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gabe@literature.cafe

Banned Books Week Spotlight Day 7: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (literature.cafe)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by gabe@literature.cafe to c/bannedbooks@literature.cafe

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Kicking off this week with a bang of a nobel prize winning author, and for good reason. This book was deeply disturbing to read but extremely important. It was such a beautifully upsetting piece of literature. The book was intense, yes, but it felt like I was reading thru a beautifully crafted painting.

Big warning though for child sexual abuse in this story, if you picked it up and have not read it yet.

Of course, this book is very contentious. Not only is it written by a black woman talking about race, but has the above content as well.

Have you read it? Any thoughts or feelings?

Here's the Wikipedia page regarding it's censorship and bans in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bluest_Eye

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[–] saturnalia@literature.cafe 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know how but I didn't know about Morrison until recently. I just read this for the first time this year. It was a really good read. "Beautifully upsetting" is an understatement but my nose was glued to the pages. I can see where the controversy lies, it's definitely not an all ages read. But I think with all media, parents should know what their school aged children are reading and make the final say if it is appropriate for their maturity levels or not. I do kinda balk at the idea of a middle schooler reading this. I've read that some US high schools even have this (or Beloved) in their English curriculum.

[–] dtjones@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, my class read this in 9th grade (14-15 years old). We were an accelerated learning group but I don't think the significance of this book was apparent to me until much later. Our white male teacher was probably not equipped to talk in depth about the race issues to a classroom of mostly white children, especially with how it relates to the modern-day US. I suspect there is much more I could have learned from this book at the time.