by Kevin Norris
Cory Taylor is frustrated and angry. One can see this by looking at the cover of his novel You’re Making Me Hate You. His teeth are grinding. His eyes are bulging. There’s a quote on the cover “A cantankerous look at the common misconception that humans have any common sense left.” His fingers look as though they are flashing a gang symbol. Cory Taylor, who is part of the band Slip Knot and Stone Sour is obviously discontented with human nature and himself. Cory Taylor is the protagonist of the story who ramps and raves using swear words and obscenity to get his point across.
The tone of the book is set prior to the opening chapter with the following quotes:
“The difference between stupidity and genious is that heinous has its limits.”
– Albert Einstein
“ I have tried to know absolutely nothing about a great many things.”
– Robert Benchley
“Hell is other people.”
– Jean=Paul Sartre, No Exit
From the onset, there is sarcasm combined with an ominous tone. Furthermore Cory Taylor is Bold. He starts off his book with a contract stating that if you commit any of these acts(after reading the book)that are recognized as undesirable acts of human nature, he has the right to “smack any of the reader in the face with a plastic wiffle ball bat”(1).
Cory Taylor hates the “Me-Me-Me”(48) attitude. He rips on airports. He rips on the fact that, after 911, one can’t even give a long kiss goodbye anymore in the airport: “Cops swarm the sidewalks making sure you’re not there for very long” (48). He rips on taxi drivers who don’t give a FUCK (well that’s how he would state it) as to how they drive in the airport parking lot.
With all the cursing and swearing, you’d think that people would be offended. Personally, under most situations, I would be offended. However, I like his abrupt style. It draws one’s attention to the narrative and gets his point across.
We learn what Corey Taylor thinks of fashion. What does he think about a lot of celebrities’ outfits-they SUCK. One example that he givesiss Justin Bieber. He states that he wears pants “that make him look like he shit his fucking pants” (68). Furthermore, if you can get past the word “Fuck” in almost every few paragraphs, you can get his message- most clothing that celebrities wear is not fit for the regular person.
Road rage is an obvious problem in the big cities across America. Corey Taylor takes this problem head on. However, again “fuck, fuck, fuck.” He gripes about people not turning on their turn signal because “…that’s why it’s names a fucking turn signal”(90). He discusses being pulled over because he looks like a drug dealer. He trashes Los Angeles stating that the city is packed “with incredibly fucked drivers” (93). I have lived in the Los Angeles area and I can’t agree more. However, then again, it’s FUCK, FUCK, and more FUCK.
Another one of his pet peeves is excessive spending, squandering one may say. Before the chapter dealing with this topic there is a picture of a business man. He is the symbol of the successful business person with a black suit, button down white shirt and a white scarf. His hair is combed back with a large smile on his face. His head is slightly tilted back while talking on the cell phone with one hand and a cigar in the other. Corey Taylor is standing directly behind him wearing plaid shorts, a white tank top, black socks and loafers. His tattooed arms are holding a bat up to the business man’s head, ready to knock his head off. This image sets the tone.
He states in a very eloquent way that even though the United States is often in a recession or even a depression, people still have money to “ Waste on needless bullshit [,such as] …Oreos stuffed with cookie dough to shoes with wheels in the heals”(112). Corey Taylor comes off as vulgar; however, perhaps that is what people need- strong vulgar words to get people’s attention.
He hates romantic novels such as the books that Nicholas Sparks write. Why? Because it makes all men less of men as compared to the characters in the books. He believes that after reading one of those books, no man will ever measure to the girl’s expectations of what an ideal man would be. Of course his way of putting it is a little more direct than mine. “IT IS A FUCKING MOVIE”(142), he states in his book. Yes, slightly candid, but perhaps that is the way that people need to be spoken to in order to wake up and get out of this allusion that a lot of people live in.
The good thing about Corey Taylor is that he seems to be acting in a completely honest way. He even states many of his own faults throughout the book. But if you are going to be offended by his vulgarity, he states at the beginning “I DON’T GIVE A Fuck ANYMORE” (14). He even says that if you can’t handle the truth, don’t buy the book. So if you can’t, don’t. However, I found it a book worth reading. He says many things and states them in a way that I would have loved to have stated them, but I can’t. At least, not yet.