Overwhelmed

       The Philosophy of Andy Warhol as well as works by K. Silem Mohammed are narratives spoken in first person. The author’s personal accounts and opinions are strongly expressed throughout the readings.  Both authors share similar qualities such as overt thinking and listing events without any transition or correlation.

      Andy Warhol expresses his opinions freely, however always keeping reminding the author of his lack of chemicals.  He gives an example of how he could see a murderer mystery one night and watch it a second time and not know who the murder was. He follows by saying “so I know there’s something really wrong with me”.  Through his behavior and repeated sayings of being sick as a child and missing chemicals, it intrigued me to know the exact type of chemicals or disease he had. It turns out that Warhol had a disorder of the nervous system called St. Vitus dance. It was drawn to my attention that this disorder followed an A beta-haemolytic streptococcal infection, and the subtitle is (from A to B and back again). I wondered if there was any connection between these two.  Warhol uses an easy language everyone can to identify with.  Incorporation of words such as, “I like, I love, I prefer” give it a personal mood, he is an egocentric person. He is also, very realistic and open about controversial views.  He uses dashes to create a pause.  Anaphora and repetition are elements being used,  “I love to” (153).   The “Atmosphere” section used many contradictory ideas. He believes in empty spaces yet he creates art to fill that space, and admits to not following his own philosophy.  Some of his views I found to be rare, such as selling back products to supermarkets. On page 146 he gave a strong sensory image, it consisted of having a tube connected from your anus back into the mouth, to eliminate bathroom use.  Warhol is quite the character.

Works by K. Silem Mohammed use a poor choice of words in the first section of Excessivism.  Words such as, kill, stab, shittiness, menstrual cycle, pain, ego problem and whores, give this work an aggressive and hostile tone. The vocabulary is vulgar.  There were so many ideas and concepts being thrown at the reader. For most part I was confused on the content of the actual work until further reading into the text; when they revealed that it was a parody of Frank O’Hara “Personism: A manifesto,” Repetition is used, “I don’t give a damn”.  The poems presented in this anthology correspond to postmodern American poetry.  Lines of iambic pentameter give it a song-like rhythm.  The language is hard to understand, due to the difference in time they were created in comparison with today. Most of the poems had aggressive mood or ulterior motives as Mohammed had mentioned.  Both text by Mohammed and Warhol have unique styles and methods for writing.  Both authors were continuously reinventing themselves.