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 readers!

In my ASTU 100 class this week, we discussed a graphic narrative called Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. It is a memoire about Satrapi’s experience as a child growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the war against Iraq. Persepolis serves as an emotional account of these events, not a historical one; it is Satrapi’s memoire. The discussions that we had in class regarding this graphic narrative prompted many of my fellow classmates to discuss this piece in their blogs.

Some students focussed on the innocence that they felt “Marji”, the child narrator, lost as a result of the conditions that she grew up in. Priya Adhikari, for instance, wrote about how the subtitle of Persepolis, “The Story of a Childhood”, is inaccurate, as the children during this time period grew up with such political, social, and economic unrest, that their childhood was stripped of them. They never had the chance to truly experience it. Although Imaan Punja also discussed the topic of innocence in her post, she chose to draw parallels between the children of Iran and the First Nations children forced to attend Canada’s residential schools. Imaan’s blog post confirms the ideas described by Priya, while making a connection to another relevant issue that haunts Canadian society.

My classmates also focussed on the connections between Satrapi’s graphic narrative and some concepts that have been discussed in their other classes, especially sociology. For example, Sania Shoaib argues the importance of Karl Marx in Persepolis and how Marji is influenced by his views through other members of her family and the larger society. Although Sania’s blog was insightful, I found that I was searching for more depth in her points about Marx; I wanted the discussion to continue. Isabelle Semmelhack’s post satisfied my curiosity by going further than sociology. She created a network of influences by drawing parallels between sociology, political science, and English, further describing the value that each of these disciplines has in their ability to better explain Satrapi’s memoire as a whole. 

Keeping to the theme of using several connections to back up ideas, Nicola Cox’s post regarding Persepolis discusses an academic article that we read last week in ASTU 100, called “The Role of Interpreting Communities in Remembering and Learning” by Farhat Shahzad, as well as her personal experience re-reading Persepolis at an older age, and her findings about Iranian culture from one of her friends who emigrated from Iran. Nicola discovered that the concept of “family” is quintessential in Iranian culture, as Satrapi describes in her memoire. The young character, Marji, is influenced by her parents, her uncle Anoosh, and many other members of her family and community throughout Persepolis. Their opinions matter to Marji, whether she outrightly admits it or not. Nicola also describes the view that Western society posses about families and how it is contrasted with Iranian culture.

Although everyone’s findings were helpful in further understanding Satrapi’s Persepolis, disclosing the numerous perspectives that one can take while reading this graphic narrative, I found my thoughts paralleled by the questions asked by Kendall Manifould, specifically regarding memory. The one that drove the argument in Kendall’s post considered this: “Is memory a reliable source for recounting events?” She went into detail about the importance of remembering and the significance of forgetting, describing how “it is one’s duty to remember and be a witness to important events. It is the brave, and noble, thing to do”.

Based on my personal experiences, it seems inevitable that people remember things how they want to. The emotions that they attach to certain memories, both during the event and after it takes place, guide their judgements and shape their actions and character. This is the view that I took while reading Persepolis. The way that Satrapi wrote about her childhood experiences seems to confirm this point, as she tells readers her story in the way that she wants to portray it, which is not necessarily how it occurred. However, the common theme through my class’ blogs is that Satrapi’s honesty in her writing and the pictures in her frames provoke questions of innocence, childhood, and the significance of remembering traumatic events.

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