I found Kate Pasula’s insight into the topic of citation and scholarly conversation very intriguing. The potential corruption of scholarly contributions over time is a factor of citation I had not previously considered. However, I find this as noteworthy in moving forward not only in citing my own sources, but in my discernment of citations made by other scholars as well. I agree that this idea can be appropriately integrated into the discussion of academic integrity, as often we may consider giving credit to the source as enough in terms of citation – yet the “credit” we’re extending could be a misconception or fallacy of the scholar’s original argument. This is not a problem found solely in the academic community, either. We see this issue in politics, as select phrases and words are manipulated to cast rivals in a bad light as an attempt to garner favour. This is a common occurrence even in private arguments, as two people accuse one another of “twisting words” to take on a meaning they didn’t intend.
Comment on Brenna Williams’ Blog Enrty
by Silvana Martinez
I deeply agree with your point of view on citizenship and the challenges that global interconnections place upon national borders. Different to you, I had never settled in another country asides from my native Colombia (and now Canada) but now that I am surrounded by people from all around the globe and that have so many interesting backgrounds I am completely fascinated by the way something as important as education can bring so many minds together. However, it often escapes our mind how having this worldly experience, like living in six countries in just eighteen years of a lifetime, can cause such a confusion regarding identity. Recalling what we’ve learned in our sociology class, communities are “imagined” and it is rituals that create the “collective consciousness”. The beautiful and most important thing about being international or multicultural is the fact that you have the power of deciding whether to engage in these rituals or as many as you want. This way, you can choose to participate in create that sentiment of solidarity that joins individuals together.
In this blog post, Anjali takes advantage of the core theme of memory that we have discussed in our ASTU class. She briefly relates this to the civil war in Algeria and how French books and analyzers refuse to admit certain ‘facts’. I enjoy how Anjali provides context of how the French government was associated with Algeria and later links this to historic documentation, specifically memoirs, and how individuals develop their own interpretations on these traumatic events that occurred in history. After reading this blog post, this made me think about memory, and how our emotions may interfere with how we share and interpret historical ‘facts’. This raises the question of – to what extent is our memory reliable especially if emotion is involved?
Brenna, I thought your blog post touched on some very important topics and was articulated very well. I also can relate to what you wrote as I myself am a child of immigrants (both of different ethnicities) but was born and raised in Canada. I’m glad you brought up the marginalization and vilifying of Muslim Americans, and how they are deemed not to be “real Americans” even if they were born there. How can one not be a “real American” when they were born and raised in America? I constantly see people use this rhetoric and label white people as “real Americans”, however white people are also the decedents of immigrants.
You also brought up the idea of nationalism and globalization, which I find quite interesting put together. How is nationalism in the USA becoming more prevalent today if at the same time our world is more connected than ever through globalization? You would think that because of globalization, nationalism would slowly start to disappear as we become more aware and accepting of people from other countries and their cultures; but are seeing the opposite. Perhaps because of an influx of immigrants and the progression towards diversity, people are starting to become more protective of “their” countries. You also touched on our discussion of nationalism in sociology, and how we actually just imagine these communities. I think it is very important for us to remember these communities and feelings of nationalism come from our own imagination, so we can realize how to be accepting of everyone no matter where they are from, what they look like or what their culture is.
I just read Anthony’s blog and enjoyed the insight he had on the current state of social media in terms of its reactions to catastrophic events. He discussed how in response to the earthquakes in Mexico, many people posted pictures of themselves on a luxurious vacation in Mexico to show their “support.” Attempts such as these seem to make a major tragedy about oneself when that person typically isn’t even hurt. I thought this was a very good comparison to the topics discussed in Douglas’s essay. This post made me think a lot about how I personally relate to traumatic incidents around the world, as a privileged unaffected American man. I don’t tend to post on social media about current events, however I don’t think I am doing anything alternative to acknowledge and help those in need. It is important to think often about how you can help other people and break up the norm taught to us that the most important thing is the individual.
I find that Esther’s blog is interesting where she raises the question of selfies and the connection to our emotions. Learning that the rise of electronics in our life conflicts with our sensitiveness towards others seems intriguing. I don’t completely agree, where she seems to say, “people to control themselves, to keep emotions in check and to feel empathy for other people”
is harder due to the rise of technology. In the 19th century, electronics did not exist but we still had young people having difficulty concentrating and dealing with their emotions. Perhaps the technology enhances the distraction for the young generation. But technology controlling emotions seems slightly far-fetched. I agree that changing youth’s habits of being vain and narcissistic will be arduous. We are all conditioned by the environment we live in. It would be up to us and society to change the way we think. But in our current consumer society, that would be a challenging task.
The cultural differences and reference to cultural norms that you mention in your post were very thought provoking, and helped me to reconsider Douglas’ article. After reading your blog and learning about the differences in selfie culture between countries like Thailand and Canada, I would like to know how other cultures view the “dark selfie.” I feel the way Douglas analyzed and presented her opinions were with a “North American” viewpoint and I am curious to discover if other cultures criticize, accept or view this new form of witnessing in an alternative way. When you write about the way “different ages, cultural backgrounds, personal experiences…affect the way we, as individuals, engage with different cultures, remember certain events, express our feelings and share our experiences” you provide an area of discussion that could be expanded on in the Douglas article. I enjoyed reading your blog and appreciate the insight that you brought me.
I found Telisa’s insight into “Selfies at Funerals” very engaging. She reflects on the innocent “selfies” she took when she was only a young girl, and it immediately brought into my mind images of myself just like these. I had not thought of this idea; however, I could relate completely to her references.
I also believed I thoroughly understood selfie culture, however, Kate Douglas’ essay was the first I had heard of, better yet considered the “dark selfie.” I understand the reference in the blog to how she felt upon seeing teenagers taking selfies at funerals. I have experienced the same emotional reaction at sights where I am somber and moved, and my friends are not affected the same way, behaving in a disrespectful- seeming way. I would feel just as she did upon seeing the pictures on social media, it seems completely dismissible and insincere to me.
Telisa does a great job of shining some light on the fact that the genre of the selfie is so new, that it is often misunderstood by not only older generations, but our young generation as well. I myself have yet to completely wrap my head around the idea that selfies can be used as sincere way “for teens to show their sorrow and grief…”, to quote Telisa, because I cannot imagine myself, or for that matter, friends of mine doing so. However, I acknowledge the possibility of this and this blog is an excellent resource for understanding and giving consideration to the new genre of the selfie.
I really relate to this post, in the sense that sometimes I find myself taking photos only because I want to post it and have people see wherever I am or what I am doing. I also find Instagram to be the main social media platform where people are trying to show off their lives. A lot of people feel insecure when scrolling through Instagram because it makes us our lives seem dim in comparison to the ones we see. However, social media sites like Instagram are usually only highlight reels, and lives are not as perfect as Instagram makes them out to be.
In her blog entry, that furthers aspects of our class discussion centred on Kate Douglass’ article on how youth interact with trauma sites, Esther makes the point that at the beginning of many ceremonies at UBC, a presenter will often say that we are on the “traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Musqueam people.” Esther questioned whether most students take the time to consider the significance of this statement. I myself have wondered the same thing. This is an excellent example of observing but not interacting or actively processing. It is very easy to notice one’s surroundings or listen to what is being said, without fully taking in the significance or comprehending the meaning. However, it is hard to know for certain whether someone has observed the significance of his or her surroundings without getting inside his or her head. This is key to Kate Douglass’ argument. Esther and I share the opinion that she is giving our generation the benefit of the doubt, although we probably do not deserve it.
I think Esther does an excellent job of demonstrating the difference between mere observing versus comprehending with her discussion of empathy and experience. I recently attended an event called Canada 150+: Trauma, Memory, and the Story of Canada that was put on by the South Asian Canadian Histories Association. I listened to three artists speak about their experiences and what inspired their work. One artist is an indigenous person and the other two were immigrants from different parts of Asia. Although, I myself may have no first hand experience with the struggles they described, by listening to their stories I felt better able to empathize with them. Despite the fact that how we connect with one another is changing, it remains essential to understand situations that our not our own. Whether it is at a memorial site or listening to people tell their stories, empathy remains a key aspect to understanding hardships that are not our own, but which have altered the world we live in.
Anjali’s blog post takes our discussion of memory and history and fits it into a relevant historic context. This also allows us to explore the issue through a real model. By using the example of colonial Algeria, Anjali shows the relationships between history and authority. When we associate history with objectivity and neutrality, we essentially give it authority and make it the deciding force that takes precedence over memory. When we think about the French government and its denial of Algerian independence struggles as a part of the historic record, this relationship between history and authority is materialized. But yet, Anjali’s post also illustrates the way that memory, lacking authority, is very fragmented despite how essential it is to the larger historical narrative. I thought Anjali’s example added a valuable layer of depth to the discussion.
I found Benny’s first blog post to be rather thought provoking as I can personally relate to his anecdote. As a German citizen, I’ve always found it hard to talk about WWII and although I believe that we’ve to talk about it, it’s not something that I like talking about it. I think that it is acceptable to take pictures when one is visiting former concentration camp sites like Dachau or Auschwitz as it’s part of our history, however it depends how your taking these pictures. As Benny said, I find it rather shocking that people take duck face selfies at a site where thousands of innocent people lost their lives. I think, that it really depends where you come from and that it has to do with cultural beliefs. In June, I visited a WWII bunker in Berlin, Germany and found myself taking some pictures of the interior and exterior which I thought was acceptable however I was rather surprised when I saw another tourist group pose in between and on the bunk beds. During the war, people escaped to the bunker to rescue themselves from bomb attacks and lived in the most miserable conditions for up to 2 weeks. I find it unethical and disgraceful how people are now taking advantage of a place like this. Therefore, I completely agree with Benny’s opinion on Kate Douglas’s essay and I thought that it was a well written post.
I completely agree with Anna H’s characterization of citations. Like her, I was only taught in high school that we cite in order to properly credit other scholars’ ideas and words. Learning that the use of proper citation is a way to insert one’s self into an academic conversation was eye opening. She made the fascinating connection between globalization and citation, which to me, were seemingly unrelated topics. I’ve never truly considered the effects of technology and the globalized world on academia, taking for granted the power of such swift communication. However, I will now try and take note of how such an instantaneous flow of information changes how the academic world operates.
Comment on Kate’s Blog
Kate brings up some interesting points in her first blog. In it, she mentions “the power of the orchestrator” and how using multiple scholarly references give a certain amount of control to the author as a conductor. This was also one of the most interesting techniques that I learned during our first month in Arts Studies. I found Kate’s point about the distortion of the scholarly conversation within a paper quite interesting. She states “As work gets circulated and passed down over tie, it has the potential to become less concrete and clear”. She mentions her IB history class, and how she struggled with citations prior to reading Giltrow. I too can relate to this; while writing my IB politics paper, I also struggled with citations. Kate brings up some interesting points about the use and possible distortion of orchestrating voices.
I found the points and observations made by Shira very interesting. It was the first time I had ever heard about “perceived race”. What struck me the most was her experience in Vancouver, where many people she met asked her outright what her ethnic background was. Like Shira, I find this desire to determine others’ ethnicity intriguing.
What drives this desire? In many cases it could be due to mere curiosity – if I met someone who had East Asian features but with blue eyes, I would be curious to find out his or her ethnic background as well (several Mongolians have such an appearance). But in this scenario, race would simply be a matter of appearance. Most of the time, race is not linked solely to physical traits; it can be linked to a person’s culture, religion, societal values and so on. The question that lingered in my mind was: how far do we allow race to determine what we think of a person?
I found your post and concept of perceived race to be really interesting and relevant! We’re part of this society that claims to be moving towards globalization and unification (particularly in Canada, where immigration is so encouraged and frequent), and yet we still have this narrow and ignorant view of what ethnicity entails, and how we determine it. Being born and raised in Brazil and having fairly pale skin, I actually encountered quite a few situations similar to yours when I moved to Canada, where people would just ask, “So what are you? What’s your ethnicity then?” (I even had a classmate who once said I couldn’t call myself Latina because I was too white). For the most part, this was simply due to the fact that I didn’t fit into the expectations some might have for what a South American physically looks like, but it still puzzled me; I couldn’t understand why people were so focused on labeling others – particularly now, when we’re more connected than ever, shouldn’t we be trying to move away from such thing?
The connection you made with the Japanese Canadians and how they were perceived by others was also intriguing; it really shows that, by labeling people, we are also attaching to them the “baggage” or privileges that come with every different label that were accumulated throughout the years, and how they can, in certain cases, be certainly used against a targeted group. While there were no outstanding characteristics that singled them out, the simple term “Japanese Canadian” turned them into public enemies by association and made them to be feared by others.
I believe that, moving forward, we truly need to start trying to understand the reasons why we emphasize labels, and the consequences they can bring, both in the short and long run for our community. I really enjoyed reading your blog post and definitely agree with the ideas presented, and hope to see them being discussed more often!
I found your post and concept of perceived race to be really interesting and relevant! We’re part of this society that claims to be moving towards globalization and unification (particularly in Canada, where immigration is so encouraged and frequent), and yet we still have this narrow and ignorant view of what ethnicity entails, and how we determine it. Being born and raised in Brazil and having fairly pale skin, I actually encountered quite a few situations similar to yours when I moved to Canada, where people would just ask, “So what are you? What’s your ethnicity then?” (I even had a classmate who once said I couldn’t call myself Latina because I was too white). For the most part, this was simply due to the fact that I didn’t fit into the expectations some might have for what a South American physically looks like, but it still puzzled me; I couldn’t understand why people were so focused on labeling others – particularly now, when we’re more connected than ever, shouldn’t we be trying to move away from such thing?
The connection you made with the Japanese Canadians and how they were perceived by others was also intriguing; it really shows that, by labeling people, we are also attaching to them the “baggage” or privileges that come with every different label that were accumulated throughout the years, and how they can, in certain cases, be certainly used against a targeted group. While there were no outstanding characteristics that singled them out, the simple term “Japanese Canadian” turned them into public enemies by association and made them to be feared by others.
I believe that, moving forward, we truly need to start trying to understand the reasons why we emphasize labels, and the consequences they can bring, both in the short and long run for our community. I really enjoyed reading your blog post and definitely agree with the ideas presented, and hope to see them being discussed more often!
I completely agree with Anna’s characterization of citations. Like her, I was only taught in high school that we cite in order to properly credit other scholars’ ideas and words. Learning that the use of proper citation is a way to insert one’s self into an academic conversation was eye opening. She made the fascinating connection between globalization and citation, which to me, were seemingly unrelated topics. I’ve never truly considered the effects of technology and the globalized world on academia, taking for granted the power of such swift communication. However, I will now try and take note of how such an instantaneous flow of information changes how the academic world operates.
For Anna Giesting
I found Anna’s post to be extremely profound, especially her thoughts on how the role of gender and class influenced different aspects of the graphic narrative, Persepolis. Anna states how if Marji was “a boy, specifically a boy belonging to a lower class, growing up in the early 1980s in Iran would be more likely to be sent off to war and face physical violence.” This observation helped me to analyze the extent of the difference of narrative that could have been presented. As a result of Marji being a young, female and upper middle class person, her immersion in the goings-on of Iran drift between heavily involved and distant. Marji’s age, gender, and class each create a different set of circumstances and unique lenses of how her observations are shared. I agree with Anna that being female and a young child, Marji is forced into being “positioned primarily as an observer” even with her personality being as brazen as it is. Her class also creates a separation that distances her from the outside world, an example being the images on page 102 of Persepolis. Anna’s post helped me continue to reflect on how gender effected the narrative and look through feminist lens.
Anna, I found it very interesting how you chose to discuss about the genre of comic books, or graphic narratives, and share your personal experience with them. I was very intrigued when you mentioned that you found out about Persepolis through an interview with Emma Watson and Marjane Satrapi because most of the people I have talked to, know about Persepolis through learning it in high school. I think this is also a very important topic to examine as well, because I’m sure many people would also assume that comic books are only targeted towards the younger generations and writing/illustrating an autobiography in the form of a comic book is quite rare. I agree with most of your points you acknowledged, specifically; ‘By using comics style, Satrapi was able to portray more realistic visuals, which allows the readers to relate more to the story.’ – I feel that Satrapi’s choice of using specific stylistic features in Persepolis may make her feelings, opinions and experiences easier to understand by a variety of readers. Also, I never approached her simplistic black and white drawings in a way that you have mentioned; ‘Satrapi’s simplistic style with just black and white panels in tiers makes it easier for the reader to focus on the storyline and issues that Satrapi is exploring instead of being distracted by the colors and details of the drawings.’ – I would completely agree with this argument and I think it adds on to the effectiveness of Satrapi choosing this genre of text to illustrate her personal experience of the war and revolution. I think your blog is really well written and shared many interesting comments and arguments.
For Anna Giesting,
I love how you focused on Persepolis with a feminist perspective. It is such an important aspect to take into consideration since one, she is a female and two, during this time period women were subject to much less freedoms that men. I found it really interesting to see Marji’s character evolve throughout the book and come to the realisation that it was men who were forcing women to wear the veil. I also thought your point about how the view and reasoning of the veil has shifted over time. My view surrounding hijab’s has completely changed after reading articles about it and having read Persepolis. It’s really important to recognise that freedom comes from choice and forcing women to wear or not wear a hijab is essentially the same thing, they are both oppressive. Persepolis is such an important story in that she is a female writer and is telling the story that is so often unheard. You’ve brought up so many interesting and insightful comments!
Avril’s look into “Children and Trauma” was very interesting. I enjoyed reading about her connection to the “Dear Canada” series, and I can relate to being very interested in stories like these, told by people like yourself. The ideas she puts forward regarding the purpose of using a child’s perspective are relevant and I believe accurate. I loved her idea of “humanizing” traumatic events by using the perspective of a young girl. Her explanation of this topic made me think of a quote often attributed to Joseph Stalin, “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” Avril helped me reflect on the truth that in using the vulnerable and innocent outlook of young Marji, I have found myself able to more acutely imagine the devastation narrated in Persepolis. It is true that the use of Marji’s perspective has given a much more personal, real, and comprehensible look into the life and the horrific events that took place in these times.
Comment on Daanish’s blog:
Like Daanish, I also saw many “contradictions present within contemporary Iranian society” and “dissonant narratives” while reading the book. I feel that the dissonances, or contradictions, in characters and the plot is one of the ways Satrapi creates a realistic story that carries gravity, complexity and veracity, distancing readers from the popular belief that comic books are “just for kids” or “just for fun”. One example of such a dissonance is the hypocrisy we see in Marji’s parents – how they were Marxists but were part of the upper-middle class. The flaws in the characters of the narrative, especially the flaws of Marji’s “hero” figures, only serve to bring her story closer to reality as they reflect how there is no such thing as a perfect human being.
Anthony’s post definitely showcases some interesting ideas about our perception of the world. Nowadays, we tend to view global issues with this “black and white” approach, seeing concepts as solid extremes. However, as Anthony points out, “very rarely does an issue have exclusively only two possibilities” and, in order to even begin to comprehend them, it is clear that we must acknowledge the complexity that comes with every problem and all of its nuances and layers. Anthony presents the connection of the black and white visuals in Persepolis to the many conflicting situations and opinions the reader is presented with throughout the graphic narrative, from religious aspects to the protagonist’s own political ideas of “good and evil”. It would be ignorant of us not to comprehend, however, that the “grey” areas, as Anthony describes it, are very much present and there to be interpreted by the reader; our understanding of the world must come from the notion that things are, simply put, more difficult to understand than we may think. Additionally, I found the parts of the interview with Marjane Satrapi added to the post to be quite intriguing! It truly brought in the narrative’s very own author’s opinion on this concept of perception, starting an interesting conversation throughout the post. Anthony brings us, overall, an important reflection on how this often used “black and white” idea of the world can certainly lead to extreme and ignorant views, and the imminent consequences that come with that.
Kate– I think you brought up a wonderful point on how Persepolis allows people to see Iran in a different light. In today’s world, media constantly fills our minds with almost barbaric, uncivilized images of not just Iran, but many other ‘non-Western’ countries. I think it is great how you admit your ignorance, and chose to learn from it, instead of just ignoring it; as you said, “it was important to write this book to dissipate the ignorance that surrounds [Satrapi’s] country”. I feel like some points you brought up even related to my blog post, on how when people think of Iran or war-torn countries, for some reason we forget the children that are there. I think your post brings up the importance of narratives, and graphic narratives, to allow others to recognize their ignorance on a particular event or place and to allow the event to not be forgotten about.
I appreciated Telisa’s blog post on the privileges that come with growing up in a first world country compared to the struggles that children in war torn countries face in their day to day lives. I found her description of her personal experience visiting her cousins in Morocco and recognizing how different their lives were especially moving. In her post, Telisa says “For some reason, when we think about war we somehow forget about the children. Our minds jump to political leaders, weapons and armies, but we fail to remember the children involved.” I believe this idea is central to why Marjane Satrapi wrote Persepolis. As Hilary Chute highlights in her article The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, a reoccurring theme in Persepolis is “never forget” (97). By only focusing on the political aspects of war, such as the “political leaders, weapons and armies” that Telisa highlights, we are forgetting the actual people whose lives were altered by the violence of war, which is hardly better than forgetting the war entirely. Part of what makes Persepolis so moving is its ability to pair the commonplace actions of childhood with traumatic historical events. Keeping in mind that Persepolis was written for a Western audience, if Satrapi had simply written about the events of the Iran Iraq war, her audience would find it very hard to relate. However, since the scenes of trauma are grounded in a story of a young girl, whose experiences most of us can relate to, we are forced to recognize the scarring reality that children growing up in the middle of a war are forced to face every day.
Comment on Daanish’s blog by Avril:
Reading about your experiences growing up in Pakistan was extremely interesting, and I can imagine those experiences contribute to your perspective while reading Persepolis. I also appreciated your discussion about the contradictions that Marji’s character brings to light in the book as well – evident in her on-again, off-again relationship with religion, the beliefs imposed by her family in conflict with their actual lifestyle, and the confusion between communism, revolutionaries, and “the revolutionary state”, as you put it.
I think Marji’s perspective as a child is instrumental in communicating these inconsistencies as well – inconsistencies that are difficult to visualize and that demonstrate the complexity of the social climate of this time period. Through her childlike observations of these complexities, the reader seems to be able to infer what these contradictions mean outside the small bubble of her home, and on a larger scale in Iran.
Comment on Daniela Reis’ Blog
I totally agree with your account on human’s ability to adapt, and like you, I am surprised by the juxtaposition of Marji’s private and rather comfortable life with the horrific violence that is often portrayed in the story. Growing up in Colombia, I relate to Marji as I am privileged to have opportunities that other people in my country lack, such as studying abroad. However, different from her, I have never been a first-hand witness to war or trauma. Colombia’s internal conflict has been happening for more than half a century already, and it has the world’s highest rate of internal displacement. I remember watching the news as a kid and learning about everyday violence, guerilla-associated were “normal” to hear about. Seeing Marji experiencing events of trauma opens my eyes to the way violence corrupts innocence, and how our private troubles and public issues are more related than they seem. I am very grateful for the fact that my family has not been directly affected by the armed conflict, and about the fact that peace is currently being negotiated. However, I hope my country is ready to adapt to a new reality, and be resilient about the collective trauma it has suffered for so many years.
Comment on Edward’s blog by Julian
I found your blog post interesting as we had a similar take on the graphic narrative. Both of us had read Persepolis previously, but have a much different outlook the second time around. I also did not “read deeply into the book” the first time around, and only discovered the richness it had to offer the second time around. I thought your experience with the banned book quite interesting. While I was in high school, reading every book was very encouraged. These included politically charged and controversial ones such as Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto, so I had never come across such an experience as a banned book. I feel that banning books such as Persepolis prove the exact point that Satrapi brings up herself. She states that banning the veil is just as bad as forcing people to wear it. I feel that the same applies to banned books in the context. By limiting our ability of knowledge and choice, are libraries and parents really promoting the ideals of freedom? Freedom is an ideal that we are quick to be patriotic and proud about, but what does that entail? I feel that educating children on the matter to allow them to understand the historical context surrounding such banned books to be much more beneficial than banning them outright.
I like Anthony’s approach and how he included parts of a Believer magazine interview with Marjane Satrapi. The interview helped Anthony convey his ideas of the global black and white approach in a creative way and allowed me to understand how today, we tend to see situations a lot more ignorant and one-sided. Often we tend to forget that there can be a so-called grey area which allows us to interpret and view different situations in a different way, not everything that happens is either good or bad and not everything can be justified as either of the two. Sometimes there is something in-between black and white, right and wrong, and good and bad, hence certain things are harder to comprehend than we might think and require us to approach a given situation or concept in a different way. In his blog post, Anthony introduces this grey area and reflects on the idea how humanity generally views the world as black and white or good and bad, and how this transcends Iran and Islamophobia.
Anna G’s blog post contains several interesting observations. One of the most interesting was her emphasis on context. Anna differentiates between two different scenarios, the first being “when women living under the Islamic regime in Iran were forced to wear a hijab,” and the second being “today’s increasingly anti-Islam political climate,” where “some Muslim women see wearing the hijab as a sign of defiance and of pride in their culture and religion.” With these two different scenarios come two essentially different meanings of the hijab, or veil. Anna’s point gives rise to an important idea that I would agree with: that there should not be a single, salient, and universally applicable view of the hijab. And I believe that this idea is important both in terms of its reasoning and its implications.
Similarly to you, I also enjoyed reading historical events in the context of a narrative, including the Dear Canada series. I found reading about regular history so boring, but that genre of historical narratives captivating. Growing up in Canada in the 21st century we did not experience violence in the way that many children today around the world and in Canada in the past have. These narratives were a way to place myself in their position and imagine what my life would be like if I had been born in that time period instead. They are a way that makes learning about history both more relatable and compelling. I think both historical narratives like Dear Canada and graphic narratives like Persepolis may be a more effective way to learn about history than the standard textbook.
I agree with what Leah wrote about the effectiveness of using a child protagonist. As Anna H, who also commented on Leah’s blog writes, using a child protagonist presents the complex political issues in a “much simpler, straightforward” way, perhaps even “less ‘political’”. This really makes it easier for an outsider audience to understand.
After reading Leah’s blog, I am now even more hit by the value of Persepolis. Firstly, Leah’s reference of her uncle highlights the fact that Satrapi’s experience is not unique. I see the value of Persepolis in providing a voice for other Iranians who may not be as talented in articulating their experiences and stories to their children or other people. Such people can point to Persepolis as a reference, and personalize it by adding their own accounts. Secondly, I see the value of Persepolis in touching people’s lives and planting questions for further investigation. This is seen with Leah being inspired to ask her uncle more about his background and stories. Finally, I also agree with Leah that Persepolis is a good place to start for people who know little of Iraqi history, and as a starting point to educate people that Muslims do not necessarily equal terrorists.
What Anna H. said about globalization and its contribution to the scholarly conversation was interesting to me. Indeed, with globalization, it is easier for scholars of different culture backgrounds to communicate. These are also the people who may speak more than one language, and potentially have access to additional sources of knowledge and conversations from their cultural background. This would broaden the “pool of knowledge”.
I am reminded of content learnt in Anthropology about cultures often carry a wealth of knowledge in their language and traditions. Having developed along separate paths for centuries, different cultures may have become “specialized” in different ways. For example, only after interacting with the Polynesians did Captain James Cook realise their incredible knowledge about sea navigation, which far exceeded the Europeans. Or the medicinal knowledge of many indigenous tribes. Likewise, with globalization, I think that it would be beneficial and time-efficient for scholars from of different cultures to share and combine knowledge. Nevertheless, I think that it is still essential for cultures to continue progressing in their own ways to prevent their individual knowledge development from reaching a plateau.
However, I have some doubts. Since English is currently considered the leading language in academia and most academic articles are published in English, the pool of academic journals scholars search from may still be rather “closed”. Yet, it may be the case that the scholars do contribute knowledge from their different backgrounds, and the use of English is only the means to present and share the knowledge.
I found Lukas’s blog entry on Persepolis very thought provoking and insightful. I similarly was interested in the decision by Satrapi to illustrate the entirety of the book in only black and white. Lukas brought up some good points, such as how the color choice highlighted the “stark contrast between the east and the west and between Iran and the western world.” I actually hadn’t thought about the possibility of that idea, however, it’s very intriguing to me. I thought it was more to create a serious tone, while maintaining a simple atmosphere, working in hand with the far from complex illustrations. I like the idea that Satrapi was using the art style as a larger metaphor for life in Iran, regardless of whether it was actually the case.
Comment for Avril,
I found Avril’s blog post particularly interesting as we commented on some similar things. She was also in my group so it was interesting for me to see another perspective of the documents I was looking observing. Both Avril and I commented on the depth of the documents we read. These were factual, historical documents, and enhanced her perspective and understanding of the gravity of the issue. These documents, give a good perspective into how the book was written by Joy Kogawa. Avril also feels saddened by the nature of disappearing documents. She feels that these documents create a real, physical, bond with the readers as they present themselves on a level of intimacy that could not be expressed to the similar degree through the use of digital media.
Anthony reveals that before visiting the RBSC, he assumed that Obasan was “…undoubtedly well received right from the beginning and embraced…”. I had never even thought to question this or to think about the book before it’s publication in these terms, but now that I have, I suppose I would have thought the same. I agree that it was shocking, finding out about “…the magnitude of Kogawa’s struggle…” in her efforts to get her novel published. Anthony thoughtfully points out that publishing companies are foremost concerned with the financial success of book, and this is understandable. However, I agree when with him when he says that the book is extremely valuable in it’s story. I would have hoped that the profound courage and truth embodied in the story would have been more genuinely recognized by publishers.
Sympathizing with many comments from publishers that Anthony includes in his blog, I see where many are coming from. It is a difficult read; but I would argue an important one. Like the story itself which devastates me, it saddens me as well “…to think of how difficult it was for Kogawa and others to bring attention to Canada’s dark past and an attempt at resolution.”
Comment on Kate Pasula’s Blog
Like you, I was also overwhelmed at the amount and variety of documents that can be found at the library’s Rare Books and Special Collections. Especially in the case of Joy Kogawa, I was very impressed at the amount of evidence gathered: on her process of writing, her struggling of publishing, and even her fan mail. This experience, besides helping me be aware of the complex process of writing, and the functioning of the publishers, also made me reflect on the importance of documents that each one of us leave behind in our day to day. In this case, we dug into the Kogawa Fonds, as these documents are relevant to our academic curriculum, showing us the background of her work as a writer, and furthermore the battels authors face in order to perfect their art and release it to the public. To quote your words, “it is easy to accept stories at a glance, simplistically, and not invest the time to see past, and deeper, into the complexity and sometimes overwhelming truth that they hold”. We are all living our own stories and we never really think of the traces we leave behind. We also often forget to look for these little deep details in one another. It is overwhelming to think that if our little accomplishments were to be recollected in this manner, what could be found in them eventually? Would we be proud of the traces we left behind? Moreover, I wonder if these little evidences will be as relevant as we examine Kogawa’s to be right now.
Comment for Avril
First of all, I agree with Avril that learning about a Kogawa’s writing process and the background documents gives the book more depth and enhances the reader’s appreciation to a book.
However, I do not fully agree with Avril that “technology erases this process”. I think that the documentation of the journey of the creation of a book can still be traced. All authors need to plan regardless of technology. Perhaps it may be a different method – via electronic means, but it is also probable that physical, or handwritten methods will still be used. For example, I find handwritten plans help aid the flow of my thinking process.
Moreover, emails can be printed if one wants a physical copy. At the same time, physical copies can be scanned and digitally archived. It depends on how one chooses to do things – just a different method – but nothing is necessarily “lost”. Yet, personally I prefer physical copies and handwritten things. I think that the only thing “lost” is the physical touch. So, I agree with Avril and also find it saddening when things are more digitalised now.
In summary, I think that it is just a change in doing things – how things are created and the method of storage, but the documentation of an author’s writing process can still be traced, and the depth and appreciation a reader has is not necessarily affected.
Brenna’s blog post was thought-provoking and caused me to reflect on many aspects of Obasan and the trip to the Kogawa Fonds. I agree with Brenna, I also “was not a huge fan of this novel originally, but after going on the field trip I felt that it gave me a newfound appreciation for Obasan.” Before taking a deeper look into the book and before learning about the history as well as considering the circumstances surrounding the production of Obasan, I did not grasp the profoundness and power of the book. Brenna also makes the insightful observation how “Obasan is a great example of the profound impact that literature can have on a community and the way it can be utilized as a tool for remembering and reconciling trauma.”
I really enjoyed reading Melody’s blog about the reliability of novels as a way of remembering history. Specifically, Obasan as a way of remembering Canadian history. I agree with the point of ‘The novel genre often holds associations that it is fictional, imagined by the author, dramatized, or romanticized. Hence, they are inaccurate portrayals of history.’ However, Melody raises many signifiant ideas that argue against this statement and uses Obasan as a key example of how the novel accurately, to some extent, provides a sense of Canadian history. I also agree with one of her claims that the complication of documents we examined at the RSBC Library somewhat add some credibility to history in the making because they are evidence of original documents.
In addition, Melody shares a similar novel called Beyond Shades of Grey about a deportation of a Lithuanian girl during WWII and how this novel is similar to Obasan in the sense that they both share unknown personal perspectives from a widely known traumatic event in history and they include real-life stories into a narrative. Overall, historical novels can be used as a reliable source to learn about history especially from a more personal point of view.
Anna’s blog post, which revolves around Aunt Emily, was very detailed and thought-provoking. She included pictures of several documents she read at the Fonds, and made references to them as she was discussing the their contents. I found myself agreeing with her apt comments about the reactions of publishers to the character of Aunt Emily. These publishers, as Anna said, found Aunt Emily annoying and unnecessary – they expressed a dislike for her but did not explain exactly why they disliked her, and Anna suggested that it was because the painful history Aunt Emily attempts to remember make them uncomfortable as well. Anna makes a very good observation when she stated that this discomfort reflects that of Naomi’s at the beginning of Obasan, when Aunt Emily was thought to be pursuing a tedious and futile task of facing the past. Perhaps the publishers were actually critical of Kogawa’s literary presentation of Aunt Emily rather than the character of Aunt Emily itself, however it may be possible that these publishers missed the very point of the novel when they dismissed Aunt Emily – that although it is uncomfortable to face the past, it can reap benefits in the future.
Furthermore, I found her interpretation of the significance of Aunt Emily in the book very interesting, especially about how she “rages against injustice, a whirlwind of energy and anger”. Aunt Emily is indeed very focussed on remembering the past in order to ensure justice and a better future for the Japanese Canadian community, to the point where she seems overly passionate about it. As much as Aunt Emily is “concerned with remembering the past”, I actually feel that Aunt Emily knows when it is appropriate to respect the wishes of those who which to remain forgotten, as she did not reveal the truth of Naomi’s mother and grandmother to her for a long time, until she felt that the time was right. The act of “remembering” here is thus implied to be a complex one, for its potentially traumatic effects require a delicacy and prudence in its execution.
Alexa’s blog post was beautifully written and seamlessly interweaved the power of silence and the power of listening. She writes, “Darkness can be equally as powerful as light, and silence can say as many things as a story can, you just have to listen closer.” This particular line really stuck out for me. I felt that just in this one sentence Alexa was able to capture the other side of remembering. We often think that the louder we are the more we can remember and move on from past trauma. Yet after reading Obasan we know there are several ways to cope with past trauma and this is gracefully seen in Alexa’s blog post. Alexa also brought up, which I wrote about as well, the arduous process the Joy Kogawa had gone through to write her novel. Furthermore, Alexa brought to attention how the letters written to Kogawa demonstrate the immense impact that her literature has had on individuals and society at large.
Comment for Alexa – I think Alexa’s blog was really well written and brought up many interesting points–one that resonated with me in particular was how “In British Columbia schools, our secret and dark past is not told in classrooms, yet kept quiet for students to uncover in the future”. I have also lived here my entire life and have not once heard about the horrible sufferings of the Japanese-Canadians during their internment during my education. It might have been brought up once or twice, but was never discussed in detail and was made to seem like it was not that bad, and it was for a short period of time. Before reading Obasan I had no prior knowledge of these details. By writing and publishing Obasan, Kogawa made aware BC’s silent history. Alexa also points out the difficulties Kogawa faced while publishing the book, but persevered to ensure her important story was told.
I just read Nejmo’s blog post on Joy Kogawa’s fonds and I think he made some interesting insights. He noted how this type of exhibit may not exist in the future for books being written nowadays, as most drafts and documents throughout are digital and no longer handwritten/done by typewriter. I hadn’t thought of this cultural insight until he brought it up. Maybe in 50 years, students at UBC will be looking at exclusively digital archives. Additionally, Nejmo wrote of how the archives show us a different side of Kogawa. I noticed this also, particularly with a document I received that was a sort of “free write” she had written when having writer’s block. It really allowed me to take a look at Kogawa as a person with a real struggle to continue her book, not just some author. When I read books I almost never think of the author sitting at a desk, not knowing how to continue the book. I just assume it comes naturally. Nejmo made good insights which helped me expand my understanding of the fonds.
I found Alexa’s blog very enjoyable to read. Her eloquent discussion of silence was almost poetic, and as a British Columbian student that had not been adequately informed of the Japanese-Canadian Internment, I too feel as though this event has been silenced to a degree. In Socials 11, we did discuss other shortcomings of Canada in the past, such as the Komagata Maru, the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, residential schools, and more. However, the internment of Japanese-Canadians is not an event I recall being discussed in length – one of which I think should. I also appreciated Alexa’s point considering the victim’s side of the story, and I thought it was interesting in terms of our discussion in class of official history and cultural memory. We’ve often said that it is the winners who establish the “history” of a given event. As victors of WW2 with our defeat of Hitler and his horrific Holocaust, we are granted the freedom to paint ourselves in a falsely positive light – yet we, too, were involved in incredibly damaging discrimination based on race. Are we not hypocrites for calling ourselves heroes?
In her most recent blog post, Anna Huynh explored the significance of the title of the book, Obasan. Anna made the excellent point that the title Obasan represents “the theme of silence in the novel.” Kogawa’s choice in name reflects the deep respect she feels towards the silent sufferers like Naomi’s aunt, Obasan. When watching her aunt, Naomi once says that, “Obasan, however, does not come from this clamorous climate. She does not dance to the multicultural piper’s tune or respond to the racist’s slur. She remains in the silent territory, defined by her serving hands” (Kogawa 271). In this quote, there is a dichotomy between Obasan being her own master, free from the “piper’s tune” or the “racist’s slurs,” and the fact that she is still recognized by her service to others through her “serving hands.” I believe this contrast highlights the difficulty of deciding whether it is right or wrong to stay silent. Yet, the reverent tone of this line alludes to Kogawa’s belief that regardless of whether staying silent is the correct choice, she still wants to honour those that endured such hardships but would prefer not to speak about their experiences. I believe this may be one of her motives to for writing the book, to give voice to the suffering that Japanese Canadians experienced even if some of them choose to remain voiceless.
I really enjoyed reading Anthony’s post, he brought the historical evidence of the controversies about aunt Emily into the reader’s eye. I was a little surprised that Naomi’s aunt got backlash because of her prominent presence. Emily was the only one in the entire book who wanted to speak up and tell everyone about the past. But publishers might have thought it would be a good idea to keep a minimal role for the aunt who likes to talk openly and passionately about the past where Canada is not portrayed as an open and welcoming country. However, I am not surprised that the publishers wanted “I just couldn’t put it down” feeling because most publishers focus on how popular a book gets and not the content. Since most Japanese Canadians we’re silent during the internment, this book was more likely to be sensitive to readers. It’s important to understand Canadian history through authors like Kogawa who persisted in showing another side of history.
In Anna’s newest blog post, she discusses the numerous amounts of criticism that Joy Kagawa got regarding the character Aunt Emily. From the documents she examined, many reviewers gave negative criticism towards Aunt Emily, stating that her character wasn’t ‘real’ and complained too much. One reviewer even wanted Emily to be omitted. Anna argues against these claims, noting how if Emily were to be omitted, it would be an act of silencing in and of itself. It would be a loss of presenting information on the past. Emily plays the role of bringing back the painful past because it if the future. I would say that these authors clearly do not understand the important role Emily plays in the story. Emily is the opposite of Naomi and Obasan, a whirlwind of energy and anger who brings back the past. It is because of these qualities that make Obasan a historical novel. Like Anna states, Obasan is a book on the dark and difficulties the Japanese Canadians suffered at the hands of the Canadian Government, and It seems that these reviewers are missing the point to her character.
I found Kate’s post on the Kogawa Fonds to be really insightful and well written! Kate points out the wonder and admiration she felt when presented with the different documents involved in Joy Kogawa’s writing process, and the insight they gave her. She was able to picture Kogawa revisiting memories or being heartbroken by the rejection letters we saw – they allowed her to connect with the author beyond the finished product. Like Kate, I found this experience to be extremely interesting – it allowed us to see the “puzzle pieces” that ultimately make up the bigger picture that is Obasan; pieces that we wouldn’t have otherwise thought about without this trip. I believe it is truly fascinating, ultimately, how we are able to develop a whole new perspective and expand our understanding of both the author and the book simply by looking at documents related them. Further, as Kate notes, this trip to the Kogawa Fonds provided her with certain evidence and confirmation of past events – it made the experiences described in the book even more real. By looking at letters exchanged during the internment period, it is almost as if those events presented in Obasan were legitimized even more through our eyes. As Kate describes it, “memory becomes graspable in documents, letters and drafts” – not only are we able to have Kogawa’s own descriptions and memories of the events that took place, but we come to see memory through other tangible materials that give us a whole new admiration and understanding of Joy Kogawa and her experiences as a Japanese Canadian citizen.
I found Anna’s take on the Amazonia exhibit very interesting and insightful, especially as she connected it to what we have been learning in class concerning “who is telling the story and how this influences the story being told”. While reflecting on the exhibit, I did not even think about this, so it really opened my mind to a new idea. I also found it interesting on how she related it to the #IdleNoMore movement that we had learned about in Geography, as this allows us to see how the struggles portrayed in the exhibit are very relevant to our world today in Canada. She also points out facts such as how people have been living in the Amazon for 11,200 years and have always lived alongside nature making sure to only use what they need and never more. This made me think of how horrifying it is that the area is being destroyed so quickly in the last century alone, when people have deeply cared for it for 11,200 years. This exhibit was truly powerful in that it allowed us to see an important story that is not always shared, and Anna articulates this really well in her blog.
Comment for Silvana:
Silvana, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog. Your eloquence was striking, and I appreciated your discussion of a “jungle of narratives” beyond just the clever play on words. I agree with your observation that the exhibit did an incredible job in conveying the complexity of the “Amazon narrative” through the many mediums it employed. I found that the variety within the exhibition was one of my favourite aspects of it, as it eliminated dangerous oversimplifications. Even my feelings regarding the exhibit were conflictual; while I was in awe of the Amazonian indigenous people and the nature they interacted with, I was horrified by the destruction of this relationship.
Comment for Silvana:
Silvana’s entry about Amazonia was a really enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I liked how she tied her visit to the exhibit to her personal experiences growing up in Colombia (which contains part of the Amazon rainforest), which allowed me to consider what it must feel like to be a citizen of one of these countries, where the rainforest bears considerable influence on the politics and survival of many different groups in the country. To me, what was most interesting about her post was her concept of an “Amazonian narrative” – a pluralistic collage of stories where life can thrive, or be destroyed – which encapsulates a more accurate understanding of such a magnificent forest because of the term’s acknowledgement of the perspectives of others.
Comment for Leah
Leah’s post this week was extremely interesting and self-reflective! Like her, I have spent a great deal of my life admiring and “glorifying” the Amazon without truly knowing the reality of its destruction. The exploitation of the Indigenous groups in the territory are of great concern, but this issue can be observed on a much larger scale; as Leah points out, the “Canadian national crisis of the missing ad murdered Indigenous women in Canada” certainly has its similarities to the Amazonian situation in its targeting of Indigenous groups, and it is “heartbreaking to know that Indigenous people are being targeted around the world”. This exhibit has truly opened our eyes to a grave problem faced by the inhabitants of the Amazon region and reminded us of the mistreatment of Indigenous populations worldwide. As Leah ultimately concludes, the ‘Amazonia’ exhibit has, beyond showcasing the beauty of local culture and traditions, exposed some of the greatly negative sides of reality there as well – something previously not truly payed attention to.
Comment for Anna G
I was extremely intrigued by Anna’s blog and her discussion on the inevitable changes of modernization on the lifestyles of indigenous people living in the Amazon. I really enjoyed how Anna acknowledged not only how modern practices affect the indigenous people, but also how increasing levels of deforestation ‘encroaches on indigenous land’. I liked how Anna linked her experience at the Amazonia exhibit to our Geography class and concluded by providing her findings to a more global perspective.
Like you, I am also a firm believer on the fact that through understanding there can be empathy, and by putting ourselves in other people’s shoes it is less likely for us to make an abrupt judgement. I can only imagine what all the indigenous peoples that were often attacked by so many external forces may feel and think about the Western ways that have had consequences of all kinds all the way to the Amazon rainforest. I was amazed to see various different exemplaries of cultural objects that may seem so distant to our habitus, but I was glad to see the stories behind them were being told in the exhibit. I wish exhibitions like these can encourage their visitors to understand more about the cultural and biological diversity of a place as valuable as the Amazon. This way, perhaps we could incorporate new kinds of knowledge into the dominant social, economic, and political systems, which are so far from perfect.
Daniela’s blogpost was an interesting read. She mentions how despite being from Brazil, her knowledge of the Amazon was very limited to the statistics and facts. Having studied the Amazon Rainforest as a case study in Geography before, this is something I can relate with. I think that it is important to take on an additional, humanistic or anthropologic approach when studying topics such as the Amazon to better appreciate the complexity in a holistic way.
Moreover, Daniela points out how the natural world was often the source of inspiration for the designs of many indigenous communities’ artefacts. She sees the translation, and “to learn that every detail is made to resemble an idea bigger than what is seen” admirable. Daniela’s realisation leads her to question “Western ideals of materialism and wasteful consumerism”. I think this is a point worthy to reflect on. I find indigenous approaches to material items and life in general – finding a connection and experiencing something bigger than the self – refreshing. Perhaps we should consider the root reasons why our societies became this way, and try and find ways to escape this cycle.
We could learn to slow down our consumer purchases and especially our acquisition of material items. Hopefully, slowing down will help us become more mindful as we consider all the processes that had to take place before a given item – be it an edible product, artwork, or general material item – is in front of you. I believe that cultivating a mindful attitude will help us better appreciate, connect to, and find greater meaning in something. It could also help us live a more fulfilling and happier life.
It is clear that indigenous groups hold great wisdom and have beliefs worthy to be listened to. It is my hope that we will learn to listen to, respect, and incorporate indigenous peoples and their knowledge as we deal with the challenges that our planet face together.
I really like how Anna discussed the damage that modernization causes to Indigenous people living in Amazonia. She illustrated how even though they are the ones who have been living there for thousands of years, others still find it okay to interfere with and disturb their land. Modernization is often seen as a good thing as it is “improving” our society, especially economically, but in this case, I do not see it as being morally or ethically right. This is because in this case, modernization is infiltrating land that belongs to others with deforestation, cattle ranching, assassinations, and more. Modernization can help the world progress, but it should only be if it is not harming huge, and hugely important populations.
I also enjoyed how she brought up the similarities between maltreatment of Indigenous people in Amazonia and here, in Canada. I wrote about this as well in my blog, so I found it intriguing to see her perspective on it and read about she connected it with the #IdleNoMore movement we learned about in our Geography class.
comment for Benny
The connections that Benny makes between Vancouver and the Amazon as well as the similarities between the two Indigenous cultures are very interesting. I agree with Benny that the “struggle to save the rainforest and protect native peoples’ lands is an issue that people from Vancouver can relate to, as we face similar ones.” When I visited the exhibit the displayed portions of the constitutions caused me to think of Canada’s own legal changes and reparation efforts. As Nuno Porto discussed at the joint lecture presentation the common elements between the two areas are numerous. Benny focuses on one of the elements, the logging and deforestation. He points out though how even though some Canadians look to the Amazon rainforest and see preposterous environmental damage, in Canada and specifically British Columbia, we face extremely similar problems. Benny mentions how it is “in South America for very similar practices that the forestry industry engages in here.” Benny’s blog also highlights the connection between the environment and humans, a topic which after taking an anthropology class I have seen plentiful examples of and have developed my appreciation and understanding of that relationship. Benny does a great job of sharing the relationship between the rainforest and the people. He mentions the how that “maintaining a prosperous natural world is as fundamental as any other human right” and that “maybe if more people thought like this, the world would be a better place.”
Comment for Daniela
I found Daniela’s response to her experience at the Amazonia quite interesting. I found it interesting that she grew up in Brazil, and had a first hand account of the social, political, and cultural elements that come with the rainforest. As someone who was not raised anywhere near the rainforest, I found it interesting to compare my thoughts as well as hers. I agree with Daniela, that I was also unaware of the full extent of the damage to the rainforest. I was also particularly interested in the handcrafted cultural artefacts, and noted the extreme dedication it must have taken. Daniela, as well as myself, admits to being relatively unaware of the extent of the destruction of the rainforest. As she points out, hopefully this exhibit aided in spreading awareness to this issue.
Comment for Brenna
While reading my classmates blog posts, I found it intriguing to see what most captivated them in the Amazonia exhibit. I especially enjoyed reading Brenna’s blog. It was neat to learn about her personal experience with in the Amazon and to see the pictures from her time there. Her questions concerning the ethics of bringing tourists groups to see indigenous people resonated with me. She mentions how dehumanizing this can be, as she says “almost like a human zoo.” I think the Amazonia exhibit attempts to address this issue by making space for some of the indigenous people of the Amazon to tell their own story. This is done through the Self-Portrait Project, which is a film on display in the exhibit that is full of pictures taken by kids and adults in the Tikuna Village Mocagua, who were given digital cameras so that they could capture what was significant in their lives. Projects like this empower indigenous communities by giving them the power to show us their lives instead of having an intermediary skewing the portrayal with a Eurocentric lens. For instance, if a Canadian photographer went down to the Amazon, the images that would be brought back would show what he or she believed to be important and not necessarily what was most important to the indigenous people themselves. In addition, by letting a community supply the photos instead of an individual we can begin to see the complexity of indigenous lives, providing more than a single story. Although, it is not easy to draw the line between what is considered acceptable and beneficial educational practices and what is simply acts of thoughtless intrusion, I hope that by letting indigenous people share their individual stories we can begin to understand the ethics of introducing indigenous culture to outsiders.
Comment for Silvana,
Silvana’s blog post, Jungle-deep thoughts: Amazonia gave an inside view of the Amazon since she was born and raised in Columbia, “one of the nine countries that share a fraction of the Amazon rainforest”. Silvana reflected on a personal experience while laying in the hamacas of how she had the opportunity to actually visit the Amazon on a school trip. Even though she had a first had experience in the Amazon, the exhibit offered newness as well. Silvana shared how she was pleasantly surprised to see the environmental protection contracts, just as I was very happy to see. I really appreciated reading Silvana’s blog in that one I could relate to her experience having lived in Venezuela and visited Peru and Ecuador which are all part of the Amazon. Moreover it is extremely rewarding to read how my peers were so perceptive to the environmental and social issues that are occurring in the Amazon. It is precisely this reason why it is so important to be aware of surroundings so that we are able to make a change. Silvana clearly seems as though she was impacted by the exhibit just as I was and I hope many others as well.
I really enjoyed reading amanda’s blog. Most of the other blogs discussed the headdress and it was refreshing to read another object in the exhibit. While reading amanda’s blog, I learned about the bowls : kené. I think that the bowls have a significance for the indigenous people and it’s amazing to learn about another culture that I never heard before . Most people in the western culture would probably think that bowls would be used for soup. However I didn’t think that using a bowl could gain access to the spiritual world by drinking ayahuasca. It helped me realize that different cultures have objets that have meanings that are completely opposite of what you originally thought of. But it also reminds me of the indigenous people in Canada who uses objects to reach their own spiritual world.
Comment for Telisa
Telisa’s blog was both personal and public, she touched on her own sentiments regarding the intrigue of the exhibit and how it made her feel, while connecting the Amazonian exhibit to sociological processes and patterns. She reflects on her personal experiences at the museum and how her current sentiments have altered now that she has a greater understanding of the situation and context. She deepens her connection to westernization by exploring how amazonians must feel as their native, indigenous land becomes taken by ‘Westerners’. Telisa has a very full and diverse vocabulary that intrigues readers while she expresses her opinions and noted observations
I really enjoyed reading Edward’s insights on the Amazonia exhibit, and I think he touched on some really valuable points throughout his blog. He starts off strong with a vivid description of his surroundings upon entry to the exhibit. I liked how he used this as an entry into his writing, painting an image of the displays in a manner that readers can visualize and understand easily.
He then begins discussing the way in which the exhibit highlights the pain the rainforest is going through due to issues around modernization and deforestation. The harmful western influences have taken away from the nature, and he did a good job of depicting this. He focused on bullet shells as a connection to the atrocities committed to the Indigenous peoples, and I felt that his analysis helped add to my understanding of the entire exhibit.
One thing I would suggest to add to his writing would have been some deeper level abstraction of specific parts of the exhibit. He did a very good job of creating the larger exhibit, however it could help to focus in on a particular aspect a bit more to engage with the readers.
In Lukas’ blog post in response to the Amazonia Exhibit at MOA, he notes that he has always wanted to go visit the Amazon rainforest, but never has had the chance to, and that the exhibit was giving him the chance to experience it. He then shares with us his thoughts about the exhibit, his exciting insight into the lives of the indigenous people of the rainforest, their tenacity to live without electricity, their culture involving the feathers, and the shock of learning about the various deforestation and oil mine operations causing the indigenous peoples to lose their homes. The blog post made me think about his earlier comment stating how we all know about the Amazon rainforest, most likely starting from a young age. It IS the biggest rainforest, and there are so many kid’s books and television programs and documentaries that it is almost impossible to not know about the rainforest, however, those never tell us the ‘true story’ of the rainforest, about the suffering of its people, and the extinction of so many animals. Unless you’re watching a documentary, you never learn about the oil mining or the disputes the indigenous population had with the modernizing world invading their home, instead its always about the expansiveness of the rainforest and its dangerous wildlife, and its endangered wildlife. Lukas’ blog post was a fun read, and it made me think of how the rainforest is usually portrayed when your young. An aspect that Lukas could focus on is going into more detail about a specific object that he found interesting as he just briefly goes over multiple topics.
I just read Daanish’s blog post and found it to be a fun read. It was intriguing to see what interested him while walking around the exhibit at the MOA. I totally agree with him when it comes to some of the statistics and as Daanish said: “hearing and seeing statistics about the Amazon rainforest is often extremely confusing. That 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, and 80% of this loss has been for cattle farming.” As previously noted and pointed out by Daanish, everyone has heard of the amazon rainforest at some point in their life, but most of us don’t know any statistics about the forest. It’s shocking that the environment that so many people and thousands of species rely on is slowly, but surely disappearing due to deforestation for oil production and cattle farming.
I just read Daanish’s blog post and found it to be a fun read. It was intriguing to see what interested him while walking around the exhibit at the MOA. I totally agree with him when it comes to some of the statistics and as Daanish said: “hearing and seeing statistics about the Amazon rainforest is often extremely confusing. That 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, and 80% of this loss has been for cattle farming.” As previously noted and pointed out by Daanish, everyone has heard of the amazon rainforest at some point in their life, but most of us don’t know any statistics about the forest. It’s shocking that the environment that so many people and thousands of species rely on is slowly, but surely disappearing due to deforestation for oil production and cattle farming. Since so many people live in and of the forest, it should be protected better and more laws should be put in order to stop and decrease deforestation at this pace. As Daanish mentioned in his post, it was great to see some of the detailed handicrafts in the exhibit. Just like him, I was impressed that ” every society, and even many communities within it, has its own foundational narratives and assumptions, be they mythological or otherwise.” This just shows how diverse the amazon rainforest really is. I liked all of the issues that Daanish chose to discussion in his post, but in the future, I’d suggest him to focus more on one specific topic. Other than that, Daanish’s blogpost was very well thought out and written in a very interesting way.
In his recent blog post on the MOA exhibit, Lukas talks about the artefacts on display. Just like him, I found the artefacts very interesting, and was amazed how the people of the amazon use their skills for all types of tasks. I really enjoyed reading his blog post and thought that Lukas discussed some important topics. In the future, he should rather focus on one topic instead of discussing multiple topics briefly.
Reading Avril’s blog, I was fascinated. I went to an independent Catholic school for almost all of my life, so I could relate. While I do not think my teachers outright grouped Muslims together as being dangerous, I do not doubt that was some racial profiling done at my school. Although this is a different issue, her blog reminded me of some of the anti-abortion teachers at my school who tried to push their beliefs about the pro-life movement on us. I did love my school, but I have seen that it is a pattern for teachers at private/independent schools to have controversial and offensive beliefs, like so.
Comment for David:
I really enjoyed reading David‘s blog post because he discussed a variety of points that I was fascinated in. He first mentioned that he was quite familiar with the Flanders Fields poem, yet was still shocked about how much attention it has still to this day. Before this class I had not read this poem before so I was very intrigued to learn more about the emotional meaning behind it. I like how David drew a connection between graphic novels and poetry being too similar genres. I would have never made that connection just because I find both genres to be very different but interestingly, they are two modes of expressing one’s views in a form of a story. I strongly agree with the statement made about how poems are more abstract and allow for more interpretation whereas graphic novels may not be as ambiguous.
I really enjoyed your blog. I felt similar things when I read both Judith Butler and Juliana Spahr’s poems. I think it is amazing to think of a connection we all as living creatures, not only humans, have when it comes to air; a feature that is so often taken for granted. Being that pollution has been an ever-growing problem, especially since the development of large scale industrialization, the environmental consequences of human-oriented actions are so often neglected. It is also so enraging to know that terrorism not only harms human lives directly but also jeopardizes lives across species within the whole environment; its consequences across borders and towards all living organisms. It is very important to reflect on this issue, as it is not only human lives that should be seen as precarious but lives of all kinds around the globe.
I was very interested reading Avril’s blog. It surprised me to see that teacher’s are allowed to spew their own hateful opinions and use harmful rhetoric in their classroom still. I think Avril gave a great example to the concepts discussed in Judith Butler’s book, and allowed me to see how perspectives and frames are made and can be changed through education and the people around us. It also reminded me of how we need to be wary of what we are being told by educators and people that influence our thoughts and opinions. I also appreciate the background of prejudice that Avril discussed, as I did not know this before. I believe that this allowed me to understand Butler’s argument better. It is very easy to say that stereotyping and prejudices are bad, but in reality it is something everyone has, the real issue is trying to overcome our own prejudices of others.
I found Avril’s blog to be extremely interesting as she discusses her personal connection to the article published by Judith Butler. I discussed similar topics as Avril in my blog, such as the education system we were raised in and how that affected our views. I agree, that the generalizations are an extreme danger to our society, creating a “culture of fear”. We both recognized the Islamaphobia growing up in a post-911 society, in both the United States, and Canada. Some individuals see people unfamiliar to themselves, and generalize them because they are uncertain and afraid. In a sense, they feel ‘precariousness’ from the unknown. This is dangerous as this can lead to racism, as it has in many examples throughout the United States. I am happy that Avril was able to overcome the restraints of the narratives of her past teachers and I encourage her to continue speaking out against generalizations.
I share Alexa’s opinion that “unlike poetry in the past, I have particularly enjoyed the work” we have done in class. The poetry discussed in class has sparked my interest into other forms of poetry and reignited an appreciation I had lost. Alexa shares in her blog post the enjoyment and appreciation for Spahr’s poetry, as it “speaks to real traumas and implications that the human race faces today.” I share a similar way of thinking with Alexa as poetry has presented another lens to view “globalization, traumatic events, and individualism.” Alexa additionally brings up the very interesting topic of language poetry as she mentions language poets such as Micheal Palmer, Ron Silliman and Bob Perleman.
I really related to Daniela’s blog this week. Much like her, I dreaded starting this poetry chapter in ASTU because just like her, I despise poetry back in high school. Personally, I always thought why do poets have to be so vague about what they want to say. Thus consequently, not many poems really affected me emotionally. Nonetheless, I totally agree with Daniela’s point that it is important nowadays to understand “this genre and these perspectives.” I now understand how poetry can evoke thoughts and emotions on very sensitive topics such as war, death and loss. Daniela also brings up the point that recently, poetry has been gaining more popularity and recognition. She uses Rupi Kaur as an example which I haven’t come across but will definitely give it a read as according to Daniela, it is “easily understood and bring widely relatable topics of love and loss to the table, bringing the subject of poetry to the public – beyond the world of scholars.”
Comment for David:
David has some really good insights into the genre of poetry, seeing it as being a venue to tell one’s story in a unique way. He focused on the poem “In Flanders Fields” and how it functioned as almost war propaganda. I shared his opinion on this, as well as the way it juxtaposes with “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” in terms of the manner in which death is described. David also compares and contrasts poetry with graphic narratives, a genre we have studied extensively in this course, and I think this was a very good decision. One piece of advice I would have for David is to work on general sentence structure, as I felt like there were several run on and poorly formated sentences.
I’m sure that many would share the view Benny has with learning poetry in school. Much like Benny, I was indifferent to the poetry unit in school. It was a ‘whatever’ unit. Learn about poetry term; annotate a few poems; feel good that you got the meaning of the poem; throw it away and start a new poem; rinse and repeat. It indeed was very repetitive and all the kids thought that it didn’t matter since they were never going use it in their lives. However, like Benny mentioned in his blog post, this unit of poetry is actually fun for a change. Not only are we learning about 9/11 in a way, the poems that we have read are actually quite interesting since they offer a refreshing experience from the love poems and tragic poems that Benny describes in his Blog. I like how Benny described his thoughts towards Spahr’s book, ‘this connection of everyone with lungs’ as a new experience from the previous monotonous poems because I can relate to that. To me, this type of poetry is much more interesting to read than the poems presented to us in secondary school.
I enjoyed reading Melody’s blog post about poetry and could tell that she took a lot away from our class discussions of poetry. I thought she did an excellent job summarizing the impacts of poetry on people. She emphasizes the link between personal expression and the public which allows the poetry to humanize the poet. She also discusses the importance of the length of the poem. As she describes, the short length of poetry “can immediately transport the reader to another realm, and evoke within the reader a stronger feeling that would take longer to settle into in novels.” While I agree this is a legitimate point and holds true for the shorter poems we read, it made me think about how by writing longer poems, Juliana Spar is unable to take advantage of the benefits associated with shorter poetry. With her longer poems, it takes a greater investment of time to read them and a longer amount of time to settle in. Yet, I feel that longer poems also have their advantages. The length of Juliana Spar’s poems allow the reader to become fully immersed. Where shorter poems are over before a person can fully lose themselves in the poetry, it is possible be transported away from the world around you while reading Spar’s longer poetry. I think this ties back to Melody’s message that the style of literature can greatly influence the effect it has on the reader.
Comment for Alexa
Like Alexa, I was never fond of poetry in the past, and the constant analyses of metaphors and rhyme schemes. Through our ASTU classes, however, we were exposed to topics and ideas related to a variety of current events expressed within the realm of poetry – something I had not seen before. Alexa points out that many of the poems read in class conceptualize “globalization, traumatic events, and individualism through art and rhythm”, bringing us this combination of aesthetics and artistic expression with realism and the relevance of world events today. As she notes, these different views expressed in poetry bring us new reference points and ideas through which we perceive the world. Further, Alexa mentions her new interest in language poetry – something that I had not previously been exposed to, and that greatly caught my attention as well. I found it quite fascinating to have “the concept of words as the meaning themselves”; many of us have, for so long, been taught this idea of looking for non-textual meanings and metaphors behind them – the idea of looking at the physicality of a word for meaning is just still quite unknown to me as well. Overall, Alexa brought a great deal of interesting ideas and opinions on our new take on poetry in class, and I greatly agree with her new perspective on it – and am also looking further into developing my understanding of language poetry as another manner of creation and expression.
Comment for Julian:
I appreciated Julian’s alternative stance in his blog about the reaction of America to the events of 9/11. I too agree that it is easy to look back and see the flaws in the response of Americans, but that it is understandable why people responded the way they did. I think the fault lies with politicians who manipulated these traumatic events for their own political gain, and fostering the culture of fear that we now see widespread across America. However, the emotional reactions of those who lost family members and fellow Americans are entirely understandable – anger, fear, and sadness is all understandable when one is grieving. It is how the government handled the grief of the nation that is appalling, and that still has consequences today.
– Avril
I resonate with you a lot in many points you raised in your blog. I find it extremely important to read critically and be aware of the portrayal of events in all sort of text forms: from stories to movies, advertisements to political discourses. I also considered Butler’s reading especially eye-opening, as her vision on frames of recognizability and her theory of grievability and precariousness present an argument of worldly importance. I also really liked your mentioning of Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem. I really enjoyed doing a close reading to “You Throw a Stone” and realizing that a text that is in appearance so simple can convey such a deep message.
The blog post by Esther interestingly and wonderfully critiqued the film American Sniper and peoples thinking about war. By using the work “The Sociological Imagination” written by C. Wright Mills a sociologist, Esther says “the film creates what I feel is an incomplete understanding of the Iraq war, for it ignores the effect of war on other victims and the structures that created the war in the first place.” Esther critiques the lack and misrepresentation of Iraqi characters as well as how “the rationale for the war is a broad, oversimplified generalisation of ‘evil’.” By utilizing “The Sociological Imagination” she critiques American Sniper from a different angle with a look at the private and public structures pertaining to war.
Comment for Anna G — I really enjoyed reading Anna’s blog and her discussion of the home front. Anna connected much of our course content together and put them in a way that allowed me to see how they were all similar, and worked out nicely in the order we discussed them. Anna brings up Judith Butler’s theory of grievablity and veterans — something I had never thought of before. To me it had always seemed clear that we viewed (our) soldiers lives as grievable as I always see in the media that they are celebrated and labelled as heros; however, Anna brings up a good point that if we saw their lives as grievable and vulnerable, we would be more hesitant to deploy them. If we took the impacts and effects that the war has on soldiers seriously, we would think more deeply on sending them to war, even if they are volunteers. I had never thought of it in this way and I am glad that Anna discussed this, as it allowed me to see things in a different perspective.
Comment for Telisa
Telisa wrote a very thoughtful blog post about how ASTU enabled her to look at American Sniper “with substance rather than opinions based on feelings”. She illustrated her learning really well by comparing her initial response to the film when it was just released in 2014, to how she formed her understanding of the film now that she has studied ASTU. 2 of our ASTU texts/movies that we studied in particular – Judith Butler’s work on the precariousness and precarity of lives, as well as the “concept of narratives and master narratives” from “Stories We Tell” – informed Telisa’s critique of the film.
Comment for Avril
I found Avril’s blog particularly interesting as she reflects on the meaning of “global citizenship”. Avril and I both discussed similar concepts in our blogs. She reflects on the perspective of the individual preserving knowledge. I found her acknowledgment of “the other” as particularly interesting, as it connects to the different perspective she mentions earlier. I also spoke about prospect of “the other”, as it refers to another viewpoint, culture, or time period of an individual. I agree that “official history” often disregards the narratives and perspectives of others who are often under-represented in western society. I also agree that being a “global citizen” is not limited to those who travel, but those who attempt to understand “different perspectives and experiences within our culture and in others”. Avril and I both acknowledged that being a global citizen is never a completed task, and will be a continual pursuit throughout life.
I appreciated Daanish’s blog post about how interconnected the content is between our CAP classes and his point that the models and frameworks we have learned this year can be applied to multiple platforms. I found his point about relating American Sniper to the global-core periphery model to be both novel and accurate. I think it is important to notice the ways that popular media can be viewed through a critical lens. This is because popular media, like American Sniper, reaches a much wider audience than say the academic discourse surrounding the Iraq war. Therefore, it matters how it presents the Iraq war since this will shape a large number of American’s perceptions about it. I think that, as Daanish points out, our CAP classes have given us the tools to think critically about about how we view media, literature, and the world around us.
Comment for Alexa:
I thought it was extremely fascinating and thoughtful how Alexa describes her ASTU journey as an “academic dance”. She breaks down each part of her journey to show how they can be represented by a dance performance. I thought this was extremely interesting to read, especially how she made those connections between dance and literature. I think that this is a great example to show that we can associate things we learn academically, with hobbies or interests outside of the classroom to help us gain an understanding of concepts or ideas we might not necessarily make connections with.
Comment for Telisa
When reading Telisa’s blog, I strongly agreed with her discussion of the dehumanization of the Iraqi children, but I didn’t even think about the contrast between the portrayal of Iraqi children and Chris Kyle’s children. I was quite disturbed with the way the Iraqi children were shown as being violent and evil at times, because they weren’t – they were just children. It becomes even worse when you see how Chris Kyle’s children were portrayed as being inherently good children, who would not even be capable of the violence that they Iraqi children were shown to be. It was also disturbing how Chris Kyle killed one of the children at the beginning of the film. When the film began with the child, I did not think they would actually shoot at him, and frankly I was disgusted when they did. Telisa discusses ungrievable lives, which “do not appear as ‘lives'”. While I did somewhat expect the Iraqi civilians in the film to be viewed this way, I did not expect the children to be. I don’t think it is right for the most precarious lives in society to be portrayed in this way.
Comment for Amanda
I thought that Amanda was completely right when she said that “we encounter militarization in our everyday lives whether we are aware of it or not”. One day, we realize that we’re a lot closer and more connected to military activity around us than we think and in other situations, we’re a lot further away from military ongoings. I think, it often depends on, if we have been affected or not. I also thought it was extremely interesting to read how Amanda related “American sniper” and “Redeployment” to collective memory. Considering that we’re almost done with our ASTU syllabus, it sort of completes the circle and ties together all of the things that we’ve learned this year.
I really enjoyed reading your blog about perception. She summarizes really well the way we tell a story for American Sniper. The way we talk about a story is probably perceived differently by someone else. I think we can relate it to the theme at the beginning of the year: memory and history. Which one is more authentic? Daniela also mentions The Reluctant Fundamentalist as a novel that presents itself in a different perspective than the western culture. I liked that she pointed out how we fail in recognizing others. As we said in class with scholar Butler, we recognize certain deaths, we value certain people by awarding them with medals. (soldiers that come back from war) However, we also ‘happy’ when we kill the enemy. Thus we only value certain lives and not others. If we decide to value all lives, we will start to understand different perspectives.
Julian’s blog was beautifully written and I loved reading it. I had yet to look back at what it meant to be a ‘Global Citizen’, but reading through my classmates writing, I see that many of them did so through their blogs. I agree with and appreciate Julian’s ideas about what ‘Global Citizen’ means. He talks about and the widespread variation of the literature we studied, literature that spans across different geographical locations, time periods, cultures, and more. But despite this, he says, “they all tell the same basic narrative. That narrative is one of the human experience. One of laughter, sadness, and precariousness. One of sorrow, of family, and of love. One of expression around the world, with the attempt to allow others to understand, no matter how hard and difficult it may be. To me, that’s what it means to be a global citizen.” These are my favourite lines of his blog. I agree with this, and am happy that it was put into writing so nicely. He speaks about the idea that to be a global citizen, one must attempt to understand fellow humans around the world and seek to learn more, understand more about each other. He finishes his blog with the line “To be a global citizen is to attempt to bring the other closer.” Nice.
I found Esther’s use of a sociological lens to view American Sniper highly refreshing. I hadn’t considered this way of looking at it before. More specifically, she used Mills’ “Sociological Imagination” to critique the representation of American Sniper as overly ‘revolves around Chris Kyle’s “personal troubles”’ and neglecting the ‘overarching network of causes and effect that generate conditions for war in the first place – such as ‘broader historical forces’, ‘political climate and leadership’. I agree with Esther that this focus on Chris Kyle over-simplifies matters. However, I think that as the story is under the genre of a personal memoir after all, it is only fitting that there is a strong focus on Chris Kyle’s experiences. In class, we had frequently discussed alternative narratives. Hence, certainly, I believe that when approaching any topic, we should seek and evaluate multiple, alternative opinions or genres. This would enable us to gain a holistic understanding of any issue.
I think Kate’s latest blog makes a number of really interesting observations by tying in the different works we have looked at over the course of the year. One of these is her linking of Persepolis and American Sniper in terms of their depictions of heroism. Kate points out various similarities in the way these texts take on and convey heroism, but I also find it interesting to think about these similarities in two very different contexts. She also discusses the overarching theme of memory throughout the course, and brings up some of the questions we have repeatedly asked, such as whose right it is to remember and forget events and experiences. Tying numerous texts into Butler’s ideas, she then talks about the connectedness of all memory as well as its simultaneous disparateness. When I read this I also thought about the way these connected but disparate memories interact with one another, and both the dynamics of both their conflict and the ways in which they inform one another.
I found Kate Pasula’s insight into the topic of citation and scholarly conversation very intriguing. The potential corruption of scholarly contributions over time is a factor of citation I had not previously considered. However, I find this as noteworthy in moving forward not only in citing my own sources, but in my discernment of citations made by other scholars as well. I agree that this idea can be appropriately integrated into the discussion of academic integrity, as often we may consider giving credit to the source as enough in terms of citation – yet the “credit” we’re extending could be a misconception or fallacy of the scholar’s original argument. This is not a problem found solely in the academic community, either. We see this issue in politics, as select phrases and words are manipulated to cast rivals in a bad light as an attempt to garner favour. This is a common occurrence even in private arguments, as two people accuse one another of “twisting words” to take on a meaning they didn’t intend.
Comment on Brenna Williams’ Blog Enrty
by Silvana Martinez
I deeply agree with your point of view on citizenship and the challenges that global interconnections place upon national borders. Different to you, I had never settled in another country asides from my native Colombia (and now Canada) but now that I am surrounded by people from all around the globe and that have so many interesting backgrounds I am completely fascinated by the way something as important as education can bring so many minds together. However, it often escapes our mind how having this worldly experience, like living in six countries in just eighteen years of a lifetime, can cause such a confusion regarding identity. Recalling what we’ve learned in our sociology class, communities are “imagined” and it is rituals that create the “collective consciousness”. The beautiful and most important thing about being international or multicultural is the fact that you have the power of deciding whether to engage in these rituals or as many as you want. This way, you can choose to participate in create that sentiment of solidarity that joins individuals together.
In this blog post, Anjali takes advantage of the core theme of memory that we have discussed in our ASTU class. She briefly relates this to the civil war in Algeria and how French books and analyzers refuse to admit certain ‘facts’. I enjoy how Anjali provides context of how the French government was associated with Algeria and later links this to historic documentation, specifically memoirs, and how individuals develop their own interpretations on these traumatic events that occurred in history. After reading this blog post, this made me think about memory, and how our emotions may interfere with how we share and interpret historical ‘facts’. This raises the question of – to what extent is our memory reliable especially if emotion is involved?
Brenna, I thought your blog post touched on some very important topics and was articulated very well. I also can relate to what you wrote as I myself am a child of immigrants (both of different ethnicities) but was born and raised in Canada. I’m glad you brought up the marginalization and vilifying of Muslim Americans, and how they are deemed not to be “real Americans” even if they were born there. How can one not be a “real American” when they were born and raised in America? I constantly see people use this rhetoric and label white people as “real Americans”, however white people are also the decedents of immigrants.
You also brought up the idea of nationalism and globalization, which I find quite interesting put together. How is nationalism in the USA becoming more prevalent today if at the same time our world is more connected than ever through globalization? You would think that because of globalization, nationalism would slowly start to disappear as we become more aware and accepting of people from other countries and their cultures; but are seeing the opposite. Perhaps because of an influx of immigrants and the progression towards diversity, people are starting to become more protective of “their” countries. You also touched on our discussion of nationalism in sociology, and how we actually just imagine these communities. I think it is very important for us to remember these communities and feelings of nationalism come from our own imagination, so we can realize how to be accepting of everyone no matter where they are from, what they look like or what their culture is.
I just read Anthony’s blog and enjoyed the insight he had on the current state of social media in terms of its reactions to catastrophic events. He discussed how in response to the earthquakes in Mexico, many people posted pictures of themselves on a luxurious vacation in Mexico to show their “support.” Attempts such as these seem to make a major tragedy about oneself when that person typically isn’t even hurt. I thought this was a very good comparison to the topics discussed in Douglas’s essay. This post made me think a lot about how I personally relate to traumatic incidents around the world, as a privileged unaffected American man. I don’t tend to post on social media about current events, however I don’t think I am doing anything alternative to acknowledge and help those in need. It is important to think often about how you can help other people and break up the norm taught to us that the most important thing is the individual.
Comment on Esther first blog entry
by Anjali
I find that Esther’s blog is interesting where she raises the question of selfies and the connection to our emotions. Learning that the rise of electronics in our life conflicts with our sensitiveness towards others seems intriguing. I don’t completely agree, where she seems to say, “people to control themselves, to keep emotions in check and to feel empathy for other people”
is harder due to the rise of technology. In the 19th century, electronics did not exist but we still had young people having difficulty concentrating and dealing with their emotions. Perhaps the technology enhances the distraction for the young generation. But technology controlling emotions seems slightly far-fetched. I agree that changing youth’s habits of being vain and narcissistic will be arduous. We are all conditioned by the environment we live in. It would be up to us and society to change the way we think. But in our current consumer society, that would be a challenging task.
Comment for Amanda
The cultural differences and reference to cultural norms that you mention in your post were very thought provoking, and helped me to reconsider Douglas’ article. After reading your blog and learning about the differences in selfie culture between countries like Thailand and Canada, I would like to know how other cultures view the “dark selfie.” I feel the way Douglas analyzed and presented her opinions were with a “North American” viewpoint and I am curious to discover if other cultures criticize, accept or view this new form of witnessing in an alternative way. When you write about the way “different ages, cultural backgrounds, personal experiences…affect the way we, as individuals, engage with different cultures, remember certain events, express our feelings and share our experiences” you provide an area of discussion that could be expanded on in the Douglas article. I enjoyed reading your blog and appreciate the insight that you brought me.
I found Telisa’s insight into “Selfies at Funerals” very engaging. She reflects on the innocent “selfies” she took when she was only a young girl, and it immediately brought into my mind images of myself just like these. I had not thought of this idea; however, I could relate completely to her references.
I also believed I thoroughly understood selfie culture, however, Kate Douglas’ essay was the first I had heard of, better yet considered the “dark selfie.” I understand the reference in the blog to how she felt upon seeing teenagers taking selfies at funerals. I have experienced the same emotional reaction at sights where I am somber and moved, and my friends are not affected the same way, behaving in a disrespectful- seeming way. I would feel just as she did upon seeing the pictures on social media, it seems completely dismissible and insincere to me.
Telisa does a great job of shining some light on the fact that the genre of the selfie is so new, that it is often misunderstood by not only older generations, but our young generation as well. I myself have yet to completely wrap my head around the idea that selfies can be used as sincere way “for teens to show their sorrow and grief…”, to quote Telisa, because I cannot imagine myself, or for that matter, friends of mine doing so. However, I acknowledge the possibility of this and this blog is an excellent resource for understanding and giving consideration to the new genre of the selfie.
Comment for Daniela
I really relate to this post, in the sense that sometimes I find myself taking photos only because I want to post it and have people see wherever I am or what I am doing. I also find Instagram to be the main social media platform where people are trying to show off their lives. A lot of people feel insecure when scrolling through Instagram because it makes us our lives seem dim in comparison to the ones we see. However, social media sites like Instagram are usually only highlight reels, and lives are not as perfect as Instagram makes them out to be.
Comment on Esther’s Blog Post
By Anna Giesting
In her blog entry, that furthers aspects of our class discussion centred on Kate Douglass’ article on how youth interact with trauma sites, Esther makes the point that at the beginning of many ceremonies at UBC, a presenter will often say that we are on the “traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Musqueam people.” Esther questioned whether most students take the time to consider the significance of this statement. I myself have wondered the same thing. This is an excellent example of observing but not interacting or actively processing. It is very easy to notice one’s surroundings or listen to what is being said, without fully taking in the significance or comprehending the meaning. However, it is hard to know for certain whether someone has observed the significance of his or her surroundings without getting inside his or her head. This is key to Kate Douglass’ argument. Esther and I share the opinion that she is giving our generation the benefit of the doubt, although we probably do not deserve it.
I think Esther does an excellent job of demonstrating the difference between mere observing versus comprehending with her discussion of empathy and experience. I recently attended an event called Canada 150+: Trauma, Memory, and the Story of Canada that was put on by the South Asian Canadian Histories Association. I listened to three artists speak about their experiences and what inspired their work. One artist is an indigenous person and the other two were immigrants from different parts of Asia. Although, I myself may have no first hand experience with the struggles they described, by listening to their stories I felt better able to empathize with them. Despite the fact that how we connect with one another is changing, it remains essential to understand situations that our not our own. Whether it is at a memorial site or listening to people tell their stories, empathy remains a key aspect to understanding hardships that are not our own, but which have altered the world we live in.
Anjali’s blog post takes our discussion of memory and history and fits it into a relevant historic context. This also allows us to explore the issue through a real model. By using the example of colonial Algeria, Anjali shows the relationships between history and authority. When we associate history with objectivity and neutrality, we essentially give it authority and make it the deciding force that takes precedence over memory. When we think about the French government and its denial of Algerian independence struggles as a part of the historic record, this relationship between history and authority is materialized. But yet, Anjali’s post also illustrates the way that memory, lacking authority, is very fragmented despite how essential it is to the larger historical narrative. I thought Anjali’s example added a valuable layer of depth to the discussion.
I found Benny’s first blog post to be rather thought provoking as I can personally relate to his anecdote. As a German citizen, I’ve always found it hard to talk about WWII and although I believe that we’ve to talk about it, it’s not something that I like talking about it. I think that it is acceptable to take pictures when one is visiting former concentration camp sites like Dachau or Auschwitz as it’s part of our history, however it depends how your taking these pictures. As Benny said, I find it rather shocking that people take duck face selfies at a site where thousands of innocent people lost their lives. I think, that it really depends where you come from and that it has to do with cultural beliefs. In June, I visited a WWII bunker in Berlin, Germany and found myself taking some pictures of the interior and exterior which I thought was acceptable however I was rather surprised when I saw another tourist group pose in between and on the bunk beds. During the war, people escaped to the bunker to rescue themselves from bomb attacks and lived in the most miserable conditions for up to 2 weeks. I find it unethical and disgraceful how people are now taking advantage of a place like this. Therefore, I completely agree with Benny’s opinion on Kate Douglas’s essay and I thought that it was a well written post.
I completely agree with Anna H’s characterization of citations. Like her, I was only taught in high school that we cite in order to properly credit other scholars’ ideas and words. Learning that the use of proper citation is a way to insert one’s self into an academic conversation was eye opening. She made the fascinating connection between globalization and citation, which to me, were seemingly unrelated topics. I’ve never truly considered the effects of technology and the globalized world on academia, taking for granted the power of such swift communication. However, I will now try and take note of how such an instantaneous flow of information changes how the academic world operates.
Comment on Kate’s Blog
Kate brings up some interesting points in her first blog. In it, she mentions “the power of the orchestrator” and how using multiple scholarly references give a certain amount of control to the author as a conductor. This was also one of the most interesting techniques that I learned during our first month in Arts Studies. I found Kate’s point about the distortion of the scholarly conversation within a paper quite interesting. She states “As work gets circulated and passed down over tie, it has the potential to become less concrete and clear”. She mentions her IB history class, and how she struggled with citations prior to reading Giltrow. I too can relate to this; while writing my IB politics paper, I also struggled with citations. Kate brings up some interesting points about the use and possible distortion of orchestrating voices.
Comment on Shira’s blog post
I found the points and observations made by Shira very interesting. It was the first time I had ever heard about “perceived race”. What struck me the most was her experience in Vancouver, where many people she met asked her outright what her ethnic background was. Like Shira, I find this desire to determine others’ ethnicity intriguing.
What drives this desire? In many cases it could be due to mere curiosity – if I met someone who had East Asian features but with blue eyes, I would be curious to find out his or her ethnic background as well (several Mongolians have such an appearance). But in this scenario, race would simply be a matter of appearance. Most of the time, race is not linked solely to physical traits; it can be linked to a person’s culture, religion, societal values and so on. The question that lingered in my mind was: how far do we allow race to determine what we think of a person?
I found your post and concept of perceived race to be really interesting and relevant! We’re part of this society that claims to be moving towards globalization and unification (particularly in Canada, where immigration is so encouraged and frequent), and yet we still have this narrow and ignorant view of what ethnicity entails, and how we determine it. Being born and raised in Brazil and having fairly pale skin, I actually encountered quite a few situations similar to yours when I moved to Canada, where people would just ask, “So what are you? What’s your ethnicity then?” (I even had a classmate who once said I couldn’t call myself Latina because I was too white). For the most part, this was simply due to the fact that I didn’t fit into the expectations some might have for what a South American physically looks like, but it still puzzled me; I couldn’t understand why people were so focused on labeling others – particularly now, when we’re more connected than ever, shouldn’t we be trying to move away from such thing?
The connection you made with the Japanese Canadians and how they were perceived by others was also intriguing; it really shows that, by labeling people, we are also attaching to them the “baggage” or privileges that come with every different label that were accumulated throughout the years, and how they can, in certain cases, be certainly used against a targeted group. While there were no outstanding characteristics that singled them out, the simple term “Japanese Canadian” turned them into public enemies by association and made them to be feared by others.
I believe that, moving forward, we truly need to start trying to understand the reasons why we emphasize labels, and the consequences they can bring, both in the short and long run for our community. I really enjoyed reading your blog post and definitely agree with the ideas presented, and hope to see them being discussed more often!
Comment on Shira’s Post
I found your post and concept of perceived race to be really interesting and relevant! We’re part of this society that claims to be moving towards globalization and unification (particularly in Canada, where immigration is so encouraged and frequent), and yet we still have this narrow and ignorant view of what ethnicity entails, and how we determine it. Being born and raised in Brazil and having fairly pale skin, I actually encountered quite a few situations similar to yours when I moved to Canada, where people would just ask, “So what are you? What’s your ethnicity then?” (I even had a classmate who once said I couldn’t call myself Latina because I was too white). For the most part, this was simply due to the fact that I didn’t fit into the expectations some might have for what a South American physically looks like, but it still puzzled me; I couldn’t understand why people were so focused on labeling others – particularly now, when we’re more connected than ever, shouldn’t we be trying to move away from such thing?
The connection you made with the Japanese Canadians and how they were perceived by others was also intriguing; it really shows that, by labeling people, we are also attaching to them the “baggage” or privileges that come with every different label that were accumulated throughout the years, and how they can, in certain cases, be certainly used against a targeted group. While there were no outstanding characteristics that singled them out, the simple term “Japanese Canadian” turned them into public enemies by association and made them to be feared by others.
I believe that, moving forward, we truly need to start trying to understand the reasons why we emphasize labels, and the consequences they can bring, both in the short and long run for our community. I really enjoyed reading your blog post and definitely agree with the ideas presented, and hope to see them being discussed more often!
I completely agree with Anna’s characterization of citations. Like her, I was only taught in high school that we cite in order to properly credit other scholars’ ideas and words. Learning that the use of proper citation is a way to insert one’s self into an academic conversation was eye opening. She made the fascinating connection between globalization and citation, which to me, were seemingly unrelated topics. I’ve never truly considered the effects of technology and the globalized world on academia, taking for granted the power of such swift communication. However, I will now try and take note of how such an instantaneous flow of information changes how the academic world operates.
For Anna Giesting
I found Anna’s post to be extremely profound, especially her thoughts on how the role of gender and class influenced different aspects of the graphic narrative, Persepolis. Anna states how if Marji was “a boy, specifically a boy belonging to a lower class, growing up in the early 1980s in Iran would be more likely to be sent off to war and face physical violence.” This observation helped me to analyze the extent of the difference of narrative that could have been presented. As a result of Marji being a young, female and upper middle class person, her immersion in the goings-on of Iran drift between heavily involved and distant. Marji’s age, gender, and class each create a different set of circumstances and unique lenses of how her observations are shared. I agree with Anna that being female and a young child, Marji is forced into being “positioned primarily as an observer” even with her personality being as brazen as it is. Her class also creates a separation that distances her from the outside world, an example being the images on page 102 of Persepolis. Anna’s post helped me continue to reflect on how gender effected the narrative and look through feminist lens.
Anna, I found it very interesting how you chose to discuss about the genre of comic books, or graphic narratives, and share your personal experience with them. I was very intrigued when you mentioned that you found out about Persepolis through an interview with Emma Watson and Marjane Satrapi because most of the people I have talked to, know about Persepolis through learning it in high school. I think this is also a very important topic to examine as well, because I’m sure many people would also assume that comic books are only targeted towards the younger generations and writing/illustrating an autobiography in the form of a comic book is quite rare. I agree with most of your points you acknowledged, specifically; ‘By using comics style, Satrapi was able to portray more realistic visuals, which allows the readers to relate more to the story.’ – I feel that Satrapi’s choice of using specific stylistic features in Persepolis may make her feelings, opinions and experiences easier to understand by a variety of readers. Also, I never approached her simplistic black and white drawings in a way that you have mentioned; ‘Satrapi’s simplistic style with just black and white panels in tiers makes it easier for the reader to focus on the storyline and issues that Satrapi is exploring instead of being distracted by the colors and details of the drawings.’ – I would completely agree with this argument and I think it adds on to the effectiveness of Satrapi choosing this genre of text to illustrate her personal experience of the war and revolution. I think your blog is really well written and shared many interesting comments and arguments.
For Anna Giesting,
I love how you focused on Persepolis with a feminist perspective. It is such an important aspect to take into consideration since one, she is a female and two, during this time period women were subject to much less freedoms that men. I found it really interesting to see Marji’s character evolve throughout the book and come to the realisation that it was men who were forcing women to wear the veil. I also thought your point about how the view and reasoning of the veil has shifted over time. My view surrounding hijab’s has completely changed after reading articles about it and having read Persepolis. It’s really important to recognise that freedom comes from choice and forcing women to wear or not wear a hijab is essentially the same thing, they are both oppressive. Persepolis is such an important story in that she is a female writer and is telling the story that is so often unheard. You’ve brought up so many interesting and insightful comments!
Avril’s look into “Children and Trauma” was very interesting. I enjoyed reading about her connection to the “Dear Canada” series, and I can relate to being very interested in stories like these, told by people like yourself. The ideas she puts forward regarding the purpose of using a child’s perspective are relevant and I believe accurate. I loved her idea of “humanizing” traumatic events by using the perspective of a young girl. Her explanation of this topic made me think of a quote often attributed to Joseph Stalin, “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” Avril helped me reflect on the truth that in using the vulnerable and innocent outlook of young Marji, I have found myself able to more acutely imagine the devastation narrated in Persepolis. It is true that the use of Marji’s perspective has given a much more personal, real, and comprehensible look into the life and the horrific events that took place in these times.
Comment on Daanish’s blog:
Like Daanish, I also saw many “contradictions present within contemporary Iranian society” and “dissonant narratives” while reading the book. I feel that the dissonances, or contradictions, in characters and the plot is one of the ways Satrapi creates a realistic story that carries gravity, complexity and veracity, distancing readers from the popular belief that comic books are “just for kids” or “just for fun”. One example of such a dissonance is the hypocrisy we see in Marji’s parents – how they were Marxists but were part of the upper-middle class. The flaws in the characters of the narrative, especially the flaws of Marji’s “hero” figures, only serve to bring her story closer to reality as they reflect how there is no such thing as a perfect human being.
Comment on Anthony’s blog post
Anthony’s post definitely showcases some interesting ideas about our perception of the world. Nowadays, we tend to view global issues with this “black and white” approach, seeing concepts as solid extremes. However, as Anthony points out, “very rarely does an issue have exclusively only two possibilities” and, in order to even begin to comprehend them, it is clear that we must acknowledge the complexity that comes with every problem and all of its nuances and layers. Anthony presents the connection of the black and white visuals in Persepolis to the many conflicting situations and opinions the reader is presented with throughout the graphic narrative, from religious aspects to the protagonist’s own political ideas of “good and evil”. It would be ignorant of us not to comprehend, however, that the “grey” areas, as Anthony describes it, are very much present and there to be interpreted by the reader; our understanding of the world must come from the notion that things are, simply put, more difficult to understand than we may think. Additionally, I found the parts of the interview with Marjane Satrapi added to the post to be quite intriguing! It truly brought in the narrative’s very own author’s opinion on this concept of perception, starting an interesting conversation throughout the post. Anthony brings us, overall, an important reflection on how this often used “black and white” idea of the world can certainly lead to extreme and ignorant views, and the imminent consequences that come with that.
Kate– I think you brought up a wonderful point on how Persepolis allows people to see Iran in a different light. In today’s world, media constantly fills our minds with almost barbaric, uncivilized images of not just Iran, but many other ‘non-Western’ countries. I think it is great how you admit your ignorance, and chose to learn from it, instead of just ignoring it; as you said, “it was important to write this book to dissipate the ignorance that surrounds [Satrapi’s] country”. I feel like some points you brought up even related to my blog post, on how when people think of Iran or war-torn countries, for some reason we forget the children that are there. I think your post brings up the importance of narratives, and graphic narratives, to allow others to recognize their ignorance on a particular event or place and to allow the event to not be forgotten about.
Comment on Telisa’s Blog
By Anna Giesting
I appreciated Telisa’s blog post on the privileges that come with growing up in a first world country compared to the struggles that children in war torn countries face in their day to day lives. I found her description of her personal experience visiting her cousins in Morocco and recognizing how different their lives were especially moving. In her post, Telisa says “For some reason, when we think about war we somehow forget about the children. Our minds jump to political leaders, weapons and armies, but we fail to remember the children involved.” I believe this idea is central to why Marjane Satrapi wrote Persepolis. As Hilary Chute highlights in her article The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, a reoccurring theme in Persepolis is “never forget” (97). By only focusing on the political aspects of war, such as the “political leaders, weapons and armies” that Telisa highlights, we are forgetting the actual people whose lives were altered by the violence of war, which is hardly better than forgetting the war entirely. Part of what makes Persepolis so moving is its ability to pair the commonplace actions of childhood with traumatic historical events. Keeping in mind that Persepolis was written for a Western audience, if Satrapi had simply written about the events of the Iran Iraq war, her audience would find it very hard to relate. However, since the scenes of trauma are grounded in a story of a young girl, whose experiences most of us can relate to, we are forced to recognize the scarring reality that children growing up in the middle of a war are forced to face every day.
Comment on Daanish’s blog by Avril:
Reading about your experiences growing up in Pakistan was extremely interesting, and I can imagine those experiences contribute to your perspective while reading Persepolis. I also appreciated your discussion about the contradictions that Marji’s character brings to light in the book as well – evident in her on-again, off-again relationship with religion, the beliefs imposed by her family in conflict with their actual lifestyle, and the confusion between communism, revolutionaries, and “the revolutionary state”, as you put it.
I think Marji’s perspective as a child is instrumental in communicating these inconsistencies as well – inconsistencies that are difficult to visualize and that demonstrate the complexity of the social climate of this time period. Through her childlike observations of these complexities, the reader seems to be able to infer what these contradictions mean outside the small bubble of her home, and on a larger scale in Iran.
Comment on Daniela Reis’ Blog
I totally agree with your account on human’s ability to adapt, and like you, I am surprised by the juxtaposition of Marji’s private and rather comfortable life with the horrific violence that is often portrayed in the story. Growing up in Colombia, I relate to Marji as I am privileged to have opportunities that other people in my country lack, such as studying abroad. However, different from her, I have never been a first-hand witness to war or trauma. Colombia’s internal conflict has been happening for more than half a century already, and it has the world’s highest rate of internal displacement. I remember watching the news as a kid and learning about everyday violence, guerilla-associated were “normal” to hear about. Seeing Marji experiencing events of trauma opens my eyes to the way violence corrupts innocence, and how our private troubles and public issues are more related than they seem. I am very grateful for the fact that my family has not been directly affected by the armed conflict, and about the fact that peace is currently being negotiated. However, I hope my country is ready to adapt to a new reality, and be resilient about the collective trauma it has suffered for so many years.
Comment on Edward’s blog by Julian
I found your blog post interesting as we had a similar take on the graphic narrative. Both of us had read Persepolis previously, but have a much different outlook the second time around. I also did not “read deeply into the book” the first time around, and only discovered the richness it had to offer the second time around. I thought your experience with the banned book quite interesting. While I was in high school, reading every book was very encouraged. These included politically charged and controversial ones such as Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto, so I had never come across such an experience as a banned book. I feel that banning books such as Persepolis prove the exact point that Satrapi brings up herself. She states that banning the veil is just as bad as forcing people to wear it. I feel that the same applies to banned books in the context. By limiting our ability of knowledge and choice, are libraries and parents really promoting the ideals of freedom? Freedom is an ideal that we are quick to be patriotic and proud about, but what does that entail? I feel that educating children on the matter to allow them to understand the historical context surrounding such banned books to be much more beneficial than banning them outright.
I like Anthony’s approach and how he included parts of a Believer magazine interview with Marjane Satrapi. The interview helped Anthony convey his ideas of the global black and white approach in a creative way and allowed me to understand how today, we tend to see situations a lot more ignorant and one-sided. Often we tend to forget that there can be a so-called grey area which allows us to interpret and view different situations in a different way, not everything that happens is either good or bad and not everything can be justified as either of the two. Sometimes there is something in-between black and white, right and wrong, and good and bad, hence certain things are harder to comprehend than we might think and require us to approach a given situation or concept in a different way. In his blog post, Anthony introduces this grey area and reflects on the idea how humanity generally views the world as black and white or good and bad, and how this transcends Iran and Islamophobia.
Anna G’s blog post contains several interesting observations. One of the most interesting was her emphasis on context. Anna differentiates between two different scenarios, the first being “when women living under the Islamic regime in Iran were forced to wear a hijab,” and the second being “today’s increasingly anti-Islam political climate,” where “some Muslim women see wearing the hijab as a sign of defiance and of pride in their culture and religion.” With these two different scenarios come two essentially different meanings of the hijab, or veil. Anna’s point gives rise to an important idea that I would agree with: that there should not be a single, salient, and universally applicable view of the hijab. And I believe that this idea is important both in terms of its reasoning and its implications.
Comment for Avril
Similarly to you, I also enjoyed reading historical events in the context of a narrative, including the Dear Canada series. I found reading about regular history so boring, but that genre of historical narratives captivating. Growing up in Canada in the 21st century we did not experience violence in the way that many children today around the world and in Canada in the past have. These narratives were a way to place myself in their position and imagine what my life would be like if I had been born in that time period instead. They are a way that makes learning about history both more relatable and compelling. I think both historical narratives like Dear Canada and graphic narratives like Persepolis may be a more effective way to learn about history than the standard textbook.
Comment for Leah
I agree with what Leah wrote about the effectiveness of using a child protagonist. As Anna H, who also commented on Leah’s blog writes, using a child protagonist presents the complex political issues in a “much simpler, straightforward” way, perhaps even “less ‘political’”. This really makes it easier for an outsider audience to understand.
After reading Leah’s blog, I am now even more hit by the value of Persepolis. Firstly, Leah’s reference of her uncle highlights the fact that Satrapi’s experience is not unique. I see the value of Persepolis in providing a voice for other Iranians who may not be as talented in articulating their experiences and stories to their children or other people. Such people can point to Persepolis as a reference, and personalize it by adding their own accounts. Secondly, I see the value of Persepolis in touching people’s lives and planting questions for further investigation. This is seen with Leah being inspired to ask her uncle more about his background and stories. Finally, I also agree with Leah that Persepolis is a good place to start for people who know little of Iraqi history, and as a starting point to educate people that Muslims do not necessarily equal terrorists.
Blog 1 Comment (First posted on the home page)
What Anna H. said about globalization and its contribution to the scholarly conversation was interesting to me. Indeed, with globalization, it is easier for scholars of different culture backgrounds to communicate. These are also the people who may speak more than one language, and potentially have access to additional sources of knowledge and conversations from their cultural background. This would broaden the “pool of knowledge”.
I am reminded of content learnt in Anthropology about cultures often carry a wealth of knowledge in their language and traditions. Having developed along separate paths for centuries, different cultures may have become “specialized” in different ways. For example, only after interacting with the Polynesians did Captain James Cook realise their incredible knowledge about sea navigation, which far exceeded the Europeans. Or the medicinal knowledge of many indigenous tribes. Likewise, with globalization, I think that it would be beneficial and time-efficient for scholars from of different cultures to share and combine knowledge. Nevertheless, I think that it is still essential for cultures to continue progressing in their own ways to prevent their individual knowledge development from reaching a plateau.
However, I have some doubts. Since English is currently considered the leading language in academia and most academic articles are published in English, the pool of academic journals scholars search from may still be rather “closed”. Yet, it may be the case that the scholars do contribute knowledge from their different backgrounds, and the use of English is only the means to present and share the knowledge.
I found Lukas’s blog entry on Persepolis very thought provoking and insightful. I similarly was interested in the decision by Satrapi to illustrate the entirety of the book in only black and white. Lukas brought up some good points, such as how the color choice highlighted the “stark contrast between the east and the west and between Iran and the western world.” I actually hadn’t thought about the possibility of that idea, however, it’s very intriguing to me. I thought it was more to create a serious tone, while maintaining a simple atmosphere, working in hand with the far from complex illustrations. I like the idea that Satrapi was using the art style as a larger metaphor for life in Iran, regardless of whether it was actually the case.
Comment for Avril,
I found Avril’s blog post particularly interesting as we commented on some similar things. She was also in my group so it was interesting for me to see another perspective of the documents I was looking observing. Both Avril and I commented on the depth of the documents we read. These were factual, historical documents, and enhanced her perspective and understanding of the gravity of the issue. These documents, give a good perspective into how the book was written by Joy Kogawa. Avril also feels saddened by the nature of disappearing documents. She feels that these documents create a real, physical, bond with the readers as they present themselves on a level of intimacy that could not be expressed to the similar degree through the use of digital media.
Anthony reveals that before visiting the RBSC, he assumed that Obasan was “…undoubtedly well received right from the beginning and embraced…”. I had never even thought to question this or to think about the book before it’s publication in these terms, but now that I have, I suppose I would have thought the same. I agree that it was shocking, finding out about “…the magnitude of Kogawa’s struggle…” in her efforts to get her novel published. Anthony thoughtfully points out that publishing companies are foremost concerned with the financial success of book, and this is understandable. However, I agree when with him when he says that the book is extremely valuable in it’s story. I would have hoped that the profound courage and truth embodied in the story would have been more genuinely recognized by publishers.
Sympathizing with many comments from publishers that Anthony includes in his blog, I see where many are coming from. It is a difficult read; but I would argue an important one. Like the story itself which devastates me, it saddens me as well “…to think of how difficult it was for Kogawa and others to bring attention to Canada’s dark past and an attempt at resolution.”
thank you Kate
Comment on Kate Pasula’s Blog
Like you, I was also overwhelmed at the amount and variety of documents that can be found at the library’s Rare Books and Special Collections. Especially in the case of Joy Kogawa, I was very impressed at the amount of evidence gathered: on her process of writing, her struggling of publishing, and even her fan mail. This experience, besides helping me be aware of the complex process of writing, and the functioning of the publishers, also made me reflect on the importance of documents that each one of us leave behind in our day to day. In this case, we dug into the Kogawa Fonds, as these documents are relevant to our academic curriculum, showing us the background of her work as a writer, and furthermore the battels authors face in order to perfect their art and release it to the public. To quote your words, “it is easy to accept stories at a glance, simplistically, and not invest the time to see past, and deeper, into the complexity and sometimes overwhelming truth that they hold”. We are all living our own stories and we never really think of the traces we leave behind. We also often forget to look for these little deep details in one another. It is overwhelming to think that if our little accomplishments were to be recollected in this manner, what could be found in them eventually? Would we be proud of the traces we left behind? Moreover, I wonder if these little evidences will be as relevant as we examine Kogawa’s to be right now.
Comment for Avril
First of all, I agree with Avril that learning about a Kogawa’s writing process and the background documents gives the book more depth and enhances the reader’s appreciation to a book.
However, I do not fully agree with Avril that “technology erases this process”. I think that the documentation of the journey of the creation of a book can still be traced. All authors need to plan regardless of technology. Perhaps it may be a different method – via electronic means, but it is also probable that physical, or handwritten methods will still be used. For example, I find handwritten plans help aid the flow of my thinking process.
Moreover, emails can be printed if one wants a physical copy. At the same time, physical copies can be scanned and digitally archived. It depends on how one chooses to do things – just a different method – but nothing is necessarily “lost”. Yet, personally I prefer physical copies and handwritten things. I think that the only thing “lost” is the physical touch. So, I agree with Avril and also find it saddening when things are more digitalised now.
In summary, I think that it is just a change in doing things – how things are created and the method of storage, but the documentation of an author’s writing process can still be traced, and the depth and appreciation a reader has is not necessarily affected.
Brenna’s blog post was thought-provoking and caused me to reflect on many aspects of Obasan and the trip to the Kogawa Fonds. I agree with Brenna, I also “was not a huge fan of this novel originally, but after going on the field trip I felt that it gave me a newfound appreciation for Obasan.” Before taking a deeper look into the book and before learning about the history as well as considering the circumstances surrounding the production of Obasan, I did not grasp the profoundness and power of the book. Brenna also makes the insightful observation how “Obasan is a great example of the profound impact that literature can have on a community and the way it can be utilized as a tool for remembering and reconciling trauma.”
Comment for Melody
I really enjoyed reading Melody’s blog about the reliability of novels as a way of remembering history. Specifically, Obasan as a way of remembering Canadian history. I agree with the point of ‘The novel genre often holds associations that it is fictional, imagined by the author, dramatized, or romanticized. Hence, they are inaccurate portrayals of history.’ However, Melody raises many signifiant ideas that argue against this statement and uses Obasan as a key example of how the novel accurately, to some extent, provides a sense of Canadian history. I also agree with one of her claims that the complication of documents we examined at the RSBC Library somewhat add some credibility to history in the making because they are evidence of original documents.
In addition, Melody shares a similar novel called Beyond Shades of Grey about a deportation of a Lithuanian girl during WWII and how this novel is similar to Obasan in the sense that they both share unknown personal perspectives from a widely known traumatic event in history and they include real-life stories into a narrative. Overall, historical novels can be used as a reliable source to learn about history especially from a more personal point of view.
Comment for Anna G.
Anna’s blog post, which revolves around Aunt Emily, was very detailed and thought-provoking. She included pictures of several documents she read at the Fonds, and made references to them as she was discussing the their contents. I found myself agreeing with her apt comments about the reactions of publishers to the character of Aunt Emily. These publishers, as Anna said, found Aunt Emily annoying and unnecessary – they expressed a dislike for her but did not explain exactly why they disliked her, and Anna suggested that it was because the painful history Aunt Emily attempts to remember make them uncomfortable as well. Anna makes a very good observation when she stated that this discomfort reflects that of Naomi’s at the beginning of Obasan, when Aunt Emily was thought to be pursuing a tedious and futile task of facing the past. Perhaps the publishers were actually critical of Kogawa’s literary presentation of Aunt Emily rather than the character of Aunt Emily itself, however it may be possible that these publishers missed the very point of the novel when they dismissed Aunt Emily – that although it is uncomfortable to face the past, it can reap benefits in the future.
Furthermore, I found her interpretation of the significance of Aunt Emily in the book very interesting, especially about how she “rages against injustice, a whirlwind of energy and anger”. Aunt Emily is indeed very focussed on remembering the past in order to ensure justice and a better future for the Japanese Canadian community, to the point where she seems overly passionate about it. As much as Aunt Emily is “concerned with remembering the past”, I actually feel that Aunt Emily knows when it is appropriate to respect the wishes of those who which to remain forgotten, as she did not reveal the truth of Naomi’s mother and grandmother to her for a long time, until she felt that the time was right. The act of “remembering” here is thus implied to be a complex one, for its potentially traumatic effects require a delicacy and prudence in its execution.
Comment for Alexa’s blog,
Alexa’s blog post was beautifully written and seamlessly interweaved the power of silence and the power of listening. She writes, “Darkness can be equally as powerful as light, and silence can say as many things as a story can, you just have to listen closer.” This particular line really stuck out for me. I felt that just in this one sentence Alexa was able to capture the other side of remembering. We often think that the louder we are the more we can remember and move on from past trauma. Yet after reading Obasan we know there are several ways to cope with past trauma and this is gracefully seen in Alexa’s blog post. Alexa also brought up, which I wrote about as well, the arduous process the Joy Kogawa had gone through to write her novel. Furthermore, Alexa brought to attention how the letters written to Kogawa demonstrate the immense impact that her literature has had on individuals and society at large.
Comment for Alexa – I think Alexa’s blog was really well written and brought up many interesting points–one that resonated with me in particular was how “In British Columbia schools, our secret and dark past is not told in classrooms, yet kept quiet for students to uncover in the future”. I have also lived here my entire life and have not once heard about the horrible sufferings of the Japanese-Canadians during their internment during my education. It might have been brought up once or twice, but was never discussed in detail and was made to seem like it was not that bad, and it was for a short period of time. Before reading Obasan I had no prior knowledge of these details. By writing and publishing Obasan, Kogawa made aware BC’s silent history. Alexa also points out the difficulties Kogawa faced while publishing the book, but persevered to ensure her important story was told.
I just read Nejmo’s blog post on Joy Kogawa’s fonds and I think he made some interesting insights. He noted how this type of exhibit may not exist in the future for books being written nowadays, as most drafts and documents throughout are digital and no longer handwritten/done by typewriter. I hadn’t thought of this cultural insight until he brought it up. Maybe in 50 years, students at UBC will be looking at exclusively digital archives. Additionally, Nejmo wrote of how the archives show us a different side of Kogawa. I noticed this also, particularly with a document I received that was a sort of “free write” she had written when having writer’s block. It really allowed me to take a look at Kogawa as a person with a real struggle to continue her book, not just some author. When I read books I almost never think of the author sitting at a desk, not knowing how to continue the book. I just assume it comes naturally. Nejmo made good insights which helped me expand my understanding of the fonds.
Comment for Alexa
I found Alexa’s blog very enjoyable to read. Her eloquent discussion of silence was almost poetic, and as a British Columbian student that had not been adequately informed of the Japanese-Canadian Internment, I too feel as though this event has been silenced to a degree. In Socials 11, we did discuss other shortcomings of Canada in the past, such as the Komagata Maru, the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, residential schools, and more. However, the internment of Japanese-Canadians is not an event I recall being discussed in length – one of which I think should. I also appreciated Alexa’s point considering the victim’s side of the story, and I thought it was interesting in terms of our discussion in class of official history and cultural memory. We’ve often said that it is the winners who establish the “history” of a given event. As victors of WW2 with our defeat of Hitler and his horrific Holocaust, we are granted the freedom to paint ourselves in a falsely positive light – yet we, too, were involved in incredibly damaging discrimination based on race. Are we not hypocrites for calling ourselves heroes?
Reflection on Anna Huynh’s Blog
By Anna Giesting
In her most recent blog post, Anna Huynh explored the significance of the title of the book, Obasan. Anna made the excellent point that the title Obasan represents “the theme of silence in the novel.” Kogawa’s choice in name reflects the deep respect she feels towards the silent sufferers like Naomi’s aunt, Obasan. When watching her aunt, Naomi once says that, “Obasan, however, does not come from this clamorous climate. She does not dance to the multicultural piper’s tune or respond to the racist’s slur. She remains in the silent territory, defined by her serving hands” (Kogawa 271). In this quote, there is a dichotomy between Obasan being her own master, free from the “piper’s tune” or the “racist’s slurs,” and the fact that she is still recognized by her service to others through her “serving hands.” I believe this contrast highlights the difficulty of deciding whether it is right or wrong to stay silent. Yet, the reverent tone of this line alludes to Kogawa’s belief that regardless of whether staying silent is the correct choice, she still wants to honour those that endured such hardships but would prefer not to speak about their experiences. I believe this may be one of her motives to for writing the book, to give voice to the suffering that Japanese Canadians experienced even if some of them choose to remain voiceless.
Comment for Anthony Maag by Anjali
I really enjoyed reading Anthony’s post, he brought the historical evidence of the controversies about aunt Emily into the reader’s eye. I was a little surprised that Naomi’s aunt got backlash because of her prominent presence. Emily was the only one in the entire book who wanted to speak up and tell everyone about the past. But publishers might have thought it would be a good idea to keep a minimal role for the aunt who likes to talk openly and passionately about the past where Canada is not portrayed as an open and welcoming country. However, I am not surprised that the publishers wanted “I just couldn’t put it down” feeling because most publishers focus on how popular a book gets and not the content. Since most Japanese Canadians we’re silent during the internment, this book was more likely to be sensitive to readers. It’s important to understand Canadian history through authors like Kogawa who persisted in showing another side of history.
Comment for Anna Giesting
By Edward Yin
In Anna’s newest blog post, she discusses the numerous amounts of criticism that Joy Kagawa got regarding the character Aunt Emily. From the documents she examined, many reviewers gave negative criticism towards Aunt Emily, stating that her character wasn’t ‘real’ and complained too much. One reviewer even wanted Emily to be omitted. Anna argues against these claims, noting how if Emily were to be omitted, it would be an act of silencing in and of itself. It would be a loss of presenting information on the past. Emily plays the role of bringing back the painful past because it if the future. I would say that these authors clearly do not understand the important role Emily plays in the story. Emily is the opposite of Naomi and Obasan, a whirlwind of energy and anger who brings back the past. It is because of these qualities that make Obasan a historical novel. Like Anna states, Obasan is a book on the dark and difficulties the Japanese Canadians suffered at the hands of the Canadian Government, and It seems that these reviewers are missing the point to her character.
Comment for Kate
I found Kate’s post on the Kogawa Fonds to be really insightful and well written! Kate points out the wonder and admiration she felt when presented with the different documents involved in Joy Kogawa’s writing process, and the insight they gave her. She was able to picture Kogawa revisiting memories or being heartbroken by the rejection letters we saw – they allowed her to connect with the author beyond the finished product. Like Kate, I found this experience to be extremely interesting – it allowed us to see the “puzzle pieces” that ultimately make up the bigger picture that is Obasan; pieces that we wouldn’t have otherwise thought about without this trip. I believe it is truly fascinating, ultimately, how we are able to develop a whole new perspective and expand our understanding of both the author and the book simply by looking at documents related them. Further, as Kate notes, this trip to the Kogawa Fonds provided her with certain evidence and confirmation of past events – it made the experiences described in the book even more real. By looking at letters exchanged during the internment period, it is almost as if those events presented in Obasan were legitimized even more through our eyes. As Kate describes it, “memory becomes graspable in documents, letters and drafts” – not only are we able to have Kogawa’s own descriptions and memories of the events that took place, but we come to see memory through other tangible materials that give us a whole new admiration and understanding of Joy Kogawa and her experiences as a Japanese Canadian citizen.
Comment for Anna –
I found Anna’s take on the Amazonia exhibit very interesting and insightful, especially as she connected it to what we have been learning in class concerning “who is telling the story and how this influences the story being told”. While reflecting on the exhibit, I did not even think about this, so it really opened my mind to a new idea. I also found it interesting on how she related it to the #IdleNoMore movement that we had learned about in Geography, as this allows us to see how the struggles portrayed in the exhibit are very relevant to our world today in Canada. She also points out facts such as how people have been living in the Amazon for 11,200 years and have always lived alongside nature making sure to only use what they need and never more. This made me think of how horrifying it is that the area is being destroyed so quickly in the last century alone, when people have deeply cared for it for 11,200 years. This exhibit was truly powerful in that it allowed us to see an important story that is not always shared, and Anna articulates this really well in her blog.
Comment for Silvana:
Silvana, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog. Your eloquence was striking, and I appreciated your discussion of a “jungle of narratives” beyond just the clever play on words. I agree with your observation that the exhibit did an incredible job in conveying the complexity of the “Amazon narrative” through the many mediums it employed. I found that the variety within the exhibition was one of my favourite aspects of it, as it eliminated dangerous oversimplifications. Even my feelings regarding the exhibit were conflictual; while I was in awe of the Amazonian indigenous people and the nature they interacted with, I was horrified by the destruction of this relationship.
Comment for Silvana:
Silvana’s entry about Amazonia was a really enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I liked how she tied her visit to the exhibit to her personal experiences growing up in Colombia (which contains part of the Amazon rainforest), which allowed me to consider what it must feel like to be a citizen of one of these countries, where the rainforest bears considerable influence on the politics and survival of many different groups in the country. To me, what was most interesting about her post was her concept of an “Amazonian narrative” – a pluralistic collage of stories where life can thrive, or be destroyed – which encapsulates a more accurate understanding of such a magnificent forest because of the term’s acknowledgement of the perspectives of others.
Comment for Leah
Leah’s post this week was extremely interesting and self-reflective! Like her, I have spent a great deal of my life admiring and “glorifying” the Amazon without truly knowing the reality of its destruction. The exploitation of the Indigenous groups in the territory are of great concern, but this issue can be observed on a much larger scale; as Leah points out, the “Canadian national crisis of the missing ad murdered Indigenous women in Canada” certainly has its similarities to the Amazonian situation in its targeting of Indigenous groups, and it is “heartbreaking to know that Indigenous people are being targeted around the world”. This exhibit has truly opened our eyes to a grave problem faced by the inhabitants of the Amazon region and reminded us of the mistreatment of Indigenous populations worldwide. As Leah ultimately concludes, the ‘Amazonia’ exhibit has, beyond showcasing the beauty of local culture and traditions, exposed some of the greatly negative sides of reality there as well – something previously not truly payed attention to.
Comment for Anna G
I was extremely intrigued by Anna’s blog and her discussion on the inevitable changes of modernization on the lifestyles of indigenous people living in the Amazon. I really enjoyed how Anna acknowledged not only how modern practices affect the indigenous people, but also how increasing levels of deforestation ‘encroaches on indigenous land’. I liked how Anna linked her experience at the Amazonia exhibit to our Geography class and concluded by providing her findings to a more global perspective.
omment on Daniela Reis’ Blog
Like you, I am also a firm believer on the fact that through understanding there can be empathy, and by putting ourselves in other people’s shoes it is less likely for us to make an abrupt judgement. I can only imagine what all the indigenous peoples that were often attacked by so many external forces may feel and think about the Western ways that have had consequences of all kinds all the way to the Amazon rainforest. I was amazed to see various different exemplaries of cultural objects that may seem so distant to our habitus, but I was glad to see the stories behind them were being told in the exhibit. I wish exhibitions like these can encourage their visitors to understand more about the cultural and biological diversity of a place as valuable as the Amazon. This way, perhaps we could incorporate new kinds of knowledge into the dominant social, economic, and political systems, which are so far from perfect.
Daniela’s blogpost was an interesting read. She mentions how despite being from Brazil, her knowledge of the Amazon was very limited to the statistics and facts. Having studied the Amazon Rainforest as a case study in Geography before, this is something I can relate with. I think that it is important to take on an additional, humanistic or anthropologic approach when studying topics such as the Amazon to better appreciate the complexity in a holistic way.
Moreover, Daniela points out how the natural world was often the source of inspiration for the designs of many indigenous communities’ artefacts. She sees the translation, and “to learn that every detail is made to resemble an idea bigger than what is seen” admirable. Daniela’s realisation leads her to question “Western ideals of materialism and wasteful consumerism”. I think this is a point worthy to reflect on. I find indigenous approaches to material items and life in general – finding a connection and experiencing something bigger than the self – refreshing. Perhaps we should consider the root reasons why our societies became this way, and try and find ways to escape this cycle.
We could learn to slow down our consumer purchases and especially our acquisition of material items. Hopefully, slowing down will help us become more mindful as we consider all the processes that had to take place before a given item – be it an edible product, artwork, or general material item – is in front of you. I believe that cultivating a mindful attitude will help us better appreciate, connect to, and find greater meaning in something. It could also help us live a more fulfilling and happier life.
It is clear that indigenous groups hold great wisdom and have beliefs worthy to be listened to. It is my hope that we will learn to listen to, respect, and incorporate indigenous peoples and their knowledge as we deal with the challenges that our planet face together.
Comment for Anna G:
I really like how Anna discussed the damage that modernization causes to Indigenous people living in Amazonia. She illustrated how even though they are the ones who have been living there for thousands of years, others still find it okay to interfere with and disturb their land. Modernization is often seen as a good thing as it is “improving” our society, especially economically, but in this case, I do not see it as being morally or ethically right. This is because in this case, modernization is infiltrating land that belongs to others with deforestation, cattle ranching, assassinations, and more. Modernization can help the world progress, but it should only be if it is not harming huge, and hugely important populations.
I also enjoyed how she brought up the similarities between maltreatment of Indigenous people in Amazonia and here, in Canada. I wrote about this as well in my blog, so I found it intriguing to see her perspective on it and read about she connected it with the #IdleNoMore movement we learned about in our Geography class.
comment for Benny
The connections that Benny makes between Vancouver and the Amazon as well as the similarities between the two Indigenous cultures are very interesting. I agree with Benny that the “struggle to save the rainforest and protect native peoples’ lands is an issue that people from Vancouver can relate to, as we face similar ones.” When I visited the exhibit the displayed portions of the constitutions caused me to think of Canada’s own legal changes and reparation efforts. As Nuno Porto discussed at the joint lecture presentation the common elements between the two areas are numerous. Benny focuses on one of the elements, the logging and deforestation. He points out though how even though some Canadians look to the Amazon rainforest and see preposterous environmental damage, in Canada and specifically British Columbia, we face extremely similar problems. Benny mentions how it is “in South America for very similar practices that the forestry industry engages in here.” Benny’s blog also highlights the connection between the environment and humans, a topic which after taking an anthropology class I have seen plentiful examples of and have developed my appreciation and understanding of that relationship. Benny does a great job of sharing the relationship between the rainforest and the people. He mentions the how that “maintaining a prosperous natural world is as fundamental as any other human right” and that “maybe if more people thought like this, the world would be a better place.”
Comment for Daniela
I found Daniela’s response to her experience at the Amazonia quite interesting. I found it interesting that she grew up in Brazil, and had a first hand account of the social, political, and cultural elements that come with the rainforest. As someone who was not raised anywhere near the rainforest, I found it interesting to compare my thoughts as well as hers. I agree with Daniela, that I was also unaware of the full extent of the damage to the rainforest. I was also particularly interested in the handcrafted cultural artefacts, and noted the extreme dedication it must have taken. Daniela, as well as myself, admits to being relatively unaware of the extent of the destruction of the rainforest. As she points out, hopefully this exhibit aided in spreading awareness to this issue.
Comment for Brenna
While reading my classmates blog posts, I found it intriguing to see what most captivated them in the Amazonia exhibit. I especially enjoyed reading Brenna’s blog. It was neat to learn about her personal experience with in the Amazon and to see the pictures from her time there. Her questions concerning the ethics of bringing tourists groups to see indigenous people resonated with me. She mentions how dehumanizing this can be, as she says “almost like a human zoo.” I think the Amazonia exhibit attempts to address this issue by making space for some of the indigenous people of the Amazon to tell their own story. This is done through the Self-Portrait Project, which is a film on display in the exhibit that is full of pictures taken by kids and adults in the Tikuna Village Mocagua, who were given digital cameras so that they could capture what was significant in their lives. Projects like this empower indigenous communities by giving them the power to show us their lives instead of having an intermediary skewing the portrayal with a Eurocentric lens. For instance, if a Canadian photographer went down to the Amazon, the images that would be brought back would show what he or she believed to be important and not necessarily what was most important to the indigenous people themselves. In addition, by letting a community supply the photos instead of an individual we can begin to see the complexity of indigenous lives, providing more than a single story. Although, it is not easy to draw the line between what is considered acceptable and beneficial educational practices and what is simply acts of thoughtless intrusion, I hope that by letting indigenous people share their individual stories we can begin to understand the ethics of introducing indigenous culture to outsiders.
Comment for Silvana,
Silvana’s blog post, Jungle-deep thoughts: Amazonia gave an inside view of the Amazon since she was born and raised in Columbia, “one of the nine countries that share a fraction of the Amazon rainforest”. Silvana reflected on a personal experience while laying in the hamacas of how she had the opportunity to actually visit the Amazon on a school trip. Even though she had a first had experience in the Amazon, the exhibit offered newness as well. Silvana shared how she was pleasantly surprised to see the environmental protection contracts, just as I was very happy to see. I really appreciated reading Silvana’s blog in that one I could relate to her experience having lived in Venezuela and visited Peru and Ecuador which are all part of the Amazon. Moreover it is extremely rewarding to read how my peers were so perceptive to the environmental and social issues that are occurring in the Amazon. It is precisely this reason why it is so important to be aware of surroundings so that we are able to make a change. Silvana clearly seems as though she was impacted by the exhibit just as I was and I hope many others as well.
Comment for Amanda by Anjali
I really enjoyed reading amanda’s blog. Most of the other blogs discussed the headdress and it was refreshing to read another object in the exhibit. While reading amanda’s blog, I learned about the bowls : kené. I think that the bowls have a significance for the indigenous people and it’s amazing to learn about another culture that I never heard before . Most people in the western culture would probably think that bowls would be used for soup. However I didn’t think that using a bowl could gain access to the spiritual world by drinking ayahuasca. It helped me realize that different cultures have objets that have meanings that are completely opposite of what you originally thought of. But it also reminds me of the indigenous people in Canada who uses objects to reach their own spiritual world.
Comment for Telisa
Telisa’s blog was both personal and public, she touched on her own sentiments regarding the intrigue of the exhibit and how it made her feel, while connecting the Amazonian exhibit to sociological processes and patterns. She reflects on her personal experiences at the museum and how her current sentiments have altered now that she has a greater understanding of the situation and context. She deepens her connection to westernization by exploring how amazonians must feel as their native, indigenous land becomes taken by ‘Westerners’. Telisa has a very full and diverse vocabulary that intrigues readers while she expresses her opinions and noted observations
I really enjoyed reading Edward’s insights on the Amazonia exhibit, and I think he touched on some really valuable points throughout his blog. He starts off strong with a vivid description of his surroundings upon entry to the exhibit. I liked how he used this as an entry into his writing, painting an image of the displays in a manner that readers can visualize and understand easily.
He then begins discussing the way in which the exhibit highlights the pain the rainforest is going through due to issues around modernization and deforestation. The harmful western influences have taken away from the nature, and he did a good job of depicting this. He focused on bullet shells as a connection to the atrocities committed to the Indigenous peoples, and I felt that his analysis helped add to my understanding of the entire exhibit.
One thing I would suggest to add to his writing would have been some deeper level abstraction of specific parts of the exhibit. He did a very good job of creating the larger exhibit, however it could help to focus in on a particular aspect a bit more to engage with the readers.
Comment for Lukas G.
In Lukas’ blog post in response to the Amazonia Exhibit at MOA, he notes that he has always wanted to go visit the Amazon rainforest, but never has had the chance to, and that the exhibit was giving him the chance to experience it. He then shares with us his thoughts about the exhibit, his exciting insight into the lives of the indigenous people of the rainforest, their tenacity to live without electricity, their culture involving the feathers, and the shock of learning about the various deforestation and oil mine operations causing the indigenous peoples to lose their homes. The blog post made me think about his earlier comment stating how we all know about the Amazon rainforest, most likely starting from a young age. It IS the biggest rainforest, and there are so many kid’s books and television programs and documentaries that it is almost impossible to not know about the rainforest, however, those never tell us the ‘true story’ of the rainforest, about the suffering of its people, and the extinction of so many animals. Unless you’re watching a documentary, you never learn about the oil mining or the disputes the indigenous population had with the modernizing world invading their home, instead its always about the expansiveness of the rainforest and its dangerous wildlife, and its endangered wildlife. Lukas’ blog post was a fun read, and it made me think of how the rainforest is usually portrayed when your young. An aspect that Lukas could focus on is going into more detail about a specific object that he found interesting as he just briefly goes over multiple topics.
Comment for Daanish.
I just read Daanish’s blog post and found it to be a fun read. It was intriguing to see what interested him while walking around the exhibit at the MOA. I totally agree with him when it comes to some of the statistics and as Daanish said: “hearing and seeing statistics about the Amazon rainforest is often extremely confusing. That 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, and 80% of this loss has been for cattle farming.” As previously noted and pointed out by Daanish, everyone has heard of the amazon rainforest at some point in their life, but most of us don’t know any statistics about the forest. It’s shocking that the environment that so many people and thousands of species rely on is slowly, but surely disappearing due to deforestation for oil production and cattle farming.
Comment for Daanish.
I just read Daanish’s blog post and found it to be a fun read. It was intriguing to see what interested him while walking around the exhibit at the MOA. I totally agree with him when it comes to some of the statistics and as Daanish said: “hearing and seeing statistics about the Amazon rainforest is often extremely confusing. That 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, and 80% of this loss has been for cattle farming.” As previously noted and pointed out by Daanish, everyone has heard of the amazon rainforest at some point in their life, but most of us don’t know any statistics about the forest. It’s shocking that the environment that so many people and thousands of species rely on is slowly, but surely disappearing due to deforestation for oil production and cattle farming. Since so many people live in and of the forest, it should be protected better and more laws should be put in order to stop and decrease deforestation at this pace. As Daanish mentioned in his post, it was great to see some of the detailed handicrafts in the exhibit. Just like him, I was impressed that ” every society, and even many communities within it, has its own foundational narratives and assumptions, be they mythological or otherwise.” This just shows how diverse the amazon rainforest really is. I liked all of the issues that Daanish chose to discussion in his post, but in the future, I’d suggest him to focus more on one specific topic. Other than that, Daanish’s blogpost was very well thought out and written in a very interesting way.
Comment for Lukas.
In his recent blog post on the MOA exhibit, Lukas talks about the artefacts on display. Just like him, I found the artefacts very interesting, and was amazed how the people of the amazon use their skills for all types of tasks. I really enjoyed reading his blog post and thought that Lukas discussed some important topics. In the future, he should rather focus on one topic instead of discussing multiple topics briefly.
Comment for Avril:
Reading Avril’s blog, I was fascinated. I went to an independent Catholic school for almost all of my life, so I could relate. While I do not think my teachers outright grouped Muslims together as being dangerous, I do not doubt that was some racial profiling done at my school. Although this is a different issue, her blog reminded me of some of the anti-abortion teachers at my school who tried to push their beliefs about the pro-life movement on us. I did love my school, but I have seen that it is a pattern for teachers at private/independent schools to have controversial and offensive beliefs, like so.
Comment for David:
I really enjoyed reading David‘s blog post because he discussed a variety of points that I was fascinated in. He first mentioned that he was quite familiar with the Flanders Fields poem, yet was still shocked about how much attention it has still to this day. Before this class I had not read this poem before so I was very intrigued to learn more about the emotional meaning behind it. I like how David drew a connection between graphic novels and poetry being too similar genres. I would have never made that connection just because I find both genres to be very different but interestingly, they are two modes of expressing one’s views in a form of a story. I strongly agree with the statement made about how poems are more abstract and allow for more interpretation whereas graphic novels may not be as ambiguous.
Comment on Anthony’s Blog
I really enjoyed your blog. I felt similar things when I read both Judith Butler and Juliana Spahr’s poems. I think it is amazing to think of a connection we all as living creatures, not only humans, have when it comes to air; a feature that is so often taken for granted. Being that pollution has been an ever-growing problem, especially since the development of large scale industrialization, the environmental consequences of human-oriented actions are so often neglected. It is also so enraging to know that terrorism not only harms human lives directly but also jeopardizes lives across species within the whole environment; its consequences across borders and towards all living organisms. It is very important to reflect on this issue, as it is not only human lives that should be seen as precarious but lives of all kinds around the globe.
Comment for Avril:
I was very interested reading Avril’s blog. It surprised me to see that teacher’s are allowed to spew their own hateful opinions and use harmful rhetoric in their classroom still. I think Avril gave a great example to the concepts discussed in Judith Butler’s book, and allowed me to see how perspectives and frames are made and can be changed through education and the people around us. It also reminded me of how we need to be wary of what we are being told by educators and people that influence our thoughts and opinions. I also appreciate the background of prejudice that Avril discussed, as I did not know this before. I believe that this allowed me to understand Butler’s argument better. It is very easy to say that stereotyping and prejudices are bad, but in reality it is something everyone has, the real issue is trying to overcome our own prejudices of others.
Comment for Avril
I found Avril’s blog to be extremely interesting as she discusses her personal connection to the article published by Judith Butler. I discussed similar topics as Avril in my blog, such as the education system we were raised in and how that affected our views. I agree, that the generalizations are an extreme danger to our society, creating a “culture of fear”. We both recognized the Islamaphobia growing up in a post-911 society, in both the United States, and Canada. Some individuals see people unfamiliar to themselves, and generalize them because they are uncertain and afraid. In a sense, they feel ‘precariousness’ from the unknown. This is dangerous as this can lead to racism, as it has in many examples throughout the United States. I am happy that Avril was able to overcome the restraints of the narratives of her past teachers and I encourage her to continue speaking out against generalizations.
I share Alexa’s opinion that “unlike poetry in the past, I have particularly enjoyed the work” we have done in class. The poetry discussed in class has sparked my interest into other forms of poetry and reignited an appreciation I had lost. Alexa shares in her blog post the enjoyment and appreciation for Spahr’s poetry, as it “speaks to real traumas and implications that the human race faces today.” I share a similar way of thinking with Alexa as poetry has presented another lens to view “globalization, traumatic events, and individualism.” Alexa additionally brings up the very interesting topic of language poetry as she mentions language poets such as Micheal Palmer, Ron Silliman and Bob Perleman.
Comment for Daniela’s “Expression Through Poetry”
I really related to Daniela’s blog this week. Much like her, I dreaded starting this poetry chapter in ASTU because just like her, I despise poetry back in high school. Personally, I always thought why do poets have to be so vague about what they want to say. Thus consequently, not many poems really affected me emotionally. Nonetheless, I totally agree with Daniela’s point that it is important nowadays to understand “this genre and these perspectives.” I now understand how poetry can evoke thoughts and emotions on very sensitive topics such as war, death and loss. Daniela also brings up the point that recently, poetry has been gaining more popularity and recognition. She uses Rupi Kaur as an example which I haven’t come across but will definitely give it a read as according to Daniela, it is “easily understood and bring widely relatable topics of love and loss to the table, bringing the subject of poetry to the public – beyond the world of scholars.”
Comment for David:
David has some really good insights into the genre of poetry, seeing it as being a venue to tell one’s story in a unique way. He focused on the poem “In Flanders Fields” and how it functioned as almost war propaganda. I shared his opinion on this, as well as the way it juxtaposes with “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” in terms of the manner in which death is described. David also compares and contrasts poetry with graphic narratives, a genre we have studied extensively in this course, and I think this was a very good decision. One piece of advice I would have for David is to work on general sentence structure, as I felt like there were several run on and poorly formated sentences.
Comment for Benny’s Blog #5
I’m sure that many would share the view Benny has with learning poetry in school. Much like Benny, I was indifferent to the poetry unit in school. It was a ‘whatever’ unit. Learn about poetry term; annotate a few poems; feel good that you got the meaning of the poem; throw it away and start a new poem; rinse and repeat. It indeed was very repetitive and all the kids thought that it didn’t matter since they were never going use it in their lives. However, like Benny mentioned in his blog post, this unit of poetry is actually fun for a change. Not only are we learning about 9/11 in a way, the poems that we have read are actually quite interesting since they offer a refreshing experience from the love poems and tragic poems that Benny describes in his Blog. I like how Benny described his thoughts towards Spahr’s book, ‘this connection of everyone with lungs’ as a new experience from the previous monotonous poems because I can relate to that. To me, this type of poetry is much more interesting to read than the poems presented to us in secondary school.
Comment for Melody
I enjoyed reading Melody’s blog post about poetry and could tell that she took a lot away from our class discussions of poetry. I thought she did an excellent job summarizing the impacts of poetry on people. She emphasizes the link between personal expression and the public which allows the poetry to humanize the poet. She also discusses the importance of the length of the poem. As she describes, the short length of poetry “can immediately transport the reader to another realm, and evoke within the reader a stronger feeling that would take longer to settle into in novels.” While I agree this is a legitimate point and holds true for the shorter poems we read, it made me think about how by writing longer poems, Juliana Spar is unable to take advantage of the benefits associated with shorter poetry. With her longer poems, it takes a greater investment of time to read them and a longer amount of time to settle in. Yet, I feel that longer poems also have their advantages. The length of Juliana Spar’s poems allow the reader to become fully immersed. Where shorter poems are over before a person can fully lose themselves in the poetry, it is possible be transported away from the world around you while reading Spar’s longer poetry. I think this ties back to Melody’s message that the style of literature can greatly influence the effect it has on the reader.
Comment for Alexa
Like Alexa, I was never fond of poetry in the past, and the constant analyses of metaphors and rhyme schemes. Through our ASTU classes, however, we were exposed to topics and ideas related to a variety of current events expressed within the realm of poetry – something I had not seen before. Alexa points out that many of the poems read in class conceptualize “globalization, traumatic events, and individualism through art and rhythm”, bringing us this combination of aesthetics and artistic expression with realism and the relevance of world events today. As she notes, these different views expressed in poetry bring us new reference points and ideas through which we perceive the world. Further, Alexa mentions her new interest in language poetry – something that I had not previously been exposed to, and that greatly caught my attention as well. I found it quite fascinating to have “the concept of words as the meaning themselves”; many of us have, for so long, been taught this idea of looking for non-textual meanings and metaphors behind them – the idea of looking at the physicality of a word for meaning is just still quite unknown to me as well. Overall, Alexa brought a great deal of interesting ideas and opinions on our new take on poetry in class, and I greatly agree with her new perspective on it – and am also looking further into developing my understanding of language poetry as another manner of creation and expression.
Comment for Julian:
I appreciated Julian’s alternative stance in his blog about the reaction of America to the events of 9/11. I too agree that it is easy to look back and see the flaws in the response of Americans, but that it is understandable why people responded the way they did. I think the fault lies with politicians who manipulated these traumatic events for their own political gain, and fostering the culture of fear that we now see widespread across America. However, the emotional reactions of those who lost family members and fellow Americans are entirely understandable – anger, fear, and sadness is all understandable when one is grieving. It is how the government handled the grief of the nation that is appalling, and that still has consequences today.
– Avril
Comment on Brenna William’s Blog
I resonate with you a lot in many points you raised in your blog. I find it extremely important to read critically and be aware of the portrayal of events in all sort of text forms: from stories to movies, advertisements to political discourses. I also considered Butler’s reading especially eye-opening, as her vision on frames of recognizability and her theory of grievability and precariousness present an argument of worldly importance. I also really liked your mentioning of Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem. I really enjoyed doing a close reading to “You Throw a Stone” and realizing that a text that is in appearance so simple can convey such a deep message.
For Esther
The blog post by Esther interestingly and wonderfully critiqued the film American Sniper and peoples thinking about war. By using the work “The Sociological Imagination” written by C. Wright Mills a sociologist, Esther says “the film creates what I feel is an incomplete understanding of the Iraq war, for it ignores the effect of war on other victims and the structures that created the war in the first place.” Esther critiques the lack and misrepresentation of Iraqi characters as well as how “the rationale for the war is a broad, oversimplified generalisation of ‘evil’.” By utilizing “The Sociological Imagination” she critiques American Sniper from a different angle with a look at the private and public structures pertaining to war.
Comment for Anna G — I really enjoyed reading Anna’s blog and her discussion of the home front. Anna connected much of our course content together and put them in a way that allowed me to see how they were all similar, and worked out nicely in the order we discussed them. Anna brings up Judith Butler’s theory of grievablity and veterans — something I had never thought of before. To me it had always seemed clear that we viewed (our) soldiers lives as grievable as I always see in the media that they are celebrated and labelled as heros; however, Anna brings up a good point that if we saw their lives as grievable and vulnerable, we would be more hesitant to deploy them. If we took the impacts and effects that the war has on soldiers seriously, we would think more deeply on sending them to war, even if they are volunteers. I had never thought of it in this way and I am glad that Anna discussed this, as it allowed me to see things in a different perspective.
Comment for Telisa
Telisa wrote a very thoughtful blog post about how ASTU enabled her to look at American Sniper “with substance rather than opinions based on feelings”. She illustrated her learning really well by comparing her initial response to the film when it was just released in 2014, to how she formed her understanding of the film now that she has studied ASTU. 2 of our ASTU texts/movies that we studied in particular – Judith Butler’s work on the precariousness and precarity of lives, as well as the “concept of narratives and master narratives” from “Stories We Tell” – informed Telisa’s critique of the film.
Comment for Avril
I found Avril’s blog particularly interesting as she reflects on the meaning of “global citizenship”. Avril and I both discussed similar concepts in our blogs. She reflects on the perspective of the individual preserving knowledge. I found her acknowledgment of “the other” as particularly interesting, as it connects to the different perspective she mentions earlier. I also spoke about prospect of “the other”, as it refers to another viewpoint, culture, or time period of an individual. I agree that “official history” often disregards the narratives and perspectives of others who are often under-represented in western society. I also agree that being a “global citizen” is not limited to those who travel, but those who attempt to understand “different perspectives and experiences within our culture and in others”. Avril and I both acknowledged that being a global citizen is never a completed task, and will be a continual pursuit throughout life.
Comment for Daanish
I appreciated Daanish’s blog post about how interconnected the content is between our CAP classes and his point that the models and frameworks we have learned this year can be applied to multiple platforms. I found his point about relating American Sniper to the global-core periphery model to be both novel and accurate. I think it is important to notice the ways that popular media can be viewed through a critical lens. This is because popular media, like American Sniper, reaches a much wider audience than say the academic discourse surrounding the Iraq war. Therefore, it matters how it presents the Iraq war since this will shape a large number of American’s perceptions about it. I think that, as Daanish points out, our CAP classes have given us the tools to think critically about about how we view media, literature, and the world around us.
Comment for Alexa:
I thought it was extremely fascinating and thoughtful how Alexa describes her ASTU journey as an “academic dance”. She breaks down each part of her journey to show how they can be represented by a dance performance. I thought this was extremely interesting to read, especially how she made those connections between dance and literature. I think that this is a great example to show that we can associate things we learn academically, with hobbies or interests outside of the classroom to help us gain an understanding of concepts or ideas we might not necessarily make connections with.
Comment for Telisa
When reading Telisa’s blog, I strongly agreed with her discussion of the dehumanization of the Iraqi children, but I didn’t even think about the contrast between the portrayal of Iraqi children and Chris Kyle’s children. I was quite disturbed with the way the Iraqi children were shown as being violent and evil at times, because they weren’t – they were just children. It becomes even worse when you see how Chris Kyle’s children were portrayed as being inherently good children, who would not even be capable of the violence that they Iraqi children were shown to be. It was also disturbing how Chris Kyle killed one of the children at the beginning of the film. When the film began with the child, I did not think they would actually shoot at him, and frankly I was disgusted when they did. Telisa discusses ungrievable lives, which “do not appear as ‘lives'”. While I did somewhat expect the Iraqi civilians in the film to be viewed this way, I did not expect the children to be. I don’t think it is right for the most precarious lives in society to be portrayed in this way.
Comment for Amanda
I thought that Amanda was completely right when she said that “we encounter militarization in our everyday lives whether we are aware of it or not”. One day, we realize that we’re a lot closer and more connected to military activity around us than we think and in other situations, we’re a lot further away from military ongoings. I think, it often depends on, if we have been affected or not. I also thought it was extremely interesting to read how Amanda related “American sniper” and “Redeployment” to collective memory. Considering that we’re almost done with our ASTU syllabus, it sort of completes the circle and ties together all of the things that we’ve learned this year.
Commente for Daniela:
I really enjoyed reading your blog about perception. She summarizes really well the way we tell a story for American Sniper. The way we talk about a story is probably perceived differently by someone else. I think we can relate it to the theme at the beginning of the year: memory and history. Which one is more authentic? Daniela also mentions The Reluctant Fundamentalist as a novel that presents itself in a different perspective than the western culture. I liked that she pointed out how we fail in recognizing others. As we said in class with scholar Butler, we recognize certain deaths, we value certain people by awarding them with medals. (soldiers that come back from war) However, we also ‘happy’ when we kill the enemy. Thus we only value certain lives and not others. If we decide to value all lives, we will start to understand different perspectives.
Julian’s blog was beautifully written and I loved reading it. I had yet to look back at what it meant to be a ‘Global Citizen’, but reading through my classmates writing, I see that many of them did so through their blogs. I agree with and appreciate Julian’s ideas about what ‘Global Citizen’ means. He talks about and the widespread variation of the literature we studied, literature that spans across different geographical locations, time periods, cultures, and more. But despite this, he says, “they all tell the same basic narrative. That narrative is one of the human experience. One of laughter, sadness, and precariousness. One of sorrow, of family, and of love. One of expression around the world, with the attempt to allow others to understand, no matter how hard and difficult it may be. To me, that’s what it means to be a global citizen.” These are my favourite lines of his blog. I agree with this, and am happy that it was put into writing so nicely. He speaks about the idea that to be a global citizen, one must attempt to understand fellow humans around the world and seek to learn more, understand more about each other. He finishes his blog with the line “To be a global citizen is to attempt to bring the other closer.” Nice.
Comment for Esther
I found Esther’s use of a sociological lens to view American Sniper highly refreshing. I hadn’t considered this way of looking at it before. More specifically, she used Mills’ “Sociological Imagination” to critique the representation of American Sniper as overly ‘revolves around Chris Kyle’s “personal troubles”’ and neglecting the ‘overarching network of causes and effect that generate conditions for war in the first place – such as ‘broader historical forces’, ‘political climate and leadership’. I agree with Esther that this focus on Chris Kyle over-simplifies matters. However, I think that as the story is under the genre of a personal memoir after all, it is only fitting that there is a strong focus on Chris Kyle’s experiences. In class, we had frequently discussed alternative narratives. Hence, certainly, I believe that when approaching any topic, we should seek and evaluate multiple, alternative opinions or genres. This would enable us to gain a holistic understanding of any issue.
I think Kate’s latest blog makes a number of really interesting observations by tying in the different works we have looked at over the course of the year. One of these is her linking of Persepolis and American Sniper in terms of their depictions of heroism. Kate points out various similarities in the way these texts take on and convey heroism, but I also find it interesting to think about these similarities in two very different contexts. She also discusses the overarching theme of memory throughout the course, and brings up some of the questions we have repeatedly asked, such as whose right it is to remember and forget events and experiences. Tying numerous texts into Butler’s ideas, she then talks about the connectedness of all memory as well as its simultaneous disparateness. When I read this I also thought about the way these connected but disparate memories interact with one another, and both the dynamics of both their conflict and the ways in which they inform one another.