Comments on: Pride and Precious http://www.theblackintel.com/2009/11/17/pride-and-precious/ Your spot for young black intellect commentary & news Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:31:32 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Nicole W. http://www.theblackintel.com/2009/11/17/pride-and-precious/comment-page-1/#comment-575 Nicole W. Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:48:11 +0000 http://www.theblackintel.com/?p=772#comment-575 I had to stop reading when I got to "Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious..." I HAVE to totally disagree... I feel like this is a story that needs to be told. But... I read the book. In the hands of the "unholy triumvirate" (I liked that... =]), the story has become watered down and has a completely different purpose. The book is about Precious finding liberation through literacy. So the "Ebonics credit sequence" and the scene with Precious and the "success icons" makes sense to me. In the book, these are people whose work she reads and enjoys and strives to emulate, but she starts with the ignorance of the opening sequence. Lee Daniels was the wrong person for the film. I share a lot of your disdain for it, but I have a hard time putting it on the same level as Birth of a Nation. It's not THAT offensive. Poorly done... but not out right wrong. I had to stop reading when I got to “Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious…” I HAVE to totally disagree… I feel like this is a story that needs to be told. But… I read the book. In the hands of the “unholy triumvirate” (I liked that… =]), the story has become watered down and has a completely different purpose.

The book is about Precious finding liberation through literacy. So the “Ebonics credit sequence” and the scene with Precious and the “success icons” makes sense to me. In the book, these are people whose work she reads and enjoys and strives to emulate, but she starts with the ignorance of the opening sequence.

Lee Daniels was the wrong person for the film. I share a lot of your disdain for it, but I have a hard time putting it on the same level as Birth of a Nation. It’s not THAT offensive. Poorly done… but not out right wrong.

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