Clarissa's Blog

It’s possible that this person is being a DEI poseur in the statement. It’s also possible that these words are sincere.

I have no problem whatsoever with recognizing when a book is too hard for me to read. But Beloved? I found a copy of this novel back in Ukraine in 1994. That was before I ever lived in an English-speaking country. It’s a good novel. I enjoyed it. I remember I chose it as the text for a presentation I did in one of my college courses. A nice novel, but difficult to read? For anybody who never read anything beyond airport fiction, yes, but for a person who has read actual literature, it makes no sense. A tenured full professor of English literature at Harvard finds Beloved an impossibly difficult text that requires several readings for even a basic understanding?

It’s Oprah’s favorite novel, for Pete’s sake. How hard can it be?

We read Morrison in class when I was in graduate school. Once again, I don’t remember anybody among the students, let alone the professor, expressing any difficulty with the reading.

I believe that Morrison is very talented, a great writer, but extremely complex? What else is this Harvard professor reading if Morrison is such a challenge?

The author of this quote is hamming it up for ideological reasons, right?