Yes. I'm struck, though, by the fact that their numbers had already shrunk at this point (from 7 to 5), & that 2 out of 3 were vociferously opposed to the ritual. As a group, they become less monolithic as the novel goes on, don't they? #ColgateLivingWriters

The question of when non-violent protest has to be abandoned in order to bring about change is the one that hangs over the whole novel. #ColgateLivingWriters #ColgateSummerRead

Common language, too (I think). #ColgateLivingWriters ColgateSummerRead #HowBeautifulWeWere

Looking forward to tomorrow's real-time Zoom conversation about #HowBeautifulWeWere. If you want to join us from 7-8 p.m., you can find the registration link on the Living Writers website: colgate.edu/livingwriters. #ColgateLivingWriters #ColgateSummerRead

Wonderful! I like the slow read aspect of this Twitter-fest—& also hearing about what sticks in the minds of others as they go. #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters #HowBeautifulWeWere

Yes—teaching seems to be an upwardly mobile profession in this particular country, & the gov't (as you say) seems to value education so much it pretty much leaves Thula alone to fling insults at His Excellency! #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters

Exactly! Being a woman (& not being taken seriously) was Thula's superpower (or one of them, anyway)—until suddenly it wasn't. #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters #HowBeautifulWeWere

Page 341 And yes, as you note, her being a woman meant she wasn't taken seriously by either side—w/ (sometimes) the exception of the younger generation of villagers. #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters

That's an interesting thought. If one of the other Children—the other 7 (then 5, then 0) age mates, all male—had shown Thula's initiative & intelligence, do you think he wouldn't have been allowed to go to America? #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters

The fact that she remains childless (if not exactly virginal) matters a huge amount, doesn't it? #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters

Yes—there was a whiff of subversiveness in him, wasn't there? And also a sense of a world beyond the village's & even the country's borders. He was an early inspiration & model for Thula, for sure. #ColgateLivingWriters #ColgateSummerRead

Yes. As Nubia tells Juba, "smart bitches know how to carry their burdens w/ style, & how to lay them down" (339). An angry woman (Thula, w/her skinniness & stringy hair [dreadlocks?]) seems unable to do either. #ColgateSummerRead #ColgateLivingWriters

The novel flirts w/ but refuses to fall into easy polarities, doesn't it? The court decision (rendered by a female judge!) is heartbreaking. My paraphrase: "A US company is doing evil overseas, but that is not a problem the US court system can address." #ColgateSummerRead

Join us next Tuesday for a poetry reading & fund-raiser for a former Olive B. O'Connor fellow in creative writing. #ColgateLivingWriters Zoom link here:

Help Gbenga stay in the US & keep writing poems! #ColgateLivingWriters gofund.me/5c81f9c7 "The maplines crackle, they run in my maplewood veins. I would that you know what is hidden is what is broken is what is holy." —from "The Lovers of Modena," by Gbenga Adesina