I find Mark Amerika’s How to Be an Artist to be a challenging text. I believe that the writer intends to send social, economic, and political messages as dependent on his knowledge of art, business, Internet, and writing ability. The numerous explicit and implicit references to capitalism are interesting, since I believe this is the first book we have read this semester that covers this issue.

In the section entitled “OK Texts”, Amerika combines technological and artistic ideas with unexpected language. For example, he playfully incorporates words, phrases, and questions that we often encounter as users of software or Internet such as: “Your health will one day disappear and you will die without meaning. End session?” and “We cannot process your information. Your information is corrupt and needs cleansing. Erase brain?” (3). Amerika makes following the hidden messages within his text an uneasy task for the readers. In the next lines, Amerika states “Multi-national corporations create user-friendly software so that you will always depend on their lens to the world. More co-dependency” (4). Here, I think, by presenting this idea, the writer sends a clear message and wants us, his readers, to put forth the necessary effort in finding the meaning. The message is obviously not aesthetic, and might be read as the opposite. In comparison to our other readings throughout the semester, this book is distinct in its attempts to raise a different awareness and extend beyond creating the hypertextual consciousness (HTC) using a combination of differential tools and ideas.