#sula

[herpsandbirds]

Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii), family Sulidae, order Suliformes, Isla de la Plata, Ecuador

photograph by Libor Vaicenbacher

[resetme]

— Sula, Toni Morrison

[hangsawoman]

covers for sula by toni morrison (1975 and 1987)

[lets-get-lit]

They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolored visions that always included a presence, a someone, who, quite like the dreamer, shared the delight of the dream. 

- Toni Morrison, Sula

[chaoticsoft]

Toni Morrison, 1974.

Photographer: Waring Abbott

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Roman Balladine & Sula - The Secrets of Belly Dancing - Celestial Arts - 1972 (photos by Wlliam Cunningham)

[cann1bal-kitt3n-x]

♡ Fave Authors ♡

♡ Toni Morrison ♡

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

photo source

[aponii1]

Toni Morrison is by new favorite author. This book is powerful the novel explores friendship, identity, and the complexities of human relationships. Set in the fictional town of Medallion, Ohio, the story follows the lives of two childhood friends, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, as they navigate their way through the challenges and tragedies of growing up. Sula is a compelling and thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you've finished it. (4/5)

My favorite quotes: “ Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.”

“I sure did live in this world.' ‘Really? What have you got to show for it?' ‘Show? To who? I got my mind. And what goes on in it. Which is to say, I got me.' ‘Lonely, ain't it?' 'Yes. But my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else's. Made by somebody else and handed to you.”

“It was a fine cry - loud and long - but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

[herpsandbirds]

can I request a blue-footed booy?

Yes, of course you can. Here's a few for you!

Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii), family Sulidae, order Suliformes

Galapagos, Photograph by Wolfgang Kaehler

Galapagos, photograph by Tui De Roy

[hazel-core]

But Jude,' she would say, 'you knew me. All those days and years, Jude, you knew me. My ways and my hands and how my stomach folded and how we tried to get Mickey to nurse and how about that time when the landlord said…but you said…and I cried, Jude. You knew me and had listened to the things I said in the night, and heard me in the bathroom and laughed at my raggedy girdle and I laughed too because I knew you too, Jude. So how could you leave me when you knew me?

- Sula, Toni Morrison

[hangsawoman]

wuthering heights, emily brontë / sula, toni morrison

[whilereadingandwalking]

“The difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I’m going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world.”—Toni Morrison (b. 2/18/31)

[innocentiusxiv]

The Carnivorous Lamb / Go Tell It on the Mountain / Sula / Mathilda / The Gospel Singer / Lolita

Books starting after it's too late

[sloowoorants]

Sula by Toni Morrison was such a good read. I love, love, love the water/fire motifs in the book.

Despite fire and water being opposites, their symbolisms only exist in the context of one another: fire is only evil compared to water, and water is only peaceful when compared to fire. They both have to have an understanding of each other to define themselves - only with each other, they make a whole, like ying and yang. This is the relationship between Sula and Nel.

Ever since Sula and Nel were kids, they had symbiotic relationship: “Sula lifted her head and joined Nel in the grass play. In concert, without ever meeting each other’s eyes, they stroked the blades up and down, up and down.” (Morrison 58) They do things at the same time without needing to ever communicate, they mirror each other’s actions and stick to one another without ever needing to tell each other to do so. When Sula came to Nel’s house to visit her after she returned to Bottom, Morrison described the closeness that Nel felt towards Sula: “Talking to Sula had always been a conversation with herself.” (Morrison 96) When they look at each other, they look back at their own reflection because of how deeply they understand each other, they fill in each other’s empty spaces. Sula takes action and brings chaos and passion to Nel’s life when Nel needs it, and Nel brings stability and calm to Sula’s life when Sula needs it, just like how Sula protected them both when confronted by those white boys, and how Nel comforted Sula right after Chicken Little’s death. When they are both adults, their differences tear them apart, both of them feeling betrayed by the other’s lifestyle. However, at the cemetery, Nel has a realization: “‘All that time, all that time, I thought I was missing Jude.’ And the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. ‘We was girls together,’ she said as though explaining something. ‘O Lord, Sula,’ she cried, ‘girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.’” (Morrison 174) It was not until it was too late that Nel finally saw how ridiculous their conflict was. Fire and water are both just elements of nature, yet society so much of it, assigning meaning to create opposition. No matter how Sula and Nel chose live out their lives, they were childhood best friends, they understood each other, they completed each other, and they threw all of that away of their difference in gender identity. At the cemetery, Nel realized that they are both women, and that that was more important than any societal role imposed onto them. But it’s too late now, Sula is dead, and Nel will never be able to feel that intimacy ever again. 

What a beautiful ending.