Tanya Mosley

It's called signifying.

Can you define what that is for us?

Like shade.

Where does signifying originate from?

I think you sort of allude to it in the book where you talk about, you know, as a means of survival, it's almost a way to toughen one up.

I've been to many funerals where the funeral will end up being a roast.

You know, it's a way to turn what is something that is unbelievably tragic or hard into a moment of levity and connection.

Okay, I want to get to an example now in Morrison's writing.

And I have this passage that I want you to read.

And to set it up, we're talking about the Song of Solomon.

And the hero of Song of Solomon is a young black man nicknamed Milkman.

His real name is Macon Dead III.

And dead is actually the family surname.

And it came from a clerical error at the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War.

So the name is both a comedy.

and a prophecy.

And Guitar is Milkman's best friend, the person who knows him better than anyone.

They're also, as the novel unfolds, on a collision course together.

And I want you to read this exchange and a little bit of your explanation of it from the book.

This is pretty remarkable to me because there's something happening also with a level of language through the names themselves.