Objectively intelligent.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Just stumbled across this pair of quotes:

No comment.

I've tried to read Coates in the past. He and Sullivan might want to bury the hatchet. They've much in common, most notably the ability to write pages and pages without offering any tight, logical points. They also like to complain. They'd do quite well complimenting each other's pedantic ramblings on the same website.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I've tried to read Coates in the past. He and Sullivan might want to bury the hatchet. They've much in common, most notably the ability to write pages and pages without offering any tight, logical points. They also like to complain. They'd do quite well complimenting each other's pedantic ramblings on the same website.

Oh.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Ah, but the people who made the job their lives, who get off on being in charge and walking around seeing people who are on some level working for them -- have you no sympathy for them? Where will they find fulfillment? Where will they find human interaction of the controlling sort they desire? Where will those 5'7 nebbishes be respected but in the halls of the office? This out-of-office working situation is really hard on those people who identify themselves by what they do. If you refuse to pay them fealty by appearing, they question their importance.

Face time isn't about you, you selfish prick. It's about gratifying management with the delusion that you'd still come into the office and respect them if you won the lottery tomorrow... Allowing them to believe you'd spend even a second in their company if not for the commercial endeavor in which you are both engaged.

Occasionally, there's a story about some worker winning or inheriting a ton of money and telling her boss to fuck off while resigning. This is misguided. One should simply leave. Never resign. Never take a call from the office. Just leave. This sends the proper message on how much one cares about management, the endeavor, the company, the system. Just walk away.

What have I ever done to make you this angry with me?

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Ah, but the people who made the job their lives, who get off on being in charge and walking around seeing people who are on some level working for them -- have you no sympathy for them? Where will they find fulfillment? Where will they find human interaction of the controlling sort they desire? Where will those 5'7 nebbishes be respected but in the halls of the office? This out-of-office working situation is really hard on those people who identify themselves by what they do. If you refuse to pay them fealty by appearing, they question their importance.

Face time isn't about you, you selfish prick. It's about gratifying management with the delusion that you'd still come into the office and respect them if you won the lottery tomorrow... Allowing them to believe you'd spend even a second in their company if not for the commercial endeavor in which you are both engaged.

Occasionally, there's a story about some worker winning or inheriting a ton of money and telling her boss to fuck off while resigning. This is misguided. One should simply leave. Never resign. Never take a call from the office. Just leave. This sends the proper message on how much one cares about management, the endeavor, the company, the system. Just walk away.

Wow, full confession, this is really excellent work. Chilling in how spot-on it is. Really nailed it. This is like Chris Nolan level prescient.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

My sister's castrating pigs this weekend. There was always something unique about cutting time.

She's doing it with the knife instead of rubber bands. Respect.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Oh damn. That's me and my brother in law. We've had exactly that conversation with exactly those perceptions of it.

Just because we are in a pandemic and working through mass protests nationwide doesn’t mean grammar doesn’t still apply. Flower is still reading this and an error like you made hurts him very much, I am sure😪🥵

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Just because we are in a pandemic and working through mass protests nationwide doesn’t mean grammar doesn’t still apply. Flower is still reading this and an error like you made hurts him very much, I am sure����

Grammar is for the little people.

Have you paid no attention the last four years?

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Zevon did whine a bit. "Poor Poor Pitiful Me."

"I met girl at the Rainbow Bar/She asked me if I'd beat her/And she took me back to the Hyatt House/...I don't want to talk about it" #songsyoucouldneverreleasetoday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Uhs82k_CU

I was never a fan. Not against him, but never really got into his stuff. But I went with a friend to one of his shows in the mid-to-late 90s, and the guy was a great entertainer. Thoroughly enjoyable concert.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Grammar is for the little people.

Have you paid no attention the last four years?

Flower is short, but I don't think he qualifies as a little person.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I've tried to read Coates in the past. He and Sullivan might want to bury the hatchet. They've much in common, most notably the ability to write pages and pages without offering any tight, logical points. They also like to complain. They'd do quite well complimenting each other's pedantic ramblings on the same website.

I wasn't going to respond to this, but what the hell, it's Friday.

Sullivan rhapsodizes about the good old days, when he and Coates were close. Coates says, we weren't close, and because of the power imbalances inherent in that situation, I had to pretend to take Sullivan seriously when he said racist stuff.

Why would Coates want to "bury the hatchet"? If you read what he said, he was burying the hatchet before, but now he doesn't have to pretend not to notice when someone like Sullivan questions his humanity.

If Sullivan really thought he was Coates's friend, he would apologize. It's not like Coates did anything to him.

Your suggestion that they're similar misses the whole point here, which is about the way that the power dynamics have changed. Back then, Sullivan was a big name, and Coates was a nobody. Coates had to put up with Sullivan. Now things have changed. Sullivan is a has-been, Sullivan's views on race seem not only dated but are starting to smell rancid, and Coates is a star.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I wasn't going to respond to this, but what the hell, it's Friday.

Sullivan rhapsodizes about the good old days, when he and Coates were close. Coates says, we weren't close, and because of the power imbalances inherent in that situation, I had to pretend to take Sullivan seriously when he said racist stuff.

Why would Coates want to "bury the hatchet"? If you read what he said, he was burying the hatchet before, but now he doesn't have to pretend not to notice when someone like Sullivan questions his humanity.

If Sullivan really thought he was Coates's friend, he would apologize. It's not like Coates did anything to him.

Your suggestion that they're similar misses the whole point here, which is about the way that the power dynamics have changed. Back then, Sullivan was a big name, and Coates was a nobody. Coates had to put up with Sullivan. Now things have changed. Sullivan is a has-been, Sullivan's views on race seem not only dates but are starting to smell rancid, and Coates is a star.

Coates is not a star. He’s a darling of a niche of readers who think his stuff is quality. He’s a decent enough writer, but generally a one trick pony. All roads lead to grievance. He also engages in a bit of clickbait writing by arguing for reparations. It’s not that he doesn’t have some decent points, but he’s on permanent repeat. You criticize Taibbi for endlessly milking the same media criticisms. That’s fair. Taibbi does mine the vein a bit too frequently. In the same manner, Coates see everything through a lens of race theory and grievance.

Taibbi, unlike Coates (and Sullivan) remains interesting because he has a bit more range, and most importantly - this is huge - he has a sense of humor. Coates takes himself brutally seriously. So does Sullivan. That makes their stuff tedious.

I’m not interested in the point you were making because I think it’s an example of Coates being a bore and a windbag. He and Sullivan deserve each other.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Coates is not a star. He’s a darling of a niche of readers who think his stuff is quality. He’s a decent enough writer, but generally a one trick pony. All roads lead to grievance. He also engages in a bit of clickbait writing by arguing for reparations. It’s not that he doesn’t have some decent points, but he’s on permanent repeat. You criticize Taibbi for endlessly milking the same media criticisms. That’s fair. Taibbi does mine the vein a bit too frequently. In the same manner, Coates see everything through a lens of race theory and grievance.

Taibbi, unlike Coates (and Sullivan) remains interesting because he has a bit more range, and most importantly - this is huge - he has a sense of humor. Coates takes himself brutally seriously. So does Sullivan. That makes their stuff tedious.

I’m not interested in the point you were making because I think it’s an example of Coates being a bore and a windbag. He and Sullivan deserve each other.

You should actually read some Coates.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Coates is not a star. He’s a darling of a niche of readers who think his stuff is quality. He’s a decent enough writer, but generally a one trick pony. All roads lead to grievance. He also engages in a bit of clickbait writing by arguing for reparations. It’s not that he doesn’t have some decent points, but he’s on permanent repeat. You criticize Taibbi for endlessly milking the same media criticisms. That’s fair. Taibbi does mine the vein a bit too frequently. In the same manner, Coates see everything through a lens of race theory and grievance.

Coates, undeniably, is a star, whatever you think of his writing. He won the National Book Award and a MacArthur genius grant, and his books sell and get critical acclaim. He also writes for Marvel Comics, and seems to be working on TV and film projects. He has the sort of crossover appeal that reflects that publishers want him writing for them because he's a draw. I personally have not read any of his books, so I can't speak to them, but it's clear that he has been very successful lately.

Whatever you think of him or Sullivan, it's pretty obvious that their relative status has flip-flopped dramatically in the last fifteen years.

Taibbi, unlike Coates (and Sullivan) remains interesting because he has a bit more range, and most importantly - this is huge - he has a sense of humor. Coates takes himself brutally seriously. So does Sullivan. That makes their stuff tedious.

I decline your invitation to compare and contrast the work of Taibbi, Sullivan and Coates, not least because it has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

I’m not interested in the point you were making because I think it’s an example of Coates being a bore and a windbag. He and Sullivan deserve each other.

OK. Either way, your "bury the hatchet" point was totally obtuse.

eta: Obviously, I posted the quotes from Sullivan and Coates because of the exchange we had about Sullivan a few days ago. I guess you're bored by things that don't match your priors.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

News from the war on cancel culture.The struggle is real, people.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Coates, undeniably, is a star, whatever you think of his writing. He won the National Book Award and a MacArthur genius grant, and his books sell and get critical acclaim.

Is there an emoji for "mimicking handjob in the air"? If credentials from the politicized academe count for anything, whatever that is and a few bucks should pay for a nice subway ride. Bob Dylan has my proxy on how to respond to an accolade. If that reference misses, look up his response to the Nobel Prize.

He also writes for Marvel Comics, and seems to be working on TV and film projects.

He writes a Black Panther series. That is pretty cool. But again, getting Hollywood to pay you in a moment where you're a darling of the left ain't terribly hard. The people who buy and develop scripts are not geniuses, and they are not well read, but the majority of them are incredibly herd-like. Coates is a home run for Marvel. The film execs converting the material to movies get to wax about how they've got the Atlantic's critical race scholar in-house. (None of them know wtf that means, but they can say it between bites of salad at lunch meetings and sound like they're enlightened.)

I was joking about Hollywood wokeness with a friend in the business at a film festival in the spring. One comment made to me was, "a handicapped lesbian writer is probably more important than the quality of the script."

I've negotiated sales of scripts. Kill me. The people in that industry are as deep as bird baths.

He has the sort of crossover appeal that reflects that publishers want him writing for them because he's a draw. I personally have not read any of his books, so I can't speak to them, but it's clear that he has been very successful lately.

Agreed. And he probably has a great agent. It's all about the network. Ibram Kendi's agent is probably trying to compete in the space right now. Do you have any doubt - even a single one - that agents are saying things like, "get some woke writers to put on this project" and "we're going to make a bundle on this series/movie/show riding the 'woke capitalism' wave"?

Whatever you think of him or Sullivan, it's pretty obvious that their relative status has flip-flopped dramatically in the last fifteen years.

Sullivan has no place to go because there can only be one David Brooks. He's got no place to hang his hat except dying magazines.

I decline your invitation to compare and contrast the work of Taibbi, Sullivan and Coates, not least because it has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

Fair enough.

OK. Either way, your "bury the hatchet" point was totally obtuse.

It was ironic. You're tone deaf.

eta: Obviously, I posted the quotes from Sullivan and Coates because of the exchange we had about Sullivan a few days ago. I guess you're bored by things that don't match your priors.

Yeah, I know the point was Sullivan is controversial. But where that fails is your proof of that being Coates, who is an unreliable source. You don't ask the man who has a hammer-and-nail view of the world, where the problem with everything is racism which must be assailed, if someone is a racist. Of course Sullivan is a racist. So is every living thing with which Coates comes into contact.

But here's some really fun stuff: https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...le-cornel-west

That's Colonel West blasting Coates, calling him a neoliberal anti-racist who ignores the intersectional interplay of class and race and instead assesses race in a vacuum, alone, because he doesn't want to get into the concurrent class issues. Why? Because to assess those issues along with race might put Coates at odds with the well-heeled members of academe and the woke capitalists who pay for his home in Paris.