Dear age 40,
I win.
Sincerely,
Ta-Nehisi
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) September 29, 2015
While I was on involuntary hiatus, I didn’t get to share the news about Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new sideline as a Marvel comics writer. From the Washington Post:
… Coates is slated to write a new Black Panther series beginning this spring, Marvel announced…
The year-long story line is called “A Nation Under Our Feet,” after the Pulitzer Prize-winning book about black political struggles in the rural South. With a narrative centered around revolution, terrorism and heroism, the series will embody the intersection of several of Coates’s preoccupations, including a comic-books fandom that he has nursed since he was a child…
Black Panther debuted in a volume of “Fantastic Four” in July 1966, actually preceding the founding of the Black Panther Party that same year. But in many ways, he shouldered the gauntlet raised by the radical black nationalist group: the Black Panther (whose given name is T’Challa) hails from the fictional African nation of Wakanda, to which he returns during the height of a revolution.
The son of a onetime Black Panther member, Coates is familiar with political unrest, at least when it comes to literary subject matter…
Vulture also reprinted a long interview from April: “Ta-Nehisi Coates Unpacks the Way Comics Have Conquered the World“.
Last weekend, the very British, very establishment Financial Times gave TNC its “Lunch with the FT” treatment…
Paris has its own problem of racial segregation, so when I arrive at the restaurant 15 minutes early and spot across the room a tall black man already hanging his coat over a chair, I know at once: this must be the American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. Black people are scarce in upmarket Parisian restaurants.
At the start of this year, Coates, who turns 40 on Wednesday, was a fairly well-known journalist. He had published a little-read memoir about growing up in Baltimore, The Beautiful Struggle (2008), but his reputation stemmed chiefly from a 2014 article for the Atlantic magazine arguing that the US should pay black Americans reparations for slavery. Then, this July, his slim book Between the World and Me was published in the US amid national furore over the #blacklivesmatter movement, protests in Baltimore and the massacre of black churchgoers by a white man in Charleston, South Carolina. The book argues that the “destruction of black bodies” is not simply a constant of American history but the very foundation stone of white American “progress”…
Victor Von, what's good….
http://t.co/dsyl23jo2y pic.twitter.com/iz8HBq8glM
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) September 22, 2015
redshirt
I wonder if he’ll be involved in the film. I doubt it, directly, but this PR will no doubt play a part. It’s a big deal for the comics to get someone with Coates’ buzz to commit to storyline.
sharl
Probably no longer news, but for the record, Coates was also just awarded a “Genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation:
He seems to be…doing OK.
Mike J
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/09/interview-with-a-putative-genius/407983/
benw
I hope Coates has fun writing a comic. It’s too bad the best comic writer/artist of my generation of comics fandom, Frank Miller, went off the fascist deep end. When he was on his game, before he went nuts, his run on Daredevil, Wolverine, Ronin, and Dark Knight Returns were the best in there ever was.
redshirt
I’m sure Coates is riding sky high these days, but he appears to be daring the Karma Gods.
Mike J
@benw: William Gibson’s daughter just had her first comical book published. Perhaps talent is inherited, or at least picked up from constant exposure.
MazeDancer
TNC celebrated his Marvel-ness on Twitter long and loud, and it was most enjoyable.
On another note, I was wrong. I thought Pope was a savvy PR type. Or was at least advised by same. Those perfectly worded speeches seemed so dedicated to expanding the fighters in changing Climate Change and World Poverty. Alienate no one seemed to be his goal.
So, since it would be PR suicide, not to mention stupid, to meet with a small-time grifting hater like Kim Davis on such an important, expensive, long planned journey, where people like Ken Langone only managed to buy their way onto St. Patrick’s steps for a handshake, thought no chance Kim meeting Pope happened in any way except through plotting by his enemies.
Apparently, I was wrong. NY Times said it happened for realz.
redshirt
@MazeDancer: Maybe Kim Davis counts as one of the wretched and sinful he’s supposed to help.
Frankensteinbeck
@benw:
What’s important is that Rob Liefeld be cast down from the mountain and into the flames. Long, long ago, he destroyed my favorite comic and my favorite characters.
redshirt
@Frankensteinbeck: “Cap’s Chest”.
benw
@Mike J: I really enjoyed “Spook Country”, once of W. Gibson’s recent books. If his daughter is like her old man, she can write a mean thriller.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MazeDancer: Even EJ Dionne was saying Papa Frank stepped on his own story. He was reporting that the US bishops are not happy, and the Papal Nuncio who arranged the meeting, a Benedict appointee who is due to step down, may find himself having health issues (with no family he wants to spend more time with) earlier than expected
Suzanne
@Mike J: Ta-Nehisi Coates is absolutely, undoubtedly, 100% the shit.
? Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, let’s be honest here. We have a country where we have elevated people into positions of power who support this kind of grifting and intellectual dishonesty. Huckabee, Santorum, Cruz, etc. are all current or former federal or state elected officials who would all use their authority to request a meeting with the Pope.
We put people in power that should not be trusted, but will be trusted entirely because we put them in power. This is our fault.
? Martin
@Mike J:
Opportunities are inherited. She may be no more or less talented than the rest of us, but by virtue of her dad, she was far more likely to be given the chance to succeed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I am not actually being a hipster here. I think his MacArthur grant is perfectly justified, but I find the reverence for him that some on the left have as unjustified. He has an interesting point of view and he writes extraordinarily well, but he is not an oracle. I posit that he would agree with my last sentence.
MazeDancer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Apparently, Lawrence O’Donnell reported, as well, that the meet was arranged by Papal Nunciate, a hardliner who was already scheduled for removal. So, sabotage cannot be ruled out after all.
But failure is still real. For Pope to meet with anyone in private on this PR mission trip on such a huge global stage was dumb. Pope has to know that US politics is a minefield. And on this trip he could not meet with anyone – especially one-on-one, especially in a meeting arranged by a guy he had already fired – he did not fully know everything about.
Unless Pope finds a way to leak something significant that undercuts Kim’s celebrating this heavenly support, damage is done.
ruemara
I think Il Papa was manipulated by Nuncio into giving the conservatives a media win. Not that I don’t doubt his homophobia, lite though it may be. But I don’t think it was something he wanted to do.
On a synergistic note, I finished my rewrite for my shooting script. I scaled back on characters because I’ve had no luck with casting. Apparently, no men exist in the Sacramento area. Nor are there any very fit women. Yep. There’s only 5 people who act in the region. The rest are sylphs that vanish as the sun comes up. And now, I get to play a guy. I’m gonna need to go shopping for … an appendage.
NotMax
@Mike J
Offhand, Luke Russert and Donald Trump would seem to belie your hypothesis.
;)
benw
@Frankensteinbeck: Amazingly enough, a long time ago I worked for a color rendering place that did Image Comics. I’ve literally scanned in original Liefeld artwork and colored it. We used to joke about the feet thing all the time.
? Martin
@ruemara:
See, the 2nd Amendment will come in handy after all.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Cogent perspective?
Okay, what’s the ransom for the real O. O.?
:)
Coates can crank out some good stuff, but subtlety and nuanced scrutiny of first principles (it’s always racism) are not in his wheelhouse. However, he’s young yet; do look forward to a wider-ranging wisdom accompanying aging to temper and more fully inform his writing.
redshirt
@ruemara:
I think it’s this too. There probably is still a quite large conservative element in the Church and it is a political organization in its way so sometimes you do things to keep other people happy, like tossing a bone to the American right wing media. It means little in any real scheme, but for the PR, it’s gold.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MazeDancer: I saw DIonne on the O’Donnell show. I’d guess they’re both very plugged into the Chatholic hierarchy given their careers and their long time in DC. I suspect the US Bishops more directly encounter blowback from rich people who are fine with the anti-choice stuff, but have gay kids, relatives and friends and make fund-raising awkward
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax:
????
Frankensteinbeck
@benw:
And no matter how hard you washed, your hands never felt clean?
RK
The Pope is a moron, Coates bores me and in time Trump will be throwing his feces at the media. Anyone want to recommend an off-center movie with intrigue? Saw Borgman, which someone recommended last week, but didn’t like it. It was well done but, from what I read, an understanding of Dutch culture is required to really appreciate it.
NotMax
@ruemara
If the venerable standbys (roll of quarters or rolled-up sock) won’t suffice, perhaps time to rethink inclusion of nude scenes…
:)
Contacted any local high school drama departments? Aging by way of make-up isn’t all that lofty a hill to climb.
Omnes Omnibus
@RK: You seem fun.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I hope TNC has a multitude of happy birthdays following this one.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Just that usually there’s a bit more teeth or snarkage evident.
BillinGlendaleCA
@? Martin: Sort of like the Bush family.
RK
@Omnes Omnibus: Not everything is as it seems.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Reread my first sentence in the original post. I was just prefacing a question.
Omnes Omnibus
@RK: No shit.
NotMax
@RK
Donnie Darko, maybe? (Note – Not the sequel, which is to be shunned.)
Perhaps Dark City or The Stunt Man, if you’ve never savored those.
Not all that intrigue-y, but well-crafted in the offbeatitude department:
Baghdad Cafe (A kinder, gentler Jack Palance.)
Smoke Signals
redshirt
Man this place is weird tonight.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
And I rightly praised you for cogent perspective.
The rest was a gentle dig, the attempted humor of which apparently fell flat.
Quoth Groucho: “They can’t all be gems, folks. You want gems, go to Africa.”
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Hey, I am for bed now. I will reconcile my views and others words in the morning. Cheers.
redshirt
Seriously. Are there any Astrologers in the House?
RK
@NotMax: Thanks. Saw Donnie Darko, which I didn’t like, but will check those others out. Think I’ll try Dark City first.
redshirt
@NotMax: He’s been a terrible grouch and he called me swear names for no good reason in a previous thread.
redshirt
@RK: Have you seen Mad Max: Fury Road?
NotMax
@redshirt
It happens to us all.
New month a-borning. Slates wiped clean.
:)
NotMax
@RK
Also too, but only if you haven’t already seen it, Memento is worth a gander.
redshirt
@NotMax:
Memento is great.
Ex Machina was also a heck of a mind trip.
Origuy
@ruemara: Sac City College has a theater department. So does Sac State.
Thoughtful Today
!
Maddow’s (video) takedown of Republican Kevin McCarthy is well worth watching. If he becomes House leader he would be third in line to the Presidency.
The video of McCarthy spouting nonsensical word salad is … deeply unsettling.
Included is the video of him bragging about Republican attacks on Hillary.
Anne Laurie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
As someone who grew up in (but never quite of) the Catholic church, let me point out that the percentage of gay men who entered the priesthood during the second half of the 20th century is way higher than the percentage of gay men in the general population. Pope Francis, and all his bishops & cardinals & monseigneurs, personally know a lot of fellow seminarians (ones they consider good pious godly men) who can honestly attest their chastity has never been threatened by the besmirching sexuality inherent in us double-xx “lesser vessels”.
In the Hierarchy, birth control and abortion reduce the number of new souls available for “saving”. Being a gay man — and I don’t speak Italian, but Francis’ remarks about gay sexuality are always translated using the male pronoun — is just another personal quirk, like being left-handed or color-blind. At least gay men have penises, and are therefore innately qualified for the priesthood!
sacrablue
Nice. I share a birthday with Mr. Coates, but I’m old enough to be his mom.
NotMax
@redshirt
Enjoyed it as well, but doubtful it would fare all that well on a second look.
Sometimes I hesitate to recommend b&w films, even if they are classic (some people nowadays just won’t take that route). However, for intrigue, The Third Man still stands up well to repeat viewing.
redshirt
@NotMax: Ha! I haven’t watched it a second time for this very reason.
I’ll dare myself to do it on some future date.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@ruemara:
Why not expand your writerly vision and make your character an F to M transgender man? Would help explain the lack of appendages if anyone bothers to scrutinize your area.
I second the suggestion to cast a wider casting net to local colleges and high school drama departments. You may not be able to assemble the Black cast of your dreams in your geographical area, so you may want to consider casting some of the roles as Latino or Asian instead.
ruemara
@Origuy: I know. Studied at both.
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Yeah, it’s open casting. I don’t really do all black anything except clothes. In this case, I’m not getting anyone male to show up. But, I did get the guy I wanted for the lead. The character I’m playing is about flamboyant artistic teachers, so any gender or lack thereof would suffice. I’m arrogant enough, perhaps, going to have to tap into my flamboyance. Still need some backgrounders though.
RK
@NotMax: @redshirt:
Loved those.
Thoughtful Today
Classic:
“Trump’s military prep school alma mater sold to Chinese investors for $15 million.”
Morzer
Part of a recently received email:
Who said the security state never did nothing for me?
Morzer
Also noted: Charles P Pierce reacts to Frankenpope Does Kim Davis, with some very interesting details on various players in the circus:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a38405/pope-francis-kim-davis-visit/
henqiguai
@NotMax (#19):
Understand that genetic inheritance *is* a bit of a crap-shoot.
Woodrowfan
NO, he argued that the US should make reparations not just for slavery, but for the more than a century afterwards in which the US legal and financial systems were rigged to deny African-Americans the ability to advance in society, including such things as redlining.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Actually, in Between the World and Me, he in fact does do some oracling.
Tom
@Origuy: Second ‘Stunt Man’. Great performance by Peter O’Toole and Steve Railsback.
Ex Machina is quietly terrifying.
Chris
@Woodrowfan:
Does this include the rigging all the way to the present? (Drug war, out of control cops, and prison-industrial complex imprisoning tons and tons of black people, poor funding of the inner cities, etc…)
PaulW
I so totally f-cking envy Coates.
He’s a best-selling author, he’s got acclaim and respect for his writings and research into the ongoing inequality woes of our nation, he’s getting to WRITE A COMIC BOOK SERIES – this is really where the envy kick in – and he’s officially able to put GENIUS on his business cards now. Also, he gets to travel to Europe on a regular basis.
Monala
@NotMax: I’d say TNC is subtle and nuanced for some definitions of the words. He explores questions deeply, provides extensive evidence, usually with original source material, and gives credit where it is due even to those he disagrees with. The fact that his conclusions are often stark and uncompromising doesn’t take away from the fact that the case he makes to arrive at those conclusions is nuanced.