Chris Brown: Authenticity

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Chris Brown

Student ID: 11038484

139.280 Creative Nonfiction


Assignment 1

Tutor: Dr. Bronwyn Lloyd


25th April 2016

Authenticity

Chris Brown
139.280 Creative Nonfiction
Bronwyn Lloyd
25th April 2016

Reading through Carl Klaus The Singular I and the Chameleon I and The
person in a Personal Essay my initial thoughts were why would a crafted voice
be any less authentic, as your voice isnt one set thing. It may vary depending on
what youre talking about, the mood or situation youre in. Perhaps through
revision you could even create a more accurate portrayal of what it is that you
want to say.

In Klaus The Persons in a Personal Essay he says, the artful I of an essay


can be as chameleon as any narrator in fiction. (p.2). The immediately raises
some red flags about whether fictionalising your voice is still considered
authentic. Later in the same passage Klaus also goes on to say, But its well to
remember that the world of literary nonfiction borders upon the world of fiction,
and sometimes their boundaries overlap. (p.2) But how could your voice be
considered an authentic portrayal of your actual voice if part of it is fictionalised?
If the voice you portray on the page does not accurately represent yourself then
by definition it cannot be authentic.

Essayists, in fact, rarely claim to achieve an authentic match between


their voice and themselves. Instead, they tend to acknowledge some kind
of difference and to speak of essayistic personality as involving an
element of impersonation or imposture. (Klaus, p. 46)

Looking at the second half of this quote where Klaus uses words such as
impersonation or Imposture then as a writer you would no longer be
representing yourself, but instead would be trying to be someone else. Again by
definition this is not authentic. This can be seen when a politician will say one
thing to appeal to one audience and then something else to appeal to another.
An example of this type of behaviour is shown in The Young Turks reporting on a
Donald Trump interview. In the interview Donald Trump claims not to know who
David Duke is but also uses this claim to completely ignore and so avoid
answering the question about whether he would condemn the endorsement of
the KKK. It was then revealed that that he had disavowed David Duke and that
Trump did know who he was despite claiming that he didnt. This level of
inauthenticity is a wink to members of the KKK that hey I dont disavow you yet
then to appease other supporters backtracks to say that he does. Of course this
also highlights a lack of consistency as well as not being authentic.

Another example of not being authentic is described by Klaus when he writes,


Nora Ephron in Revision and Life speaks of a time when she wrote
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Chris Brown
139.280 Creative Nonfiction
Bronwyn Lloyd
25th April 2016

innumerable drafts and thereby found a personal style, a voice if you will, a way
of writing that looked chatty and informed. (p.47). If someone was to take this
approach with their speaking voice it could come across an extremely
inauthentic as youre no longer being genuine to who you really are, this is
something that we see in the refined way politicians will speak to the public. If it
would be inauthentic to do with your speaking voice, then why would it be any
different when your voice is written and not spoken?

Going back to the first part of the earlier quote from Klaus, Essayists, in fact,
rarely claim to achieve an authentic match between their voice and themselves.
(p.46), and bringing back my earlier idea that your voice isnt a singular thing,
but instead has multiple aspects. Why would their writing voices have to match
every aspect of themselves? For example someone might get really animated
talking about films, but that enthusiasm doesnt carry over to other topics. When
that person writes about film, that piece may have a more energetic voice, with
perhaps more evocative descriptions, or a faster pacing. Perhaps it could be
more erratic as they jump from one topic to the other to reflect their excitement.
But this type of writing may not carry over to other works where the same type
of passion is not there. Despite having different voices between topics, it would
be more authentic to have those different voices rather than trying to streamline
a singular voice as it is a more accurate portrayal of who you are.

This leaves me thinking that as long as youre consistent in your standings


between your written voice and who you are, and that you are portraying some
part of yourself, then even if you have multiple written voices you can still be
authentic.

Word Count: 759

Chris Brown
139.280 Creative Nonfiction
Bronwyn Lloyd
25th April 2016

Connections and Flow


(Module 4: Additional Exercise. Chasing Rabbits, Finding Rhythms)

The ambience begins the process of opening something inside me, to


making me more receptive to what is about to follow. There is an anticipation
built into it as I know the song to come. But the song itself draws me in, and as
the bass and other instruments come in, the music charges me.

The power of the music speaks to that of a crowd. Of people marching as


one, standing as one against the wrongs in the world. People to stand up for the
rights of each other and to stand against organisations in opposition to that,
whether blatantly or subtlety.

Take back your feet, take back your hands.


Take back your words, take back your lands.
Take back your heart, take back your pride.
Dont go to run, dont go to hide.
Revolution.
(Revolution, The John Butler Trio)

When you drop the R from revolution what youre left with is evolution.
The song speaks with the voice of an ever growing movement.

The song was quick to invoke emotions that have recently been building
within me. When I started to do some research, I found that even here in New
Zealand the influence of money in politics seems uncountable. Its not even a
question of corruption, but rather how individuals and organisations can have
more influence over our political system based on the money they have. In two
thousand and fourteen the Estate of Cyril Smith donated five hundred and
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Chris Brown
139.280 Creative Nonfiction
Bronwyn Lloyd
25th April 2016

seventeen thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars to the National Party.
Assuming that everything is operating in an ideal way, where donors donate to a
party because they genuinely believe in their policies, then a donation of over
five hundred thousand dollars is far more influential than the average kiwi can
achieve, as the candidate and party with more money is far more likely to win as
they are to get their message out more effectively. This brings into question how
much of a democracy are we where the politicians that are supposed to
represent the people are more heavily influenced by the wealthy.
***
A song that seems to stop everything else around it. Sounds that can be
applied to any situation. Are you happy, sad, angry, lonely, excited; do you want
to show off or retreat from the world? Not just while listening, but while playing
it, its a song for all moments, all emotions. Its a song that has continued to to
change and develop over the years, with its appropriate title Ocean, constantly
moving, fluid. It grows not just with its creator but with its audience. Something I
guess that I have yet to capture in my own playing of the song is its flow. Like a
current pulling whatever comes into contact along with it. I smile to myself after I
notice the unintentional connection to the song title that I had made. A feeling of
pride fills me, along with the craving I still had for creating. A feeling that when I
had previously experienced it I associated with a form of magic. The
unintentional connections that show up in your writing, and yet feel so obvious
and set up that they inform the work. Its a sensation that Ive been missing over
the past year. I didnt anticipate that I would write as much as did in such a short
space of time. There was mp thought about what I was going to write, instead
my thoughts were appearing on the page before me before I could consciously
acknowledge them in my mind. This was something that I had heard other
writers talk about, but had never personally experienced before.

I noticed that generally speaking my style wasnt focused on using words


like I to refer to myself. Instead it either didnt address who was the target, or it
would use plural words much in the way that I tend to do when I talk. Instead of
saying, just let me know, Ill tend to say, Just let us know. It was something
that I had taken not of in my speech but not in my writing. Perhaps with what I
was writing being so unfiltered my more prominent tendencies were able to
come through.

I have to admit that what appealed to me the most about this exercise was
the option to mix music along with my writing. Music is a huge part of my life,
and has been highly influential on the way that I view things, perhaps rather than
the actual songs it was the behind the scenes of the artists decisions that
influenced me. However I didnt expect the results I got, I was sure that I was
going to have very little written by the end and that Id be struggling to meet the
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Chris Brown
139.280 Creative Nonfiction
Bronwyn Lloyd
25th April 2016

word count. But once I got under way, and my writing freed up, I ended up with
way more words than I need which result in me having to be selective in what I
choose to write on. A situation that Im not normally in.

Word Count: 844

Bibliography

Klaus, Carl H., The Made-up Self: Impersonation in the Personal Essay.
Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2010. 1-3, 45-59.

The Young Turks. (2016). Trump Wont Condemn KKK Endorsement.


Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7u3fFhOf3o

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