Single Stories, the Stuplime- Project 2
Goldsmith, Kenneth. "An Excerpt & The Afterword From 'Seven American Deaths And Disasters'" Thought Catalog. Thought Catalog, 04 June 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
The Excerpt and The Afterword from ‘Seven American Deaths and Disasters’ reflects on the death of Michael Jackson through the use of different radio broadcasts. Author Kenneth Goldsmith, uses these different reports to express his opinion that Michael Jackson’s death was a huge event in America’s history for pop culture. Overall the articles were negatively based on different conspiracies about Jackson’s life and death, instead of focusing on the positive influence he brought to America’s pop culture and music itself. A reporter said that “He created a video channel, essentially. If not for Michael Jackson videos, MTV wouldn’t be on and what it is today.” The transition to the afterword talks about clichés and stuplime and how these affect people and the public itself, Goldsmith mentions how this is very prominent in America today and how it promotes what we talk about it the media and in the public eye. He says “when the stupid meets the sublime a syncretism of boredom and astonishment, of what dulls’ with what ‘irritates’ or agitates, of excessive excitation with extreme desensitization or fatigue. This is very prominent in todays media, with social media in particular.
The most interesting part of the piece was how Kenneth organized this article. He organized it through the use of various dialogue pieces throughout different radio broadcast. In my eye’s this is very clever and gives a variety of information-with different opinions and research. This is a style I would consider for my own research paper because I personally think having more than one point or research involved is very important in my paper. I like the idea of showing my audience different parts of my research and give them different points and ideas to think about.
I would use some humor in my tweets, personally I would mention why Michael Jackson was still such a huge topic of discussion. Yes, he was a legend but it is shocking to see that there is daily news still about someone that died over six years ago. Michael Jackson’s life is more analyzed by the day, whether it be the people he was involved with, how he died or what he left behind. It is amusing to see how Jackson is more talked about dead than alive.
