Hello ASTU 100 Friends!

Hopefully everyone had a restful Easter long weekend especially with the amazing weather we’ve been having in Metro Vancouver recently! I had the pleasure of reading over the individual blogs and as enlightening as it was to read the blogs, it was certainly bittersweet considering these are our last blog posts! Class will be over in two weeks!

To begin with, in Diego’s Blog, he chose to summarize his experiences of ASTU 100 notably discovering the use of the ‘discursive I’, a scholarly feature that allowed him to better express his ideas when writing. In Mariana’s Blog, she too summarized her experience taking ASTU 100 and how the readings and discussions broadened her mind. Mariana concluded her post by speaking to the issue of stereotypes and false representations, predominantly instigated by the post-9/11 fear culture experienced my many. Mariana states that “[the] small box of the stereotypes people tend to put themselves in does not only make their lives more dull, but also prevents them from the boundless opportunities the diverse world can offer.”

In Imaan’s Blog, she also chose to summarize her experience in the course focusing on the key themes of ‘trauma’ and ‘memory’. Imaan comprehensively connected these themes to the various texts we read and analyzed throughout the academic year however she especially focused on on the term ‘trauma narratives’ and how her understanding of the term evolved based on the different texts we read.

In Peijia’s Blog,  she wrote about her overall experience taking ASTU 100 and the wealth of skills she was able to take away from the course, notably understanding how to read and break down scholarly works. She focused her blog on Global Citizenship and how our CAP stream gave her a new ‘lens’ to analyze different types of issues such as waste problems as described in her blog.

In Nico’s Blog, he spoke about the rewarding experience of being being surrounded with “brilliant minds and passionate global citizens on a daily basis” and how that has changed the way in which he see’s the world. Nico intelligently reviewed some of the prominent terms we’ve looked at both in ASTU and the Global Citizens stream as a whole and connected them to contemporary events such as the recent and truly tragic bombings at Brussels which he discusses in his blog.

Finally, In Carolina’s Blog, she chose to adopt a rather interesting re-occurrence from some of the texts we have read, letters! In her open letter to Dr. Luger, Carolina expresses her gratitude to Dr. Luger for forcing her to read (I am too!) and for all the skills she’s thought us throughout the term. Carolina also goes on to convey her experience in the CAP Program and how its been a journey of growth for her discussing how she found her ‘niche’ in our overwhelmingly large campus.

All in all, it was definitely uplifting reading all the blog entries however I certainly felt melancholy after remembering this would be the last of the blogs that I would read! It made me happy to read that I wasn’t the only one who is proud of my decision to have been a Global Citizen. I wasn’t much of an English fan leaving high school but ASTU and CAP as a whole has given me an appreciation for literature and scholarly works.

Thanks Dr. Luger for your continued support in helping us become ‘Junior Scholars’ and making class enjoyable! And finally, thank you to my fellow Global Citizens for being the awesome individuals you are and contributing all your experience and ideas in our discussions to allow for a truly wonderful experience!

Hope to see everyone around and have an amazing summer!

Best Regards,

Kaveel Singh

Wow guys the year is almost over, I’m kinda in disbelief, it feels like it was only last week that we were being introduced into the insane world of college academia. But I digress, we have learned so much this year from so many classes, all culminating around being something called a “global citizen.” This was no easy task but we gained many skills and lots of knowledge from our assortment of classes. Starting with political science and sociology we’ve learned about social sciences, how humans sort themselves and their resources and some reasons why. We’ve tackled massive issues such as race, gender, warfare, economic inequality and so much more. I don’t think that I’ve gained more from a class than Chris Erickson’s Political science. The raw reality that he helped show us, his rants about political correctness, and his rants about the quick jump to war. But back to English, after all this is an ASTU blog. In ASTU as we’ve learned about these complex systems and ideas we’ve been reading books and considering the nature of remembering, fiction, representation, and so much more. But as we have neared the end of our year we have approached our last book and subject, that being Hamid Mohsin’s book The Reluctant Fundamentalist a book questioning racial assumptions, political assumptions, and the struggle of a globalized world. This book, as Isabelle pointed out, seemed to both disrupt and reinforce stereotypes. While it often made the reader question their assumptions about the middle east–Isabelle shows– it also reinforced stereotypes about Muslims by depicting the main character Changez as both happy about the twin towers falling and under a belief that the America and Pakistan are always enemies. Additionally throughout the book there is this idea of boarders which separate the west and the east, and as Kihan pointed out it’s possible Changez’s perception of the East and West being at war might be because of the West’s policies towards immigrants. Kihan describes how the current political climate towards immigrants in the west has been hostile and reluctant, perhaps suggesting to those from the middle east that we are inherent enemies. Within the book and the class overall there was a strong “us vs them” theme. This theme was in every book, and often it was put on its head by having our book give us the perspective we might consider to be “them.” As Nicolo pointed out, this not only connects to our class but to the overall theme of global citizen, and we have spent hours and hours in varying classes and disciplines exploring what it means to be a global citizen. And while that question is taunting, Nicolo ends his blog with this “we all hold the keys to participate in change,” and that is critical to remember while being a global citizen. Signing off on the last blog, Tzur Shupack, it’s been a lovely year guys. Peace.

Hello everybody!

This week’s blogs were our last ASTU blogs. Some reflected on Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Peter Morey’s academic article “’The rules of the game have changed’ Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and post-9/11 fiction”, while others reflected on the whole academic year and their analysis on what it means to be a ‘global citizen’.

First, I would like to introduce some of those who looked at The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Isabelle interpreted The Reluctant Fundamentalist from a critical standpoint, in which she focused on Hamid’s portrayal of Changez rejoicing when the Twin Towers was attacked. She states this depiction and portrayal of Muslims is far from being accurate, and could have an extremely harmful effect to Muslims and minorities in general who live in America today. She argues this because she believes that it gives many Americans and American politicians an excuse to hold false conceptions toward Muslims.

Nicola and Taylor looked into the structure of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, although from different perspectives. Nicola focused on the romantic storyline between Changez, the main protagonist, and Erica, the American girl she falls in love with. She believes that, on the one hand, Erica could possibly be an allegorical character that Changez created, in order to map out something that he wanted to convey to the American he is talking to throughout the story; on the other hand, however, the story’s characters could be all seen as allegorical, which would make the source and recipient of the message not Changez and the American in the novel, but instead Hamid and us, the readers. Either way, the romance that is depicted in the novel creates an interesting margin for personal interpretation of the story’s structure for the readers. Taylor examined the structure through Morey’s article. After reading Morey’s interpretation of Hamid’s use of dramatic dialog, she realized that this highly subjective manner of conveying message to the readers leaves many questions intentionally, because there is no “right” answer to this topic. As she states, “Changez’s character and the form of the novel are meant to destabilize our assumptions.”

Many others commented on their growth through what we have done in the CAP course, as Peijia did. She reflected on how her perception of what the term ‘global citizen’ meant to this course as a whole. She referred to the VICE documentary on waste polluting the ocean that we had watched in our sociology lecture, and how the people in the documentary were looking for tangible evidence of pollution in the ocean such as islands of waste, only to fail to do so. To her, this was similar to what she had experienced in the CAP course. Each individual course did not seem related much to ‘global citizenship’, but she soon found out that the subjects supplemented each other in a way that exposed her to new and different perspectives. The whole stream connected together the dots and created the whole picture of what we were to learn.

I would like to use this space to thank everyone for everything this year. I know we still have some time left this term, but this will be my last post on here. It has really been an up and down year for me, as everything was a new experience for me. Coming from a normal Japanese school, the leap to an English speaking academic environment was a struggle for me, and I really am ashamed of myself for not being able to contribute to class more. I am so grateful for everybody being so supportive and sharing your intellectual knowledge with me. I hope to continue forging a great relationship with all of you.

Thank you,

Ken Sakamoto

Hello everyone!

So, I am one of the last class bloggers! That is the reason I sat on my chair with a notepad and a pen and opened every student’s blog, taking notes of the general topic this week and the similarities and disagreements between us. A lot of my fellow class mates this week talked about “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” and had their own different approach to analyse the text. To name a few, Nicola analysed the ‘romantic story-line’ of the text, whereas Jacqueline initially criticized the “dramatic monologue” and later discussed about how she reconsidered that after reading Morey’s article. Kihan also mentioned about dramatic monologue of the novel but in her opinion the novel can be read as a more general representation of the immigrant experience in a post-9/11 world. I must say that it was really interesting to see how we all have our own different way of analyzing the same text we read and discuss together. But in my “official” last blog I want to focus on one thing that we all agree on and something that was the highlight of this week’s posts – What did we learn from this course that is going to help us for the rest of our lives?

We all will agree that ASTU class has been a class where we all learnt many things that is going to be useful and helpful for the rest of our lives. Mariana described it in beautiful three words, ASTU class has been a “thought-provoking adventure”. I couldn’t agree more, it surely was an adventurous journey in search of those “aha” moments that made this whole journey as Mariana puts it a “source of inspiration and curiosity” and just like every other journey, in this journey of transition from high school to college as Deigo mentioned in his blogs, we made mistakes, we learnt from our mistakes, we improved and now we are moving forward.

Peija, Nicolo and Kristen talked about how ASTU class had helped us with our University essays for all other courses and that is definitely something which will help us during out entire University journey. Peija also mentioned about how she developed the skill of reading scholarly essays quickly and efficiently which helped her incredibly in her research process for all her courses. I would also like to mention about the awesome letter Carolina wrote to Dr Luger because I am sure each one of us can completely relate to that ( I loved the drafting emails part. I thought I was the only one who did that ).

Anyway, what was common in everyone’s blogs was the mention of how our perspective towards looking and analyzing things have changed and how the whole experience of the ASTU class has been “eye-opening” as Nicolo quotes it. Throughout the year, we were always told to write essays and properly cite sources but how to do it was something we learnt in ASTU class. 

Even though Carolina has thanked Dr. Luger through her wonderful letter. On behalf of the whole class, I would like to thank her for always being so helpful, keeping the class engaging through activities of all kinds, from dramatization of The Reluctant Fundamentalist to making us read the poem together as a class, from making us listen to the actual writers and poets recite their own work to showing us videos of the how scholars present their research work.

It has truly been a great learning experience. We might forget the stories we read but we will never forget what we learnt.

So I guess it’s a wrap!

Good luck for the upcoming essays and finals!

Hi ASTU 100A,

This has been a really busy and engaging time for our class, having just read Phil Klay’s “Redeployment” and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, as well as having just had our second group lecture by our CAP professors, so I feel very excited to be able to cover this week’s dynamic and politically charged blogs. While there were some really great blogs regarding #blacklivesmatter, the topic of our group lecture (such as Jacqueline’s. Carolina’s and Kaveel’s), I am going to focus this blog on another concept that I found to be especially prevalent in the blogosphere, this being the concept of “home”.

This theme was most obvious in the blogs that reflected on Phil Klay’s short story “Redeployment”, as it follows the homecoming of Sgt. Price, an American veteran being redeployed into civilian life after serving in Iraq. As we have been discussing in ASTU, the phenomenon of coming home from war has taken on a new and perhaps more prevalent role in contemporary American warfare. This is because as the military’s medical system has improved, more people are returning from combat. Moreover, even though more people are returning relative to how many were deployed, the amount of people serving in the military is much smaller than it was during the big drafts such as Vietnam and World War Two. Thus this homecoming experience is concentrated among a very select few, perhaps exacerbating how disruptive or disorienting the experience of coming “home” is for the contemporary veteran.

Reflecting on why this homecoming can be so challenging, Priya discussed how being quarantined in military culture when on service can be seen as a form of assimilation, as for Sgt. Price, having his mindset militarized created a severe disconnect between him and his previous home culture. Sam also attempted to explain the impact that being assimilated into military culture has on an individual, and in doing so, he brings to the table a new perspective on the story’s tittle. He suggests that alongside “redeployment” being a military term used to denote the homecoming of a veteran or the deployment of a military personal back to a conflict zone, that the term can also mean the returning of one’s mind to the site of one’s body. Sam remarks that after being trained in the military to follow orders and to act through the body, “Not only are the soldiers redeployed back home physically, they are redeployed back into their conscious minds, redeployed into being able to think about their experiences.”

My other classmates who wrote on Klay’s story, expanded on the disconnect between veteran and civilian life. Raphael did so through comparing “Redeployment” to Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, as did Imaan through her personal example of how her dad found his friend to be “not the same man” after returning from duty in Iraq. Further on this note, Diego, rather poetically summarized the absurd sense of unfamiliarity between the veteran and his “home” in his blog, which he appropriately titled “Home (?) Sweet home (?)”. What becomes of home when it is no longer one’s ultimate source of familiarity and comfort? When what was once foreign (aka the brutality of warfare) becomes familiar, and what was once familiar (aka American Eagles Outfitters) becomes foreign, where does the veteran’s home lie?

And it is from this incomplete and blurry understanding of what constitutes “home” that I would like to make the jump to the second theme of home that I found in this weeks blogs. These blogs were in reference to Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and its Pakistani protagonist Changez, who spent 4 1/2 years in the United States. A principal theme in the novel (or novella) is Changez’s struggle to feel at home in the U.S. and to identify with its new world sensibilities and post 9/11, racist society. And yet Changez also feels disconnected to Pakistan (for example, when he returns to his childhood home and hesitates to see its depilated state as beautiful). Without making gross generalizations, this sense of a split identity and a confused sense of home is felt by many immigrants, my own family included. Even though she immigrated to Canada as a young child, my mom still tells me that she sometimes feels too Canadian to be accepted as Korean, but too Korean to be accepted as Canadian. For example, just the other week she was at a climate change rally downtown and was told to “go home” by another environmentalist, even though she has lived here for the vast majority of her life. Thus, the concept of home is not simple for an immigrant, or really for any visible minority, just as it is not simple for a veteran. Rachel’s blog further discusses the difficulties of finding one’s identity in a new country through her own example of becoming very aware of her race after being referred to as “the other Asian girl” once moving to North America. Furthermore, Rachel discusses how like Changez and my mom, she has experienced racism in the west. She discusses a racist episode that she experienced on the bus (which I have to say, she dealt with in what can only be described as a badass way), during which she was told to “Go back to where you came from”. This just goes to show that making a place “home” is easier for some people than it is for others.

Sania’s blog also discusses complicated home identities. She explains that “I knew from a very young age about my hybrid-identity because of moving around and because I felt confused when I had to pick and choose from the differences the cultures and societies offered. I had questioned myself as to who and what should I be representing, and if I am supposed to represent a group over the other?”. To this point, I have heard very similar statements by my family members who have immigrated, as retaining old cultures and adapting to new cultures is a part of everyday life for them. And one can see this struggle in Changez’s own life, as being an immigrant in a society marked by manichean statements such as “you are either with us or with the terrorists”, constantly forces one to try to define the boundaries of oneself in a way that most people may never have to. Sania ended her poignant blog with an Ijeoma Umebinyuo quote that really resonated with me, as it speaks to the split identity that my mom has often talked to me about. Hence, with kudos to Sania, I would also like to end my blog with this quote, as I believe it can also speak to the sense of disconnection faced by veterans upon their homecomings.

“So, here you are

too foreign for home

too foreign for here.

never enough for both” 

– Ijeoma Umebinyguo

Thanks for the awesome, though provoking blogs ASTU 100A. Good luck with your final few weeks.

– Kihan

Hi everyone!

This and last week we covered a lot of important topics in our ASTU class, including the life of veterans after the war and the issue of identity crisis covered in the Mohsin Hamid’s novel Reluctant Fundamentalist. These two questions were discussed in the majority of the blogs this week. Another important topic written on is our joint lecture and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

In the the first story of the book by Phil Klay Redeployment the narrator shares his experiences after coming from the war frontiers. The novella portraits the process of transition “war-home”. Right away a question rises if it is really a journey from war to home? Is it still home, or has something changed? In his blog post Diego writes “After being integrated in military culture, his (Sgt. Price) concept of ‘home’ was very different when he and his squad had arrived.” A significant part of this lack of belonging is the changed worldview. Soldiers that are trained to do nothing, but survive struggle to quit doing what they were taught right after their redeployment. In her blog post Taylor states “it becomes evident that the alert mindset one must obtain in order to survive during times of war is hard to turn off when reacquainted with peaceful civilization”. Another important point made in blog posts (Nico, Sam, Taylor) is the contribution a novel makes to the conversation about incommunicability of trauma. It is indeed thrilling to realize that people cannot talk about particular experiences they have been through. However, what stands out to me is the way civilians preserve veterans. There is always a sense of fear and unfamiliarity when someone you used to know before the war comes back and he is not the same anymore. People usually struggle with the ways of coping with that change. Questions like “Should I talk about it or not?” “Is it going to hurt him?” keep on running in their heads. However, there is no right answer, as things personal cannot be generalized. Still, when the trauma is communicated its weight can be shared with those who know about it.

The narrator of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Changez, also finds it difficult to define his identity and to find a place he can call home. In her blog post Sania talks about her personal experiences and the way she can relate to the story told by Changez, she writes: “I had questioned myself as to who and what should I be representing, and if I am supposed to represent a group over the other?”. This question of representation is really significant for the novel, as Changez himself doesn’t know which way to go and sometimes he abandons his Pakistani identity just to fit into the American society. At the same time, there are scenes when he chooses to hold on to Pakistani tradition and his ethnical roots. The novel also shows how people tend to generalize those who are different from them. The way in which Changez tells his story is very purposefully designed by Hamid, as Kendall states “to make the American understand Pakistani tradition by situating him in an American context.”

Last, but not the least was our conversation about the #BlackLivesMatter movement. It rose a lot of questions in people’s minds and Jacqueline’s title for the blog post is a good evidence for it “Mostly Just Questions”. A lot of people talked about racism in general its consequences and the way we can reduce the ignorance and fear in society by engaging into dialogues and being more open-minded.

Mariana

Hey readers? How is reading so far? So this week, I have the luxury to be the class blogger and read some of the amazing and insightful post some of my classmates wrote. Here are of my thoughts and response to some of them.

Mariana’s blog focused on how the media changed the way we remember traumatic events. It discussed how our own private experience have slowly changed and evolved into a public event due to the media today. People would express their thought through the use of internet, an example would be those poem written about the 9/11. The internet became a platform to express one’s feelings; it became an outlet for people to release their anger for the world to see.  Mariana stated that ‘in the era of media and globalization there are no longer boundaries and the luxury to hide in one’s own shell becomes inaccessible’. I agree with her statement, the line between private lives and a public one is becoming blurry. One really does not have the luxury to hide themselves from public’s view if the majority of the population is interested with an event or story about you. I am saying this from experience, my aunt got into a horrible car accident, the incident is so shocking that it was on front page of multiple newspaper. While their stay in the hospital, they cannot stop reporters from taking pictures of them or rushing into their ward. This caused great distress and unconviencence not only to the victim but also to the family(me) around. The problem of weather one have the right to keep their own trauma out of public’s eye brought about another question, does one have to write about someone else’s trauma? My question can be tied into Kihan’s post on monuments and memorialization.

Kihan focused about how we commemorate war heroes, we went from 19th century pedestal-style monuments to critically minded contemporary monument. Kihan also suggested there to be another category of monument added, she called it “counter monument” . The monument does not only serve to commemorate an event or the dead but also “as a form/ genre/ structure to paradoxically critique the political and nationalistic implications implicit in the erection of monuments”. She later quotes Peter Meusburger, Michael Heffernan and Edgar Wunder ,“ monument act as…storage vessels of cultural identity and information; as educational and other communications media.’ And stated that “counter-monument” works to subvert the established national memory.”

Diego’s blog focused on the idea of finding one’s identity. He pointed out that most people that died in 9/11 were never identified. We often focused only on the Americans that died in that event but not people of other races. This brought out the current problem of euro centrism and racism, one race of people is often placed above another.

All the blog post I read is awesome and don’t hesitate to check them out!

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is having a great reading week so far!

There was a whole range of responses this week in regards to what we learned in ASTU for past few weeks, ranging from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer to the discussion of monuments of war and art of 9/11 to poetry of Juliana Spahr in This Connection of Everyone with Lungs.

Many students decided to focus on the poetry by Juliana Spahr, written in response to the event of 9/11. Jacqueline wrote about the physical effect of Spahr’s “Poem written after September 11/2001” and how the structure of her poem forces the readers to breathe in a way similar to mediation in yoga. This physical connection of Spahr’s work is distinctly tied to Butler’s concept of “the body” and its interconnectedness to other individuals and events around the world. Similarly, this point is also picked up by Nico, who elaborates that it is because of our interdependence on one another and the precariousness of life through our perishable bodies is why we are interconnected.

Yet this idea of connectedness is challenged by Raphael, who questions whether “it is too optimistic or idealistic” in the fact that we can generalize all human beings as connected. Which is a very true statement to make, because in a sense, we are divided by many social boundaries such as class and wealth. I agree with Raphael in that matter because there is the question of how exactly is this connection between one another the same – especially considering the social, economic and political factors that goes into the creation of human connections. I can see a sense of disconnection through Mariana’s post about the bed analogy in Spahr’s poems, how it is a place of privacy and comfort that is protected by geological locations. Therefore, those who are safe in a bed in one area of the world is not fully or truly connected to other human beings who are not in the same situation as that individual.

This leads me into Rachel’s blog post, in which she talks about her experience as the 3^rd generation of war survivors. When Raphael questioned this connection between humans around the world, I felt like Rachel’s connection with other humans regarding war/trauma would not be the same as her grandparents’ connection – which further emphasizes the point that the connections of people cannot be generalized to the mere fact that we breath that therefore we are connected.

On the other hand, Isabelle and Kihan focused on a more architectural and artistic rendition to the event of 9/11 and its aftermath. Isabelle focused on a sculpture created as a result of 9/11, the “Tumbling Woman” by Eric Fischl. The controversy of this sculpture was surrounded around how it was perceived, as a woman hitting the ground at high impact rather than the supposed graceful dancer. Isabelle noted that because the sculpture was not hung in the air, it portrayed a whole different meaning than what it could have meant if it were hung. How a public representation of (a) trauma through a physical structure is also critiqued by Kihan, who focuses on the transition of monuments – from the pedestal-styled glorified war heroes to an interactive and inclusive contemporary monuments that commemorates the “elusive collective”.

The term of the “elusive collective” is also seen in Diego’s post, in which he questions the identities of those who died in the 9/11 attack. He implies that it isn’t just “white” Americans who passed away in this attack, but also people who were of the same race as the terrorists and other minorities. Therefore it poses the question of “who has the right to say that they suffered more or less?” because ultimately, everyone suffered as a collective whole from 9/11.

That is to say, the topics and discussions of ASTU in the past few weeks really opened my eyes to ideas and concepts that I never experienced before. Never would I have thought poetry could control me physically nor have I ever thought about monuments in different perspectives. But I am curious about just how really connected are we and the validity of that connection – especially with the ongoing development of technology and communications – and perhaps we shouldn’t use the same standards of judging and interpreting these connections as times continue to change. That aside, there were so many other great blogs I couldn’t get to this week but I would definitely recommend you guys to take a look!

Keep writing and keeping enjoying your reading break!

– Peijia Ding

Hello readers!

In my ATSU 100A class this week, we discussed poetry, specifically with regards to the traumatic events of September 11th, 2001. We analyzed four individual poems, as well as language poet Juliana Spahr’s This Connection of Everyone With Lungs. Spahr’s collection of poems about 9/11 exemplify her range of emotions and thoughts during this confusing time. The discussions that we had in class regarding 9/11 and poetry prompted many of my fellow classmates to discuss these controversial topics in their blogs.

Some students chose to focus on how they feel about poetry itself. Carolina Judkowicz, for instance, discussed her hatred of poetry and the unnecessary formatting of such an art form — it simply makes the comprehension process much more complicated than it ought to be. However, Carolina’s favourite poem by Bill Bissett entitled “Tomato Conspiracy” serves as an exception to her lack of love for poetry and she admits that “This Connection of Everyone with Lungs was actually pretty okay”. Although Jacqueline Desantis came to a similar conclusion regarding poetry and Spahr’s poems, she took a different approach than Carolina, focusing more specifically on the validity of poetry once analyzed through an academic lens. Jacqueline directly refers to the application of literary theorist Judith Butler’s ideas to Spahr’s poems and how Spahr seems to have almost taken Butler’s theories and applied them to the real life situation of 9/11. Jacqueline claims that “…when I applied Butler to her [Spahr’s] work I realized that she actually accomplishes a way to explore grief in a constructive manner that doesn’t dichotomize the ‘us and the them’”. In other words, this idea that we are separate people in a world whose perspective is based on an “us or them” mentality is not completely true. Although we have different experiences and locations, we are all connected. Jacqueline’s point about Spahr not focusing on this mentality is one of the things that makes these poems so unique.

This idea of connection seems to apply beyond the events of 9/11; it has become a lens through which we see the world. Sam Tuck focuses on this point in his post, as he links this idea to C. Wright Mills’ concept of the “sociological imagination”, our Human Geography class, and Judith Butler’s theories. Sam suggests that we could analyze situations through a “geographical imagination”, considering that Spahr felt both separated from and connected to the world and 9/11 while living in Hawaii. He brings up the point that Spahr uses specific language to portray this effect. An example Sam brings up is when “she changes ‘You’ to ‘Yous’, ‘Your’ to ‘Yours’”. One can interpret this as exemplifying both the distinction between people — there is the danger of creating homogenous categories — as well as the connection between them, especially on a global level. Both Sam and Raphael Gamo focus on the bed and how this trope links the intimate and private sphere and the connection, or lack thereof, to the public sphere throughout Spahr’s poems.

Other students appear to have been deeply affected by the other poems discussed in class aside from Spahr’s. For example, Isabelle Semmalhack focused on the lack of a last line in Wislawa Szymborska’s “Photograph from September 11” as well as the controversial sculpture entitled “Tumbling Woman” by Eric Fischl. On the one hand, Szymborska’s poem is beloved by most and serves as an effective technology of memory with regards to 9/11. The fact that she leaves the last line of her poem open to interpretation gives people the freedom to create their own ending to a tragic story. However, on the contrary, Fischl’s sculpture appears to show the woman hitting the ground — a reality many do not want to face with regards to their loved ones dying during the events of 9/11. As Isabelle points out,  “had the sculpture been suspended in the air, or had depicted a woman upright, or in a gentle roll, rather than balancing on her neck this piece may have been widely appreciated”. This controversy shows the sensitivity people still feel today when discussing September 11th. Diego Balce picks up on this point while comparing Szymborska’s poem to Billy Collin’s “The Names”. Diego discusses how Szymborska’s poem lacks closure and avoids identification, whereas Collin’s poem is based on “putting a name to a face”, as Diego puts it. Both of these approaches lead to a questioning of whose lives are worth identifying, for as Diego mentions, there were many in the “them” category whose losses remain unrecognized. 

Although everyone’s insights varied with regards to the poetry and trauma associated with the expression of 9/11, I found that the questions Raphael poses sums up our analyses thus far extremely well: “where does the connection of everyone with lungs stop? Do we all have to share the responsibility in the crimes or acts of terror committed by people from different places? Or is it really just a kind of existential, oh look how we can all be together?” These are questions that I found myself pondering over during our class discussions as well. They will most definitely require further analysis in order to be answered.

Excellent work, bloggers! I cannot wait to see what you write about next.

Hello all,

Happy Reading Break!

Last week our ASTU class finished reading Juliana Spahr’s This Connection of Everyone With Lungs, and, unsurprisingly, it was the central focus of many students’ blog entries. Themes included separation and connection, us vs. them, security and vulnerability, and other dichotomies.

Mariana focuses on people’s sense of security, as well as vulnerability in Sphar’s This Connection of Everyone With Lungs. Mariana contends: “People are vulnerable no matter where they are. The illusion of security that exists in our beds is so faint and fragile that it can barely protect us”. Mariana throughout her blog post focuses on the sense of privacy and security on the individual level, compared to the sense of vulnerability on the global scale. I agree with Mariana’s claim that with growing globalization and media, it is getting more and more difficult to be secure in our beds, and remain private and unaffected by outside influences in our lives.

Jacqueline takes a different approach, linking Judith Butler’s position about the body to the work of Juliana Spahr. In her blog post, Jacqueline highlights this sense of separation and lack of connection between people due to the physical separation between their bodies. “When I applied Butler to [Spahr’s] work I realized that she actually accomplishes a way to explore grief in a constructive manner that doesn’t dichotomize the “us and the them”.” I thought this was a unique perspective, and a connection that I did not make immediately on my own. I did not think to associate Butler’s theories to Spahr in this way. I find that Jacqueline swayed me to support this view.

Tzur, in his blog, highlights Spahr’s geographic distance from the mainland U.S.; yet despite this, claims that Spahr “is still connected to everyone”. Tzur argues, “in spite of nationalities, borders, and everything else we are all humans–interconnected, interdependent, interlocked–on this planet”. Sam offers a different take. He contends that a certain “Geographical Imagination” is required when going through life. That is, “idea of understanding what you are connected with through your given geographical and political situation”. Sam is not saying that people are not connected; he is simply saying that it is important to understand how our geographic positioning and socialized upbringing play an important role in how we interact with and connect to other people.

Personally, I am not quite sure where I stand in regards to this matter. I tend to waffle back and forth between thinking that we are all connected as human beings, and then thinking that our upbringings, cultures, national ties, religions, and other factors result in our distinction from others. For now, I will tentatively choose to adopt Sam’s idea of “Geographical Imagination” and see where it goes.

Nico did a wonderful job of thoroughly analyzing Spahr’s work. He drew many connections ranging from our previous reading from last semester, Safe Area Goražde, to historic and real world examples (Jim Crow laws and the Black Lives Matter movement) to our other CAP classes, Geography 122 and Sociology 100. It was interesting to see how his mind works, drawing all sorts of connections and applying them to our readings.

Spahr was not exclusively the topic of everyone’s blog posts this week, however. Kaveel chose to analyze post-9/11 poetry in general, and discussed his fascination with how different audiences could apply different meaning or significance to the same poem. (He highlights W.H. Auden’s poem “September 1, 1939” in the context of the September 11, 2001.) Diego, similarly, analyzed the poems “The Names” by Billy Collins and “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborkska in his blog entry. Kihan wrote a very interesting blog post about “counter-monuments”, linking it to 9/11 memorialization. Rachel linked our readings about violence and trauma to a film called The Flowers of War, analyzing the film’s similarities and differences to what we’ve been discussing in class.

There are many other interesting blog posts, and I wish I could give them all the proper recognition they deserve, but just know that I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the posts this week. Keep them coming, bloggers!

-Kendall Manifould