what are you reading now?
IdleRich
IdleRich
I don't like this argument at all. I saw somebody saying that The Wire was a black story and it should have been told by black people.... and mainly it is (a story about black communities)... but it's also the story of dockworkers and the police department and politicians and so on and so forth... and nobody is all of those things so that argument kinda makes the whole thing impossible.
luka
Well-known member
if fewer self-important furrowed white brows were allowed to publish books that would be no terrible loss. no one really has a problem with the wire cos it's fairly good. i dont think its an assault on the freedom of artists to point and jeer when the characters s of eg exotic black man or crafty cockney darts player or mystical indian are compiled not from any real life interaction with human beings but compiled from 2d media representations. ive read and seen lots of black characters who are obviously based on videos of rappers. yo homeboy. swaggering menacingly. wut choo looking at white boy.
there's a lot of that kind of stuff. weird fantasies. everything published, everything on telly, its all slop on the feedtray. its not 'art' some holy thing. so you can pick at it and turn it over and pull it apart and demand to know what it is and nhow it was made.
there's a lot of that kind of stuff. weird fantasies. everything published, everything on telly, its all slop on the feedtray. its not 'art' some holy thing. so you can pick at it and turn it over and pull it apart and demand to know what it is and nhow it was made.
luka
Well-known member
this is a tweet from someone who comes on here sometimes.
Progressive R&B Enthusiast
@SonRaw
@blackdownLDN
and
@kllawthulu
Not surprised. I won't single out any single publication because they're all guilty but it was a very rapid change from "we'll cover street level Black music with the right pitch" to "find us experimental artists of colour so we can keep pushing the music we're invested in"
Progressive R&B Enthusiast
@SonRaw
@blackdownLDN
and
@kllawthulu
Not surprised. I won't single out any single publication because they're all guilty but it was a very rapid change from "we'll cover street level Black music with the right pitch" to "find us experimental artists of colour so we can keep pushing the music we're invested in"
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Ah man have you ever read an Ian McEwan novel that features a criminal representative of the underclass?
That's the sort of thing. Toe curling.
I feel like a lot of authors now, especially with these 'creative writing' degrees you can now do, haven't experienced anything of life beyond a very narrow middle-class band.
Not to say that a life lived in that band is necessarily inherently uninteresting, but if all the authors come from that band.
(Is 'band' even the word?!)
That's the sort of thing. Toe curling.
I feel like a lot of authors now, especially with these 'creative writing' degrees you can now do, haven't experienced anything of life beyond a very narrow middle-class band.
Not to say that a life lived in that band is necessarily inherently uninteresting, but if all the authors come from that band.
(Is 'band' even the word?!)
entertainment
Well-known member
The thing I hate the most is when art school types try to make films about the criminal world and it's just one parameter: cynicism and violence amplified to two hundred. The more gritty and hopeless it is, the more 'real' it is. Fuck off, these are real people, they laugh and smile and have insecurities and dreams just like everyone else.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Oh come the fuck off it with this "allowed" nonsense. Who do you imagine functioning as arbitrator of books by white authors to ensure that their portrayal of non-white characters meets some standard of originality and non-stereotypicality? You going to selflessly offer your own services?
Of course if a given book has characterization that you think is lazy and cliched then you are allowed not to read it.
luka
Well-known member
i doubt it. Shakespeare had a relatively boring life from what we know. ts eliot worked in a bank. pessoa was some kind of boring clerk. kafka didnt do fuck all. on the other hand Cervantes life was a picaresque novel all of its own
luka
Well-known member
Who do you imagine functioning as arbitrator of books
the arbitor of books is the publishing industry. this is fairly obvious i would have thought. it's comissioning editors, agents, broadsheet newspapers, the tls, the lrb, radio 4, it's bookshops, it's readers themselves as consumers.
the arbitor of books is the publishing industry. this is fairly obvious i would have thought. it's comissioning editors, agents, broadsheet newspapers, the tls, the lrb, radio 4, it's bookshops, it's readers themselves as consumers.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
That's true, although Eliot as far as i recall used to go on recces into the more sordid areas of London on the hunt for material — and of course moved to London in the first place from America, which presumably gives you an interesting perspective in of itself. And then later on converted to Catholicism, and got married when he was in his 70s (this is all off the top of my head).
luka
Well-known member
its not the life so much as the sensibility and the nervous system its filtered through would be my position.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Ha, oh I see - you're talking about who should be allowed to publish novels and I'm the one being hyperbolic.
The stupid thing is that I agree with your basic gist - diversity in art is an unequivocal good, right? - but you did phrase it rather ridiculously.