Hey everyone! Last week, my ASTU class ventured over to the UBC archives to explore Joy Kogawa’s fond, so this week everyone blogged about their fieldtrip experiences. It was really interesting to see what people got out of this experience, especially because a lot of the documents people wrote about I didn’t get a chance to see myself and I thoroughly enjoyed reading many of your blogs!
While looking through the blogs, I noticed that many people brought up how interesting it was to see many of Kogawa’s drafts. Sandra, for example, stated “seeing a writer’s progress is always a rather engaging experience, as one can trace a writer’s initial piece to the final product”. I thought this was very well put. When I was reading Obasan, I was not thinking about Kogawa’s first drafts, as it’s not often that we get the opportunity to see the author’s entire writing process. Ryan was also intrigued by Kogawa’s drafts. He talked about having a feeling of satisfaction and authenticity while having pages of the author’s handwriting in front of him. Ryan also brings up the fact that the Internet has the tendency of decreasing the value of different pieces of art, and the case is the same for Obasan as millions of people are reading the same published version. Isaiah also brought up the negative aspect of the Internet saying, “in the age where everything is accessible by media we often forget the beauty and complexities behind a piece of writing. I was really glad that Ryan and Isaiah brought this up in their blogs because although it may sound silly, we’re very lucky to have access to Kogawa’s original documents in today’s world, which is increasingly being controlled by the Internet.
Moving on, I really liked how Magda talked about “hidden treasures” in her blog. As the librarian told us, all of the folders had labels on the side of them, describing what kind of documents were inside, but sometimes things completely unrelated were found. While flipping through the folders, I remember finding an unlabelled envelope that had a picture of a man, but there was no indication of who it was. It was really interesting to see items like that, and it left me wanting to know how he was part of Joy Kogawa’s process of writing Obasan!
Overall, I found this experience extremely interesting and showed me how long and difficult the process is to write a book. It was awesome having the chance to read everyone’s blogs; it’s been a great first semester!
See everyone soon,
-Kate
Hi Kate,
I want to leave a comment about Isaiah’s blog you mentioned before. (http://blogs.ubc.ca/isaiahfinkelstein/)
“In the age where everything is accessible by media we often forget the beauty and complexities behind a piece of writing.“
This is a really interesting thought and I have to admit that when I heard that the documents in the archive are not available online I was kind of surprised for a second. This second of surprise made me realize how used we are to this constant availability of information through the new media and technology. Furthermore I realized that everything in the archives seemed slower but not in a bad way. I guess “calm“ describes how the archives made me feel better.
They seem to give you space and time to look behind the scenes of a book and learn more about the author and his or her story. I really enjoyed this experience and I am glad that places like these still exist.
Paolina
Hi Kate,
I really enjoyed reading your class blog! Since I definitely did not get the opportunity to read a lot of the blogs this week due to the overload of assignments due this time of the year. You definitely recommended some of the unique blogs posted this week! In addition, I wholeheartedly agree that going into the UBC Archives library made Obasan more real and that it opened our eyes on what it was truly like to be an author. On the other hand, with the talk of Isaiah’s blog and how we “often forget the beauty and complexities behind a piece of writing”. I find that so accurate, as back when there was no technology, everyone was forced to write by hand. In addition, it feels as if we’re losing our own sense of culture/history, as our past generations grew up writing. I must say, I do remember a news report where there was controversy on losing sight at writing at a young age since kids are now being taught to type very early in their education.
Moving forward, looking at Magda’s blog on how she found the title name before Obasan. Personally, I actually do like the old title, however I find the title she chose unique to a sense in which you have to read the story to understand it. Nonetheless, if I could ask one question, it would be, if the title wasn’t Obasan and it was “If I must Remember”, do you think that it would change how people view the book? and would it still hold that strong representative of a symbol in Japanese-Canadian history?
Anyways, loved the class blog!
-Mel
In response to Melissa’s comment, I was drawn towards your statement that you feel that “we’re losing our own sense of culture/history”, because of the increase of technology such as the internet. This is quite a strong statement, and though culture could be argued to be increasingly homogenized as a result of globalization, I would argue that our history is most definitely not being lost. Our culture is ever-changing, but not necessarily lost. Of course old ways are being pushed aside for new, possibly more rational and efficient ways. Our history on the other hand is now more accessible than ever before because of the internet. The teaching methods are also much more inclusive of more controversial events. So while I partially agree that culture is somewhat being lost, I would argue that it is evolving as opposed to lost. When it comes to history, I strongly believe that we our more aware of our history than ever before. Anyways, that’s my two cents, hope you enjoy!
Ryan