M U L L A duel of ideas

The cost of being legible

Ralph Ellison  vs  Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ellison's Invisible Man could not be seen because the categories that would have seen him did not exist. Coates writes inside categories that exist now but compress him in a different way. Both ask what is paid by anyone whose self does not fit the available shapes — and what, if anything, is owed to a self that was not built to be summarized.

Where in your life are you legible to others at the cost of being unrecognizable to yourself?

Whose side are you on?

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