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

[Jochen Stremmel]

Of course: sorry if I was mistaken. I remembered some reviews and that the
protagonist wants to reestablish slavery on his farm and obviously couldn't
imagine that a black man would want to do that. But taking in account what
one of the Man Booker judges said

"The Sellout is one of those very rare books that is able to take satire,
which is in itself a very difficult subject and not always done well, and
[...] both manages to eviscerate every social taboo and politically
correct, nuanced, every sacred cow, and while both making us laugh, making
us wince."

it's definitely possible – and possible, too, that such a man takes another
point of view regarding Crash than you. And you winced, didn't you?

Am Sa., 22. Juni 2019 um 08:37 Uhr schrieb Mark Thibodeau <
jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>:

> 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
>