ive seen an older article chronicling crouch-related lols by him as well.
― deej, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 13:13 (fifteen years ago) link
major loss of points for making me read mcardle today, jesus christ how in the world does she still rate a job writing about anything
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:56 (fifteen years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/da/Leeroy_Jenkins_Jeopardy_clue.jpg
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 22:01 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah i love this dude even if he is a cowboys fan.
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 22:09 (fifteen years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/OVBos.png
lol dude get over yrself
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 18:58 (twelve years ago) link
Needs more context, I presume.
― Aimless, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
lol you
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
Enh, dude's just giving himself a spacer before dumping on the dead.
― Spleen of Hearts (kingfish), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
well if you read him, and i am a fan, he just will not stop w/these calls for thoughtfulness which is really something thats better demonstrated than talked about
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link
i mean if you want to take some time to think abt something theres absolutely no need to tweet abt it, except that maybe you think youre making some sort of statement
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
He's calling for circumspection which is fine, especially in light of the character of the defunct
― pareilles à celles auxquelles l'étiquette de la cour assujettit (Michael White), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
I mean, it's not like he's _not_ going to unload on the stiff at some point.
Presumably.
― Spleen of Hearts (kingfish), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
if you want to call for circumspection that one thing, a fairly substance free presumptuous thing, but what he was doing is passing off his judgment of the situation as some sort of personal journey, im just gonna go think man, here is me tweeting abt thinking deeply
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
I read this guy and sometimes he has good things to say, but ice cr?m otm
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
i love ta-nehisi coates, but twitter is not for everyone
― horseshoe, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
tbf he takes this stance constantly on his blog
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
which i think is v good except for this thing that is irritating and lame
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
but i guess isn't the thing that TNC has a bunch of followers who are expecting him to be posting about Breitbart, so he's kind of saying 'yes i know about this but i need to think it through before i write AS SHOULD YOU btw', like, there's an element of i-am-on-top-of-this-news but also i-am-representing-well-reasoned-thought
― inspector george gentlyfallingblood (c sharp major), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
I think he's whistling at his readers that he knows Brietbart's dead and the reason he hasn't written anything about it yet is 'cause he hasn't gotten the smile off of his face yet.
― pareilles à celles auxquelles l'étiquette de la cour assujettit (Michael White), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
i am representing well reasoned thought w/o actually demonstrating it is the problem
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
How much was the retainer?
― pareilles à celles auxquelles l'étiquette de la cour assujettit (Michael White), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
i mean i know he didnt actually choose the cover image or the tagline but lol dude
http://i.imgur.com/M4Qwi.jpg
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
but i guess isn't the thing that TNC has a bunch of followers who are expecting him to be posting about Breitbart,
A strange expectation: yet one more liberal writing yet another scabrous obit?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
Even granting that it is a pose he likes to strike, most writers in his position, needing to churn out copy at a fantastic rate to appease his readers, fall into characteristic tropes and poses. It is part of being a pundit. Not such a big lol in the scheme of things, but, yeah, it shows a tendency to furrow his brow a bit too obviously.
― Aimless, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
He is pretty cool. I can cut him some slack for a clunky thing here and there. He hasn't gone full Greenwald just yet.
― polyphonic, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:23 (twelve years ago) link
i think his self-seriousness is inseparable from what's good about his writing when it's good.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:24 (twelve years ago) link
naw he is v capable of greater self awareness and is much better in that mode
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
TNC will end up writing about the lack of ethics in modern poltical propaganda or epistemic closure or how the interwebs have empowered pit-bull journalism or something, but I doubt he will linger much over Brietbart himself all that much.
― pareilles à celles auxquelles l'étiquette de la cour assujettit (Michael White), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
oh man, maybe it's TNC that is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sincerity
― goole, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
― horseshoe, Thursday, March 1, 2012 2:24 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
actually forgive me for not thinking abt this deeper, i do think whats good abt his writing is maybe p closely related to his ponderousness, he does a thing thats p endearing where you can feel him thinking, he s lets you in, which is not easy, but he tends to go off the rails w/it which is maybe not surprising considering what a delicate operation it is
also id like to say that his blog is ime much better than his long form writing but why
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
eh his problem isn't that he's too sincere, paul krugman is sincere too, his problem is that he spends too much time thinking outloud and being nice
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
(xp)
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
he spends too much time thinking outloud
― iatee, Thursday, March 1, 2012 2:30 PM (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is his problem, yes. twitter is bad for him, i really think, although now i sound like a crazy person who thinks ta-nehisi coates is her friend. which lol is how i actually think of him tbh. i'm fine with him being nice.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
i don't really disagree with anything jho has said, though. i originally typed "ponderousness" instead of "self-seriousness." dude has a lot to say.
i'm making sure i'm putting that waxpapery ring thing on the seat before i take shit in this toilet. #breitbartpocalypse #thoughtfulguy
― that's totally unacceptable denim (Hunt3r), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
and he says it slowly. i always am jealous of people who can write like that; i do the opposite.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
I am glad I only sporadically read his stuff as I've never come across anything exhibiting the problems/issues you guys are describing (which I half suspect are a pattern that emerges via exposure).
― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
'i think' the thinking out loud part is just the clumsy failed aspect of what he does well when he does it well which then leads to people thinking hes their friend which is a p good trick
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
to be clear i really like him which is whats lead me to develop this critique of him
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
instead of tweeting ta-nehisi should just call me up and vent. we are on a first name basis like that.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
the funny thing abt tnc on twitter is he spent so long turning his nose up at it and now hes on it all the time basically demonstrating its shortcomings in real time in the manner he previously described
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:39 (twelve years ago) link
sometimes I wonder - (and again I think he's 'worthy of being a tier 1 blogger' regardless) - how many people use him as their go-to source for 'what a black person thinks' because he is what a lot of people would like black people to be
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:40 (twelve years ago) link
...
― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:42 (twelve years ago) link
and it's hard to disassociate that w/ the fact that he actually is an interesting writer but I see him celebrated in ways that I don't see w/ many other bloggers, like the way people compliment him out of the blue 'one of the best writers. everyone should be reading him. just great.' etc. is...different
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:42 (twelve years ago) link
im really glad he has started talking abt the nba and stopped talking abt video games
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link
iatee, the "Is this racist?" thread is over here
― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:45 (twelve years ago) link
I'm not arguing 'tnc is the result of affirmative action' I'm saying 'is it a total coincidence that the most popular africam-american blogger among white people is like the least shrill person on the internet'
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link
africam
― iatee, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
fyi, tnc used to kick it on ilm a bit back in the day. i've been following him since he was at the voice doing the press clips column -- he was killer funny. sometimes he can (or could, don't read regularly now) go hella hard, albeit with some dry irony.
― s.clover, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
what was his usr name
― lag∞n, Thursday, 1 March 2012 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
sure, but in a political context, it's bismarck, no? it's the idea that what one _can_ do is more important to political decision-making than what _should_ do, that the law is whatever you can get away with.
i think i may have been unclear when i proposed "reparations" as a concept "without specific reference to race". i was proposing that they presented disingenuously, that proposals which disproportionately benefit people of color should be presented as ideas that promote the general welfare - turning the history of "color-blind" politics on its head. the expectation is not that white people are so stupid they will not know they are being lied to, but that many of them will prefer the lie and find it more palatable.
― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Saturday, 5 May 2018 19:01 (five years ago) link
People of color is different than black people. When I think of reparations in the US, I think of black people and giving them cash and land to figure out how to use as they want (through whichever all black entity to decide). Sure we can also give them 0% mortgages but really, cash and land.
― Yerac, Saturday, 5 May 2018 20:15 (five years ago) link
Why are indigenous people generally not referenced when talking about reparations?
― Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 5 May 2018 20:18 (five years ago) link
Especially if you're talking about giving land to people
― Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 5 May 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
I think that would need to be a different conversation with different quantitations to get to cash and land value but sure.
― Yerac, Saturday, 5 May 2018 20:20 (five years ago) link
Quickly googling, at least native americans seem ahead in the reparation game, meaning they have gotten something actually material/tangible.
― Yerac, Saturday, 5 May 2018 20:21 (five years ago) link
The native americans often have a treaty basis upon which to sue the US government, while African-Americans have no way to sue for damages, even though they are just as tangible harms.
― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 5 May 2018 21:05 (five years ago) link
At this point, I think white men should not be allowed to hold public office for at least 40 years (that threshold I would gladly increase).
― Yerac, Saturday, 5 May 2018 21:34 (five years ago) link
jesus christ
― .b derf (darraghmac), Saturday, 5 May 2018 21:49 (five years ago) link
He is not white so he would be ok to run if he can manage to get himself resurrected.
― Yerac, Saturday, 5 May 2018 21:53 (five years ago) link
my zombie president is a jewish carpenter
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 5 May 2018 21:56 (five years ago) link
Next netflix Making a Murderer/American Vandal parody.
― Yerac, Saturday, 5 May 2018 21:58 (five years ago) link
It's posted on the Kanye West thread, but it deserves to be here as well: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/
The personal stuff makes me a bit queasy, but hope that he's okay.
― Frederik B, Monday, 7 May 2018 13:47 (five years ago) link
leaving the atlantic
― mookieproof, Friday, 20 July 2018 19:46 (five years ago) link
good for him
― 21st savagery fox (m bison), Friday, 20 July 2018 19:56 (five years ago) link
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/ta-nehisi-coates-race-politics-2020-elections.html
― but i'm there are fuckups (Karl Malone), Monday, 18 March 2019 04:36 (five years ago) link
Thanks for that!
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 18 March 2019 07:57 (five years ago) link
what a read
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 March 2019 19:18 (five years ago) link
https://www.bookforum.com/print/2604/inhuman-bondage-23753
― j., Monday, 2 December 2019 15:42 (four years ago) link
Ouch. Has the novel gotten other negative reviews like that? Haven’t read it yet myself, or much about it.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 December 2019 16:50 (four years ago) link
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, 2 December 2019 16:57 (four years ago) link
yeah I just figured I wasn’t smart enough to understand that review
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:58 (four years ago) link
https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/24/20879736/water-dancer-review-ta-nehisi-coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates is not quite there yet. He doesn’t have the kind of command over the novel as a medium that will let him meld disparate genres together; he doesn’t seem to care about his characters as people rather than as devices he can use to convey ideas; he doesn’t really understand how to keep a plot moving.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:59 (four years ago) link
it sounds like he took too long to write the book and it became muddled. he said he spent ten years writing this. no one is the same writer they were ten years ago, least of all someone who, in that time, became one of the nation's most esteemed public intellectuals
― treeship., Monday, 2 December 2019 17:14 (four years ago) link
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 didn't read it, just what it sounds like.
― treeship., Monday, 2 December 2019 17:16 (four years ago) link
― 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.
― #FBPIRA (jim in vancouver), Monday, 2 December 2019 17:19 (four years ago) link
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.
― Frederik B, Monday, 2 December 2019 17:20 (four years ago) link
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'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.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 2 December 2019 17:41 (four years ago) link
i can't fucking believe there's an actual "he's not a great novelist, and that's ok!" in the vox piece
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 2 December 2019 17:58 (four years ago) link
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.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 2 December 2019 18:02 (four years ago) link
surprised VOX writer didn't say, "Hey, Baldwin's novels were blah too!"
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 December 2019 18:25 (four years ago) link
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
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 2 December 2019 18:27 (four years ago) link
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.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 2 December 2019 18:48 (four years ago) link
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
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 3 June 2020 14:19 (three years ago) link
what else is there to talk about
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Wednesday, 3 June 2020 14:32 (three years ago) link
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
― Heez, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 16:49 (nine months ago) link
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.)
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 16:51 (nine months ago) link
“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
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 November 2023 20:32 (six months ago) link