Month: December 2012

Did you know that UBC has an archive full of historical documents about Vancouver? It is located in the basement of the Koerner library and on a cold misty day, we CAP students were lucky enough to spend a lesson in the toasty warmth of the Rare Books and Special Collections wing of the archives.

Amongst the bits and bobs of ephemera stored away in neatly labelled folders, I came across Colin Upton’s comic book collection and fished out a short smaller-than-A5 sized comic titled “Bible Stories for Atheists #1: The Flood” (You can find this comic in Colin Upton comic books Folder 1-6, Box 1). Colin Upton is a Canadian cartoonist who grew up in Vancouver, hence his collection in UBC’s archives. This particular comic that I was attracted to was self-published and intended to be sold for 75 cents a piece to anyone who was interested. The story is as follows…

Noah is ushering animals into his ark and his wife is having a hard time believing that the great flood as predicted by God is actually happening. She thinks that the flood is not fair for those who haven’t sinned. When she confronts Noah with her thoughts, he replies with “ […] God commands it! How dare you question God’s will!”. In a rage, Noah’s wife runs into the ark and burns it down with a torch. She then screams up to the sky, telling God that without humans on earth, “No one [will be] left to suffer for your sick amusement”. The rain stops but Noah is not happy. He kills his wife by beating her with his walking stick and drowning her in a puddle of water. Noah then apologizes to God, blaming his failure on his wife and the comic ends with him walking away and saying that he needs a drink.

My initial reaction to this comic was one of humour. Being an atheist myself (and when I say atheist, I use the term very lightly), I felt like I could appreciate this parody in all it’s comedic glory, however, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered where the line should be drawn. Is it alright to write about a well known bible story in this way just because it’s funny? I suppose the medium in which this joke has been conveyed was suitable, but what do you theists out there think about this? The purpose of this short blog was to bring up the idea of parodies of religious stories to light and hopefully collect some opinions on this matter.

Sources:

http://hicandhoc.tumblr.com/post/24156497295/bible-stories-for-atheists-by-colin-upton

Two summers ago, I was fortunate enough to go to Nairobi in Kenya with a group of people from my school where we helped to renovate a primary school located on a farm. On top of many life lessons that I took home with me, one outstanding aspect of the culture that I experience there lied in the way that I was enthusiastically greeted by complete strangers. Everywhere we went, whether it was driving clumsily down bumpy roads or walking through bustling streets, toddlers and small children would run up to us shouting “How are you!” with the brightest smiles on their faces. Also, waving to random locals from the bus windows was almost always appreciated and completely normal. When we were working at the school, the children would come right up to us and ask us questions whilst running their fingers through our hair and touching our clothes.

During the evenings when we had free time to rest before dinner, we would talk about the hospitality and gratitude that we were being greeted with and how we wished it was the same back in England. I wondered why the differences between cultures was so extreme. After much consideration, I realised the reasoning behind the saying of how people who have nothing are much happier than people who have everything. The places that we visited in Kenya were surrounded by poverty and the smallest things that many of us take for granted everyday could bring the greatest joy to the people that I met there. In their society, it was totally acceptable for them to welcome us with such openness because, I suppose, they had nothing to lose. In comparison to our society, where I feel as though my every movement is being judged by my peers according to silent socially constructed rules, the pressure of losing respect in terms of my social status outweighs any possible benefits that I may reap by greeting another person in such a loud, vulnerable way. With all these complex concepts in mind, a simple smile given to a stranger would probably stir some sort of negative suspicion.

When it comes to making life long friends, maybe it is better to keep one’s guard up until one feels that their friend is trustworthy enough. I must admit that those happy greetings will be missed greatly whilst I’m away.

Finals are over, you’ve arrived back home and you’re snuggled under a blanket whilst watching snow fall from the sky, glistening under the moonlight. What are you thinking about? In these moments, I find myself contemplating what it means to ‘be an individual’ – an abstract concept that has always puzzled my mind.

Recently, through the process of making new friends and settling into university life, I’ve been experiencing a strange urge to quickly decide on my taste in music, fashion and so on. I feel as though it is time for me to form an opinion on as many topics as I can think of just as a basis to making myself a more interesting person. Perhaps this was ignited when I was given the assignment to write a five page essay on ‘taste’ in History of Music, or maybe these thoughts are the result of a build up of doubt about what exactly it is that I’m doing studying a CAP course. Either way, living on campus which is swarming with young people flaunting their trendiest winter jackets was bound to make me question myself about my tastes. So why is it so important to focus on developing one’s taste? Well, in UBC, a place which is dominated by hipsters on longboards, I feel as though the idea of whether you are an individual or not leans towards the side of obscurity. In other words, the more unknown bands you listen to and the faster you fall into new fashion trends, the more connected you are to your own identity as somebody who is different from everyone else. Those of you who have studied popular culture and media will understand what I mean when I say that this all adds to your social and cultural capital. And those of you who don’t, well, think of the hours spent on YouTube finding a nice song as an investment into making yourself more unique.

Perhaps you care not for what others think of you, but this blog was written under the assumption that at the end of the day, everybody wants to be different and praised for their difference. Through the way that one holds oneself as well as through materialism, a depth to one’s personality can be  put on display for the rest of the world to see. With this in mind, maybe it’s time to start saving up for that Aritzia sweater.

Last summer, I spent a month in Beijing learning the language of my people. In between the three hour lectures and struggling over re-pronouncing long lost phonemes, we had some spare time to explore the area.

Whilst searching for souvenirs, I stumbled upon an artistic neighbourhood known as the 798 art district. This area was named after and formed around an old abandoned factory located in the northeast corner of the city. It was built during the 1950s under Chairman Mao’s reign, hence the communist motivational statements, such as ‘Long Live Chairman Mao’, printed across the ceiling in large red chinese characters.

798 district was the result of the people’s rebellion against this time of creative inhibition. The collaboration and experimentation between and among artists is evident in the scattered collections of sculptures and art galleries within the district. In this act of ex-corporation, which is the process by which the subordinate make their own culture out of the resources and commodities provided by the dominant system, a controversial popular culture was born. Artists soon branched out to using other types of material, such as fiberglass, paint and different types of metals, to further develop their messages.

One sculpture that caught my eye was a peculiar piece by Liu Qiang titled ‘29h59’59’. It depicts masses of naked people climbing over one another towards an animal’s udders who growls angrily yet succumbs to this unpleasant treatment. There are several ways to interpret this work. Initially, I saw this as a daring portrayal of the act of drinking cows milk and how very unnatural it is to depend on the milk of the mother of another species for healthy growth. Further contemplation of this art work led me to think about how the title ‘29h59’59’ related to the sculpture itself.