Punching Nazis

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Why did he get someone else to write his autobiography? If there was simply no autobiography at all that's one thing.
Because, having no experience in long-form narrative prose, he felt that he would be better able to articulate his life story with the help of a collaborator. Is that really such a jet fuel/steel beams moment to you?
 
Then why not just admit that he didn't write it? He lied. Any time you call an a book an 'autobiography' that wasn't even written by you, you clearly lied. And the 'autobiography' was steaming horse crap, at that. And besides. It's not THAT hard.
 
Does it matter? Why are you in such a tizzy about Malcolm X anyway?
 
Then why not just admit that he didn't write it? He lied.
It was never a secret that Alex Haley co-authored the book.

And besides. It's not THAT hard.
Not if you don't care what you write, no, but Malcolm X was clearly a man who took words very seriously, and seriously enough to know when others might be more adept in their use than he.
 
Then why not just admit that he didn't write it? He lied. Any time you call an a book an 'autobiography' that wasn't even written by you, you clearly lied. And the 'autobiography' was steaming horse crap, at that. And besides. It's not THAT hard.

Are you serious? Most people collaborate with an experienced author or use a ghostwriter when they write their "autobiography," or their "memoirs." This is a really odd thing to get this hung up on. It's quite common practice.
 
It likely is very wide-spread, but (obviously) it isn't an autobiography if someone else writes it for you. Maybe closer to the person the biography is about supervising it. Autobiography has to be written by the one it is about.

Anyway, it is a bit vain to want to present it as your own autobiography and don't trust yourself to write it.
 
It is amazing to what lengths self-professed writers will go to in order to maintain their arrogant belief of their own superiority over others.

That whether or not he wrote every single word in a book himself is used as a reason to bash his contributions be they direct or indirect is equally amazing.
 
^You missed the point. It wasn't about Malcolm X, but autobiographies. Which tend to mean that you wrote your own biography. Words are fake news though, so whatever.
 
I have a feeling it's @Sommerswerd and @Farm Boy 's "don't like the what, so gonna hate on the how regardless" deal.
Hmmm I hadn't planned on posting in this thread at all, but the Alert system informed me that I had been called out in the thread... and it seems I am being misrepresented in an area that is pretty personal to me, so... Here is my posting history with regards to Malcolm X...

And additionally, FTR (in case it wasn't obvious from that posting history)... content from "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", was a substantial source for my Thesis paper (along with Baldwin, Ellison, DuBois, Kozol, Massey & Denton, William Julius Wilson, and others)... I'm mostly talking to you Lex since you made the implication, and I know you'd know most if not all of these authors by name...

Anyway, that's where I stand on the topic.
 
Hmmm I hadn't planned on posting in this thread at all, but the Alert system informed me that I had been called out in the thread... and it seems I am being misrepresented in an area that is pretty personal to me, so... Here is my posting history with regards to Malcolm X...

Wait wait....misrepresented?
What do you mean by that? Am I doing the misrepresenting?
 
Sorry maybe I misinterpreted you. When you said: what specifically was the "what" that you were saying Sommerwerd don't like?

Oh hahaha yeah you were misinterpreting me.
To be clear the context was certain posters were hating on Malcolm for not writing 100% of his own autobiography or whatever, and I was saying people were doing that due to the "don't like the what, so will attack the how regardless" line of reasoning that you and FB hammered out in the other thread (might've been Berkeley Riots? can't remember exactly). That is, they don't like the content of the autobiography, or they don't like Macolm X generally, so they're attacking him for how he produced the book. I wasn't ascribing any views to you at all, just giving you credit for a line of reasoning :)
 
I think my broad and squishy point was that the "how" matters rather a lot, but everyone starts with the who, often masked and intertwined with the what.

Loyalty counts. Even if you call it credibility and drift on that tangent for 3 pages.
 
Oh hahaha yeah you were misinterpreting me.
To be clear the context was certain posters were hating on Malcolm for not writing 100% of his own autobiography or whatever, and I was saying people were doing that due to the "don't like the what, so will attack the how regardless" line of reasoning that you and FB hammered out in the other thread (might've been Berkeley Riots? can't remember exactly). That is, they don't like the content of the autobiography, or they don't like Macolm X generally, so they're attacking him for how he produced the book. I wasn't ascribing any views to you at all, just giving you credit for a line of reasoning :)
Got it. Sorry:) I see it now... you've made "Sommerswerd and Farm Boy" in to a single name, like "Newton's" theory of gravity, or whatever ie "Sommerswerd&FarmBoy's universal theory of: Don't like the what, gonna hate on the how regardless"

Nice;) Also, I agree it squarely applies in this context... as you will see amply demonstrated if you click on that posting history I linked.
 
Why did he get someone else to write his autobiography? If there was simply no autobiography at all that's one thing. Let's put it this way: If someone never goes to a university, I won't hold it against them. If someone goes to a University and only graduates because they cheated, I would hold it against them.
A lot of tech companies are moving to pair-coding. Is that cheating?
 
Nah. Btw I redact my comments about Malcom X. Malcom X was wonderful.
 
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