The selections from The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and the works by K. Silem Mohammed focus mainly on the topic of philosophy. Both of these authors are expressing their opinions about human existence, knowledge, and language. They also share a similar writing style that involves rambling and switching the subject constantly. It sort of makes the reader feel as if they are in a conversation with the author. Especially Mohammed’s short essay, “Excessivism,” because it questions the reader and seems to have a sarcastic tone. In addition, both writers use first person narrative allowing the reader to be in their shoes and to comprehend their ideas better.

            Three subjects that caught my attention in Warhol’s selections are his thoughts about mind capability, time, and space. He mentions how humans have control over what to think and how to react to certain situations. Warhol uses the example of the person jumping out of the flophouse’s window to demonstrate how humans can actually view death as comedy depending on how they decide to interpret the situation.  He says,

“A person can cry or laugh. Always when you’re crying you could be laughing, you have the choice. Crazy people know how to do this best because their minds are loose. So you can take the flexibility your mind is capable of and make it work for you. You decide what you want to do and how you want to spend your time” (112).

In other words, people can make their mind work to their benefit. They can control their reactions to situations by the construction of their thoughts. Also, Warhol discusses about time and how he likes to live life slowly. He claims that he does not like to travel because traveling is like rapidly seeing one’s life pass by in a movie (116). Like Mohammed’s essay, Warhol also touches upon the subject of technology. However, Warhol mentions technology as a take up of space. He says,“Before media there used to be a physical limit on how much space one person could take up themselves. People, I think, are the only things that know how to take up more space than the space they’re actually in, because with media you can sit back and still let yourself fill up space on records, in the movies, most exclusively on the telephone and least exclusively on television” (146).

Warhol discusses how television gives celebrities power since they are influencing and being recognized by many people. A person appears so small when compared to their large population but when on television this person becomes big, important, and popular (147). Mohammed though seems to not like the modern world as much. Mohammed sort of opposes the control technology has over humanity and even mentioned to have felt guilt when spending money on Nintendo merchandise (931). What caught my attention from Mohammed’s essay though was his discussion about excessivism. He believes excessivism or nicotinism is wrong when it starts to interfere with a person’s life and education. He also does not like when the effect of drugs is revealed in poetry because it puts the poem and poet under terrible pressure (932). Although excessivism or nicotinism helps him and makes others content, Mohammed also recognizes its bad side.