Wow, Amy you hit me hard with your post “Emotionally Immobilized”. I wish I would have had the chance to read that very personal letter written to Joy Kogawa. I completely agree with you in the sense that “emotionally mobilized” is exactly how I felt reading Obasan and being unaware to so many of the tragedies that took place in my home nation. Every page of Obasan made me cringe, and not just because the Japanese-Canadians were treated horribly but because I simply didn’t know how to react. I am still stunned that I was so unaware of this for the majority of my life thus far. I feel as if a lot of us B.C. students are able to understand exactly what you are articulating when you pull out such powerful words like “emotionally mobilized”.

Devon Coady

Recently I read Fiona’s blog on the omittance of colour from Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. She argued that the purpose of drawing in black and white, along with the simplicity of the drawing style, allowed the fact that the narrative was from a young girl’s perspective more believable. Given the intensity of her subject matter, I think it would have been perhaps too graphic if the drawings were in colour and were drawn realistically. To me, one of the great things about Persepolis is the fact that it is a very quick and easy read, and I think this was done so it would also appeal to younger readers who would otherwise struggle with heavier subject material. In that sense, I think it is great that Satrapi drew more simplistically and in black and white because she then was able to get her message out to more people (especially young people who are obviously important to educate).

Thanks for reading and thanks to Fiona for the insightful post!

Ben Ross

By now its probably evident that I show the most interest toward blog posts that focus on the two graphic narratives we read in class , and again that is the subject that leads me to comment on Harnoor’s “The Normalcy of Violence” post from a few weeks ago. In this post Harnoor discusses Hilary Chutes’ (2008) essay where she breaks down the different forms utilized by Marjane Satrapi in her graphic narrative Persepolis. Harnoor brings up points that we discussed at length in class, that I find to be quite interesting. Specifically Satrapi’s drawing style and the way it reflects the violence Iran endured throughout the revolution. Harnoor states that Satrapi’s illustrations allow the reader to search for the deeper truth’s behind the revolution, rather then feel appalled by the horrific images that usually accompany conflicts like the Iran, Iraq war. Personally, I experienced the exact feeling Harnoor speaks of as I flipped through Persepolis. I originally looked at the revolution of Iran as a blood bath between ideologies, but after reading Persepolis I achieved a much different outlook on the conflict. I began viewing the revolution from a variety of different lenses to find the reality of the war beyond the devastating violence. This shift in my outlook is something I give full credit to Marjane Satrapi and her depiction of the revolution in Iran throughout Persepolis. 

Hello,

Ramon presents an incredibly interesting blog detailing the issues of the depiction of images in the graphic novel Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco. I thought it was very interesting how you connected how Joe Sacco draws images in his book and how it correlates to modern media representation. I found the most interesting part of your post the paragraph where you examine the problems that present themselves with the images in the book. I thought it was very interesting how you brought traumatic events such as  9/11 into the conversation as they have the inevitability of being reported on, and how the importance of events that are reported on are conceived differently by different groups across the globe. All in all a great post that provokes a lot of questions on how we view things in our society.

Robert Bernheim

Hey guys!

Michael’s entry surrounding the question of whether or not memory can be personal anymore has really got me thinking. He acknowledges how when you see something with your own eyes there is no room for questioning because you experienced it first hand. However, I believe that the time after you experience something is more important than the immediate moment that you witnessed it. You cannot remember something in the moment as it has yet to become a memory. I believe that how you remember that moment has much more to do with who you surround yourself with, as Farhat Shahzad charts, your “interpretive communities”, rather than how you experienced it in the immediate moment. Understanding this, I am very confused in what I know to be personal and what I know to have been influenced by others.

I know that wasn’t much help, but it got me thinking!

Devon Coady

Hey Everybody!

I was taken when I read Amy’s post. She talked about how she felt when she read a letter from an adult reader of Obasan to Kogawa expressing her thanks to her. In that letter, the writer said that she felt “emotionally immobilized” by the book when she read it and Amy felt the same. How are you supposed to digest such shocking, racial information when it happened in an internationally known multicultural nation?  What are you supposed to think?

When I read Obasan, I wasn’t as shocked as I already had some substantial knowledge of what happened in the camps due to my Social Studies and Geography teacher in high school. He was interned in these camps when he was just a kid and would occasionally bring up this topic in his classes. When he did however, he would only talk about the people that he knew and the circumstances surrounding him at the time; but he never said anything about himself. Whenever we asked him, my teacher would always deflect the question to another topic. This could be due to him not wanting to remember what happened to him in the camps, like Stephen in Obasan when he tries to forget his Japanese heritage.

Just some of my thoughts

Fiona Tse

I recently Georgia’s blog on “the importance of individual truth”, and I really enjoyed it. When talking about Persepolis Georgia highlighted that personal truth was key to an effective narrative and to imperative when looking back on a historical event. She used a vlog from a witness of the 9/11 attacks as an example. I pulled from her blog that personal truth and actually witnessing something with your own eyes gives your perspective and telling of an event validity. I almost immediately thought of Donald Trump and how he seems to be using “personal truth” to his advantage in the US presidential election. The catch is, however, that his so-called “personal truths” aren’t in actuality true. Recently, while fear-mongering about the dangers of “radical Islam”, Trump also cited the 9/11 attacks and he proclaimed to thousands of supporters at a rally that on the day of the attacks in 2001 he witnessed a video of hundreds of Muslim people in New Jersey celebrating the tragedy. The media dug deep into this to see if it was true and it seems apparent it is not true, yet Trump will not admit to that. Unfortunately, neither will his supporters, as they believe Trump saw this happen back in 2001 so it must be true, and the media is simply trying to make Trump look bad. It’s sad to see Trump use the idea of personal truth to his political advantage, but it also shows how powerful it really can be.

Thanks for reading, and thank you to Georgia for making such a thoughtful post.

Ben Ross

Lauren’s post regarding the Joy Kogawa fond hit on a very interesting point. She discusses how through the compilation of documents we were able to see the “creative bursts” that Kogawa experienced. These ‘bursts’ were expressed through short poems or outlines written on the backs of scrap paper, providing a very personal glimpse into what was going on in her life at the time. Seeing these little scribbles made me feel like I was almost eavesdropping in on a secret because it seemed like at the time that Kogawa was writing down these things, she never expected anyone else to read it. This got me thinking about all the “creative bursts” I’ve had that I need to express quickly and how they would add up to help someone to better understand where I was coming from. I think that there is something incredible private and honest about articulating thoughts the moment they come into your head, something that would allow people to understand you much more.

I loved reading your post Lauren!

Devon Coady

Hello,

This was one of the most thought provoking blog posts that I have read over our first term (not to discredit anyone they were all great). In her latest blog post Benny reflects upon our time that we spent at the Kogawa Fonds and on a particular section of a draft of the book Obasan that talked about language as a tool. I found this very thought provoking as it is something that I have not thought about as much and made me think about how language is used. I also like how you incorporated our Sociology class into the ASTU blog posts linking the two classes is key when discussing key overarching themes. Overall a great blog post and very thought provoking.

Robert Bernheim

Hey Everybody!

I really enjoyed reading Harnoor’s blog about how the violence is a normal everyday occurrence in Iran as shown in the graphic narrative that we have read: Persepolis. As we all know, with the revolution and war happening Marji sees violence on a regular basis. She sees it so much that it becomes normal for her, however having violence as the norm is not normal by any means.

As I was reading Harnoor’s post, I thought about my little cousin who was born and living in China under the One Child Policy (not anymore now that it’s been removed). Under the One Child Policy, my cousin is the only child of my uncle and aunt and even though he goes to Hong Kong regularly to visit the rest of my relatives (all my other cousins have siblings and live in Hong Kong where the policy does not apply) he finds that having siblings is weird and not normal and that having no siblings is normal. When I asked him this, he said that all his friends and all the people that he knows are all single children and that some of them even think that just even the thought of siblings is alien to them.

That’s just my little thought,

Fiona Tse