Date posted: July 3, 2009 - Friday
Title: One Book I Will Not Buy
Current mood: disgusted
I have a great fondness and appreciation for the written word. Yes, I know, that makes me something of a dinosaur. And while my end will eventually come, before I toddle off to the tar pit and become a specimen in some future paleontology exhibit I want to praise and espouse the beauty and necessity of the written word.
I have a huge library of books in my home. There are some 4,000 plus volumes of a specific genre alone. And this doesn’t count mainstream literature, popular fiction and the thousands of books left by my mother when she passed away.
If I started reading today and managed to complete one book a day I probably wouldn’t finish them all before I died. And yet I still purchase another volume now and then when I can with my reduced financial capability.
Why you ask?
Again, I love the written word and all the power it holds.
Books hold information on places I will never visit, things I will never experience, sights I will never see and feelings I may never encounter. There is knowledge, insight, delight and wonder in the written word all there for me to experience by turning those pages.
And I’m not a snob about it. I will read almost anything. I don’t even hold a prejudice against the electronic format. I recently purchased a Sony e-book reader and have downloaded some 300 plus works to read at my leisure.
And what has occasioned this rant, you ask?
Kanye West.
What, you may ask, has a rapper and popular recording artist have to do with this?
It was a little item in my local newspaper I came across a while back. Inside the front page there is a column which is devoted each day to tidbits of information about people in popular culture (if you can really call it culture).
This item said that Kanye West had written a book. Or, more precisely, co-written a book.
Why is this such a big deal?
Mainly because of the accompanying information about West and his attitude.
The article said that West neither reads books nor respects them. “I am a proud non-reader of books,” he said.
I’m sure this statement would be of great comfort to his late mother who was an English professor.
“I like to get my information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.”
There is nothing wrong with gaining information from doing things and talking to people. Writers know this is called “primary research material”. A myriad of things can be learned from the actual performance of a task or talking to people who have experiences that we have not had. But unless West has an unlimited circle of friends and acquaintances, he is limiting himself severely in acquisition of knowledge; provided, of course, he actually wants to gain knowledge.
Books can expose you to information you will never have the chance to gain in any other way. They can take you to places you could never visit and expose you to thoughts and feelings you could never experience. Relying on personal action and talking to people alone is tremendously limiting unless you have an unlimited lifespan and the ability to contact an unlimited amount of people. All not very likely even for someone with the financial capabilities of West.
Now I have to make a distinction here. There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance, as we all know, is merely a lack of knowledge. I can tolerate a lack of knowledge. Some people just don’t have the opportunity to gain knowledge.
Stupidity on the other hand is an inability or an unwillingness to learn. Stupidity I will not tolerate.
I count West’s statements to fall in the category of stupidity. And not the garden variety kind of stupidity, but a kind of militant stupidity that threatens not only the individual but the culture and society of us all. It’s a kind of an “I-don’t-know-anything-and-I-refuse-to-grow-or-change” attitude.
And yet, despite his disdain for the written word, West wants people to buy his book.
This volume, entitled “Thank You And You’re Welcome” is exactly 52 pages long. Some of the pages are blank. One two-page section reads: “Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!”
Pithy, but not necessarily true.
Well, this is one book I will not be buying. I wouldn’t even accept it if it was given to me.
Now you might think this is narrow minded of me considering my professed love of the written word, but one thing I dislike intensely is hypocrisy and ‘writing’ a book when you
