Christian Persaud
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and K. Silem Mohammed
Response:

Upon reading The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, I was strangely intrigued because this is a man who questioned everything about daily life and even the aspects we take for granted. Written as a first-person account, the story has an appeal that draws you in, primarily because everything the author says is relatable in some way. Warhol describes things meticulously, almost as if he pictured every single detail in his mind as if it were a film. There are numerous descriptions and concerns throughout the story that are very elementary but pertains to real-life current issues. For example Warhol gives his opinion on the food industry:

      "There should be markets that sell things and supermarkets that buy things back, and until that equalizes, there'll be more waste than there should be. Everybody would always have something to sell back, so everybody would have money, because everybody would have something to sell. " (145) 

This quote caught my attention immediately due to the way it was written. It speaks an obvious truth that many people are aware of but still remains prevalent, even today. Another funny quote depicting Warhol's sense of current events: "And New York restaurants now have a new thing-they don't sell their food, they sell their atmosphere."(159) The entire book ventures across concerns of Warhol's that varies of importance and scale which also brings up his own philosophy on the way the world works. As a book that was written prior to the twenty-first century, Warhol brings up ideas that are still relevant today and which can also be attributed to the events back in his time.

K. Silem Mohammed's Excessivism focused on his concerns of technology and his declaration that it is affecting society in a big, non-beneficial way. As he describes his shallow take on the modern world, the idea of being controlled through technology is a recurring concern in the text. Mohammed's notion of interference when technology is involved in your life is a bit of a stretch but is only true if addiction is prevalent. Excessivism itself can help provide solutions to many of Mohammeds issues. I disagree with the poet on many points as the world is a remarkably better place with Nintendo in it.