Holy crap. Just reading Beatty's The Sellout, and I've come across a pretty egregious error.

[Mark Thibodeau]

The excerpt is from the stream of consciousness of the main character
of The Sellout, who is most definitely black.

Can I ask what gave you the impression that the main character of The
Sellout isn't black?

On Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 2:25 AM Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Haven't read it but you're aware that the "I" is not Beatty and not black? Perhaps Beatty wouldn't even call Eggers a condescending do-gooder.
>
> Am Sa., 22. Juni 2019 um 06:45 Uhr schrieb David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:
>>
>> Like you, I wasn't aware of this "blacks" taboo.  I can't object because
>> I'm not black.  This dynamic is silly, and makes Trump great for idiots.
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 10:32 PM Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Not sure where you're going with this, or what you mean, exactly.
>> >
>> > That phrase ("the blacks") only appears in my email as a direct quote
>> > of Beatty's text.
>> >
>> > Beatty is an African American author, in case you weren't aware.
>> >
>> > You should read The Sellout. It's fantastic, unfair attack on David
>> > Cronenberg notwithstanding.
>> >
>> > YOPJerky
>> >
>> > On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 10:33 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > Very recently I was informed (online) that "blacks" is an offensive
>> > term. "Black people" is OK, though.  This semantic rule seems to be just
>> > what the PC police are looking for.
>> > >
>> > > David Morris
>> > >
>> > > On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 8:58 PM Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> And this, my friends, is an example of precisely what I was afraid
>> > >> might happen actually happening.
>> > >>
>> > >> Let me explain...
>> > >>
>> > >> On page 95, Beatty writes:
>> > >>
>> > >> "The only certainties I had about the African-American condition were
>> > >> that we had no concept of the phrases too sweet and too salty. And in
>> > >> ten years, through countless California cruelties and slights against
>> > >> the blacks, the poor, the people of color, like Propositions 8 and
>> > >> 187, the disappearance of social welfare, David Cronenberg's Crash and
>> > >> Dave Eggers's do-gooder condescension, I hadn't spoken a single word."
>> > >>
>> > >> I'm sure I probably don't have to point this out to too many of you
>> > >> here on the P-list, but Beatty can't possibly mean Cronenberg's 1996
>> > >> film in this context. He must be referring to Paul Haggis's 2006
>> > >> Academy Award-winning mediocrity. And now his error is immortalized in
>> > >> the printed word, in a very popular novel, indeed.
>> > >>
>> > >> SHIT!
>> > >>
>> > >> I haven't been able to find Beatty on social media at all. Is there
>> > >> any way to contact him to let him know, so that maybe the error can be
>> > >> corrected in future editions? It IS a pretty serious error, after all.
>> > >>
>> > >> Cheers,
>> > >> yer old pal Jerky
>> > >> --
>> > >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l