kameelahwrites: sundry bits.

On precious and push:

exiledsoul:

igather:

In life, the character of Precious Jones is marginalized and invisible, ignored unless someone wishes to do her harm or use her in some way. Her only refuge is her mind, where she essentially keeps herself company. And thus, Sapphire – who reveals a bit of this sentiment in her interview with Katie Couric – makes the entire novel about her. It’s all about her thoughts, her eyes, her reactions, her perceptions. (The other girls publish their stories in a supplement after Precious’ story ends.) And so, shifting the focus to anyone else would ultimately start to overshadow the story of Precious. Even for a moment.

So while I think the film does an amazing job walking the tightrope between humanizing Mary and keeping her at arms length, ultimately, this story belongs to Precious.(via Long Day’s Journey into Night: Reading Push, Watching Precious)

But what I love about the book is that Precious is not a defenseless subject. She is a survivor who resists against her exclusion by striving for her own inclusion. She does this by learning how to read. She then uses her literacy to read about the lives of Black women through writers such as Alice Walker, Ann Petry, Ann McGovern and others. The story ends with her literally penning her own story fully epitomizing the agency she had all along despite sexual trauma and despair.

Given how pivotal negotiating representation is to Push’s rendering of Precious’ story, I was a little underwhelmed to notice one glaring discrepancy between a character in the book and a character in the movie. In the book, the description of Blue Rain, the half-messiah, half-educator that delivers Precious from the bondage of illiteracy and abuse is as follows: “She dark, got nice face, big eyes, and…long dreadlocky hair.” (39-40) This character in the movie is played by Paula Patton, a light-skinned African American woman with straightened hair. By no means do I doubt the talent of Patton, but it means something that the directors chose to cast one of the most central characters of the film against Sapphire’s original description. (via On Representation Push vs. Precious)

A friend pointed out that the “positive” characters have light complexions and the mean ones are dark. I didn’t want to comment on it because I haven’t read the book and wondered if it fits with the characters’ descriptions in it. Now that I’ve got the answer I’m very disappointed that they decided to deviate from the story in order to perpetuate this kind of bias. I haven’t seen the film so I’m not going to say it’s a bad one, but that detail does bother me. And other things as well…