I've just read Angels Carabi's interview with Toni Morrison. In it, Toni Morrison explains pretty much everything she does in Jazz: that the title refers to the music (improvisation in jazz music, improvisation in storytelling, improvisation in life) and to the things people associate with jazz (sex, violence, chaos, something vulgar), that the narrator is the voice of a talking book (not herself), that the book (the last part especially) is an erotic love song to the readers, that the book (that is, the narrator) knows nothing but hears other voices and learns more about the characters and finds its predictions wrong, that the book writing itself is an interesting technical idea, that Dorcas feels empowered by her relationship with Joe, that Felice questions her friendship with Dorcas and changes afterwards and decides to become independent, that Joe feels less bad when learning about Dorcas's last moments, that Wild is a kind of Beloved...
Isn't that lovely and touching? See how kind Toni Morrison is, to clarify everything for a stupid reader like me!
Authors are damned if the do and damned if they don't. Interviewers ask them to talk about their work, and . . . well, I refer you to the first sentence.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree with that. People can ask you any kind of question, whether you answer or how you answer it is your decision and therefore your own fault.
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