Matthew Raghunauth Final Portfolio

Snippet from Crystal Castles Dialog:

Discussing electronic duo Crystal Castles, their rise to fame, and past and previous albums.

Barry: Yeah I know! Just look at their album cover! I looked into their album art when they released it before the actual album. The photo is of “a veiled woman cradling her son after he was exposed to tear gas. It was shot in Yemen during the Arab spring and won World Press Photo of the Year 2001” (Nicolson 53). Oh yeah, and “the cover shot was taken by Samuel Aranda, a Spanish photojournalist who has covered wars in Iraq, Gaza and Pakistan and freelances for the New York Times” (Nicolson 53), I actually almost met the guy at a conference. As bat-shit crazy Alice may be, she has a heart, a big one. When you muddle through her synthesized words, she ‘sings’ of breaking through what you believe is right in the world. A co-worker of mine actually interviewed her and they talked about the new album. He said that she said “ ‘ a lot of bad things have happened to people close to me since [the last album]. It feels like the world is a dystopia where victims don’t get justice and corruption prevails. I’m one step away from being a vigilante and bringing justice to people I love” (Nicolson 53). If that isn’t hard core I don’t know what is.

Matthew: I didn’t even know all of that and I’ve practically stalked all their moves since hearing them.  I mean I knew that part about Alice running away at like fourteen, I remember the discomfort in hearing that. I was only about fifteen at the time that I first heard them. I imagined my life in Alice’s shoes. Rather than being home with my parents going to school, she was literally living under bridges with homeless people, crudely singing with a bunch of random other girls. I want to know what was so awful about her home that drove her to run away . . . at fifteen. Like damn, fifteen? I mean I was super angry all the time but I could never seriously think of running away. She must be so broken, and angsty on the inside.

Barry: She is. She really is sad and angry and full of hate and empathy all the time. Like right before we got pulled out of the crowd, when they were performing ‘Crimewave’, Alice ‘repeat[ed] intones ‘we…love…you’” (Nicolson 53) to honor a “fan and blogger who recently died of cancer, as a result, [the show] took on a mournful and subdued quality . . . you can tell his passing has deeply affected Glass and it’s altered the whole vibe of this show from a ritual of hate to the celebration of life”  (Nicolson 53)” The general audience probably doesn’t realize Alice has this side. They just see this fist throwing notions to his black and swollen eye, high pitch screaming, abrasive, menace of a girl. I can’t speak much for Ethan. Other than the fact that he hovers behind her mixing sweet synthetic beats like a phantom . . . I don’t think he says much in general. I mean, I’m sure he’s sad on the inside too?

Louis: But this new album is so unexpected. It “adds a bigger sound and glossy production values to the mix” (Pattison 9). The last two albums were more raging, while this one is more celestial and soulful. A lot of the newer songs sound like [ sincere yearning, although it’s tough to say for sure, with the shape of her words obscured amid the blurry synths . . . [and full of] twinkling icicle melodies” (Pattison 9). Not all of their stuff has changed though some songs mirror their old albums, like “a bold move in a game of chicken in which losing is not being killed in a fiery automobile accident, but being mixed into an Ibiza terrace set my Judge Jules” (Pattison 9).  “They’ve re remade themselves. Not entirely. But in toning down the shock and awe, they’ve revealed the beating heart at the centre of their work, the message, still, is that the world is a cruel and fucked-up place. But being doomed seldom sounded so beautiful” (Pattison 9).

Matthew: I’ve tried explaining this to my friends. Not everyone I know listens to the same music as me, but when they ask me what music I like and I respond ‘electronic’ they make this . . . face squinting his eyes and pushing his head back a little. I know that face, and I know why they think it. They have this conceived idea of electronic music that disregards the soul and emotion that is present in any other genre! Country music? They just mournfully sing these drab tunes saying ‘baby’ and ‘girl’ and ‘love’ and ‘pickup truck’ a lot. R&B music? Well they practically sing about the specific motions of sex. Pop? Yeah pop music just glorifies sex and stupid things. But in electronic music, like especially Crystal Castles, they evoke specific emotions of torment and pain and love THOUGH the beats and tones and synths. 

Introduction

          This portfolio contains my strongest pieces of writing in the term thus far. My ‘strongest’, I do not mean my best, my best writing is yet to come as I still have more to learn. By strongest, I mean I can converse about why these pieces are important to me, their personal value. You will notice after reading my portfolio that my life and personality feeds my writing. The spectrum on this blog will reach from my culture, to my writing style to my favorite genres.

1.       Intro to Portfolio

2.       Intro to Essay

3.       Essay

4.       Intro to Writing Experience

5.       Writing Experience

6.       Intro Obsession

7.       Obsession 

Intro to Essay

         My essay explores the idiosyncrasies of my writing. I discuss the British influence in Guyana, and the Guyanese influence in family conversation that influences my writing. In my essay, I cite authors Kurt Vonnegut and George Orwell.  In Orwell’s Essay Why I Write  In Orwell’s Essay Why I Write,  it is explained that a great writer will write in a style that is inherent to their early life. Vonnegut’s quote blatantly states to sound like yourself, not to dress your language up in a style that isn’t you. I take both pieces of advice to heart because I feel if I don’t input my personality into my writing, I may as well be writing a five paragraph essay in middle school again. I discussed my hatred of the middle school writing curriculum in my essay: the structure, terms, and techniques. I realize now that it was important to learn all those rudimentary rules, so we can now learn to break and bend them to produce more successful writing. All the influences in my life: parents, earlier schooling, personal opinion, cultural vernacular, are all apparent in my writing. In my essay, I discuss why all of these are important, and why I think they bolster my writing in general. 

Essay

Matthew Raghunauth

Prof. Kirsten Kaschocock

English 101

October 27, 2014

“The Result is Usually Delightful”: Writing Genuinely

I have reaped the linguistic benefits of being reared by foreign parents. English is my first language, as it is my parents’. However, because they were born in Guyana, my parents spoke Pidgeon English- a broken and slightly incorrect form of the language. Some may find it humorous that with a Caribbean flair, my family members would say things like ‘bush along the road’ when driving through the woods,  ‘hard ears’ when someone’s stubborn, or ‘big eye’ when someone is gluttonous. Because of these broken phrases I’ve grown up hearing that I believe I am able of interpreting English and writing in many ways. Writers Kurt Vonnegut, and George Orwell note that they write well, and others can too, by remaining genuine in their writing style.

            In his essay, Why I Write, Orwell says that interesting subjects will come easily to the writer who relates the work to their life:

[ A writers]  subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in — at least this is true  tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own — but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, in some perverse mood; but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write.

He goes on to say that the writer must then refine their subject matter to avoid being myopic. In that refinement process however, Orwell cautions that if one tunes out too much of their personality, the emotion and passion in the piece will have escaped. I hated writing in middle school because we were asked to tune out our emotion and focus rather, on specific writing technicalities. When asked to write an essay in ‘language arts’, we had to adhere to the strict five-paragraph format, which gasped for originality and vigor. But of course, such creativity was not allowed. In middle school, strong emotion wasn’t necessary for our writing; we tediously had to regurgitate all the terms and techniques learned in the previous week into one smorgasbord of phonemes.

            I developed my true writer’s voice in junior year. Between the newly found art of persuasion, my inherited fiery temper, and my new interest in electro-folk-pop, I enjoyed arguing. In particular, I discovered my now favorite band, Crystal Castles. The noisy-electronic duo fueled my passion with a fusion of angst and dreamy synth. I argued in the same style as I’ve heard my parents, enhanced with the rhetoric learned in class. Orwell continues to say, “I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the world view that I acquired in childhood.” The passion in my writing that I use to defend my opinion derives from the values and morals my parents taught me growing up. One of the values my parents taught me is to defend myself when something I deserve is taken from me, and not to cower with reluctance. 

 Drexel had always been my top school, but my parents firmly believed the financial burden would outweigh the benefits of pursuing a design, I fervently assured them otherwise. Persistence runs in the family, and it was most apparent during college acceptance letter season.  I applied to seven schools but I was only serious and excited about one of them- Drexel. My parents grew irksome while I only spoke of my potential future plans at Drexel, disregarding any ideas about other schools. They soon took offence to my disregard, taking it that I disregarded their opinion and guidance. My mother and I got into an argument one cold day as I awaited acceptance letters, she was especially with my impatience and stubbornness. I yelled back to my mother that she may be the most miserable people I know pursuing a painstaking nursing career she does not enjoy just for the financial value; to which she responded ‘I’d rather be miserable than be a starving artist’. This is how my family argues. We are rough, blunt, and passionate. I am completely grateful for all that my mother has provided- I actually wrote my entire college essay about my gratitude to her. We’re personal with our attacks, and often regret the torments that leave our mouths instantly.

My parents also often use British phrases and pronunciations- Guyana was once a British Colony- and I often use some of them in my writing. These phrases are inherent to me, and sometimes often lack in our vernacular, making them identifiable in my writing. A relatively British grammar style my parents use involves question asking. Rather than the American ‘Are you coming?’ my parents would say ‘You are coming?’ I realize that this small inversion of the subject sounds exotic, and I use similar phrases as syntactic embellishment. Alternatively, is the Guyanese slang my parents toss about in conversation. Casually chatting, emphasis is achieved though repetition, so rather than saying ‘come right now’, my family would say ‘come now now.’ I try avoid using this style often in my writing however because I know that it is blatantly wrong wrong.

            In How to Write with Style, by Kurt Vonnegut, eight descriptions on successful writing are listed. Number  five on that list is ‘sound like yourself’. Vonnegut explains, “If [your first language] happens not to be Standard English, and if it shows itself when you write Standard English, the result is usually delightful.” I like to think that my writing delights the reader, or that it at least does not bore them. Either way, since the liberty to write genuinely was granted in high school, I will continue to do so in all of my dialogs, continuously trying to  improve.

Works Cited

Orwell, George. “Why I Write”: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George               Orwell (1968) n. pag. Web. 8 Oct. 2014

Vonnegut, Kurt. “How to Write with Style”: Transactions on Professional Communication. 2       pag. 24. Web. 8 Oct. 2014

Intro to Writing Experience

In this piece, we were asked to write about our best writing experience. While most people may have discussed their favorite essay, or a specific revelation they had while writing, I generalized the topic. I talked about a broad phenomenon that I experience almost every time I write. Before I begin writing something, I frame out all the points I plan to address, taking note of the support I may use. I explain however that overwhelmed with all the structure I’ve built around me, I grow unsure of my own thesis. I often manage however, to bring myself back around to my argument, using my skepticism to further support myself. I am learning how to rely less on these writing revelations though. One of the most aiding pieces of advice my senior year English teacher told us is to diverge from the preconceived structures of writing we grew up learning. While I don’t want to abandon all structure entirely, I am coming to understand that by breaking the preexisting rules taught earlier in life, I can enhance my writing. What I am mainly trying to say in this piece is that my best writing comes forth from an overwhelming struggle that I must overcome. 

Writing Experience

Ironically, my best writing experiences tend to come from my worst writing experiences. When asked to write for formal reasons, it’s necessary that I spend countless hours planning ahead. I need to dissect my work, before I can actually begin it: topic, opinion, support, transition, etc. Especially in persuasive writing, I like to have evidence opposing the view I am supporting. Usually though, somewhere about halfway through my work, I’ll begin second guessing my entire thesis; I begin thinking, ‘there seems to be more information opposing my view . . . I should really consider switching my thesis around entirely.’ In the best case – which brings about my best writing experiences- is when I am able to refute my own skepticism with even more confidence. After the wave of uncertainty, I am able to see my own argument from a different stand point, and use it to my advantage. My best works come not from pure certainty, but from brief doubt, and hesitation.

Intro to Obsession

I discuss why I am obsessed with my favorite group Crystal Castles in this piece. My obsession with Crystal Castles parallels my general disposition. Not to say that I am ferociously ethereal, noisy, chaotic or synthetic- like much of their songs, but I am drawn to them like I am to most things. The cliché ‘opposites attract’ applies to me in that subjects that differ from my character appeal to me.  Until my comfort zone is pried open, I come off reserved, even introverted. I am even reluctant to ask the waiter a question at a restaurant. My parents have constantly tried to instill a sense of confidence in my demands growing up. My strong acuities that aren’t apparent every day, are conveyed through my creative side. My drawings and paintings comprise of bright, saturated colors, bold lines, and provocative subjects. The music I play in the car, or in my room beckon the continuous null of  ‘you listen to them’ from friends and family members. You wouldn’t expect me to like the music I do, have a tattoo, or draw what I draw, after first meeting me. Maybe it is just my rebellious punk phase of being a teenager that prompts me to oppose my conservative parents, but I am drawn to things like electronic pop duo Crystal Castles because of how divergent they are from my nature.  

Obsession

I am obsessed with my favorite electronic band crystal castles. I began listening to them in eighth grade after hearing them play in my brother’s car. I thought that their edgy beats and synthetic tones were so different than what I was used to hearing on the radio. I am especially obsessed with them now because I recently found out that they broke up a few days ago. All I've wanted since eighth grade was to see them live, and now I must make up for what I can never see by watching hours of live performances on YouTube.

 I was drawn to them because of how different they were. And yes I do find myself watching videos repeatedly. Do you have a favorite band- that may or may not have even broken up- that you obsess over. An artist or group that you find you are drawn to repeatedly watch over and over without getting tired? I think I also liked this specific group because they parallel my organization style, I am also very obsessed with being neat and tidy, and every little thing have its own specific space. This band's music was so different from that idea- the music was random at times, loud noisy jumbled and chaotic. Does it make sense that I was drawn to something so different than what I am usually used to?