Waltz With Bashir

Wow, this movie was so amazing!  I loved that this film had the qualities of a documentary where we were hearing someone's personal account and also the excitement of an animated film where we get to see the characters as they move through the events that they are describing to us.  Even though the events that we were seeing were animated, it seemed as though the animation was a channel through which the viewer  could create their own reality.  The real-life clips at the end proved the fact that what we were seeing was the real deal, the actual story of a man who attributed to the Palestinian suffering.  It builds up the story and breaks your heart with its results.

I enjoyed that in this film we got to see the opposite side of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  We saw the mechanics of the fight from the Palestinian side in Paradise Now and were able to see the struggles that they have to endure.  In Waltz With Bashir we get to see the Israeli side of the story, and I found that where I had previously not been able to sympathize with the Israeli side this opened my mind to the different struggles and suffering that people of both sides were subject to.  

The movie was all around moving, I am very glad that we were able to watch it. 

Does My Head Look Big In This?

During my freshman orientation here at Western as we were walking the campus we passed a Muslim woman.  Having always lived in Kalamazoo and having ben on campus many times starting back when I was just a toddler, this was not my first time seeing a Muslim woman on campus, and I had learned early in my life that this was a part of someone's lifestyle and I should be respectful.   This woman was completely covered up in a pale pink scarf, with matching long sleeved shirt and pants made of this flowing material.  All you could see of her were her eyes.  I remember thinking that she was beautiful...

And then one of the boys in my group yelled out to her "What the hell?!  It's summer, what are you wearing? "  Our group leader told him to be quiet, and he proceeded to whisper to all of us, "she looks like a clown."  

God, just telling this story still makes my blood boil.  I told you this story because it shows the horrible lack of respect and understanding that many American teens and adults have for Muslim women.  I felt that in reading Does My Head look Big In This we got our first good look at the ignorance of many westernized people towards those women who choose to wear the veil, and got our first inside look at a woman (or girl) under the veil while living in western society.  I loved seeing the normalcy and humanity of Amal, the way that she felt so passionate about wearing the veil and the pride she held in knowing that it was more than a fashion statement, it was a symbol of devotion to her God.  It makes me wonder if the woman what the woman we saw on campus that summer was thinking.  I had assumed she would be embarrassed and sad, and who could blame her?  But now I wonder if on top of that she might have experienced a moment of pride for representing her faith and enduring the torment of those who do not understand it.

I really enjoyed this book, it was kind of a rest for our brains and I have a soft spot for the drama of teen literature.  I think that even though the material was not as heavy as what we had previously read, it effectively took us into the mind of a modern Muslim girl and gave us a priceless view of the ignorance that many westernized people posses when it comes to Middle Eastern religion and culture.  To me this novel really communicated that, yup, there is a human being under that veil, and they are very much the same as you and me.

Arranged

While I can't say that the film "Arranged" was my favorite that we have watched, I thought that it did the job of introducing us to the East in the West section very well.  It was a relief, actually, to see some Middle Eastern culture in a different and more familiar setting.  A lot of what we discuss in this class deals with Middle Eastern tensions, this was similar except that the tensions that we were able to see in this film were easier to relate to because it was in a familiar setting and, for me at least, it was possible to relate the characters in this film to everyday life as it is lived here in the US.  

I like the way that the film showed  these two women living their lives not only faithful to their religions but to their cultural backgrounds; even in the midst of our fast paced American society, they were true to their own religions and respectful of what their families wanted for them because of their heritage.  I appreciated the film for how it showed these women living out their religions while still integrating and successfully interacting with modern Americans, and being able to connect with each other across religions, whether that be between themselves or with the students that they were teaching.  

My big problem with the film was that everything was resolved so easily.  Both woman found their happy ending, which is good, but I was left wondering what the chances of this really happening were.  Can it be that simple for women of Middle Eastern religion to assimilate into our American world?  Something tells me that it is not, and that is a major flaw in the film's message.  It feels like the film took the easy way out.

Readings From The Square Moon

I really loved reading these stories.  I love supernatural type stories so reading these two was a lot of fun for me.  I especially enjoyed The Metallic Crocodile, which succeeded in creeping me out as I walked to my class in the dark right after reading it!

I think that the first story said a lot about the integration of East into West.  I enjoyed seeing the way that Abdul integrated his cultural mindset into his life in France and into his romantic life, and the contrast between the two.  The way that he viewed his options for marriage were interesting.  He could have Nadine, who was a free spirit, or a wife chosen for him who would obey his every whim, be the cat who he could behead when it misbehaved.  In one way it made sense for him to choose the young wife who would follow his whims, but on the other hand it would clash with the French culture into which he had integrated himself.  I found the ending of this story satisfying.  That he did not make a final decision made sense to me, because the options for a wife presented to him both clashed with his lifestyle in some way, either through his native culture or through the culture of France where he was residing.  And I have to admit, I agree with Katie in the sense that I found Nadine to be almost too much of a feminist for my taste.

The second story was intriguing for seeing the way that Middle Eastern people went through the process of gaining citizenship in a westernized country.  It was pretty horrifying to see the fear of these people and the treatment that they were receiving from this more "civilized" culture.  It was an eye-opener to me to see citizens of the more modernized French culture act this way toward citizens from another, foreign culture. But I think the supernatural events of the story were the worst part for me, they were just strange and really made me frightened after reading.  But I also enjoyed the stories because of this aspect, they were some of the more entertaining short stories that we have read in this class.

Two Women

I loved watching this movie.  Seeing these two Middle Eastern women in a setting that is so common to us, a university, was something that I had been waiting to see in one of these films for a long time.  It seems that so far in the media we have encountered we saw women only mentioned in the background as being educated or uneducated, so seeing these women actively attending a university was refreshing.  It helped me make a deeper connection to these women.   The whole film was so powerful.  To see this beautiful and intelligent woman being brought to her knees by the cruelty of men was terrible, but it was interesting to think that the same things are being done in our own country.  Domestic violence here plays a similar role in demeaning women in the US.  

What I felt was the most shocking thing to observe in this film was the way that simple rights taken away from Fereshtah were what dehumanized her the most.  Not being able to use a telephone, attend school, answer the door when the doorbell rings, or even leave your property for a few moments is so damaging to the human spirit.  All of these little things add up to the horrible power that Fereshtah's husband had over her.

The end of the film was the most powerful part for me.  Seeing that Fereshtah been so strongly under the influence of her husband's control that once he had died she did not know how to move on with her freedom brought tears to my eyes.  It made me think, if I had relied so strongly on someone all that time, would I know what to do with my freedom?  I think I would be just as lost and terrified about moving on.  What else would I know to do?

Best film we have watched in this class, great pick group!

Year of the Elephant

I was exited to start this novel because I have really been enjoying our section on Middle Eastern women, but after I had finished the whole thing I just didn't feel that it was what I was hoping for.  I liked the main woman in the story; she had a good presence the novel.  In fact I admired all of the female characters of the novel for their dedication to their country and the strength that they showed protecting it.  I think that the novel had a lot to say politically and did a good job of doing this from a woman's point of view, but did not say enough to us about  Middle Eastern women in general, at least not things that we didn't already know.  

So the story that we experienced in this novel didn't particularly inspire me or make me ask any critical questions.  I think we've been experiencing this cycle in the class where we have different topics that we are supposed to be discussing but we always come back to the same things, and it makes it so that we exhaust the discussions of these books before we have even begun them.  This showed during our discussion of this book I think, we just seemed to fade out before the discussion could go anywhere.  I think the group did fine picking a novel that was interesting and a good portrayal of Middle Eastern women, I just don't think the novel was beneficial to out class at this point.  Had we read it earlier in the semester when much of this was still new information, we might have had a lot more to say about it.

  

Guest Speakers

I really enjoyed hearing from our guest speakers on Tuesday.  To get a firsthand account from women who practice Islam and can understand the way that Islam is applied to woman and Middle Eastern society is a treat, and I particularly enjoyed hearing from two different women of varying ages, from different regions and with different methods of practicing Islam.  I though that the presentation that was given yo us was very useful in helping us to understand the place that women have in Islam and that, much like our ideals in Christianity, women are to be treated with respect and it is acknowledged that woman are created from men and are to be considered equals with them.  I like how she made the distinction between what Islam says about female treatment and what is actually practiced.  There is a discrepancy there, but this is the kind of pattern that one would find in any society, under any religion.  We tend to associate violence against women with a problem concerning Islam, but she made it clear to us that this was not the case; rather it is caused by a problem with society not obeying the laws of Islam.  I found this presentation very helpful in understanding divisions between religious and societal standards in the Middle East.  

Hearing from two different speakers made the conversation much more interesting.  I wish we could have had some more time hearing from our second speaker because I enjoyed that she had a more modern take on Islamic life and applied some useful real life examples for us.  I was especially appreciative that she said she had many friends who were not religious at all, and yet she was accepted by them while practicing her faith.  This sort of made me wonder, if the people of Islam can accept all types of practices within their faith, why must Americans still generalize that all Islamic men look down on women and all Islamic women must veil themselves to be loved?  Again, it is misunderstanding between religion and culture. 

 

Memed, My Hawk

Okay, honesty time.  I haven't completed this novel yet.  There are a few factors playing into this, the biggest one being that I have been very crunched for time as our big Thanksgiving get together draws ever nearer.  What I have read of the novel I have loved, and I had kind of hoped to write a paper on it, but that might have to wait until our final paper.  It's sad to read about these Turkish people being so depressed in their own home, but I love the relationships that we are seeing building in this novel.  There is something beautiful about the way that the characters interact, and from what was said during our class discussion I am sure that it only gets better as the novel moves on.  

So I hope the have this novel done in time to (maybe) use it for my final paper, but for now I'm still plugging along through it.  I'll add to this post once I am finished.  

Turkish Films

 I knew I was behind in my blogging, but I kept having this nagging feeling that there was something else as well.  It finally hit me tonight, I missed the Turkish films blog.  Sincerest apologies.  

I really enjoyed seeing the clips about Turkey, but to be honest I didn't learn much that was new to me.  I was already aware of the headscarf debate and the issue of honor killing from research that I had done in another class.  It was a nice refresher course for these two topics, and I really think that they fit the purpose of the class, but it was just my own personal situation where I had already been exposed to the material and consequently spent the duration of the time thinking, "I know this already."  Even so I was able to appreciate the very powerful visuals that these two films presented.  

I was trying very hard to enjoy our discussion, but I am just greatly uncomfortable discussing honor killing.  I know it is an important topic of discussion for our class, but I was hesitant to get involved in our class conversation.  I made the discussion to talk about honor killing in my religion class, and was surprised at myself when I got so choked up over the topic that I had to pretend the presentation was over before I had shared all of my information.  I don't know, it just is one of those things that makes me go really quiet...

I did have an interesting thought when we were discussing the headscarf issue though.  I remember back in elementary school the girls in my class went through this obsession with wearing headscarves, not like the ones we saw in the film but those little triangular ones that only cover the top of the head.  I think I had about twenty of them, and I remember my friends and I being very proud of wearing them around school.  However, they were banned after about a month because the school was afraid that we might be hiding weapons under them.  We were outraged, but this was just a silly fashion statement.  The women in Turkey are being told not  to wear their headscarves which serve as a representation os themselves, their beliefs, their modesty, their devotion.  My own headscarf "problem" is nothing compared to the horrible humiliation and punishment that these woman face by attempting to wear theirs.  Making these connections helped me realize that I can try to sympathize with these woman, but I will never truly know what is going on there or what the woman in Turkey are up against.  Having your teacher ask "can you please take your headscarf off?" is very different from having it ripped from your head.

Turkish Short Stories and Dr. Mirzeler

I have to be honest, the short stories that were assigned to us to read for Tuesday made very little sense to me.  Maybe it was that I don't know much about Turkish culture yet, but the stories just came off as strange and confusing to me.  I don't have too much to say about them right now because I was waiting for our class discussion to see what everyone else thought about them and how they would be interpreted.  Hopefully we will be able to discuss them during our next class session, but we could not have had a better reason not to discuss on Tuesday.  Hearing from Doctor Mirzeler was wonderful.  

I really enjoyed our visit from Doctor Mirzeler, he is a truly interesting speaker!  I was very appreciative that he provided some background information for us while we read Memed, My Hawk, and he spoke so artfully of his homeland that as I went to continue reading the novel I felt like I could better envision the scenery of the story.  It was interesting to hear his opinions on the issues dealt with in the movies we watched, a lot of his own experiences with these issues backed up the ideas that we had discussed after watching the movies.

Of course the most powerful part of his visit was his account of his own family's experience with honor killing.  Even I, who have no siblings, could feel the choking horror of being told to kill a sister.  The thought is sad, and I am thankful that he was not forced to go through with the crime.  I was impressed that he was so willing to talk to us about it and was fascinated that he brought up the point that there is such extreme social pressure to commit an honor killing, something which we were also able to see in the films we viewed.  It was a great honor to have these accounts brought to our class, and I wish we could have had some more time with Doctor Mirzeler.

Paradise Now

When I watch a movie, I like to try to put myself into one of the character's shoes.  I think that this is the best way to understand the message of the film, to just put yourself in there and get the emotion of the characters into your own soul.  However, as I watched Paradise Now I was having trouble placing myself in the position of any of the characters because I simply could not imagine what I would be feeling in their place.  Would I be angry about giving up my life, or would I feel honored that I had been chosen to go forth and make a stand for my country?  Would I be able to keep this secret from my family?  Probably not.  The emotion in this film was so raw, it was difficult to understand the characters' true intentions.  It was very powerful for me just to realize that I did not have the capacity to understand what was going through the minds of these characters, and  to realize that they are representations of real people who sacrifice their lives.  The end of the film had me sitting in complete shock (I'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a minute)  as I took in everything that the story had to offer.  

I thought it was interesting to see a face given to the people who participate in these suicide bombings, and see just how dedicated and sincere about their actions they really are.  Although I don't believe I could ever be driven to something as drastic as killing myself and others to promote my cause, it does make me feel a little lame thinking that the things I am truly passionate about, many that have no significance to anyone other than me, I would not be willing to go to these lengths to defend.  It's an eye opener to just how passionate these suicide bombers are when it comes to their cause.  

This movie said a lot about not only the ongoing fights between Israel and Palestine, but about the people that live there and just how human they are; in many ways their way of life and their families are just like ours.  The modern scenery in the movie, much of which I found comparable to scenery here in the US, made me realize that the struggles of these people are just as possible for Americans should we meet the same pressure as was faced by the people portrayed in this film.

Short Stories

I enjoyed our class discussion about the Arabic short stories that I picked out for all of us.  I was a little afraid of how everyone would receive them, but it seemed that almost everyone found some kind of pleasure in them, whether it was for their content or not.  I chose the first story, "The Lawsuit", because I thought that for such a small story it spoke volumes about how relationships work in the Middle East, and I was happy to see that others were making these same connections.  I really wanted us to have a piece of literature that was not so direct in the way it presented Middle Eastern culture, that we could spend some time analyzing and making connections over, and I think this story really accomplished that.  I felt that this was the first time we had analyzed anything for its context in literature, and that really made my day.  I really liked the point that was made about the narrator being unreliable, it made me view the events of  the story and the emotions of the characters in a whole different light.

As for the second story, "A Long Term Plan", while I think that it had less merit to the class as far as furthering our purpose of learning about the Middle East, but I enjoyed seeing people's reactions to the character in this story.  Some of you were so angry at this character!  It was fun to discuss this story solely because I liked seeing the reactions people had to the protagonist.  I also think that this story had a lot do do not just with the Middle East but with all of humanity, and the eternal struggle that we all must overcome and that sometimes feels so fruitless.  Something about the last lines of this story is just so powerful, isn't it?  

"Why, then, had this miracle taken place?  It doesn't make sense.  It doesn't make sense, O Lord." 

Gold Dust

First of all, I want to thank everyone for participating in reading this book that our group assigned.  I was very nervous about how everyone would receive it, and I could see that there were some in the class who enjoyed the text and others who were not so keen on it.  That's fine, good even because it benefits discussion in our class.  I appreciate that everyone had an opinion on the novel, and am glad that in this class we are free to express these opinions.

Now for my own opinion on the novel.  At first I was not sure where the story was going.  I had read part of a novel by this same author before this, and was aware that he uses the desert setting in an interpretive way, and often represents human spiritualism through animals.  Because of this prior knowledge, I was looking for religious symbolism in the novel.  I was able to make a connection between the devotion that Ukhyyad felt toward the piebald and the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins, wrath, gluttony, envy, lust, sloth, greed, and pride.  I felt that all of these sins were represented in the relationship between boy and camel, and in the end did just what they could be expected to do; they dismantled an otherwise good and prosperous life.  The relationship that Ukhyyad had with his camel was certainly out of the norm to our audience, but I believe that to the Middle Eastern reader it would have ben steeped in in religious meaning.  

I also came to appreciate that the novel was a desert setting with nomadic people.  It was more difficult to understand the characters because of the less modern society in this novel, but I liked this aspect of the story because it was a side of Middle Eastern culture that I had not experienced before.  I really ended up enjoying this novel more than what I had originally planned, and am glad that we assigned it to the class, even though it was clear that not everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.  

Children's Books

On Thursday we were assigned to read the two children's books, "The Day of Ahmed's Secret" and "Sami and the Time of the Troubles."  The first read through of these stories, I was impressed with them.  I thought the first story, on top of being very cute, was a good example of the way that children of the Middle East celebrate the same self-accomplishments that young children here in the US would feel proud of.  The second story was a bit darker and held a little more weight for me.  The perspective of a young child being caught in the middle of a war was somewhat startling.  However, what really contributed the stories was being able to see the pictures that went with them.  

For "The Day of Ahmed's Secret",  I found the illustrations of everyday life in a Middle Eastern big city to be intriguing.  I thought that in many ways the illustrations were a good mix of modern Middle East and the traditional and more culture focused Middle East.  We held  discussion in class about the stereotypical images that we saw within the drawings, my own opinion is that these images were not that startling.  I think sometimes we confuse what is stereotypical and what is cultural, it's a pretty fine line.  So we need to be aware that sometimes, the things that we see that we deem as stereotypical, a word which is synonymous with "bad", it's possible that we are actually seeing the truth.

"Sami and the Time of the Troubles" had a much darker theme running through it, and after seeing the artwork I thought that it was absolutely beautiful.  It retained the language of a children's story while still telling a tragic tale about a boy whose home and life were being torn apart by a war.  The most striking part to me was the picture of the two boys playing guns, as though they were preparing themselves to fight this war in the future.  The conversation that was brought up by this book was intriguing and made me feel very sad.  Also, I think the entire class was able to agree that this was a better representation of modern life in the Middle East.

Although these two novels were somewhat heavy subject material, I don't believe that they were inappropriate for children because they relate to issues that Middle Eastern children are facing.  Children's books do not have to be light and fluffy to convey a relevant message to their target audience, and their audience does not have to be strictly children.  We have children's books here in America that deal with divorce, death, being an outcast, many topics that would not normally be considered "child friendly."  A good point came up during our class discussion, that children understand more than we think they do, and  just might perceive things more clearly than adults can through their carefully monitored social lenses. 

War in the Land of Egypt

I found the novel that we read for the first group presentations, War in the Land of Egypt, to be extremely informative as well as entertaining.  The book presented a really interesting representation of different classes in Egypt, the corruption that the lower classes face, and the way that respect is gained in the eyes of the Egyptian people.  The different characters in the book were all of different importance to the development of the story, and yet it seemed that they were all an integral part of what was transpiring.  I was able to grow fond of many of the characters simply because of their nature in the tough situation that they were facing, and others I grew an instant dislike for, such as the Umda.  What was really interesting to me though was that I grew a big fondness for Masri, who was the one character that we never got to hear from directly.  His situation, the pain brought to his family because of his death and the corruption coming from the classes above him as well as the government, was striking and I found that I sympathized the most with him.  

Hearing from Dr. Mughazy on Tuesday only deepened my appreciation of Masri.  Just the fact that the name Masri represents Egypt gave me a sense of what the character meant to the author of the book, and the weight of meaning that the struggles of the character would have carried to Egyptian readers of the novel.  I thought a lot of interesting points came up during our discussion, some of which shocked me.  The amount of studying that Egyptian people must do in order to succeed, and then not even having a good chance of getting a decent paying job?  It's incredible, and a little scary to think about.  It also showed up in our novel, where Masri studied all of his life and was very successful but still felt that the only way to propel his family forward was to serve in the army, and even  then he could not be guaranteed enough to support his parents and all of his sisters.

One of the most striking things that was mentioned during our discussion was when Angela asked about the reaction of Dr. Mughazy's family when he left Egypt, whether or not he met with disapproval from his family when he came to America.  His answer was something along the lines of, if you can get out you are encouraged to do so.  This carried a lot of weight for me.  It made me think that, while the people of Egypt do respect their country, they realize the corruption that it's government is bringing upon them and are looking for a way out.  I found this one statement to be the most intriguing one that came up in the discussion.

Thank you to the group for choosing this book, I really enjoyed reading it.   

Visiting the Mosque

I really enjoyed our trip to the Kalamazoo Islamic Center on Thursday.  I think that religion is one of the most important ways that people find to connect with each other and so it is important to be understanding and open to religions outside of your own.  I had taken a religion class last year that taught me a little bit about Islam, but nothing could compare to being able to hear about the history and meaning behind the religion from the Imam himself, and being able to see the religion in action.  I wish I could have stayed much longer than I did.  

I was very appreciative of  how the Imam was able to explain to us a lot of the  traditions behind Islam and that he took the  time to correct some of the misconceptions that we might have had about the religion.  For example, the ladies' prayer room being separate not because women are separated from men all together but because they want to protect their pride during prayer times.  I was also appreciative that the Imam was able to make so many connections between Christianity and Islam, which helped me in understanding Islam does not reject Christianity,  but rather does not take all of the same views.  All of this conversation was very accommodating and gave me the feeling that all were welcome in the Mosque.  I was happy to see that the Imam, although he is considered a religious leader, is very much just a normal guy, and I thought that the way he conducted himself during our time there was very welcoming, while still giving us the sense that he was serious about his  faith.

I am interested to see more of this faith in action and am very tempted by his invitation to come and join in on prayer one Friday.  

Comparing Homosexuality in the Middle East and America

On Tuesday we viewed a film that took a look at homosexuality in Middle Eastern men.  It was interesting to see the ways that homosexuality is viewed by people of this different culture and how it can be compared to views of homosexuality as perceived here in America.  Through the course of the film I was able to see many similarities between the perceptions of homosexuality from Middle Eastern viewpoints and the view of Americans.  I think that it was interesting to see that the modern day Middle Eastern men we met in the film were very much like men from our own country in the way that they perceive homosexuality.  They view it as something that is kept in the shadows, only revealing their secret after they have come to terms with it for themselves.  The feeling of needing to keep this way of life underground and the hesitancy to come to terms with it are all tendencies that American men might show when "coming out."  The way that the film represented the emotions that these men go through was very artfully done, and I was able to make many cultural connections between the Middle East and America.  The film also pointed out a lot of social patterns that we find here in the US concerning the gay community that is apparently a worldwide standard.  For example, the comment about the more powerful sexual partner being the one who gets the most credit in the relationship while the more passive partner is thought of more as the weak and less credible person in the relationship.  This is a pattern that I have noticed in the perception of the homosexual community in America, where the one who is more open about their sexual orientation is thought to be stringer and more credible as a human.  From my knowledge of Japanese culture I know that these patterns have also been observed there, something they refer to as seme and uke, where the seme is the more competent sexual partner and gains the most respect in the relationship.  It's interesting to realize that these patterns emerge in many cultures and also interesting to think that they designate some sort of important role to what is normally considered a taboo topic.

I enjoyed the fact that this film presented a little evidence of the history of homosexuality in the Middle East.  I came to understand that it was not always considered such an unacceptable topic and in some places was considered a norm for Middle Eastern men.  I liked that the film put this information in there because it helped to clarify that the presence of homosexuality is just as old in the Middle East as it is anywhere else.

Over all I liked the ideas that were presented in the film and felt that it was a real eye-opener to just how human the people of the middle east are, and how they share many of the same concerns as  people here in our own country.  I was very appreciative of this sort of topic being brought to our attention in a class where we might normally not have focused in such delicate subject matter.  It was a bold move and really helped me to visualize the bigger picture of who Middle Eastern people are.

Blood and Oil

After watching the film "Blood and Oil" I'm really having a hard time forming any sort of concrete opinion about the film and what the meaning behind it is.  I learned a lot from this film about our relations with the Middle East and our dependance on Middle Eastern oil.  I was really very surprised to have this dependance brought to my attention.  This is something that I was always subconsciously aware of but never really thought about in depth because, well, it's just not in my interests.  So my realization of this degree of dependance on the Middle East is rather shocking to me and, considering the now shaky relationship we have with the Middle East, it is a rather scary realization.  This film also helped to make me aware of the involvement of the US in the training of Middle Eastern soldiers as a means of keeping good relations with the people who control the oil that we need so much.  Again I had a subconscious awareness of this but never realized our degree of involvement.

I think the film would have made a bigger impact if it had included more than one person's opinions and if the clips had been more organized to fit the film.  I really felt that the fear factor card was being played throughout the whole film, and to be honest this kind of irked me.  I understand the need to invoke fear to get to action, as Andrew mentioned during our class discussion today, but I just kept thinking throughout watching the film that it was deceptive.  Was I watching a documentary, as the film appeared to be when it first started, or was I witnessing a call to action?  It confused me, and I felt a little manipulated.  

Still, the film does contain some great information and definitely was intriguing in that way.  I'm not so sure I agree with everything that was being conveyed, but I'm glad to have it come to my attention all the same.

I have more to say on this, but I'll have to get back to it later on.

  

Panicking...

Ok, so I've been sick as a dog all weekend and that's made it really difficult to stay caught up on all of the work for this class, but I have been doing some thinking about my Aunt Safiyya paper and I've managed to get some reading done in Anubis.  Here's the deal... I'm not sure this novel is any good for our class.  The way I see it, we are supposed to be studying the people of the Middle East, their culture, religion and general lifestyle.  Well, Anubis started out well, but now that I've moved on to the second part of the book, the main character is full into his spiritual journey in the desert, and his only companions have been gazelle and and mountain goats.  Yeah... 

I still love the book, but I don't think we are supposed to be studying the lives of goats and gazelle.  So I plan on starting my other book, which I know is more character driven, while working my way through the rest of Anubis.  Our group is currently looking for a movie we can use, so that gives us some more material to work with, but I'm a little bit panicked about what we  will be accomplishing within the next three weeks.  

Anubis, A Desert Novel

Yesterday my books that I am reading outside of class finally arrived, much to my relief.  I know I probably could have found them in the campus library but I have a sort of OCD need to own the books I read, so I made the decision to get my own copies.  I delved into the shorter one first, a book titled Anubis, A Desert Novel.  I've gotta admit it... at first I did not understand what was happening.  The first couple of chapters are written very poetically, to the point that you have to abandon what the text is telling you and come up with your own interpretation.  As I kept reading I finally came to understand though.  The book begins at the narrators birth... no, it really does.  The narrator describes it as the sun rising, and for a moment the sky, or the unknown, and the desert, or the known are connected.  For a moment, you know everything, and  then you know nothing and must be taught the names of all you see.  See, just describing it is very poetic, isn't it?  And OK, I admit, I really figured this out because the book is split into three sections, the first of which is titled "Cradle Talk."

Throughout the rest of this first section of the book, we follow the narrator through his days of youth.  We watch as he grows and develops a  sense of curiosity.  The main plot becomes his search for his father, who he remembers only as a shadow of memory from when he was still a baby.  His mother tells him that fathers are not supposed to be known as anything but a memory, and his close friend advises him that fathers know all, that they are prophecy, and prophecy is not to be discovered.  Still, the narrator sets out on a journey to look for his true father, all the while being plagued by strange visions from the spirit world.  At the end of the first section, the narrator returns home having not found his father, and discovers that his mother gave her life for the sake of pulling her son from the spirit world he had been lost in while stranded in the desert.  Time goes by and the truth comes out, it is the local priest who sacrificed the narrators mother for the narrators sake.  Upon meeting the priest again, the narrator stabs him in the neck.  It  is later revealed to him that the priest was his father, the one who knew the prophecies, as the narrator had been told all along.  

 What??

Yeah, this is where I am right now, and I'm not too sure if I should be taking any of the revelations in this book seriously or not.  It really is so poetic, and it's difficult to understand if what they say is true or if it is a metaphor for something else.  So at this point I think I need to keep reading to find out what is really  going on.  I will say this, it took me only one night to get one-third of the way through the book, so even with as confusing as the plot is it draws my attention very easily.  I'm quite exited to keep reading.  

Finishing Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery

Last night, I finished the final chapter of Aunt Safiyya. It far surpassed my expectations in its rich detail and emotionally moving scenes, but I have to say that it left me feeling a little confused in a number of ways. This was mostly because I had trouble putting any sort of theme to this book. Was it about family and the bonds they share? Was it about betrayal? Revenge?

Let me share my initial thoughts upon finishing the book. I found the story to be very well written, giving a clear, sometimes frightening and oftentimes beautiful of life in Egypt. The main character was one that I could appreciate as I watched him grow and learn and, eventually, become a man. And as I believe any good novel should have, there were eccentric background characters whose lives we got a glimpse of. The story kept me going through a cycle of happiness, shock, horror, resolution and wonderment, in short it was great stuff. My favorite scene? The main character driving the cart toward the monastery in the early morning, careening out of control and wondering what punishment his father would administer to him. I found this scene insanely funny among the other more tense scenes, and I believe I scared a few of my co-workers by laughing at this while reading in the break room. Another part of this novel that I enjoyed immensely was the character of Aunt Safiyya. Her sudden transition from beautiful woman with a happy family, to bitter old woman with a vendetta against Harbi is one that both shocked and amazed me. As horrific as she could sometimes be, I found her ability to cut even the most powerful of men down to her level an astounding one in a culture where that is not usually excepted.

Ah, culture. This is where I get lost. I suppose I still do not understand a lot about Middle Eastern culture and lifestyle, but what I had hoped this novel might accomplish was to break down some of the stereotypes and misconceptions I have about the area. However... I'm not sure that happened. In this novel we were introduced to some very good people, people much like ourselves in their family structures and social and religious interactions. The good guys were never portrayed as the stupid Arab with the big mean looking face as we so often see in Hollywood movies. But I honestly never expected them to be portrayed that way. Aunt Safiyya seemed to take a sort of woman's version of that role, and I would not disagree if someone said that she was a cruel woman in her later years, but who am I to say that the death of her husband was not a good enough instigator for her actions? I am no one, because I know so little about the societal and ethical norms of these people. Is what I am seeing such a horrible thing? The little voice in my head says "of course it is you idiot. She wants her own son to be a murderer!" But my reason interjects and tells me "wait, what do you know about the culture and societal norms of these people? Maybe to them this mindset, this need for revenge, is the norm." It makes it so difficult to understand.

And there are other stereotypical actions that occur in this book and get my head spinning. The mother being physically violent toward her girls when they make mistakes. The girls worrying that they would not find a husband because they are educated. I am trying to break down these stereotypes that have taken root in my head, but many portions of this novel seem to support them. I think in this case I need to step back and take a look from Taher's point of view. He wrote his novel for those familiar with the culture, to have specific meaning to them. We look at it from the perspective of another culture, and see it differently. It makes it difficult to pick a theme when we are so caught up in the culture shock.

And so we have come full circle, back to the theme of the book. Earlier I mentioned the themes family, betrayal and revenge. Honestly, I believe Taher intended for all of these to become small messages as part of a bigger theme. His message: The bonds of family and love are strong, and when betrayed, there are horrific consequences. This encompasses Middle Eastern belief and culture and I believe would send a powerful message to Middle Eastern people. Aunt Safiyya, Harbi, everyone in this novel are simply playing a role that represents the reality of the Middle East, and by reading this we have also caught a small glimpse of what it is like to live there.

Aunt Safiyya- Chapters One and Two

I found the first two chapters of Aunt Safiyya very intriguing.  The first thing that really struck me was that the author chose to mesh two religions into the story, something which I found brilliant in the English translation, although I am not sure it was intended to be that way.  The way that Christianity was always in the background of the main story gave me, as a reader familiar with Christianity, a comparison point for the religious and ethic differences in standard between America and the Middle East.  Possibly the most striking thing to me in the story thus far is the detail of Middle Eastern daily life and the similarities that I am able to see to my own lifestyle.  The education process described by the main character, and the family interactions described within the book are strikingly similar to American cultural standards. Already I can feel my preconceptions of what it means to be Middle Eastern shattering and being reformed into something more sensible and less frightening.  

I'm not yet sure what to make of the violent acts described in the second chapter.  I keep trying to tell myself that it is a cultural or religious difference that helps to justify these acts, but the events that took place just seem so universally cruel... I think I will have to finish the story before I can form an opinion about this.  

Reel Bad Arabs

As a communications major, I am intensely interested in how media effects relationships between people and what cultural and social standards it helps to set.  This in mind, as I watched Reel Bad Arabs, I was, to say the least, shocked at what was being brought to my attention.  My knowledge about the Middle East is very limited, but this I know- the place that comes into my imagination is not the place as it really exists.  I was taken aback to realize that all of the misconceptions that appear in American film- the harem if barely clad women, the Arabian man with an angry face and a blood red turban, and the general incivility- are things that I have been picturing all of my life when I think of the words Middle East.  I can't fully blame myself, apparently it has been ingrained into me through media since I was small.  Case in point, Aladdin.  I haven't seen the actual movie in years, but the clips shown in the film gave me flashbacks of men acting savagely, stuffing knives down their throats and sleeping on beds of nails.  The shock only grew from there as a realized that my jaded image of the Middle East was aided by other Hollywood movies, including one of my absolute favorites, True Lies.  As a student very interested in the cultural effects of media, this left me feeling that these films create a sort of cultural brick wall, upon which Hollywood has written graffiti which condemns the Middle East, and we cannot see the real place on the other side of the wall- a place of religion, rich background and most importantly, people just like us.  

Okay, here we go! The first post on this blog, and I warn you now, this is certainly going to be an experiment. I have to admit that even though I came into this course aware of the focus on middle eastern literature, I was not prepared for the amount of involvement that cultural study would have in this course. My first thought: "I'm so confused...". After some thinking: "This could be kinda fun." Now: "How awesome is this class?!" I realize now that I have always been interested in world literature and the culture it introduces, but that there has always been a gap when I think of the middle east. It's like the world is a puzzle and the middle east is that piece that got dropped on the floor, rolled under the table, and will never quite be reached by the broom, so that there is always a gaping hole in the picture. I know so little about this region and its people, and I find myself eager to learn more. As Tamaki Suoh of Ouran High School Host Club would say, "Experiences of all kinds!" May my classmates and I have many of them in this intriguing course.