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Conversation
THINGS
FALL
TOGETHER
A conversation
withChinuaAchebeandToniMorrison
Leon Botstein
The first question to ask about Chinua
Achebe is why Africa's greatest writer is
living and working ninety miles north of
New York City, on the banks of the
Hudson River. As president of Bard
College, I must admit it's a privilege to
have Chinua Achebe on the faculty at
Annandale-on-Hudson, but his presence
here is not quite a happy accident.
Achebe has lived in exile for decades,
frustrated by the failure of politics in his
native Nigeria. Then, in I990, when a
car crash left him paralyzed, it became
clear that he required a standardof medical care that would be difficult for him
to obtain at home. With all this in mind,
it seems almost thoughtless to talk about
how much he has meant to Bard College, how much he has enriched the intellectual life of this campus and this
Chinua Achebe
Douglas Baz
country.
When ThingsFallApartwas published
in 1958, it transformed its author, a radio
broadcaster and former teacher, into the
spokesman for a country and a continent. The novel was filled with luminous
150
TRANSITION
ISSUE
89
4
U't
ki.
'..
ARADISO
iTONI
MORRISON
152
TRANSITION
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153
Toni Morrison
Douglas Baz
154
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~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~
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2000,
I would
I would have to
Chinua Achebe,
Leon Botstein,
Toni Morrison
Douglas Baz
CHINUAACHEBE
BOZJA
PUSCICA
roman
Toni Morrison
1993 NOBEL EDEBIYAT OD)UL
CENNET
v
(gmf
tngilizccasindanqcircn
PLHEN
OZGORICt
THINGS
FALL
TOGETHER
157
158
TRANSITION
ISSUE
89
159
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't-4
ChinuaAchebe
DouglasBaz
that moment
161
Toni Morrison
Douglas Baz
when a stranger said, "Are you a Willis?" LB: If you don't mind, I'd like to end
with the ultimate parlor game question:
He knew something about me-someand
thing very personal,
very important, What book would you take to a deserted
even though I'm not sure exactly what it island?
CA: You probably won't believe me, but
was.
After I published my first book, I went one book I would like to read again and
back to this little town, and people said, again is Toni Morrison's Beloved.That
"I heard you published a book." I said, sounds a little precious, so let me explain.
"Yes." And they said, "But what's your
You see, it's no accident that we are
realjob?" [They laugh.]
having this conversation. And the reason
LB: Of course, fame has also brought I would take Toni's book is that I think
she's the only one who is probing what
you both an enormous readership. Do
when
think
about
that
readership
James Baldwin called the "conundrum of
you
color"-the question of what happened
you write?
CA: I would say it depends on what I'm to us on the continent, and in the diaswriting. When I'm writing an essay,for pora.We have not dealt with that quesinstance, I am arguing a point with an tion on the continent, and I think Toni
audience. That's different from when I'm Morrison has the courage to begin to
writing a novel, and I withdraw into my- deal with it.
The question is, "What happens when
self. In that situation, thinking of an aua mother kills her child to save her from
dience is a hindrance. In fact, it would
make it impossible to proceed. I say this slavery?"The mother loves the child and
to my students:You have to be your own wants to save her from the abomination
editor. Don't turn in half-finished work of slavery,but in so doing she commits
and expect me to be the editor. That's another abomination. This is my reading,
something I've alreadytaught myself: I'm and it may not be yours, but what the
my own reader,my own editor, my own story says to me is that that'sno solution.
critic. And when I have done all that, This daughter you killed will come back,
then I can turn it loose on the world. At and when she comes it is not going to be
that point, I don't mind what happens or pleasant.
A similar question will be asked on
where it goes.
TM: I agree totally. If I'm doing an ar- the continent: "Is it true that you sold
ticle for a magazine, or if I'm giving a your own brothers?"Of course, it is not
speech, I'm really trying to persuade true that we sold our own brotherspeople to agree with me, and I exert all something made us do it. There is some
my energy toward advancing an argu- explanation, but still, it is never enough.
ment. When I write novels, I am quesHaile Selassie,the emperor of Ethiopia,
tioning a lot. There are many arguments was once dethroned by his generals
in the book, and I am not trying to conwhile he was abroad. He immediately
clude with a moral, or an agreement.Just terminated his visit and flew back-not
the opposite: it's complicated, it's layered, to Addis Ababa, the capital, but to Asand it's open. As Chinua said, it's very mara, in what's now Eritrea.And he bemuch a private enterprise, and the reader gan to march with his supporters, all the
is a big hindrance to that process.
way to Addis Ababa, and the countryside
162
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A?.ff~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
CHINUA 6CHEBE
FLECHA
DE
DEUS
VOZESDEAFRICA
Kansan
?Web
164
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iICS
(MONDI
R
LETT ERARK
A
CHINUA
ACHEBE
'SOULBROTHLR'
ATTFNTO,
TONI MORRISON
L' OCCHIO
PIU AZZURRO
RoMANZo
'
AFRICANA
rose in support of him. By the time he
arrived in Addis Ababa, the coup had
fizzled out. So he captured the generals,
and he had them strung up in Menelik
Square, and then he called for his son.
The son had been used by the generals
during the coup attempt, so he sent for
him. Selassie said, "Why did you do it?"
And his son said, "They made me do it.
They put a gun to my head." And Haile
Selassie said, "I forgive you. And I forget
you.
I N ELLI
165