Essays

Should hyperbole matter if the reader still sees the regular? Sedaris examines people and events in their most objective form, and draws the eccentricities that catch us all, but that we often take for granted. In his stories, Sedaris presents familiar themes and points out the inherent ironies, tragedies, humor, and joy that lie within. And despite criticism regarding potential hyperbole and exaggeration of facts in his writing process, David Sedaris’ earnestness remains a conciliatory force in the face of those who wish to see his work more grounded in reality.

By drawing the connections between Bloch’s emphasis on creative art and Afrofuturism, using Marvel’s 2018 film, Black Panther, as an example, as well as comparing the Vulgar Marxist realist art to Afro-pessimism, I aim to argue that Afrofuturism serves the function of idealistic art for People of Color when imagining and creating Utopia.

Kanye’s album exists as a contradiction between subversive, radical art and mass-consumed music. Even West will acknowledge the two different spaces he occupies, as he states in a 2010 interview with XXL Magazine, “I am where art meets commercial.” To analyze the framing of Pablo through the scope of Theodor Adorno’s theories on music and culture, as well as Wolfgang Iser’s theories on hermeneutics, reveals how Kanye uses the power of interpretation to his advantage, allowing him to find the intersection of truly radical music and widely consumed media.