“He became a Thursday man and Thursday men are satisfied.” Even without context this sentence shivers with its own wit and pleasure and I love it. This voice memo is about what I think of as Morrison’s Thursday Man theory. Her novels are packed with so many passed down sayings, street proverbs and inherited wisdoms. And they’re often pretty funny.
Also, this post mentions the “third beer” description from SONG OF SOLOMON because whew.
You never want to be the “third beer”…. but you always want to be Thursday.
“She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make?”
Re-Reading Toni Morrison's JAZZ #4