David Kupelian, in his essay "Killer Culture" does an incredible job of diving into the youth cultural movements of today. He disects them, puts his own spin on them, and ultimately evokes a wide range of emotion from his reader. His ability to make the reader completely engulfed in every word makes this piece very captivating and interesting, however; with his heavy use of cited sources, it makes the reader wonder if it his piece or just a compilation of other works.
Kupelian does a masterful job of describing and detailing some of the crazy things that are happening with the youthful culture in America. He uses language that is so vivid, lacking no detail, bringing the images he is trying to portray, to life. By using language that is not often found in academic writing he helps bring a certain attention to his words that is found more often in liesurely reading.
However, when reading "Killing Culture", it is hard to ignore the often long and frequent quotes. These quotes effectively back his argument, but the pure number and mass of them lead the reader to question whose words they are really reading. In the end, Kupelian infuses a lot of opinion which helps to give ownership back to himself, but through the heart of the essay, where it matters most, he loses some of that ownership.
Home and Family Readings
16 years ago
Good post. I agree with you on the excessive quotes. I could tell what the author was trying to get across, but he relied heavily on other people’s works and quotes. The author did do a good job of appealing to the readers emotions and presenting his, or people he agrees with, point of view.
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