Ta-Nehisi Coates Rules, The Thread

I've read at least one other negative review. The most depressing part of that write-up, though, is the byline. The idea that someone who writes that poorly is an editor at Simon & Schuster, with other people's manuscripts in their custody, is terrifying.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, December 2, 2019 8:57 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm assuming this is a young dude who is like a year or two out of grad school for literature. probably will mellow a bit as he ages.

using "apophatically" and "aporia" in one paragraph tho, bravo lol.

He is not the worlds best comics writer either. I think it's okay to be fantastic at one style, and merely ok at others.

The worst faux pas to me is that he just quotes Cornel West on 'We Were Eight Years in Power', without it seeming that he himself has read it. That's bad work.

i assume he knows how to "keep a plot moving" but faltered a bit as he was trying to synthesize several different versions of the book into one narrative.

I've been editing novels for a few years now on a freelance basis and all the errors of structure and tone called out in the Vox review are extremely familiar to me. I just finished a manuscript the other week where entire chapters were taken up by literal classroom lectures on the author's pet issues, so it's not at all surprising to me that a political essayist (and, yes, sometime comic book writer) would think his Big Novel needed multiple "slavery is bad, mmmkay?" monologues. Or that his protagonist has a sledgehammer-to-the-forehead metaphorical superpower.

i can't fucking believe there's an actual "he's not a great novelist, and that's ok!" in the vox piece

no one should be allowed to write imo

Haven't had a chance to read this yet, tbh, but I got a copy when I went to see him get interviewed about it last month. His thought process and the in-depth research he did make it sound like it could really be interesting, but at the same time I could see how it ends up muddled and disappointing.

surprised VOX writer didn't say, "Hey, Baldwin's novels were blah too!"

that vox review is just flat out embarrassing

i mean apart from gushing over how "beautiful" the sentences are (not really a good sign in most novels tbh), there's literally a paragraph where the reviewer suggests that the novel would be better if it were MORE LIKE AN AARON SORKIN SHOW

gushing over how "beautiful" the sentences are (not really a good sign in most novels tbh)

Not the greatest example, either; I was already editing that one sentence in my head, and it definitely didn't make me want to read 400 more pages.

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/article/21135953/city-lights-join-tanehisi-coates-and-natalie-hopkinson-for-a-discussion-of-gogo-history

12 noon eastern time Facebook live chat w/ Natalie Hopkinson on his 2000 article on history of dc go-go, and he as a rap fan coming to gogo, plus more. Live on Make gogo forever page plus will be archived by DC Public Library gogo Archives

They may talk about more than go-go per the poster

what else is there to talk about

i thought it was really cool of him to show up in my parents town, where my mom taught, to support a teacher who was reprimanded for teaching "between the world and me" to a high school AP class. my mom got a chance to talk to him and called me immediately afterward like she was on cloud 9

That’s awesome!

I wish he’d write another polemic - not a novel, not a comic book, not an opera, nor a screenplay, not a poetry collection. (But I get that he wants to try other stuff, etc.)

“You can’t behold evil and then return and not speak on it.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks about how an experience in Palestine illuminated the connections between the African American and Palestinian liberation struggles, and the moral responsibility to speak out. pic.twitter.com/y0HrXibUJz

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 2, 2023