http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/knaan-on-censoring-himself-for-success.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
In this essay by K'naan, a Somalian-Canadian musician who has recently achieved international success, he discusses the "self-censorship" of music in the pursuit of fame and radio play. Compellinglly telling his own story, K'naan uses rhetoric skillfully to draw the reader in and treat them to an entertaining, as well as thought provoking, read. His use of figurative language, diction and syntax especially contribute to the effects he creates.
The figurative language is essential to the presentation of this piece. It is placed in the context of an extended metaphor, in which K'naan is compared to "a fox that wanted to walk like a prophet," and his attempts to mimic the prophet destroyed the "elegant walk for which the other animals loved him." Upon first reading this, I was shocked to see a musician writing in the New York Times bashing their own music so harshly, as through this metaphor he implies that his newest album is well below the standard that his previous albums had set. The use of this metaphor draws the reader in, especially if they are familiar with K'naan's music, because it is an incredibly real thing to read in a piece distributed as much as this one must have been.
This metaphor is the most important part of all of the techniques that I noticed, and it ties in with the syntax that is found in the article. The organization of the ideas that are presented is that it lapses between storytelling and reflective writing, making for a very fluid commentary on the way that musicians feel pressured to produce music that could be popular among larger audiences. In the opening few paragraphs, he tells two stories related to Somalia, one a fable and the other a personal experience, drawing connections to his recent experiences in the music industry. He tells the fable of the fox, refers to his situation in his musical career, and asserts that he doesn't want to"censor [his walk] in the name of marketing." He then tells about how the Somalian government carried out real censorship, showing him the power that truly thoughtful music can have but also taking the blame for the censorship away from the record companies, as many might be quick to jump to do.
Smaller, more subtle techniques are also important in the way he tells his story. When K'naan refers to "His sense of self. His walk." he uses anaphora, and he does the same in the following passage:
The repetition of the word yes shows how he was persuaded by the executives to change so many aspects of his "walk," leading him to where he was in his last album.
Diction is another important technique that K'naan uses in this article. At several points, his word choice causes the reader to stop and think about what he just said, and why he said it. He refers in passing to "the killing ground of Somalia," as if the entire country were a warzone, something that a reader probably would not expect. The references to "anti songs" also stood out to me, as he seems to classify songs of rebellion in their own genre, apart from love songs or folk songs. This is a different way of thinking about music than I am used to, and the way he tells the story elevates the position of "anti songs" above the other types that he lists. He also referred to how, in his older works, the auidience "see[s] geography" when they listen to his music, another choice of word I wouldn't have expected. He seems to be saying that they are taken to his homeland of Somalia, but by saying geography he broadens the definition to whatever the reader thinks when they see the word geography.
This article was very enjoyable to read, and displayed adept understanding of the use of rhetoric in order to write a compelling piece. I can only hope that it means his music in the future will return to the quality of his past albums.
Close reading of "Censoring Myself for Success," by K'naan
The figurative language is essential to the presentation of this piece. It is placed in the context of an extended metaphor, in which K'naan is compared to "a fox that wanted to walk like a prophet," and his attempts to mimic the prophet destroyed the "elegant walk for which the other animals loved him." Upon first reading this, I was shocked to see a musician writing in the New York Times bashing their own music so harshly, as through this metaphor he implies that his newest album is well below the standard that his previous albums had set. The use of this metaphor draws the reader in, especially if they are familiar with K'naan's music, because it is an incredibly real thing to read in a piece distributed as much as this one must have been.
This metaphor is the most important part of all of the techniques that I noticed, and it ties in with the syntax that is found in the article. The organization of the ideas that are presented is that it lapses between storytelling and reflective writing, making for a very fluid commentary on the way that musicians feel pressured to produce music that could be popular among larger audiences. In the opening few paragraphs, he tells two stories related to Somalia, one a fable and the other a personal experience, drawing connections to his recent experiences in the music industry. He tells the fable of the fox, refers to his situation in his musical career, and asserts that he doesn't want to"censor [his walk] in the name of marketing." He then tells about how the Somalian government carried out real censorship, showing him the power that truly thoughtful music can have but also taking the blame for the censorship away from the record companies, as many might be quick to jump to do.
Smaller, more subtle techniques are also important in the way he tells his story. When K'naan refers to "His sense of self. His walk." he uses anaphora, and he does the same in the following passage:
"So I began to say yes. Yes to trying out songs with A-list producers. Yes to moving production from Kingston to Los Angeles. Yes to giving the characters in my songs names like Mary."
The repetition of the word yes shows how he was persuaded by the executives to change so many aspects of his "walk," leading him to where he was in his last album.
Diction is another important technique that K'naan uses in this article. At several points, his word choice causes the reader to stop and think about what he just said, and why he said it. He refers in passing to "the killing ground of Somalia," as if the entire country were a warzone, something that a reader probably would not expect. The references to "anti songs" also stood out to me, as he seems to classify songs of rebellion in their own genre, apart from love songs or folk songs. This is a different way of thinking about music than I am used to, and the way he tells the story elevates the position of "anti songs" above the other types that he lists. He also referred to how, in his older works, the auidience "see[s] geography" when they listen to his music, another choice of word I wouldn't have expected. He seems to be saying that they are taken to his homeland of Somalia, but by saying geography he broadens the definition to whatever the reader thinks when they see the word geography.
This article was very enjoyable to read, and displayed adept understanding of the use of rhetoric in order to write a compelling piece. I can only hope that it means his music in the future will return to the quality of his past albums.
I think you did a really nice job with this close reading. I liked how in the second paragraph, you talked about how that was not only an example of figurative language, but that it ties into metaphors, too. It was nice to see your own personal response to the literary technique, and how you thought the technique effects the piece. Another nice aspect to your essay was how you pointed out that there were smaller techniques that not everyone notices that helped out in the article, like the anaphora.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked about the diciton used, I liked how you pointed out the specific words that had an effect on the article. One thing that you could consider doing is talking about whether those words are pejorative or honorific diction. Talking about the words that way can help lead into how they have an effect on the article as a whole.
Overall, I think you did a great job!
Hey Chris,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job on analyzing the details of this article and it made this close reading a success. I actually read this article and thought it was pretty interesting that K'naan bashed his own music in such a well known newspaper. The effect of the article is pretty outstanding and I really like the point that you made about "anti songs" because I had never though of that either. I think overall you did a really good job of bringing out the pieces in the article.
Chris, I thought your piece was very good. The article you chose was really interesting as well. I think you made really great points in your writing and had lots of great supporting evidence from the article. You also, as Mehar pointed out, analyzed the aspects of the writing that a lot of people miss like anaphora and other things. You also did a nice job showing how you thought the different aspects of the piece affected the overall meaning of the article. Great job!
ReplyDelete