Loved this. It was very challenging and convicting especially the last couple sentences. Indeed, many have abandoned the tools of transformation. Are we embarrassed by them or just don't believe in their power? Maybe both?
I wonder... would it be accurate to Dave Chappelle's main body of work (prior to the past three or so years) as post-modern? I'm very unfamiliar with it (just one of those comic voices I never got into), but I get the sense from what you've written that it may be. If so, that might offer some explanation: if one has a basis of post-modern rhetoric, then switching to (what I've heard others call) "TED Talk comedy" (in that he's using the stand-up format to make a persuasive speech) is going to sound disorienting at best. And, if the argument is that Chappelle's comedy paved the way for today's zeitgeist, that would make sense if you see both as post-modern.
Where I differ is this: I'm very skeptical of the idea that there's a direct line from 90s-00s era Chappelle comedy to contemporary trans-rights activism, or even contemporary activism in general. I can see where you were going with that reasoning of how Sullivan set up the arguments that would be used against him, but where does it hold for Chappelle? I'm just not convinced of it.
Excellent.
Loved this. It was very challenging and convicting especially the last couple sentences. Indeed, many have abandoned the tools of transformation. Are we embarrassed by them or just don't believe in their power? Maybe both?
I wonder... would it be accurate to Dave Chappelle's main body of work (prior to the past three or so years) as post-modern? I'm very unfamiliar with it (just one of those comic voices I never got into), but I get the sense from what you've written that it may be. If so, that might offer some explanation: if one has a basis of post-modern rhetoric, then switching to (what I've heard others call) "TED Talk comedy" (in that he's using the stand-up format to make a persuasive speech) is going to sound disorienting at best. And, if the argument is that Chappelle's comedy paved the way for today's zeitgeist, that would make sense if you see both as post-modern.
Where I differ is this: I'm very skeptical of the idea that there's a direct line from 90s-00s era Chappelle comedy to contemporary trans-rights activism, or even contemporary activism in general. I can see where you were going with that reasoning of how Sullivan set up the arguments that would be used against him, but where does it hold for Chappelle? I'm just not convinced of it.