Welcome readers,

Well it’s been a while since we’ve been able to share our exciting thoughts through a blog post, and it feels good to be back! We’ve covered a lot of material in ASTU since the last post. Great works such as Sturken, Safe Area Gorazde, Obasan and of course everyone’s wonderful memory presentations. Needless to say it’s been a riveting few weeks in ASTU, but one piece struck particular interest for me and that was Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco.

Since arriving at UBC I’ve been on a constant search for interesting fields that I may want to major in. One that recently came to mind not long before we began Safe Area Gorazde was journalism. Journalism looks like a field where you can really connect with subjects your passionate about by going right to the source and learning real information first hand. Reading Safe Area Gorazde was intriguing to read for me because it was assigned at a perfect time to really grab my attention and give me a sense of the fields elements. I’ve recently been reading through a lot of editorials where journalists spend a few weeks traveling alongside musical artists on tour and have been fascinated by the idea, but I found that through Sacco’s detailed illustrations I developed an even closer interest in the field. Sacco has such an impressive drawing style that it felt as though I was alongside him throughout his trips to Gorazde, listening to the in depth stories of locals (as corny as that all sounds).

Obviously Sacco didn’t just completely glorify the field of journalism because he was clearly in a dangerous place during a sketchy time trying to do his job, while making close connections with people who he will eventually have to leave behind. So there are factors that make the job difficult, another being the title a journalist carries and how particular people view them. For example in the “American Man” chapter (p.190-192) the character F. becomes very angry with Joe simply because he’s a journalist. F. has the idea that journalists don’t always record accurately and for the right reasons, which could be considered a fair assumption.

Now it feels as though I’ve been introduced to a variety of positive and negative factors of the field, but that’s made me all the more interested. The idea of traveling and furthering my insight on certain subjects then writing on matters that are engaging to me seems so compelling. So feel free to comment on this bad boy and tell me what you’ve been considering taking in your future years at UBC!

Happy blogging,

A.J.