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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

New Mooned

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Nov 20 2009, 2:00 PM ET Comment

I don't really have anything intelligent to say about Twilight. But as always, Alyssa does. Read the whole thing:

I don't imagine that I was alone when I was young in wishing there was something magical about me - or in reading Talking to Dragons until it became dog-eared or keeping The Mists of Avalon perpetually on renewal at the library.  What girl doesn't wish she could discover some special attribute about herself that would smooth her way through the demons of junior high school and beyond--particularly if that something would get her noticed for the first time by a boy or girl with special attributes of their own?  But earlier this week, when I stumbled over the Twilight finish line, reaching the final page of Breaking Dawn, the series' last book, it seemed clear to me that even in my younger days, Bella Swann would never have captured my imagination in the same way Cimorene, or Juniper, or Wise Child, or Morgaine had, and still do. Those heroines understand the joy of being loved by someone else.  But their stories make the case that being a witch, or a warrior, or a queen--even without a king--might be better than an eternity as a metaphorical princess in a metaphorical tower, no matter how much the vampire company sparkles.


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