What are you reading now?
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Just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Message. I was inspired to pick it up when listening to Glenn Loury’s podcast where he had some positive things to say about it. He and John McWhorter argued about it a bit but John hadn’t read it so they tabled a discussion about it until he did so. Having heard that it’s short, and seeing that it’s on Spotify, I decided to listen to it in order to get more out of their debate (which is now released though I’ve not yet listened to it).
I’ll only make one point about it here, which is orthogonal to the message (no pun intended) of the book - Coates, who reads the audiobook, very consciously ‘axes’ his questions. Even in the past tense - “What’s the delay, he axed.” I’m guessing - no, I’m certain - that 20 years ago when he was getting his start at The Atlantic, he would have asked his questions instead.
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@jon-nyc Yes I'm sure you're right that it's performative blackness. I once heard a black scientist say it that way in a meeting 10 years ago. I had a moment of sympathetic cringe, but maybe that makes me a racist. In his case I think it was an
askaccidental slip.@Axtremus what are your thoughts on this? Has anybody ever called you "Ask"? Did you karate chop them for it?
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@Horace said in What are you reading now?:
@jon-nyc Yes I'm sure you're right that it's performative blackness. I once heard a black scientist say it that way in a meeting 10 years ago. I had a moment of sympathetic cringe, but maybe that makes me a racist.
A guy I worked with 30 years ago slipped it out while giving a presentation to a room full of white businessmen. I could tell he was mortified. I remember it made me think of how he has to code-switch and the rest of us don’t. I think Coates has reached the point where he’s just not going to do that anymore.
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@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:
@Horace said in What are you reading now?:
@jon-nyc Yes I'm sure you're right that it's performative blackness. I once heard a black scientist say it that way in a meeting 10 years ago. I had a moment of sympathetic cringe, but maybe that makes me a racist.
A guy I worked with 30 years ago slipped it out while giving a presentation to a room full of white businessmen. I could tell he was mortified. I remember it made me think of how he has to code-switch and the rest of us don’t. I think Coates has reached the point where he’s just not going to do that anymore.
Well, he's a standard bearer as a public intellectual whose blackness informs his every thought, so it's entirely on brand to present with typically black language.
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@bachophile said in What are you reading now?:
https://c.media-amazon.com/images/I/810stFXOyAL.SL1500.jpg
800 pages of WWII naval history. Love it.
Finished.
Absolutely the best work on naval WWII I’ve ever come across and I’ve tried a few.
It’s all encompassing but very readable.
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I have been reading the Sean Duffy detective stories by Adrian McKinty. I have read four of them so far. All were quite good. Very atmospheric.
Below is the summary of the first book. Kind of reminds me of the LA detective series,
@George-K may like this
Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman's suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things--and people--aren't always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It's no easy job--especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn't matter which side he's on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation. Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles--and of a cop treading a thin, thin line.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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I'm enjoying this book more than I thought I would, having read more than a few books regarding the Civil War. One has to admire the way people wrote back then. I'm listening to the audiobook version - and found myself chuckling while on my run.One quote I liked related to President Buchanan describing what would happen were he to relieve Major Anderson from his command of Fort Sumter, that when he left Washington and returned home, "the way would be lighted by his burning effigies."
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@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
The WSJ did an interview with Isaacson. Nothing really new if you've read the book other than some personal insights that didn't make it into print.
Link to video -
"Spook Street" was a fun read - significantly different from Season 4 of Slow Horses.
As long as I'm on a Herron kick...book 5
The more of Herron I read, the more I appreciate his style. Gary Oldman is perfect...
“It’s been brought to my attention that you arsewipes are not happy bunnies.’
This was Jackson Lamb. The arsewipes were his team.
‘So I’ve convened this meeting so you can air your grievances.’
‘Well—’ River began.
‘Sorry, did I say “you”? I meant me.’
They were in Lamb’s office, which had the advantage, for Lamb, that he didn’t have to move anywhere, and the disadvantage, for everyone else, that it was Lamb’s office. Lamb smoked in his office, and drank, and ate, and there were those who suspected that if he kept a bucket there, he’d never leave. Not that its attractions were obvious. On the other hand, bears’ caves weren’t famously well appointed either, and bears seemed to like them fine.
‘Did one of you jokers put a whoopee cushion on my chair, by the way? No? Well in that case I’ve just farted.’ Lamb leaned back and beamed proudly. ‘Okay, you’re all uptight because there’s a national emergency, and somewhere at the back of your tiny little minds you’re remembering you joined the security services. That rings bells, yes? The bright shiny building at Regent’s Park?’
'Jackson,’ Catherine said.
‘It gives me no pleasure to have to“have to say this, but keep your fucking mouth shut while I’m talking, Standish. It’s only polite.’
‘Always happy to have you mind my manners, but do we really need to hear the lecture?’
‘Oh, I think it’ll be good for morale, “don’t you? Besides, the new boy can’t have heard it more than once. I’d hate him to feel he was missing out. What was your name again?’
‘Coe,’ said J. K. Coe, who’d been there a year.
‘Coe. You’re the one gets panic attacks, right? Behind you! Just kidding.’
Catherine put her head in her hands.”
