Kanye West's Reading Issues

It’s funny that Kanye West is a “proud non-reader” considering his mother was an English professor.  I thought that she would have influenced him to read while he was growing up, but maybe she did, and that’s what turned him off on the subject.  The article does not determine what caused West’s hatred of reading. 

The fact that West is a “proud” non-reader shows that he is glad he doesn’t read and he is not afraid to let people know.  I have nothing against him being a non-reader; he is free to do anything he wants.  Books are not always the most exciting things to read, but to call himself a non-reader is bad influence on children who listen to his music and look up to him.  They will hear that he does not like to read and decide that they don’t want to read either.  Kanye West’s announcement that he does not like to read was a bad social choice on his part.

Kanye West’s statement, “Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy” shows how his lack of interest in reading affects his speaking skills.  To be a sufficient speaker and writer you have to read good examples from books, which he obviously hasn’t.

Kanye West’s quote, “I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life” sets Kanye West in the present and not the past.  Some books represent real life.  You can’t talk to people who have passed away and eventually the stories passed on by word of mouth will get contorted and incorrect as opposed to the written versions.  West will never learn about correct history if he doesn’t read.

I find it a comical coincidence that the author of this article spells Kanye West’s name wrong in the fifth paragraph, but since Kanye is a non-reader, he is never going to read their inadvertent error (unless a reader points it out to him).

Kanye West is hypocritical because he supports non-readers but he expects us to buy his book?  And read it?  No.  I’m happy to say that I won’t be putting that book on my Christmas list. 

Blue

The sky was so blue

The dreadful day I've come to rue

I saw my mother on the floor

She was laying by the door

She was barely hanging on

I used to think that she would never be gone

She was in so much pain

I thought I was going to go insane

I could not stand to see

My mother so much in need of me

She had always been there for us

Never ever making a fuss

As she lay there on the ground

Hand in hand I felt her pulse pound

I could not help her plea

She was so much in need of me

I was never the same after she passed away

And that's how I remember that blue blue day

Fears and Phobias

Fear is a feeling experienced in anticipation of pain or threat.  Everyone gets scared once in a while.  They feel nervous or anxious about something that they find scary.  When people get scared their hearts beat faster, blood pressure rises, pupils dilate, or they start to sweat.  These are all defensive reactions.  The body is preparing and the reaction is called the “fight or flight” response.  A person prepares to stand and fight their fears or run from them.  Your heart pumps blood faster into your brain and muscles for a faster response and your lungs quickly supply your body with oxygen.  Pupils dilate to let in more light so you can see what going on around you and even your digestive system slows down so your body can focus on more significant things, such as survival.

            Fear is a survival instinct.  People feel afraid when hey thing they are in danger or unsure about something.  Phobias are an intensified version of fears and the fears are blown out of proportion because the negative feelings towards them are so strong.  Phobias interfere with real life activities because they control how a person perceives certain things.  If a person has a phobia of cats they will be afraid to go to a friend’s house because they might have cat, or they will be afraid to cross the street because they saw a cat there a week ago.  Most phobias are caused by bad encounters.  With a cat phobia, a person would have had a bad encounter with a cat, and seeing a cat triggers negative feelings to come back.

            There are so many fears and phobias out there that it’s impossible to count all of them, but here’s the top ten phobias:

1. Arachnophobia- the fear or spiders

2. Social Phobia- Social Anxiety Disorder

3. Aerophobia- the fear of flying

4. Agoraphobia- Fear of wide open spaces

5. Claustrophobia- Fear of being trapped in small spaces

6. Acrophobia- Fear of heights

7. Nyctophobia- Fear of the dark

8.  Brontophobia- Fear of thunder and lightening

9. Necrophobia- Fear of death or dead things

10. Aquaphobia- Fear of water

            If fear is so intense and makes people feel weak and helpless why do we ride roller coasters, watch scary movies, and read horror stories?  People like the rush and the exhilaration they get from the experience.  It’s stimulating and people want to see what it’s like and have some excitement while still knowing deep down that they will be okay in the end. 

Why do movies and books scare people just as much or even more then haunted trails and houses?  Haunted trails and houses seem like reality because people could reach out and touch the creepy effects.  But aren’t movies and books even further from reality?  No.  The books and movies make people think, and feel as if they are trapped in the house with the killer.  You put yourself in the characters shoes and you start to think.  Sometimes the movies that play mind games with you and movies you can relate to are more terrifying then the typical killer outside trying to come in and get you movies.  People’s minds make books scary, people imagine everything in their mind and it scares them.  When they read Stephen King’s Carrie, they put themselves in the gymnasium at the prom and imagine everything happening to them and around them.  You might be able to feel the props at a haunted house or trail but the fact that you can’t touch the things in the books and movies and they scare you just as much or even more, makes them more intense. 

Haunted houses, haunted trails, horror stories and scary movies have many things in common.  One similarity in particular is there's always a way to escape the fear.  In haunted houses and haunted trails there’s always an exit, you can always close a book when it gets to scary, and you can always hit stop on the DVD player when you can’t take it anymore.  But when real life comes into play it’s different.  People can’t close the book and they can’t hit stop.  There’s only one end and that’s what most people are truly afraid of.

For more information on fears and phobias go to Being Afraid, Fears and Phobias, and Discovery Health.

"To Be Or Not To Be..." Comparisons

Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be" speech is the best known speech from the story Hamlet.  The "To Be Or Not To Be" speech is given many times and each time is a little different.  The first performance was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and Starred Mel Gibson.  In this version Hamlet is by himself in a basement surrounded by stone coffins with stone people on top.  Hamlet paces around and leans on different coffins.  It is dark and gives a gloomy feeling very early on.  The coffins give the idea of death.  These things affect the scene because it makes people think Hamlet is seriously thinking about death and killing himself, because he is surrounded by death related items.

            The second performance of the "To Be Or Not To Be" speech was directed by and starred Lawrence Olivier.  In this edition Hamlet gives his speech by himself, sitting on a rock, on top of a cliff.  It is cloudy and foggy outside.  The clip is black and white which gives it an older look.  I don't take him as seriously as the other performances, because he's in the clouds and sitting on a rock.  At one point he holds a dagger, but that is the only thing that suggests some type of suicide until the end when he looks over the edge of the cliff.

            The third piece was directed by and starred Kenneth Branaugh.  In this performance of the speech Hamlet is in a royal looking room with mirrors.  It looks more current then the others.  The colors are not as dark as the other two versions.  The room is gold and white with a black and white checkered floor.  This makes the mood less sad and depressing.  He gives the speech to himself while looking in the mirror, but other people are watching him.  In the other two versions Hamlet is the only one there.  Hamlet holds a dagger up to his throat.  He makes it look like he is really about to kill himself, but he gets interrupted by a woman running into the room.  This setting makes you think he is crazy because he's thinking of killing himself while he's in this wonderful and fancy palace.

            All three performances had the same speech but the settings of each set a different mood for them.  Some of them were dark and some of them were not taken as serious.  The settings and props affects the scenes significantly.  It makes you think about the stability of the actual person and what they are feeling and what they may be thinking at that moment.  When a man is giving the "To Be Or Not To Be" speech while holding a dagger up to their neck, it  hits you over the head pretty hard that he is thinking of suicide.  If he was not holding the dagger, would you think he was serious?  It all depends on the settings and the props.

Mamatas Interview

Mamatas's interview is about his former job as a term paper writer.  Mamatas's interview shows a great deal about him that just reading an article he wrote does not get across.  Mamatas does not write term papers for a living anymore, but hearing him speak about it demonstrates that he is still interested in it.  Mamatas voice is very fast while he's speaking about writing the term papers.  He is energetic and seems to know what he is talking about.  He is well educated and you can tell by listening to him speak.  He pronounces words correctly and shows good word choice.  He laughs a lot and makes a few jokes and seems to have enjoyed his former career.

            He still does not care about his customers and even says that if they make him angry or do something he does not like he will send the same exact paper to the teacher to basically screw them over.  That came across in the article and came across even further in the interview.  My opinion of Mamatas and his work has not changed because of hearing the interview.  He states the same things in the interview as in the article.  The only difference is that I could hear his voice.  His attitude about his job never changed and neither did my opinion of him.

            Listening to audio opposed to reading text might affect the audience in many ways.  If a person reads a well written article and agrees with the author and then they listen to an interview and the speaker is not well spoken, has an accent, or has a strange voice it could cause people to change their opinions of them.  Reading something gives people less to judge on.  All they are given is the article and they have to use their imagination on what the author is like.  Just listening to the sound of someone's voice could change people's opinions in a second.  Writing is the best medium to chose when sharing information.   It is easier to write, it is cheaper, and it is faster than other mediums.

  Click Here to Listen to Mamatas's Interview

Explication of "The Term Paper Artist"

            Nick Mamatas's "The Term Paper Artist" is an article that discusses the system of writing term papers.  Nick Mamatas is a writer that for several years made his money off of writing term papers.  He describes the "three types of term paper clients" as well as the way he writes the term papers.

            Nick Mamatas says the first type of client is a "DUMB CLIENT."  These are the clients that are unintelligent.  One of his examples of a DUMB CLIENT asked him to "Underline the thesis statement because locating it otherwise would have been too difficult."  The second type of client is a "One-timer."  One-timers are clients that are smart, but not on the subject they are supposed to write about, and often times they are busy doing other things and need some help writing their term papers.  The third type of group is "well-educated professionals who simply lack English-language skills".  Most people from this group come from another country and English is their second language.

            Nick describes writing term papers as "extremely easy" because he has written so many of them.  He would search the internet for information, add some quotes, and create and argument.  Everything else he wrote just came to him as he was writing.  He says that he does not try to write term papers because that is not important.  The important things are "deadline, page count, and number of sources."  If he actually tried to write a term paper he would stress himself out and he would have trouble writing them.

             Nick makes writing term papers seem really easy because he does not care what grade the people ordering papers from him get.  He just wants the money and the people will give it to him as long as he gives them a paper that meets their requirements.  His way of writing papers works out very well for him but it would not work out for a student.  If a student was trying to write a paper and wrote like he does they would not get the grade they want. 

            Nick makes many humorous remarks in his article but it does not have much of a point.  He is talking about his job and basically how he writes whatever he wants because the person he's writing it for does not matter to him.  He makes writing term papers seem way to easy and he could give people a false hope of making money off of writing term papers for people.  Yes he does mention how difficult it could be but the amount of information about how easy it is over powers how hard it could be.