| Author | Message | ||
     Robynmarie Veteran Poster Username: Robynmarie Post Number: 905 Registered: 04-2006 Rating: N/A |
I really enjoyed the books and the The HBO show is staying true to the novels. Jill Scott is doing a great job as Precious, the star detective. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1827 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
Brown Robin, are you aware that their are a group of women that are getting together to blog about this series well, they are trying to see who is interested? They too think it's going to be a smash. Although I haven't seen the series, I too heard that Jill Scott is doin' it! Its shot down in Africa isn't it? | ||
| Robynmarie Veteran Poster Username: Robynmarie Post Number: 906 Registered: 04-2006 Rating: N/A |
A blog? what is it called? I would love to post. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1828 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
At your service ....you owe me  There are a couple of sites that were talking about blogging it. http://postpostracial.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/blogger-call-out-no1-ladies-detec tive-agency/ http://www.blackinformant.com/our-children/4-thumbs-up | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1829 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
Btw, you didn't hear it from me "Carey" that acts a fool over at AALBC ...nope, he doesn't live here - got it. But you are welcomed to drop by http://careycarey-carrymehome.blogspot.com/ | ||
| Robynmarie Veteran Poster Username: Robynmarie Post Number: 907 Registered: 04-2006 Rating: N/A |
Thanks Bro Carey. Good lookin' out. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1830 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
Yep | ||
| Yvettep AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 3493 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: N/A |
Good info, Carey. I, too, loved the program. Did you see the two "behind-the-scenes" shows, Robynmarie? I am embarrassed to say that I learned more about Botswana in that 30 minute program than I knew the rest of my life. | ||
| Robynmarie Veteran Poster Username: Robynmarie Post Number: 908 Registered: 04-2006 Rating: N/A |
Yvettep: I highly recommend the Precious Ramatswe novels. All the characters are engaging, funny and real. And Botswana is a character itself, the way McCall, the author (who happens to be a white Scott, born in Botswana)describes the land, the orange sun, and how modernity has robbed the people the their innocence. When watching and reading these stories I am mesmerized by the lilt of their voices and can almost feel the rich African earth between my toes. LOL I first read about Botswana through a book called "When Rain Clouds Gather" by Bessie Head, a biracial writer born and raised in Botswana. I hope to visit Botswana soon. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1839 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
I called my daughter on this one and you would have thought I volunteered to babysit for a month. She said she is like a carp at the bottom of the river ...that's been hooked while looking for a little refreshment on a Sunday night. She also mentioned the book but ...ahh, I forgot what she said. Well, it was either she had read it or was inspired to read it after seeing the series ...that's it, either or . | ||
| Libralind2 AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Libralind2 Post Number: 1215 Registered: 09-2004 Rating: N/A |
I just watched the second one and thought it was excellent. I LOVE the secretary. She is adding a nice twist. LiLi | ||
| Robynmarie Veteran Poster Username: Robynmarie Post Number: 912 Registered: 04-2006 Rating: N/A |
Yes, the whole cast is marvelous. They look and sound just as I imagined them while reading the books. Which brings me to a question I have been thinking about, slightly off topic: What does it take for a white writer to successfully write black characters and vice versa? | ||
| Yvettep AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 3502 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: N/A |
Interesting question, Robynmarie, and one I have been thinking about a lot. There was a time when I;d pick up a book that--by the cover/title--appeared to be about Black folks and would immediately turn to look at the author's photo. If the author was/appeared White, I'd immediately put the book back on the shelf no matter how good it seemed it might be. I did not read any of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" books for a long time just based on that. (And not only White, but male.) But then I re-read Alice Walker's book about the making of the movie version of "Color Purple" and what she had to say about Steven Spielberg as a director. And the photographer of one of my favorite books of portrait photography, "I Dream a World," is also a White male. Together, these two facts made me re-think my bias. I now think there is something else involved but I am not 100% sure what it is. Some kind of empathy... the true ability to walk in someone else's shoes...the ability to see humanity without being distracted by such things as race and gender...but at the same time not not seeing race and gender... Dunno. It's an interesting question, for sure. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1862 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
2 things Well, I mean I want to say a couple of things. My daughter keeps bugging me about watching this dang #1 detective thang. Maybe it's like this black and white thing that Brown Robin brought to the table. I just have a bias against programs that chicks are going crazy over. Hey, I hope Thump joins your discussion about the voice of a white man/person writing about blacks. He has a wealth of information and opinions on that subject. Okay, back to your "special party" *snicker* | ||
| Robynmarie Veteran Poster Username: Robynmarie Post Number: 913 Registered: 04-2006 Rating: N/A |
Yvettep, the ironic thing is I believe black people can write white characters very well. (Alex Haley, Bebe Moore Campbell, Ralph Ellison). Goes back to "us" knowing "them" better than they know us. There are two white writers that are especially on my last nerve and whose black characters ring false and contrived: George Pellacanos and Susan Straight. But that's just me. Bro Carey, you should watch "No 1 Ladies" show, if only for a glimpse into that magical place called Botswana. | ||
| Carey AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Carey Post Number: 1866 Registered: 05-2004 Rating: N/A |
Okay, Brown Robin, that I might do, if only for a glimpse into that magical place called Botswana. Check this, is you belief that black people can write white characters very well, based on the fact that you are black? Think about it, YOU think black writer are doing a fine job. I wonder what white people think on both issues ie, are white writers successfully writing about the black experience? Do black writers capture the essence of white people? I wonder what they would say. | ||
| Chrishayden "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Chrishayden Post Number: 7892 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
Yvettep, the ironic thing is I believe black people can write white characters very well. (Alex Haley, Bebe Moore Campbell, Ralph Ellison). Goes back to "us" knowing "them" better than they know us. (You forgot Frank Yerby, Steven Barnes, Samuel R. Delaney--and that is it. We HAD to know them; we had to know their moods, and their unspoken thoughts, we had to know which of them to approach and which to avoid and when WE KNOW THEM BETTER THAN THEY KNOW THEMSELVES And they can't stand it, and it burns them up that we have things they cannot master, because they don't think we are WORTH paying attention to-- plus it is few whites who will ever be around a bunch of blacks acting like we do when we are around a bunch of our peeps, so they can never do us convincingly They cannot give up that "Master/mistress" so that they might penetrate the Black Penumbra, and words alone won't work--we can read their minds. It also puts us in a good spot for critiquing American whites at least--we have that outsider status that removes all the bushwah That's why only the Frenchman Detocville has written the most correct assessment of America written by a white man--and almost 200 year ago. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 13661 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
Authors have always been advised to write about what they know. Since the many facets of the black experiences elude the tunnel vision of the privileged, then I agree whites should probably save their empathy for writing about their own. Of course, this same question has been raised as to whether or not one sex can accurately write about the opposite sex. I'd say that women have the edge here, because they know much more about men than men know about them...  The subject of race writing, in a way, relates to how I feel about the over-the-top coverage the white media is giving the new black first family. To me, the reporting is patronizing and 2-dimensional, forcing Michelle and Sasha and Malia into roles that dilute their "soul" while turning them into plastic bobble heads. And don't get me started on the new mutt "Bo". |
