Uncovering the Dark Secrets Beneath the Surface in Matthew Morris’s The Tilling
In “Fucked Fable” Morris intersperses quotes from luminaries Sterling A. Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison, among others, with his analyses of how their thinking plays out in moments within his own life. In addition, we are confronted with the ever-present racist comments that
Morris heard from day camp, high school, college, and graduate school peers, illuminating the complicated ways Morris has metabolized his identity – filtered through the lenses and misunderstanding of others. The interjections of Brown et al deepen our understanding of the throughline from the foundational scholarship on the tragic mulatto stereotype to the everyday racism that shapes the life of Morris and all Black people in the US. The repetition of these moments showcase how banal they were in Morris’ coming of age; at the same time they remind us of the constancy of the sharp cuts repeatedly perpetrated against him. As Morris writes, quoting Andre Perry, “Even in passing he cannot transcend the pain.”
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