Ta-Nehisi has an interesting point about the visual failures of big-screen comic book adaptations. I think the challenge, generally, is that things that don’t have to meet the test of plausibility in the form of illustration do have to look plausible when real people are acting them out. You can’t get away with the anatomical distortions illustrators get away with whether they’re... 

Now that we’ve done one round of this, I’d love to hear from you guys a) what you’d like me to do differently (do you like the longer meditations? Do you just want an open thread with me jumping in in comments like Ta-Nehisi tends to do?) and b) nominations for what we should read next. As far as the second part of the equation goes, I’m really open to any kind of literature,... 

I watched this episode of Louis C.K.’s show that Ta-Nehisi highlighted, in which Louie hits on an African-American checkout girl in a way that at first is cute (he tries to buy her flowers, which she rejects) and then blatantly inappropriate and threatening (he follows her home, where she cuts him dead). There’s a lot to be said about the racial and gender interactions in the episode, but... 

But this post of Ta-Nehisi’s on Medal of Honor is well worth reading. I’ve always thought that part of the appeal of first-person shooters, certainly, and other games that involve fighting and adventurism, was the chance to feel more physically or societally powerful, but also more responsible, than one does in real life. Likewise, I found the Sims an extremely useful experiment in... 

I dug last week’s post by Cynic over at Ta-Nehisi’s place, on the importance of teaching non-fiction, quite a bit. He wrote: We need to teach them how to write about other people, other places, and other times; how to wrestle with the limits of knowledge when the gaps cannot be plugged by imagination; how to convey complicated thoughts in simple words; how to pull a clear narrative line... 

So, as of today, I’m joining TheAtlantic.com’s Correspondents roster, and that feed of my pieces over at The Atlantic is turning into a blog. I’m thrilled for the opportunity, and have a whole bunch of posts in the works. It’s cool to get to hang out on the same channel as Ta-Nehisi, Cathy Alter, Christopher Orr, and many, many talented other people, so this is effectively... 

Ta-Nehisi’s coronation of OutKast on Friday had one line about Big Boi that crystallized something I’ve been thinking for a while: “ it’s really pleasing to see how he’s grown as an artist in the almost 20 years (!!!) since Outkast premiered.”  Perhaps it’s inevitable and adolescent of me, but I always made the mistake of thinking him as the lesser... 

You know how I got grumpy about the possibility of John Krasinski as Captain America?  Well, it looks like it’s gone from rumor to truth.  Ta-Nehisi’s commenters have convinced me he’d be decent pre-transformation.  But I am not sold on him wearing the mask and the shield.  He’d have to bulk up like woah.  Which might be totally improbable on The Office. ... 

First, thanks for putting up with my slower pace last week, you guys.  I missed you!  And for those of you coming in from Ta-Nehisi’s site, welcome!  It’s pretty friendly over here.  I hope you have fun. So, I’m still burned about the unjust treatment of adorable Johnny Weir by the judges in the men’s figure-skating competition in Vancouver, but after Gawker... 

And why I tend to think it’s a pretty absurd criticism, over at Ta-Nehisi’s joint: I don’t really understand why “selling out,” or finding a way to steadily monetize your artistic output, is such a terrible thing.  Of course there are multiple levels on which an artist can potentially “sell out,” and multiple silly critiques of such actions.  I don’t...