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Most of the quotes between chapters are going to be fictional. This one is not (you can tell by the date). In this quote Toni Morrison is talking about utopias in the literal, positive sense rather than in the negative, ironic sense. But I think the statement is true in both cases, no matter how ethical the intentions behind an intentional community, they tend to fail, and the acts of separation and exclusion that allow them to exist also lead to their end.
↓ Transcript
The isolation, the separateness, is always a part of any utopia. And it was my meditation, if you will, and interrogation of the whole idea of paradise, the safe place, the place full of bounty, where no one can harm you. But, in addition to that, it's based on the notion of exclusivity. All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the people who are not allowed in.
- Toni Morrison, Conversation with Elizabeth Farnsworth on PBS Newshour, about her novel Paradise, March 9, 1998.
- Toni Morrison, Conversation with Elizabeth Farnsworth on PBS Newshour, about her novel Paradise, March 9, 1998.
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