no amar la cosa, dice toni morrison

You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself... [Una última cita de mi lectura primaveral de Song of Solomon de Toni Morrison, que no había puesto todavía en el blog].

una casa en este peñón, dice toni morrison

See? See what you can do? Never mind you can’t tell one letter from another, never mind you born a slave, never mind you lose your name, never mind your daddy dead, never mind nothing. Here, this here, is what a man can do if he puts his mind to it and his back in it. Stop sniveling,” [the land] said. “Stop picking around the edges of the world. Take advantage, and if you can’t take advantage, take disadvantage. We live here. On this planet, in this nation, in this county right here. Nowhere else! We got a home in this rock, don’t you see! Nobody starving in my home; nobody crying in my home, and if I got a home you got one too! Grab it. Grab this land! Take it, hold it, my brothers, make it, my brothers, shake it, squeeze it, turn it, twist it, beat it, kick it, kiss it, whip it, stomp it, dig it, plow it, seed it, reap it, rent it, buy it, sell it, own it, build it, multiply it, and pass it on—can you hear me? Pass it on! [dice Toni Morrison en una novela preciosísima que leí hace unos meses. Es una cita preciosa, aunque cargada con ese extraño liberalismo agrario que a veces se asoma en toda la literatura estadounidense].

ser la tercera cerveza, una condición seria descrita por toni morrison

She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make? [dixit Morrison en Song of Solomon]

dejar un cuerpo, dixit toni morrison

...you just can’t fly on off and leave a body--sentencia una aparición algo spinoziana en Song of Solomon, de Toni Morrison.

la impropiedad del dominio, dixit toni morrison

Una foto viejita. La cita es de A Mercy de Toni Morrison.

It was not a miracle. Bestowed by God. It was a mercy. Offered by a human. I stayed on my knees. In the dust where my heart will remain each night and every day until you understand what I know and long to tell you: to be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing, dice Toni Morrison en A Mercy.

un cierto optimismo, para una personaje de toni morrison

…her prospects were servant, prostitute, wife, and although horrible stories were told about each of those careers, the last one seemed safest… America. Whatever the danger, how could it possibly be worse?, dixit una personaje de Toni Morrison en A Mercy.