Ta-Nehisi Coates Rules, The Thread

whoa - missed that. he ends with global warming? in any case, if found the last couple sentences really powerful - the liquor stores, beauty shops, churches, boarded up houses, and rain coming down in sheets.

http://i.imgur.com/ZRSe7AB.png

and maybe i'm being dim or misunderstanding the criticism upthread, but, like, that is just true. the history of anti-black racism in this country is the story of the brutalization of the black body. that seems so obvious and embarrassing to type out that i think i must be missing something.

― horseshoe, Friday, July 17, 2015 11:25 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and the black mind, black ppl, there are no minds w/o bodies no bodies w/o minds, its just people, it just feels like a pointlessly pedantic and awkward formulation to me

Right: pointlessly pedantic, awkward --- also pretentious. And doomed: this is a funny historical moment to declare some old school Cartesian dualism. Which, I would note, has not exactly proved to be a great friend to the downtrodden.

regarding the "bodies" refrain in between the world and me, it's because he wants to ground his discussion of racism in violence. that is the central reality of black life the book is concerned with. yes, this is reminiscent of a way the term "body" was used in the humanities academy 15 years ago, but i don't think it's a stylistic tic, nor do i think it's wrongheaded. i think it works.

― horseshoe, Friday, July 17, 2015 10:21 PM (1 week ago)

^^^ I think it's a great rhetorical device.

would probably play better had there not been all those articles about Miley exploiting the black body after that award show

That's right, Miley Cyrus ruined black activism

She was never meant to be a part of Dr. King's dream.

And doomed: this is a funny historical moment to declare some old school Cartesian dualism.

Right, but you dig that's exactly the opposite of what T-NC's doing, right?

and the black mind, black ppl, there are no minds w/o bodies no bodies w/o minds, its just people, it just feels like a pointlessly pedantic and awkward formulation to me

― lag∞n, Monday, July 27, 2015 6:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

don't understand how it's pedantic; can't really convince you it's not awkward.

coates's whole point is that to be black in America is to feel disembodied--to not be allowed to feel like a person, feel your mind and body integrated. i agree with him that physical pain inflicts a kind of disembodiment/annihilation of bodily integrity.

It's good that lag∞n is here to tell us how minorities should describe the experience of being a minority in this country

im not telling anyone how they shd talk abt their experience, im talking abt my experience of reading this writing, and while i think tnc is one of the best out there i think his adoption of academic language degrades his writing

its p interesting that this terminology of body to refer to ppl emerged from the academy which is the ultimate mind prioritized over body culture

p entirely predictable, u mean

I don't know, I think Coates's use of "body" echoes its theoretical use in the academy but is not identical to it. It's idiosyncratic and poetic in his usage.

Like part of its purpose is to serve as a metaphor for something inexpressible

you are pretty clearly not into his use of it, but I don't think it's merely theoryspeak.

yeah i mean his usage is prob meant to stick out and be noticed which cld be seen as using a artless form artfully, just the academic focus on lexicon as the the ultimate unit of meaning kinda drives me nuts, also im just not sure abt physical oppression really being more key than physiological, they necessarily always work together, ultimately obvs these are all quibbles of what is a good and important work, and also an indication of how tnc manages to be compelling on all diff levels while writing abt extremely difficult topics

pychological not physiological obvs

surely the talk of 'bodies' reflects 18&19th century discourse's fixation on the physiological; talk of 'monstrous specimens' (e.g. what was written about the hottentot venus), 'hybrids' etc.

qed you are turning mind into body xp

tru

anyway horseshoe interesting points i am reconsidering based on yr conversating

Ta-Nehisi Coates ‏@tanehisicoates 28s29 seconds ago
Wow. @georgelazenby gives #BetweentheWorldandMe a glossary for heads. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ObYyfj6ZzNpNoxIQpSZcROzs5bTkjWK0ml3rmHV_Li0/edit

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/08/01/is-ta-nehisi-coates-writing-a-new-comic-book-for-marvel/

that would be nice but i'd be surprised if he took the bait.

that would be nice but i'd be surprised if he took the bait.

“Bait?” I must’ve missed something. What’s the catch?

Regardless, I agree. It’d be nice. And Secret Wars has been awesome.

Brevoort has come under fire for promoting the semblance of diversity in comics or in piggybacking other cultures signifiers without hiring a diverse stable of writers/artists
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/diversity-in-comics/

in much the same way that denton has stated TNC is gawker's dream editor, Brevoort hitting up TNC on social media is easily read as a way to take some of the heat of that judgment. I'd be curious to see what Coates wrote tho'; he's clearly knowledgeable in the field
http://www.vulture.com/2015/04/ta-nehisi-coates-superhero-comics.html

The tweet to Coates is from months before Brevoort came under attack. So it should be read as a response to that.

It should NOT be read as a response to that, I meant.

okay, my bad; didn't see the time signature.

it would be dope to see a writer like coates take on the hulk; bring some nuance to the character

Smash or not smash -- that the question:
Better to let puny humans pester Hulk
Or pound puny humans to pulp?
Maybe if Hulk die, Hulk no sleep,
No hurt! But no dream.

was thinking more contemporary but hey why noe

Marvel partisans are weird

Xxxp

RG: In Between the World and Me, you center much of the discussion on the black body. What compelled you to make this rhetorical choice?

TC: There is tendency in academia and in (some) social justice circles to make that which is oppressive distant and abstract. We use a language, which at times obscures what’s going on -– racial discrimination, racial segregation, racial justice, etc. This sort of language eliminates the actual actions of actual people. It was deeply important to me to situate racism as a done thing: as a thing you actually feel. I should add that in my stripe of atheism, it’s very hard to see beyond the body. There is a tendency to adopt euphemism when confronted with the very real violence that comes with having a foot on your neck.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/the-charge-to-be-fair-ta-nehisi-coates-and-roxane-gay-in-conversation

Read it this afternoon. Best book I've read in a loooong time.

https://mobile.twitter.com/tanehisicoates/status/644146105786212352

owwwwwwwwww

ziiiiiiiiiiing

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/

lol

god that comeback to whitlock is so effortlessly devastating

kapow

have not stopped lolling

boom

A dissenter, published guess where. Has anyone read the Moynihan Report? It's been excerpted so often that I guess I should.

a response: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/thinking-about-crime/406144

ha

now THAT is a zing

haaaaaaaaaaaaa!

i don't get the whitlock thing