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

For the last two weeks our ASTU class has been reading two astonishing books – Safe Area Gorazde, a graphic narrative written by Joe Sacco and a novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa. In this overview I will mainly focus on blogs discussing Sacco’s book.

Joe Sacco’s book Safe Area Gorazde depicts the events taking place in Bosnia during the War of 1992-95. As Peijia notices in her blog Sacco uses a different way of portraying people compared to Satrapi: ‘this, in turn with its raw and realistic drawing style, made me (the reader) feel a lot more ‘stunned’ by the narrative.’ Focusing on the Sacco’s style it’s necessary to mention his use of black and white as well. In the same way Satrapi used this minimalistic technique to draw attention to the event and the story rather than to a picture itself, Sacco also makes his characters (who are real people) more realistic and ‘alive’.

However, the drawing technique is not the only way Sacco makes a reader more connected with a story. As Jacqueline says in her blog: ‘Sacco shows the reader how human, and also American, the people he meets are by showcasing their more materialistic sides.’ Indeed through his book the author lets us know about Gorazdians’ desires and feelings, which are not different from people’s desires all over the world. In his blog Diego writes: ‘it shows the reader that those living in Gorazde, despite having less-than ideal living conditions, are humans just like you and me. They want peace, they want to travel around the world, and some of them also want to buy a new pair of jeans.’ These human desires give a reader an opportunity to understand better the characters and as Carolina notices they ‘turn numbers into people’.

Another important topic discussed in our class was the way women were portrayed in the book. When it came to this issue our class split in two. Some people consider the name ‘silly girls’ rather offensive and sexist. Others can explain it as another way of showing the humanity of those women. As Carolina says: ‘Sacco chose to represent certain women as “silly”, because some humans are silly. Silliness is human.’

To sum up, the way Sacco choses to pull personal stories of people out of the numbers can in some ways be provocative. However, exactly this technique creates a tapestry of stories that portrays the history of Gorazde.

Mariana Drok