Kerry James Marshall: We begin with a set of givens. There is no ontology, no beginning.
Steve Toltz: Without that you’re just neurotic and uncomfortable.
Marshall: Are we talking about a metaphor or a forensic description?
Toltz: Absolutely. Have you been to your high school reunion yet?
Marshall: Most of us haven’t been eyewitnesses to any of those events. [Laughter]
•••
Toltz: It’s so well constructed, but they never knew what they were doing, they wrote themselves into corners. I’ve ended up talking about a book that doesn’t exist.
Marshall: You can see how doing a thing like that can have an activist quality to it.
Toltz: It’s kind of embarrassing. It’s also incredibly fun. Yeah. Yes.
Marshall: It was a double lynching that was supposed to be a triple lynching. It’s a presence that’s not contingent on someone else’s approval.
Toltz: It seems that if one is afraid of both, then they should negate each other.
•••
Marshall: [Pointing] This happened during a period of discontent from 1965 up to 1969.
Toltz: I don’t really know what the story is. I don’t really know who the characters are.
Marshall: How do you resolve these discrepancies?
Toltz: The universe doesn’t really care if you bounce back.
Marshall: And then they would take you on a field trip to the public library.