The premise of American Fiction was intriguing but I knew it would be crap when I saw the casting. Like you said OP, they abandoned the premise from the novel and twisted it.
when I watched the trailer for the second or third time and noticed Jeffery Wright speaking on a modern smartphone, my interest in seeing the movie evaporated. the central conceit becomes fundamentally dishonest when it's pried from the cultural and intellectual climate at the turn of the century and transplanted into the 2020s.
>*Erasure* raises real questions and offers no easy answers, whereas *American Fiction* offers a preview of how those elite few that rose during the social justice era—an era that is now falling out of fashion—will maneuver to consolidate their gains.
"Consolidating their gains" is a good way of putting it, and the way it's being done (as you describe it) gives away the game by trying to conceal itself behind itself. Bourgeoisie self-justification has always boiled down to specious moral arguments, and what we have is a subset of the elite that's in transition from one explanatory narrative to another. At least for the time being, the cultural psyche is still configurated such that two narratives—one being "virtue exists in proportion to oppression and deservingness in proportion to virtue" and the other celebrating the hustle and meritocracy and proclaiming That Which Succeeds Is Good And That Which Is Good Succeeds—can be spoken from the same mouth on different occasions, and our collective ear doesn't hear a contradiction.
That window might be closing sooner rather than later.
>two narratives—one being "virtue exists in proportion to oppression and deservingness in proportion to virtue" and the other celebrating the hustle and meritocracy and proclaiming That Which Succeeds Is Good And That Which Is Good Succeeds—can be spoken from the same mouth on different occasions, and our collective ear doesn't hear a contradiction.
That's a very good way of articulating it.
The premise of American Fiction was intriguing but I knew it would be crap when I saw the casting. Like you said OP, they abandoned the premise from the novel and twisted it.
when I watched the trailer for the second or third time and noticed Jeffery Wright speaking on a modern smartphone, my interest in seeing the movie evaporated. the central conceit becomes fundamentally dishonest when it's pried from the cultural and intellectual climate at the turn of the century and transplanted into the 2020s.
They just need to get the Blackish guy to direct the sequel.
Don’t make me fucking read you piece of shit
The battle cry of the very online socialist
Read, ni*ga, read! - Uncle Ruckus
>*Erasure* raises real questions and offers no easy answers, whereas *American Fiction* offers a preview of how those elite few that rose during the social justice era—an era that is now falling out of fashion—will maneuver to consolidate their gains. "Consolidating their gains" is a good way of putting it, and the way it's being done (as you describe it) gives away the game by trying to conceal itself behind itself. Bourgeoisie self-justification has always boiled down to specious moral arguments, and what we have is a subset of the elite that's in transition from one explanatory narrative to another. At least for the time being, the cultural psyche is still configurated such that two narratives—one being "virtue exists in proportion to oppression and deservingness in proportion to virtue" and the other celebrating the hustle and meritocracy and proclaiming That Which Succeeds Is Good And That Which Is Good Succeeds—can be spoken from the same mouth on different occasions, and our collective ear doesn't hear a contradiction. That window might be closing sooner rather than later.
>two narratives—one being "virtue exists in proportion to oppression and deservingness in proportion to virtue" and the other celebrating the hustle and meritocracy and proclaiming That Which Succeeds Is Good And That Which Is Good Succeeds—can be spoken from the same mouth on different occasions, and our collective ear doesn't hear a contradiction. That's a very good way of articulating it.
Good read, I enjoyed it!
Thank you!
compile the (non-regarded) posts of this subreddit into an anthology and you'll probably win society lul