Hello fellow ASTU students,

I would like to start my class blog by saying that it was quit riveting to read all of your very interesting blogs that you had this week. They definitely left a mark on me and gave me much to think about when creating my class blog. Some of the key themes that I thought were very interesting were the blogs focusing on feminism, the value of “not forgetting” and memory, and how we perceive violence in the world today. I will be discussing each of these points in my class blog.

Jackson in his blog post gives a particularly good insight and example from his life on we as a collective view acts of violence as “normal”. Jackson talks about how both Satrapi and Chute both agree that the modern view in some cases that violence is normal is “totally abnormal”, indicating how in their opinion we as a society have come to the completely irrational point that violence such as the shootings in the USA have become something that is normal as we have had 306 so far in the year (1), and it’s not even over yet. Jackson relates the shootings that are now so common in the USA to his school where when he would hear about a kid getting beaten up they would think that it was that kid who had a bad day and should not provoke the other kid who was associated with a gang and didn’t think much of it, very similar as to how many of us do not make a big deal about the shootings in the USA as they do not happen to us.

Benedetta and Ramon both discuss the importance of memory and the act of “not forgetting” that is so prominent in Persepolis. Benedetta does an excellent job on making a personal connection with Satrapi as she also left her home country and her grandmother also told her to never forget where she comes from when going to a completely new environment and culture. Benedetta also looks at one of the most important parts of the book where Satrapi’s uncle Anoosh tells her to never forget the story of her family even though at the time it may be difficult for her to understand. Ramon on the other hand focuses on the value of memory  in Persepolis. Ramon looks at how memory is an underlying feature of the book as it is essentially based on its core motive: remembering the past. Ramon goes on to explain how the act of remembering and writing it down based on ones memory can be “shed in a light of evil”. I found this particularly exiting as it is not something one hears often when examining memory. Both Benedetta and Ramon do exceedingly well in examining the importance of memory in Satrapi’s book Persepolis.

Finally Jen provides a captivating and a new view on feminism that is prevent in modern society and in the book Persepolis. Jen looks at how the government forces the young girls to dress traditionally muslim. This is seen in the book as a form of oppression from the government. Jen however does not stop there, she relates this to the current discussion in Canada that the Conservative party brought up with the Hijab and that women should not be allowed to wear one when doing the ceremony. But in my opinion best of all Jen provides quotes from women who wear the Hijab from Reddit who like it, showing that although we as western people might see it as oppressive against women the people who inevitably wear them in the cases that she provides in fact like it, showing how little we know by looking from the outside in at a culture that has been doing this for thousands of years.

The blog posts this week were all very good and I look forward too seeing you all in class on Tuesday. Until then as always comments are appreciated cheers.

Bibliography:

1.”Mass Shooting Tracker.” Mass Shooting Tracker. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.