The following cultural phenomenon is timeless and universal. It is without label — both tasteful AND tasteless; it embodies the best and worst parts of our societal fascination with the wealthy. It is Kanye West's Twitter feed, and it is next to godly.
Before you say, "All this girl talks about is music — this isn't a culture column!" let me stop you right there. While Kanye is arguably best known for his music, his 811 tweets, as of yesterday evening, address many other aspects of popular culture and discuss a wide array of issues that appeal to both the highest strata of society and the anonymous average Joe. I would venture that many tweets — or at least the most interesting ones — do not even mention his music. In one afternoon, a tweet of his led to the creation of the trending topic "lipstick" in response to his distaste for dark lipstick shades. Talk about a worldly Mr. West!
Since joining Twitter in July, Kanye has accrued a significant following of tweeting fans — more than 1,345,000 and counting — all eager to hear his 140-character comments on day-to-day life as mogul and man. He is by no means the only celebrity on Twitter, but the start of his sensational Twitter feed created one of the bigger cyber-splashes in recent memory (let's face it, Danny DeVito's tweet, "Yo," just isn't as funny as Kanye's "Fresh a-- ceiling").
But what is it about Mr. West's Twitter that entices us so? I am not preoccupied with his relationships with gorgeous models, and many of his tweets just don't relate to me (I personally don't pine for a glamorous fur coat in anticipation of winter). Clearly then, the reason is far more profound.
Kanye gives us, the simple-minded and relatively poor, a common man's translation of classic literature into 140 characters or fewer.
Doubting this claim is completely justified — his collegiate album titles don't exactly inspire confidence in his academic abilities — but there is evidence of his literature leanings. West's mother was a professor of English in Atlanta, and he claimed in an interview in 2005, "I got As and Bs. And I'm not even frontin'." The pieces are clearly coming together.
Let's observe the evidence.
As he tweeted Aug. 29, Kanye claimed, "There's 3 sides to every story … your side, my side, and the truth." Though not apparent at first glance, he is in fact referring to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960), the novel about racial tensions in the American South and the legal trial that consumes the characters. The concepts of justice and truth so prevalent in the book are reflected in Kanye's wisdom here.
Tweeted Sept. 10, Kanye announced, "THERE IS A GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kanye was clearly reading James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916) and referenced Stephen Dedalus' epiphany partway through the novel, wherein he begins conducting himself in a God-fearing fashion. Though shouted during New York's Fashion Week upon seeing the runway models, this is a religious awakening of similar sorts for Mr. West.
Tweeted Sept. 26, Kanye asks, "Man do you think it's rude for your friends to give your girl a hug?" As a prominent feminist theorist, Kanye must have read Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth" (1905), a commentary on the status of female independence and conduct in the early 20th century. His question is designed to challenge the expectations surrounding female behavior around males who are not their romantic partner. Wharton would be proud, surely.
Tweeted Sept. 9, Kanye said, "Man… whatever happened to my antique fish tank?" Actually, I have no explanation for this one. Kanye is straight-up crazy sometimes.
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Madeline Hall is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. She can be reached at Madeline.Hall@tufts.edu.
