Slam+Poetry

media type="youtube" key="pKyIw9fs8T4?fs=1" height="385" width="480" Totally like whatever, you know? -Taylor Mali

In case you hadn't noticed, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about? Or believe strongly in what you're saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? Declarative sentences - so-called because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true as opposed to other things which were, like, not - have been infected by a totally hip and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know? Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this; this is just like the word on the street, you know? It's like what I've heard? I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay? I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty? What has happened to our conviction? Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rain forest? Or do we have, like, nothing to say? Has society become so, like, totally. . . I mean absolutely. . . You know? That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like. . . whatever! And so actually our disarticulation. . . ness is just a clever sort of. . . thing to disguise the fact that we've become the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since. . . you know, a long, long time ago! I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, I challenge you: To speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too.

I think that Taylor Mali was hinting at the shift in society and poking fun at the way people are starting to act and the type of language and slang people use (mainly teenagers.) People have lost their emotion and feeling to what they say and they don't think before they speak. Many people would sound smarter if they simply widened their vocabulary and tried to have intellectual conversations and or discussions with each other. Repetition was used quite frequently in this poem, he said "you know" multiple times. His poem had quite a bit of irony in it because he was talking about how the language people are using recently isn't good but he insists on using it in his poem. For example, he would say "you know" and when he said, "Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?" it was quite ironic. I like how he makes his poems funny because it makes me want to continue listening because I lose my train of thought easily and making me laugh is a good way to keep me entertained! I found that the last night had a huge impact. He said, "It is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too." Taylor is really getting his point across that people should snap out of it and interact better and not be so lazy with what they are saying and express their individuality through language.