News Tue Sep 15 2009

Kanye West is Not a Fan of Books

While the media is still up in arms about local boy Kanye West's asshattery at the VMAs, The Millions takes this opportunity to point us to their Open Letter to Kanye West, written in June of this year. The subject of the letter is Kanye's comment that he is "not a fan of books" and "a proud non-reader of books" and the irony of the publication of his own, sparsely worded book, Thank You and You're Welcome. A sampling:

Just a heads-up here: Not only does the inherent irony at play in these words make you appear unintelligent, which you obviously aren't, but you have also undermined the privilege of living in a country in which we can read anything and everything we choose or, as in your unfortunate case, nothing at all. Though you may be a self-proclaimed "proud non-reader," surely you cannot be proud of rallying others to follow you in this non-ambition...how could you, the son of an English professor no less, say something so destructive, so moronically conceived, and so contrary to the vaguely youth-centric message of your own music? I ask this question in seriousness and with all the respect I can summon, which admittedly isn't much at the moment.

Jeff Hobbs, the author of this letter, goes on to quite eloquently and unfalteringly rip Kanye a literary new one. To which I can only say: Right on. (And don't forget to read the original Reuters article Hobbs quotes, in which Kanye makes himself out to be ridiculous and absurd. Not that that's anything new.)

— Veronica Bond / Comments (1)