Since the beginning of the term, our ASTU class has been discussing topics related to post 9/11 culture and war and more recently, studying poetry related to it. Poetry is a genre that some love and others simply have no interest in. In their blogs, many students discussed both their personal feelings towards poetry and the impact that poetry can have, especially when it is pertaining to a subject as serious as terrorism.
Kate discussed her love for poetry, and how even though it faded over time she was able to rediscover it when our ASTU class began studying it. On the other hand, other students including Daniela and Benny talked about their previous dislike for poetry. They described poetry as unrelatable, confusing, and frustrating. Edward also explained how many of us learned about poetry in high school – “It would be learning about poetry terms such as ‘oxymoron’ and ‘onomatopoeia’ and ‘metaphors’,”. When we learn about poetry in this way, it is easy to see is as confusing and hard to relate to. However, these students found looking at poetry now relating to politics and culture as opposed to love and romance much more interesting and useful.
Edward, Esther, and David all touched on how the poem “In Flanders Fields” can be served as a war propaganda. David stated he was intrigued that even though this poem was used as propaganda, “yet gained so much attention even till this day”. It was interesting that all of the Canadian students in our class have known this poem for years, but several of our classmates from around the world had never heard of it. Nonetheless, these students were interested in how the freedom poetry allows can be used for propaganda.
The poems we read by Juliana Spahr shed light on 9/11 culture for all of us, but hit a lot closer to home for some. For example, Julian noted how he grew up only 45 minutes away from downtown New York. Even though he was young when 9/11 happened, the memorials for the victims and the new “culture of fear” surrounding him still personally affected him. Benny also brought up his childhood growing up near Washington, D.C., so he was quite immersed in the 9/11 culture as well.
Telisa considered the unequal media coverage for some attacks versus others. She brought up how attacks in Western cities like London and Paris will receive tons of media coverage and stay in the news for weeks to come, but attacks in non-Western countries like Egypt and Middle-Eastern countries will receive little to no news coverage, with many of us never even knowing these attacks happened. This is a topic that I have seen discussed many times before, but it needs to keep being discussed until it is actually fixed. I agree with her, that these non-Western countries deserve the same amount of prayers, solidarity, awareness and news coverage as Western countries.
Terrorist attacks including 9/11 can be difficult to talk about, but it is important to understand the culture surrounding it. As many students said in their blogs, poetry is one of the many different insights on the topic that can help us to understand.
Blogs cited:
Kate: https://blogs.ubc.ca/katepasula/
Daniela: https://blogs.ubc.ca/danielaastu/
Benny: https://blogs.ubc.ca/bennyastu/
Edward: https://blogs.ubc.ca/edwardyinblog/
Esther: https://blogs.ubc.ca/astuhomework/
David: https://blogs.ubc.ca/davidscorner/
Julian: https://blogs.ubc.ca/julianyau/2018/02/15/the-culture-of-fear-in-the-united-states-post-911/
Telisa: https://blogs.ubc.ca/telisa/