Hw 36

To Bao Lin,

Know that i am doing HW 36 on whatever you posted up as your rough draft.

Argument 1: Teenagers are idiot and are taught by the media how to feel empty. Thus, in our own time, we feel as the media tells us. "They are being utilized as “rats” for the experts to experiment on, and seek what is cool to them and sold it back to them resulting they are the ultimate consumers who are supporting the “wicked” corporations to reflect their ignorance of the whole situation." As from the book Fight Club said, "We are selling rich women their own fat asses back to them." It's just the irony in what we do that makes me laugh inside. Anyways, you say that we sell this idea of cool, which then gets sold back to us. This is how we move on and this is why people are trying to act cool.

Argument 2: Nothing every last and if we accept that, maybe we would stop trying to act cool. You wrote that emptiness is not like nothingness because emptiness, in other cultures, emptiness is like having an empty cup, you can't say you have nothing because you have a cup at least. With this empty feeling, you try to fill it up with something. The quote you choose was "we are claiming that everything is “impermanence”, constantly changing. Within this definition of emptiness, we tend to “behave in ways that only solidify your [our] own ego and cause harm to yourself [ourselves] and others." I feel that you're telling me that, because we believe that everything changes, we have no control over the change, thus we change ourselves. We try to fill the void with our own interest. I feel like this is "filling an empty cup with an empty glass (Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky)". We fill this void with senseless actions and looks, all pointless because everything will change again and we must change with it; the cycle of cool.

Argument 3: Cool would not be bad if it were not a competition. This argument reminded me of a quote, "An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind." ~Kahlil Gibran.(I don't know if he originally said it but it is close enough.)"We like to knock off others to make ourselves to feel better, special and unique in the group often offers the sense of importance which satisfies people in a short-term. " If life were not so competitive, maybe we could live peacefully, without all this nonsense of, who can look, act, and pretend for the rest of their life, to be cool. Without rivalry, there would be no competition. Without competition, everyone can act like and for themselves.

Argument 4: If we label cool towards good things, (your example) air, exchanging mp3 files, the whole world would be better off. I feel like this would never work. Trying to make air cool is like making black hair cool. Cool, even though its like a paradox, would mean sort of like exclusive. If one person were to have this kind of style, that person would be cool. If a small group had this kind of style, they are promoting cool. If a large quantity of people had this cool style, the look is ruined because of how basic it becomes. I feel like this paragraph wouldn't work unless you can come up with a better example other then thin air. Besides all your other paragraphs are great and i feel like this one would ruin it.


Thesis: If we just think things through to the very end, we need to accept that nothing last forever, and wasting our entire life just to be remembered for a few more years is a poor way to live. But instead of feeling so empty, and so dependent on others that we lose all confidence in ourselves, we should focus on actually doing something rather then trying to gain approval from people we don't even know. (Apologies if the thesis is not what you are going for. I hope to at least get the jest of what your argument is and if not, I again apologies.)

I believe that this essay will turn out great overall. You have many quotes, many sources, and your own opinion that makes sense about cool. You have your theory on where cool is being mass produce, came up with your own methods that can help society forget about being cool, and I feel confident about your paper so far, even though you have not finished. Some things I'd like to point out is that you have minor grammar mistakes and hope on you final piece, you have proof read or ask someone else to do it. Also i feel like you need to work on your fourth argument because I am a bit skeptical on how that paragraph would fit into you essay. Also if you may, in the intro of your essay please give your definition of cool, and your opinion on it.

To Dinorah,

Note that i am doing this assignment on whatever you have on your essay

Argument 1: The source of all "cool"

Argument 2: What do others think of cool?

Argument 3: Does the media control cool? Because of their countless propaganda of cool, people are no doubt influence in some particular way.

Argument 4: Is cool an item? Does the item make us cool or do we become the item?

Argument 5: Methods of being cool.

Thesis: Becoming cool, or trying to be cool makes you look weak and hopeless because you're trying to become something you're not. But some people are just naturally labeled "cool" and becomes a royal prince/cess that you must be born to become. (Sorry if this is a worse thesis, and if this is wrong in some form of way.)

I feel like your idea of cool is in some ways a monarchy. For instance, one would have to be born with the looks and the personality in order to be cool. And then those cool people would have the powers to decide who else can be entitled cool. They control everything, every action, and every attention, and whatever they do, people must observe. Just like a monarchy, only the king and queen can decide who can take their throne. And if you think about it, if there are too many cool kings and queens, then they are no longer powerful, they become a normal person. Of course whoever if king or queen is not all powerful, there is always someone behind them pulling the strings. By that i mean the idea of cool is always taken from something. Because like the book Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk, "everything is a copy of a copy of a copy..."

Just like many essays, please re-read your work and check for grammar mistakes. Also i personally believe that trying to find the source of cool would be rather difficult. Its a big cycle of copy and paste. Kids turns something cool, media post the cool, and that "cool" becomes crap. Trying to find out where the idea of cool came from would be rather difficult because it can be traced back to the time humans were called cavemen. Maybe make that argument more specific towards something, like why we need to view things as cool.