Hello everyone, I hope the last week treated you all well.

Today’s blog will be focused on the lovely Joy Kogawa (Picture here: http://www.joykogawa.ca/uploads/1/0/1/1/10119078/7069_orig.jpg). Kogawa is a Canadian author and poet and she is mostly known due to her novel, Obasan. This book can be considered a semi-autobiography, because although the story and its characters are fictional, the events which transpire in throughout the novel are heavily inspired by Joy Kogawa’s own experiences. What experiences would these be, you ask? Those based on the Japanese internment in Canada. No doubt you’ve all heard of the American one during World War II, the one where American citizens of Japanese descent were forced to leave their homes and enter what can basically be called a work camp in order to “protect” the West Coast from invasion. Well, the same event occurred in Canada, but perhaps they had it worse. For while the Japanese-Americans were allowed to return to their homes, their Canadian counterparts received no such compensation and instead were forced to move East, leaving their homes and possessions behind. Kogawa wrote Obasan as an attempt to bring to light these crimes committed by the Canadian government against its own people and through hard work and dedication, the message came across.

There was overwhelming support for Kogawa when she published her book, a feat in and of itself, and many found themselves thanking her for the courage in putting this story out to the people. While in the UBC archives, I found many letters from people around the world thanking her for what she did, and expressing their admiration for her. These letters came in all shapes and sizes: Postcards, letters, poems, etc. Some even had students asking for her help in writing papers about her! It truly was touching seeing such happiness and appreciation in these letters (Although some were a bit hard to read). My favorite one came from a 5^th grader who, in broken English, expressed sadness over the fact that Kogawa had to leave her home stating that: “Some people should be punched in the nose.” The really had me laughing for a long time! And the cherry on top was a drawing of himself, I assume, shouting: “Kill those turkeys!” It’ll be a long time before I forget that 5^th grader from Ontario.

That’s all I got for the day, thank you so much for reading and today I recommend reading Obasan! It can get a bit slow, especially near the end, but it is a very important book and will leave you truly feeling the plight of these people. I leave its Wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obasan. Have a great week everyone!

Hello everyone, hope you all have had a great week! For this week’s blog, I’ll be talking about Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Goražde. Like Persepolis, this book is in the style of a comic book, or graphic novel. It talks about a United Nations enclave during the Bosnian War, which lasted from 1992-1995, in the city of Goražde. This city had experienced some horrendous crimes against it (even horrendous isn’t a strong enough adjective) and investigative reporter Joe Sacco took it upon himself to learn about the lives of these people, spend time interacting them, and get to know them better in order to tell their tale.

However, despite sharing the same genre as Satrapi’s book, Sacco’s book pulls no punches when retelling the gruesome story of these people. While Persepolis used imagery and certain symbols to represent death and violence, such as imagining a cut up person like this: http://satrapism.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/kic0000013.jpg.

Gorazde presents violence without holding back, like this: http://www.giraffedays.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Gorazde-panel1-751×1024.jpg.

Very clear difference in the two. I aim to compare the two and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.

For Goražde, by presenting a realistic and dark form of storytelling, it is better able to present the issues and problems the people there have faced. The reader isn’t fooled on the situation there, it’s horrible and the book makes a clear objective to point this out. Downplaying these people’s stories would be severely disrespecting them and for this reason, Sacco drew their stories as he heard them. Herein lays a key difference between the two: Persepolis was written by a survivor, Safe Area Goraždewas written about the survivors. Because Satrapi lived through these ordeals, she expresses how hard it is to draw or write about certain experiences. This is one of the reasons why she draws in her certain style. Sacco, however, isn’t plagued by these memories, thus allowing him to draw the more gruesome images without bringing up trauma. This realistic style can put off people. I personally know how difficult to read some of the pages are, and I know many people who would put the book away because of it. Persepolis doesn’t suffer that problem, because although the book’s style might seem childish and simple, it leaves the horror to the imagination of the reader; all while still being readable.

I highly recommend this book to you guys. But be warned, it is no Persepolis and in many pages you will lose faith in humanity (literally). But you’ll emerge a more knowledgeable person and will be aware of the worst humans can offer, but also the best. Safe Area Goraždeis a story about survival, and there is hope to be found in the book.

That’s all I have for today, thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a good week!