I first read The Bluest Eye as a freshman in high school. I was fastened by the narrative, enraptured by the language, and stunned by its simultaneously grotesque and alluring nature. The story’s center is 11 year-old Pecola Breedlove who is bare in a world that is ceaselessly cruel to Black girls. Her only hope, she concludes in her rightful naïveté, is blue eyes. Who would dare harm the owner of beautiful, beautiful blue eyes?
The story requests something very particular that in my experience took shape as a question: What can we do in a world bereft of tenderness? I do not believe there is a singular solution for anyone tattered by a world they cannot escape; such a person will always find new wounds. I simply hope we can arm ourselves with the warmth we create.
Pecola Breedlove was at the mercy of everything that wishes us dead, unsheathed. My username, “iloveyoupecola” is a humble attempt to subvert all that which led her to this unfortunate position. To relieve her, and all of us, of the perilous notion that safety, love, and joy are conditional. As for the systems that sustain (and sustain on) this concept, my work shall be a licking flame.
Toni Morrison extends critical tools with her fierce interrogation of anti-Blackness with The Bluest Eye. Nina Simone’s Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood offers us new vibrations, inviting unfamiliar but fruitful feelings. Calida Rawles’ Lost in the Shuffle captures the Black body in a way only she can. Outside of insisting on the sanctity of our existence, they are teaching us that art has the capacity to change, expand, and/or envision. We should not abandon the imagination in our pursuit of anything worth pursuing.
Art is not spawned; it is the flower of someone’s mind. What I share here are the peonies of a Black, queer, and agitating mind. To make you feel anything at all will be my treat.
Cover Photo:
Kanaga, Consuelo. Young Girl, Tennessee. 1948, Brooklyn Musuem. www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/164231
Author’s Note: I plan on posting once or twice a week. Hope you enjoy!!
I also read The Bluest Eye in highschool and felt all the same feelings. Since i’m taking an indefinite break from tiktok, it’s really good to hear from you on substack as well <3
so excited to hear from you!