I’ve gathered some links for you, both recommended and required, to check out that relate to Missing Sarah:
- Required: For Tues, Nov 22, please watch this CBC interview with Maggie and Jeanie de Vries (~9 minutes long).
- Recommended: you may want to read this interview, “You May Think That, But,” with Maggie de Vries in the journal Canadian Literature, in which she discusses how she wrote Missing Sarah. *Note: link goes to database page: you will need to be logged in through UBC Library / your CWL to access it. If the link doesn’t work, put the title into Summon.
- Recommended: You might be interested in checking out a couple of films related to Missing Sarah: one is Through a Blue Lens (full-length via YT), a “scared-straight” anti-drug documentary made by the Vancouver Police on the Downtown Eastside, featuring the life narratives of several addicts. (If you watched it in high school, I’d recommend watching it again in this new context.) There is also a new feature-length film, On the Farm, that tells the story of the women killed by Pickton, using a fictionalized composite character. (Watch the whole thing here, through the CBC.) I haven’t seen this film yet and therefore can’t gauge how graphic or upsetting it might be – practice self-care if you decide to check it out.
Blog Post 5 (due at noon, Nov 21. Remember late posts are not accepted):
For our final post this term, you have 2 options:
- Write a standard research post. This can be a good place to try out some of the ideas of your lit review, for example, or to explore new materials.
- Create an auto/biographical representation – a gif, self-portrait, playlist, spoken word performance, whatever – that you share in the blog along with a description of about 300 words that reflects on the process of creating it. Explain the choices you made, including choice of genre and medium, content, etc., and how it works to represent you, or some aspect of you, or to reflect on or summarize an experience (“my first term at UBC,” perhaps?). Remember the posts are public to anyone with a CWL.
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3518151
Maya’s blog post on her digital self-portrat opened my mind to think about the complexities of portraying our ‘self’ to a broad audience, thus making me empathise with authors of life narratives. Through applying our knowledge of Goffman from Sociology, Maya made her point clear and concise – we show and hide parts of our ‘self’ based on who is watching; however when the audience consists of the different groups, how do we show the best qualities of ourselves that would be “universally acceptable?” Though I feel there is no right answer to this insightful question Maya brought up, it still allows us to add to scholarly conversation – applying our Sociology knowledge with ASTU.
I really liked paige’s first year student haiku. Like the life narratives we have been reading in class, Paige wrote a haiku to represent not only her first year experience, but others as well. I thought it was pretty ture to what my first year experience has been so far, with having a ton of work, starting out new and meeting lots of new, wonderful people. I also liked that she used the form of a haiku as one of the reasons why she chose to write one. When I write I don’t typically think about how form reflects what my purpose is. This class has taught me to consider form and I think paige’s blog post is reflective of that.
I really enjoyed reading through Eva’s post about how she incorporated various aspects of her family into her self-portrait. I liked how in taking parts that are not on her physically, she is still able to create an image that represents her identity. It emphasizes the impact that the people we interact with daily have on us, and how much of ourselves are shaped by the actions and personalities of others. In doing so, it makes me think of my own actions everyday, and how it might impact the people around me. It’s interesting that just by reading makes you question yourself, and your role in society. In connection with life narratives, I wonder if this is the goal of the text. I really enjoyed observing and gaining insight to all the details and meaning Eva portrayed through her art.
The following are my blog comments on the indicated people’s blogs (also posted on their blogs):
Sam Zettera
I enjoyed reading your blog Sam and also listening to some of the songs in the playlist that you shared. I know a lot of the bands and singers that you have in your playlist, but I don’t actually know any of the songs in your playlist. I know Marc Cohn from his song “Walking in Memphis,” Rob Thomas from his song “little wonders,” Tenth Avenue North from their song “worn” and a few others. Listening to the songs in your playlist reminded me of these songs. I have not listened to them in a long time but hearing them again brings back memories and the emotions I felt when listening to these songs. It also reminds of the mental space I was in when these songs were still on my playlist. Like you said, “it is the memories associated with the song that makes it so important.”
Gabriela Santana Ufret
Your Gif reminded me about, like you said, “the beauty of the natural world,” but what caught my attention was that your Gif is from an Apple commercial. It brings to my attention that many commercials feature a use of the beauty of nature. If you look at car commercials, most of them take place in vibrant new places and different landscapes instead of on a normal city road. If you also look at the commercials for athletic clothing you can see that they also feature the nature and its beauty. I wonder if the use of nature in commercials is to excite us into buying their product by connecting nature with our own desires to travel the world or like you said, moving “towards a life of new understanding.”
Elena, Sam Z, Sam G, Alex O, and Alex R all created playlists to represent themselves. They focus on how the songs they chose describe a specific aspect of themselves that contribute to who they are today. They emphasize the internal transformations that are constantly happening within them through the accumulation of experiences and emotions, and how music helps to represent these shifts. Songs, painting, and photography are forms of self-expression that rely on symbolism and interpretation. In regards to music, someone can listen to a song and not completely understand what it means to another person. Music elicits emotion that cannot be described to another person for it to be understood, it must be felt itself. I feel that this observation relates to the concept of audience segregation that Maya mentioned in her blog post. Although songs help create a mosaic of memories and feeling, these memories and feelings are never completely displayed to other people because we are still protected by the symbolic nature of music. This still allows everyone, who seems to be sharing a part of themselves with their music, to still protect themselves from the audience. Ultimately, we constantly protect ourselves from public scrutiny, and therefore self-representation can often skew the actual picture in ways we do not realize.
Out of the blogs I read, they all discussed a form of self-representation, and the ability of a seemingly simple task that can serve a more complex purpose. I particularly took note of Alex R’s and Andrew’s blogs because they discussed music as a form of self-representation, as did I. I agree with Alex R’s words on how it is difficult to capture the entirety of oneself. As words are not always enough, music, as well as other forms of art can help people express themselves through creative means. After reading Paige’s Haiku, I found that such a small piece of writing can have so much meaning – again, showing the complexity of something seemingly little. From these blogs about self-representation, I notice how creativity seems to play a role in which one expresses themselves. This reminds me of Missing Sarah and how although Sarah had a difficult life, she still managed to find creativity in order to represent herself, showing its importance.
In Paige?s blog, she mentions that through her Haiku, she wanted to ?rebut what the media has portrayed as the life of a first year student? by giving her own personal response to her experiences and emotions in her first term at UBC. I think that it important what Paige has chosen to point out about how the media has framed first year students into a single description of being excessive partiers and mentally unhealthy. This is important because it points out that the media and popular/hegemonic sources have too much control over how groups of people are represented. Simply by writing this blog and creating awareness of this issue as well as voicing her own representation of herself, she is working to counter the stereotypes of the media. Paige?s blog, including all of the other blogs that had the goal of self-representation, connect to the concept of the ?single story? that Alex C discusses in his blog. Alex mentions that we should always ask ourselves: ?What are we not being shown?? when it comes to the media. He discusses how the single stories that are portrayed of groups of people in the media can create stereotypes and affect the way we act and react to being in these groups. Overall, it is essential that we not only continue to question the media but that we take action in solving the issues presented.
In Paige’s blog, she mentions that through her Haiku, she wanted to “rebut what the media has portrayed as the life of a first year student” by giving her own personal response to her experiences and emotions in her first term at UBC. I think that it important what Paige has chosen to point out about how the media has framed first year students into a single description of being excessive partiers and mentally unhealthy. This is important because it points out that the media and popular/hegemonic sources have too much control over how groups of people are represented. Simply by writing this blog and creating awareness of this issue as well as voicing her own representation of herself, she is working to counter the stereotypes of the media. Paige’s blog, including all of the other blogs that had the goal of self-representation, connect to the concept of the “single story” that Alex C discusses in his blog. Alex mentions that we should always ask ourselves: “What are we not being shown?” when it comes to the media. He discusses how the single stories that are portrayed of groups of people in the media can create stereotypes and affect the way we act and react to being in these groups. Overall, it is essential that we not only continue to question the media but that we take action in solving the issues presented.
In their blog posts, Kwezi and Anna both discussed hegemonic frames and their destructive consequences. These frames are persistent in the media and create a false representation of the female victims. This representation detracts from a person’s humanity and makes her to blame for being attacked. Through this victim blaming it becomes impossible to consider the social structures that forced these women to where they ended up. It was these social structures that reminded Sarah that she was not part of the DeVries family. Her sense of loss was a result of the treatment she received. The media representations of her do not consider this, nor do they consider the stories of all the other women who were taken. This blindness makes it so that the hegemonic structure of society is allowed to continue, which then creates a cyclical structure in society. A cycle in which the poor remain poor and the privileged remain privileged.
I have really enjoyed reading the blog’s about self-representation. Paige’s blog about the haiku she wrote representing her first year at university is a representation I of an experience that I can relate to. Through reading them I am reminded that one can express themselves in more ways than just writing. For example, self expression as we see can take place through artwork, gif’s, or music (as well as many other mediums). As we have explored how different life writing can be interpreted and how that interpretation can alter how the public perceives the author this term, and I wonder if similar controversy arises when an individual is perceived through other forms of self expression. I also wonder if there is a greater chance of a misinterpretation when expressing yourself in a medium other than writing. Is the artwork that is created as self representation open to as much critique as life writing, or is it deemed a more artistic medium and therefore dismissed as have to represent in a certain way?
Reading through the blogs, I was most intrigued by those who decided to depict their life and experiences through music. Since music is created to showcase personal experiences of the singer such as relationships or a life altering event, it intrigues me how one can apply that particular song to an aspect of their life as well. Reading Alex’s, Elena’s and Sam’s blogs all portrayed how they similarly were able to apply various songs to their emotions and experiences at different points in their life. Thus, I believe that this is an effective medium for an auto/biographical representation.
In the blogs of both Natasha and Maddie they discussed the world is moving around me by Laferrière though discussed them in different ways. Maddie focused on the healing side of the autobiography while Natasha talked about how Laferrière was the person to write about the earthquake because he knew the culture and was there when it occurred. Maddie pulled out a good quote from the world is moving around me mentioning how Laferrière seemed to need to write to make him feel stable and safe. Both of these posts gave me two different views of how one can write about the world is moving around me and allowed me to see how many different interpretations one book can have.