I don't feel like putting in the "work" to figuring out Kanye, but doesn't he have some kind of multi-album narrative-ish beef with college education? In the titles of his albums then, at least. Maybe he's been working out the kinks in his active non-reader philosophy for a while, I dunno. Did his proud non-reader claims come from an interview meant to promote his book? Bold. I reckon Kanye just figures his die-hard fans could buy the book to put on their coffee tables to help them remember that they like Kanye West. But it is kinda fun to ponder the intent of that one quote ("I question anyone who questions me...but I question myself all the time!"): is he playing out the realization of his own hipocrisy in real time, or just his perpetual dumbfoundedness (who does this "I" think he is, questioning me?)? The book reminds me of DFW. He had his first posthumous work come out recently. A transcription of a commencement speech he gave a few years ago that was circulating on the internet was edited and then published. The finished product reveals DFW's quest for wisdom in the same fashion as Kanye's: one sentence per page. Sample sentence/page from DFW's to compare with Kanye's: "I am not the wise old fish." Of course, Kanye's book is a series of one-liners while DFW's is an essay with a beginning, middle, and end. Which isn't to lend ammo to Kanye's character assassins. I just recently converted myself to the pleasures of 808's and Heartbreak. And there's this one lyric that W's Tractatus Retardo Philosophicus reminds me of. It's from a song called "Bad News." I've not listened long enough yet to discern whether this is one of the songs about his ex or his deceased moms, which might be why I'm enjoying it -- ambiguity leaves more room for fun. Which sort of lines up with my assessment of my enjoyment of the album all together. That is, whether by dearth or refinement there's a lot of empty breathing room in the music (arrangement-wise). And maybe that's a little bit like singing something that's less specified than it could've been. Not that 808's maintains the lyrical ambiguity throughout. And not that specificity can't make just as good a point. Within the context of a song and album that're mired in self-absorbed and cyclical and contradictory musings on ye olde feeling of being Alone-In-A-Crowded-Room, Kanye deflates completely, singing "What's on the news? ...Tom Cruise." Somehow, through all the ugly self pity and name-calling, this banality rings true.
Seriously.
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