Namwali Serpell

It is all three of them at once.

And I had just never noticed it before.

And I hadn't read any analysis of it before.

And it was so last minute that I saw it that I thought, well, OK, I have to just write a sentence saying this.

And I describe it in the book.

But I haven't actually done the work of figuring out what that fascinating experiment in point of view is even doing.

This book I've read maybe 20 times.

It was now in my career that I had never noticed it.

Thank you for reminding me of it by asking me this question, which I have not been asked before.

Sure, I'd be happy to read from on Morrison.

I'm going to read from a chapter that is on Morrison's own criticism, which was a source of great inspiration for me.

When people have asked, you know, what was inspiring to you about the way Morrison herself wrote criticism, I often say criticism.

Her flair, her flamboyant, the sense of humor that she uses and this real sense that it's a performance.

And I actually read Morrison's critical method as throwing shade.

And that chapter is called Playing in the Shade.

And so I'll read a little bit and I can define some terms as we go.

Perfect.

Most of Morrison's criticism sits in the middle of the spectrum between the far ends of insulting racist writing and throwing shade at herself.

That is to say, she generally drags, reads, and signifies on American literature.

Her critical writing on canonical texts is confrontational but communitarian, brimming with ambivalence, a tender excoriation of the American authors among whom she assumes her place.