#the bluest eye

[richincolor]

On Book Bans 📚

The 2023 Banned Books Update is out from PEN America, and you should definitely check it out. One data point that leapt out to me: 

“Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. In this six-month period, 30% of the unique titles banned are books about race, racism, or feature characters of color. Meanwhile, 26% of unique titles banned have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.“

And what can you do about it? This thread from Kelly Jensen has plenty of resources. Here is a Book Riot round-up of anti-censorship groups across America, and here is a post on how to fight book bans. 

Kelly Jensen on Twitter is a great follow for anti-book-ban resources and efforts, as is Florida Freedom to Read. 

TL;DR -- the best way to help is to get involved locally: 

attend school board meetings

keep up with what your local library is up to

write to your local representatives

call out book ban attempts and hate groups

donate to groups fighting book bans

and of course, don’t forget to vote

tell others about what is happening -- don’t let this fly under the radar

#banned books #gender queer: a memoir #a court of mist and fury #the bluest eye #this book is gay #flamer #pen america #banned books week

[chaoticsoft]

Toni Morrison, 1974.

Photographer: Waring Abbott

#toni morrison #beloved #sula #song of solomon #jazz #love #home #paradise #tar baby #the bluest eye #american literature #african american literature #black history month #literature

[stanleyscubrick]

the bluest eye, toni morrison

#the bluest eye #toni morrison #another toni morrison quote to punch you in the stomach #or also caress your face #both is good #currently reading the works of audre lorde #que me tearing up on every train ride i read it on #just got done teaching my first ever module yesterday #filled with the need to improve and attain every single piece of knowledge ever #also finished master & margarita #as well as a room of one’s own #want to reread both #mine #studyblr #studyspo #dark academia #light academia #booklr #writing #chaotic academia #literature #classical academia

[theclassicsreader]

Maybe that was love. Choking sounds and silence.

– Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

#toni morrison #the bluest eye #quote #quotes #lit

[outforflowers]

"Few people can say the names of their home towns with such sly affection. Perhaps because they don't have home towns, just places where they were born."

- The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

#ouch #quote #the bluest eye #toni morrison

[whenweallvote]

In collaboration with Black Voters Matter, we made this list of our 7️⃣ favorite books by Black authors being banned in schools and libraries across the country. Many of these helped to broaden America’s view of Black people, art, and culture.

Have you read any of these yet, and are any on your Reading List this year? Comment below with your favorites! 📚

#banned books #book bans #black authors #black history month #bhm #maya angelou #ibram x. kendi #jason reynolds #nikole hannah jones #toni morrison #angie thomas #zora neale hurston #richard wright #i know why the caged bird sings #stamped #the 1619 project #the bluest eye #the hate u give #their eyes were watching god #native son #booktok

[geminiangelramirez]

from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

#toni morrison #the bluest eye #books #diary #words

[quotespile]

Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

#literature #quotes #Toni Morrison #The Bluest Eye #quote #books #lit

[l0v3mi]

~☆" i don't know where I'm going, but I hope I'm on my way "☆~

#poetry #hell is a teenage girl #new account #french #girlblogger #mediterranean #new poets community #spotify #lana del rey #mermaid #sirencore #mermaidcore #blue #the bluest eye #dark femininity #beach #ocean #oceancore #fantasy #delusional #dream #lucid dreaming

[readingteabooks]

It’s Banned Books Week!

In 2021, 729 book challenges were reported to the American Library Association, naming 1597 individual books. That’s a huge spike up from 2019′s 377 challenges. Nearly double in two years.

This continues a worrying upward trend in book challenges in recent years, and many of these titles have actually been removed from library or classroom collections in parts of the US. It feels like every day I’m hearing news of a new challenge or removal somewhere, or an attempt to codify those removals into law. Libraries who stand their ground by refusing to remove materials have seen their funding slashed, librarians and teachers have lost their jobs and been harassed, even threatened.

But it’s not just libraries. Proponents of book banning are even trying to make it illegal to publish or sell books they don’t agree with.

So now, more than ever, its important to stand against these attempts at censorship. Keep aware of goings on in your area. Speak at city council meetings, run for your local school or library board, donate to your local public library, write to your local representative. Or see what else the ALA recommends to get involved.

Anyway, here are the Top 10 Challenged Books of 2021:

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin

#banned books week #banned books #book challenges #books #booklbr #libraries #gender queer #lawn boy #all boys aren't blue #maia kobabe #out of darkness #the hate u give #this book is gay #beyond magenta #the bluest eye #me and earl and the dying girl #the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian

[lets-curse-each-other]

Offbeat examples of metaphors and similes in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye:

Nuns go by as quiet as lust;

Their conversation is like a gently wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtsies, shimmies, and retires;

Slowly, like Indian summer moving imperceptibly toward fall, he looks toward her;

She let her head tilt sideways, closed her eyes, and shook her massive trunk, letting the laughter fall like a wash of red leaves all around us;

We walked down tree-lined streets of soft gray houses leaning like tired ladies;

Over her shoulder she spit out words to us like rotten pieces of apple;

A kind of city-street music where laughter belies anxiety, and joy is as short and straight as the blade of a pocketknife;

My brain curls up like wilted leaves;

The quarrels about who gets what had seethed down to a sticking gravy on everybody's tongue;

The bus wasn't leaving for four hours, and the minutes of those hours struggled like gnats on fly paper - dying slow, exhausted with the fight to stay alive;

At the end of the alley he could see men clustered like grapes;

The sunshine dropped like honey on his head;

Evening came. The dark, the warmth, the quiet, enclosed Cholly like the skin and flesh of an elderberry protecting its own seed;

And the years folded up like pocket handkerchiefs.

#toni morrison #the bluest eye #literature #lit #prose #poetry #writing #books #quotes #book quotes #words

[halalgirlmeg]

#tbh this is one of my favorite covers I'm always on the lookout for rare or lesser known covers of books #books #the bluest eye #toni morrison

[litandlifequotes]

Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. It is a lovely surging. 

 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

#toni morrison #the bluest eye #literature #book #book quote #quote #words #reading #fiction

[stanleyscubrick]

the bluest eye, toni morrison

#the bluest eye #toni morrison #her descriptions are so mesmerizing #mine #studyblr #studyspo #dark academia #light academia #booklr #writing #chaotic academia #literature #classical academia

[philosophybitmaps]

“Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another — physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.” – Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

#philosophy #quotes #Toni Morrison #The Bluest Eye #Morrison #romance #love #beauty #envy #insecurity

[holeymolars]

"So when I think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does not want me to die."

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

#toni morrison #the bluest eye #lit #quotes #my posts