cultural unbalance lies. This is not the kind of book you can read in one or several sittings. It is heavy going, and frequently required space and time for refection, research and consideration. I’ve rated it 4 stars because it isn’t going to be for everyone - not because the content is not of the upmost importance, but because the style of writing will not be accessible to everyone. It’s definitely one I’ll be returning to time and time again.