A constellation of 15 quotes about the sky from Heavy by Kiese Laymon
ANNOTATE. TAB. HIGHLIGHT.
star-nated
Afterward, I asked Grandmama whether she meant “star-nated” or “stark naked.” I told her I’d rather be a “star-nated” fool because I loved stars even though I didn’t think “star-nated” was a word.
– BE p 56
floating among the stars
That summer day, the day Dougie said “running a train,” the day I left Layla alone at Beulah Beauford’s house, the day I slipped around the memory of what happened with Renata in our bedroom, the day you bought new encyclopedias intended to save my insides from white folk, you and I held on to each other like we were the first people in the world to float over, under, and around all the orange-red stars in the galaxy.
– NAN p 33
That night, I stretched out in the driveway and looked at the stars. For the first time in years, I thought about waiting for you to come home the day I ran away from Beulah Beauford’s house. Back then I wanted all my seasons to be Mississippi seasons, no matter how strange, hot, or terrifying. Now I felt something else. I didn’t want to float in, under, and around all the orange-red stars in our galaxy if our galaxy was Mississippi. I wanted to look at Mississippi from other stars and I didn’t ever want to come home again.
– SOON p 160
our style of flying
For five minutes and forty-six seconds, that plane soared, flipped, and dipped while LaThon and I ran underneath it for three blocks down Beaverbrook Drive. When the plane finally landed, LaThon kept looking up at the sky, wondering how the pocket of wind that carried our plane could find its way into a city like Jackson. LaThon could do anything, but the thing I’d never seen him do was come close to hurting someone who hadn’t hurt him first, with a knife, his hands, or even his words.
– MEAGER p 68
I wasn’t sure what to write because I wasn’t sure how to live life in a way that didn’t give them a chance to shoot us out of the sky. It seemed like just driving, or walking into a house, or doing your job, or cutting a grapefruit 1was all it took to get shot out of the sky. And the biggest problem was police weren’t the only people doing the shooting. They were just the only people allowed to walk around and threaten us with guns and prison if they didn’t like our style of flying.
I loved our style of flying.
– CONTRACTION p 83
looking at the stars
We were under the stars on the Vegas Strip celebrating the only Christmas we’d ever spent away from Grandmama’s shotgun house in Forest, Mississippi.
– BEEN p 2
You looked toward the sky. “I hope Grandmama is out on her porch looking at the stars tonight. The sky is so clear.”
– NAN p 31
If it’s dark, go outside and count at least ten stars.
– NAN p 37
And no matter what happened next, we would both go outside and count at least ten stars until everything wrong in our world felt right.
– NAN p 38
don’t let them shoot you from the sky
Mississippi. Maryland. It don’t matter where you are. They will shoot your black ass out of the sky every chance they get.
-CONTRACTION p 82
Don’t let those people shoot you out of the sky while I’m gone.
-FANTASTIC p 119
Are you worried about those people shooting you out of the sky?
– ALREADY p 143
I allowed Millsaps College to shoot me out of the sky, and any school I thought of transferring to would see I was put on disciplinary probation for fighting and kicked out of college for theft.[…] You begged me not to let those folk shoot me out the sky.
-SOON p 155
other dangers of the sky
I told Nzola losing weight made me feel like I was from the future2, like I could literally fly away from folk when I wanted to. Heavy was yesterday.
-ALREADY p 145
After he dropped me off, I knew he was going to get back to flying and crashing because flying and crashing were what people in our family did when we were alone, ashamed, and scared to death.
-GREENS p 178
[…] my fear of flying […]
SEAT BELTS p 197
Do you want a copy of my NOTES?
Kiese Laymon writes himself, his mother, and his uncle into the sky, where they’re “flying,” “floating,” “crashing.”
To borrow from a favorite moment in the book, he “star-nates” them with the power of his written word. (see p 56)
Sometimes, the sky is not safe. You’ll notice his mother’s repeated warning, taken to heart: “Don’t let those people shoot you out of the sky.” (p 119)
Kiese’s grandmother’s porch is first mentioned in the book’s dedication, AND it is part of the star and sky imagery. Her view of the stars is from her porch. I picture a grandmother who knows the stars of her life are sometimes up there flying, so she watches for Kiese, for her daughter, for her son.
LONG DIVISION fans: Do you remember how often being a star comes up? How Baize blames the sky? How often the sky in general comes up? I LOVE AN INTERTEXTUAL MOMENT!
LaThon’s incredible paper airplane. Let’s extrapolate that moment. If you are reading a physical copy of Heavy, you are holding something with 120 leaves of paper. That’s 120 chances to make a LaThon-level airplane. I kid, I kid. Especially because Kiese Laymon’s words are already flying on their own. This book has rocketed them into the galaxy of my thoughts, and they’re still gliding.
Annotate With Sara 