As in Guillotine

Rumpus: Let’s widen the field a little. How has writing a blog for The Atlantic and your interaction with the community that’s risen around it affected your writing on the whole?

Coates: It’s been unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Seriously. This book, in so many ways, comes out of my blogging. My commenters recommended many of the sources that led me to the idea in the first place. It’s hard work holding them all together, and I know, at some point, I’ll have to step away. But I don’t really know what I’d do without them.

Rumpus: You realize that the “I’ll have to step away” comment will cause a great disturbance in the Force, don’t you? I think one of the best things I’ve ever seen on your blog is the “talk to me like I’m stupid” posts because they turn the expected blogger/reader relationship on its head, and also because they’re crazy informative. Did you expect the quality of answers you got when you tried it the first time?

Coates: Yes, I did. They’ve always been an incredibly sharp bunch. They keep me on my toes constantly and force me to think before I write. I know if I’m off, I’ll get called on it. So yeah, I did. Being able to write isn’t the same as “being smarter than everyone else.”

(via The Rumpus Interview With Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Rumpus.net)

I’ve long admired Coates’ approach to blogging at The Atantic, and loved his memoir, The Beautiful Struggle. This is a particularly insightful interview with him at The Rumpus, where he talks a bit about the novel he’s working on.