supererogatory-analysis

[supererogatory-analysis]

"I was amazed--too amazed, I think. The remarking on Senegalese beauty, the tone of it, betrays a deep insecurity, a shock that the deepest and blackest part of us is really beautiful."

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message, p46

[supererogatory-analysis]

"But the color is not just in the physical world you observe but in the unique interaction between that world and your consciousness--in your interpretation, your subjectivity, the things you notice in yourself."

-Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message, p44

[supererogatory-analysis]

I think human dignity is in the mind and body and not in stone.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message, pg 35

[supererogatory-analysis]

"Armed with those raw sources and my own sense of how words might be organized--a style I possessed--maybe I could go from the haunted to the ghost, from reader to writer, and I too could have the stars, and their undeniable gravity, at my disposal. / It was clear that such power must serve something beyond my amusement--that it should do the work of illuminating, or confronting and undoing, the violence I saw around me, that beauty must be joined to politics, that style possessed must meet struggle demanded..."

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Mission, pg14-15

Alright, several things come to mind because of and in reading this passage. First off, the writing is stunning. He is clearly displaying his professed love for the "employment of particular verbs, the playful placement of punctuation, and the private ecstasy it all brought to [Coates]" through skillful strokes of language and polysyndeton (12). In addition to feeling compelled to agree with the points he is making simply because of how beautifully and thoughtfully they are phrased, I do also relate on a deeper level. And because this is a personal blog that (likely) no one cares about, I can put personal things on here, such as how i specifically feel i relate to pieces of writing or the authors thereof.

For me, this passage struck a chord I have been waiting to proverbially "hear" (in writing). What I mean is that it is a written (and beautifully written, at that) representation of a thought I have already had. Would I have written it exactly this way? No, overwhelmingly likely not, but gracious I hope I could get my thoughts out so eloquently one day! The chord, so to speak, I refer to is the concept and mental wrestling match of wondering and grieving the loss of *just writing* because I feel like it has to mean something, or make a greater point, or reveal a lesser revealed truth about the world. It is the battle between wanting to write something meaningful, knowing that every bit of writing is useful and moral in some way or at least adds to the overall cloud of knowledge in the universe, and struggling to write anything that doesn't have an overarching moral plotline (and also struggling with making any plot in at least one of my novel WIP's). Yeah, I know all those things are conflicting. Hence the "battle" metaphor.

Coates, here, describes not that fight but the eventual result I suppose most writers, whether novelists, fanfic authors, journalists, or journalers, eventually arrive to (or succumb to, depending on how you feel about our sense of wonder and how it is connected to greater meaning in the cosmos). This result can be taken in two ways: "If I am to employ my skill as a conduit of the written word, I am at least partially obligated to at least try to put it towards the greater good" or "If I employ my skill as a writer, the simple fact of being a conduit of the unique organization of written word and therefore the structuring of ideas, it would be difficult to avoid having some sense of moral understanding or ethical outreach within the final product."

For more context and explanation (perhaps classical apology) on that second idea, permit me the manipulation of some examples. I mean, personally, I have had a few situations in which I begin a story meaning to just be one of those people who can make a fun little fanfic, no real correlation or care, just fun with the characters so beautifully laid out for us. However, when I finish them and get to a stage where I feel like I can post them, they end up having some crazy deep philosophical or ethical revelation, even if I didn't do it on purpose. Perhaps in the pursuit of the simple our minds turn to the soul, which feeds us the motives and morals of our most basic selves. Another great example is those tumblr posts that are really really stupid, they are true sh*tposting, but they end up creating the most deep or hardcore phrases ever (you know the ones). This is what I mean by the simple fact that you are writing something potentially means the delivery of a treatise on human nature or connection.

Is this always the case? Well... I am sure many of you could throw examples at me of works that definitely did not come together for the good of the planet (ahem... Twilight... some terrible fic you opened on ao3 but immediately DNF'd because of the grammar... etc.) but even these things perhaps brought something into the focus of one person, even if that is only the author, that changed the way someone thinks or formed a synapse. Curiosity and the willingness to embrace the words that itch to flow from your brain to your fingertips is the important thing. (Btw, the Twilight diss was a joke. I'm sure there is something useful in there.) Even things that are specifically written to be fun and engaging generally have morally educational content. (Percy Jackson, Green Eggs and Ham, you name it). I suppose I should likely narrow my field a bit so that the above statements are more true, but you can imagine what i mean. (in other words, don't come at me with "But this medical paper doesnt have moral upstanding content!")

The other way of interpreting or looking at the point of his quote is the obligation standpoint. Is it the obligation of the writer to better the world with their writing? Or is it a good deed that it would be a shame not to feed into? Certainly many authors have strata of work-- things that they profess as having been a fun, learning experience for them, and those that are their magnum opus or their letter to the nations. Suzanne Collins says that she writes when she has something to say; Ovid wrote slight anti-authoritarian bent subtext into his works because he was disgruntled at being exiled by Augustus; JKR (i know, dont come at me here either. i dont agree with her but im perfectly allowed to appreciate her art) had the entire series planned and plotted out so that things would align perfectly into a story about loss, growing, wonder, and perspective; CS Lewis' Chronicles are certainly allegory-filled, but they're also childrens' books! They are fun and exciting and easy!

The argument could be made that in fiction, we as humans can't help but infuse some sense of virtue, or at least a sense of who we are as a person and an author. (I am sort of not including straight smut fics and things like that... but even then, those give insight into who someone is and where their values lie.)

anyway.... thats the post.

[supererogatory-analysis]

"None of these worlds were separate in my mind. I did not have then, and do not have now, a real sense of 'high' or 'low' art. All I cared about was what haunted me and why-- and I slowly began to see the thread running through each of them."

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Mission, p12

[supererogatory-analysis]

"[A]s much as stories could explain my world, they could also allow me to escape into others." - Ta Nehisi Coates, The Message, p11

[supererogatory-analysis]

Okay so maybe this is actually me starting an entire new blog. honestly I have been meaning to do this for a while, but was waiting to join some fancy website like Wordpress or something. Now, though, I am coming to terms with the fact that if I want to do it, I need to just do it without wasting time waiting.

if yall have other name suggestions for the blog, drop 'em!!

Just started The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and because it isn't my book and I can't annotate it, but I still want to record my thoughts somewhere because so far it is literarily AWESOME, I am gonna do a little running commentary! (its not like i have any followers to annoy anyway!) :)

Anyway, first observation:

pg 11: "Because I really did believe that Tony Dorsett was magic. He was five foot eight, built ordinary as one of my uncles. But when he slid the lone-starred helmet over his head, he transformed into something untouchable."

I love the imagery with the helmet changing him here! It rings of Hector of Troy and him representing or becoming the brutal unfamiliarity of war and battle, when inside he's just a man. (Also EPIC: The Musical Odysseus and the helmet thing, in "Just a Man" / "The Horse and the Infant" which i absolutely adore, in which that theme is a corollary of the original Hector motif from the Iliad or, Troy Story, as we lovingly call it sometimes (at least, the Overly Sarcastic Productions girl and I do).)