David Shields is the author of twenty-five books, including Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (named by Lit Hub in 2020 as one of the most important books of the past decade), The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (New York Times bestseller), and Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity (winner of the PEN/Revson Award). Bryan Curtis is the editor-at-large of The Ringer and cohost of The Press Box podcast.
Description
Foreword Introduction Author's Note 1. America Upside Down 2. Everyone Else Is They 3. Proof of My Own Racism 4. The Beautiful and the Useful 5. Converting Our Self-Loathing to Hatred 6. History Is Just a Rumor Somewhere Out There 7. An Agony of Enthralldom 8. Can You Feel Now What Power Feels Like? 9. History Is Not Just a Rumor Somewhere Out There 10. The Space Between Us
"A beautiful book about basketball and fandom and America. 'Your life isn't real to me because it's not my life': How could this sentence, written more than twenty-five years ago, so perfectly describe reality right now? Black Planet is a call for each of us to take a hard look in the mirror."-David Dudley, author of 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring "One of the best books ever written on the subject of sport in America, which is to say a book that is about a great deal more than sport."-A.O. Scott, Newsday "A risky and brilliant book. . . . It is an emotional journey into Jock Culture's heart of darkness. Shields is willing to write himself naked about the hungers and envies that move across the grandstand like the wave."-Robert Lipsyte, New York Times "Black Planet accomplishes a rare feat by tackling race head on."-Steven Hill, Chicago Tribune "Black Planet does the unexpected. It takes risks and says things that we know but have not articulated. A wonderful book."-Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory