For the following three prompts, please write a one-page single-spaced essay (Times New Roman font, 12 pt.) that uses the book to help augment your discussion. Use quotes, use examples from the chapters, and be as detailed as possible. The more detail you use the better. But be careful in how much you quote–don’t overdo it. You should, as a rule, have no more than 15% source usage in each essay. In other words, you should have AT LEAST 85% of your essay coming from your ideas, your own thoughts. Use quotes to strengthen your argument only–I’m not looking for a rehashing of Klosterman’s ideas. Use his ideas to help your ideas, but make sure your essay(s) are your own ideas. Turnitin calculates outside source usage, so be sure that you quote properly and give source credit when its due. So again, you will have three separate single-spaced essays, one single-spaced essay for each question that follows. And be specific, be detailed!
1. In “This is Emo,” Klosterman writes very specifically about a very specific kind of love. That is, he writes about fake love, and that fake love is ultimately what he desires, and what he thinks we all desire; and this has much to do with how love is represented in film, TV, and other media. Klosterman thinks that love is best seen as it is seen in media, and it is his theory that people have, after years and years and years of consuming this media, come to expect that kind of love from everyone, and if that kind of love does not come, Klosterman thinks that the people who want that kind of love are unhappy. My question is–do you agree with this? What is love in your opinion? What is real love, and what is fake love? What is the difference? Can you ever know when the person you love is being genuine, or do you believe that people who are in love (or who say they are in love) are in some ways mimicking the people they see as in love in film and in TV, etc? (Please don’t write about love between a parent and a child, or you and your pet, etc–I want you to write specifically about the kind of love Klosterman writes about–that is, love with a partner). Do you want fake love? Be specific, and be detailed, and use Klosterman to help make your argument.
2. In “Billy Sim” and “Appetite for Replication,” Klosterman writes extensively about simulation, and about how people use other people’s perception of them to understand how they, the people being perceived, truly are. What happens as a result of this, according to Klosterman, is that we go around and pretend to be all these things that people judge as being appropriate based on sometimes snap judgments. Klosterman believes, it seems, that we are all merely simulating what we think we should do and not actually doing the things that we think we are doing–Klosterman thinks that we are all merely simulations, and then simulations of simulations (as in The Sims). Do you agree with this? Are we all just simulating each other, simulating what we think we should be simulating, simulating who we think represents us? Why? Why not? Be very, very specific; and use examples from your own life to help strengthen your argument.
3. Klosterman writes that, “…it suddenly occurred to me that there would always be road construction–not always on this particular road, but somewhere” (from “Billy Sim”). That quote has always stuck with me, and it made me think about what would happen if construction just went away, what would that feel like? It made me think about how cities would look, how foreign it would feel if there wasn’t construction happening around me, particularly in downtowns and highways. That then got me thinking a different question, but similar. And this is your question–what would happen if all the pigeons in the world, everywhere, went away? Like construction, pigeons are everywhere, all of the time; so I’m wondering what you would think the world would feel like without pigeons? My biggest curiosity here is how cities, particularly downtowns wherever you live or have lived, would feel. Would they feel different? Do pigeons, in any way at all, make you feel at peace in the world? I know most people hate them or at least think they are a nuisance, but what would you do without them? Do you take pigeons for granted? If you can, I would like you to go to a park, or go downtown, and stare at the pigeons, and think about what you really think about them. Do they make cities have life, do they give cities meaning? Without them, what would that mean, how would that feel? Be very, very specific. This question will likely result in you not using much of the text to help you, and that’s okay. I’m more interested in your own thoughts on this.
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