Baghdad Diaries

                  I am in the group that is reading Diaries of Baghdad and watching a film.  I have not quite finished the first half of the book yet, but I have already found it interesting.  Granted, it is not the most exciting book, but it has an interesting and important viewpoint on the Americans’ wars in Iraq.  The diary is written by a woman who is, if I am not mistaken, at least fifty years old.  She is unmarried and has not mentioned ever having a husband.  This in itself I found interesting, because usually we hear love stories portrayed by or about Middle Eastern women, since marriage is such an important aspect of the Middle East.

                  I have picked up bits and pieces of the diary here and there that have really popped out at me.  One was how the author mentioned that war was unusual in Iraq before the war involving Kuwait.  I found this statement eye-opening, since in my naivety, I had assumed that there was probably much war there just like in other laces in the Middle East.  Her statement about Baghdad being punished for wrongdoing, and other nations not being punished, to be thought-provoking.  She said something to the effect that every nation makes mistakes, so why is Iraq being punished so severely?  This is a peculiar point of view.  Another interesting thing was that she did not want to call herself an Arab at one point in the book.  Finally, She mentioned that there seem to be three dominant images of the Middle East in the West: terrorists, Sheikhs, and women covered in black.  My thoughts on this were that they should not be the dominant views, but the latter two are nevertheless somewhat peculiar to the Middle East, are they not?

                  Finally, one last thing I observed in the book was the constant referral to different pets that the author and others had.  Being an animal lover and working for a vet clinic, I naturally found this fascinating.  I had no idea that pets were important in Iraqi culture.  Neat!

Opinionated Me

                  Lately class has left me slightly frustrated.  I do not agree with many of the opinions on the topics we have been discussing, but have not been up to arguing my points (bad excuse, I know).  Two such issues that I have issues with are Orientalism and imperialism.  I do not necessarily agree with a positive view toward Orientalism or imperialism.  But I also will not discount all of the positive aspects that I have heard about either in my previous years of study.  I will not discredit everything good that the “West” along with the bad.  I think it is very easy for us to get carried away with our own opinions, especially as passionate students, and begin to regard them as fact.  But I will not take other’s opinions as my own without critical consideration.

I also have an issue with the idea that the majority of people in the US believe we should support Israel and that the majority villainize the Palestinians and Arabs.  Everywhere around me, I constantly hear the opposite: I hear people saying how the US has showed undue support for Israel.  I also hear many people feel incredibly guilty the instant they hear anything about the American media or people misrepresenting and/or villainizing the Palestinians and/or Arabs (even if they personally have done nothing wrong).  Now maybe these views are prevalent because I am frequently on campus, and students have vastly different viewpoints than previous American generations.  But just the same, I hear both sides of these two issues constantly being represented.  If these views can be linked to conservatism and liberalism, I think it is safe to say that liberalism seems to be increasing in numbers, while conservatism is decreasing.

                  I say all of this because we definitely began to delve into some politics last class period.  I am in know way saying that we should villainize the Arabs.  I am personally very conservative, but do not think we should villainize other human beings.  But I enjoy Dr. Webb’s class because he permits open discussion is happy when we do not all agree!   

Ps- I thought the little cartoon was hilarious!!!

            I enjoyed the reading that Dr. Webb assigned for class this week ("The 'Middle East'? Or ... / Arabic Literature and the Postcolonial Prediciament" by Magda M. Al-Nowaihi (p. 282-303)).  I thought the author was exactly right when he said he could not write such a short essay over the “Middle East.”  I think that is an important concept we often forget: the “Middle East” is such a vague concept, and comprises many countries.  Each area of the Middle East that contains a few “similar” countries is different, each  individual country is different, and even each area within each country is different. 

This also reminds me of our talking about stereotypes in the last couple of classes.  Before we disregard every stereotype that we have about the Middle East (there I go using the same term), I think we should realize that some may be partly true.  But even if some of our stereotypes have some truth in them, they often come from only one small area in the Middle East.  Even if a specific stereotype, such as oppression of women, is true, it may only be true in a specific area. 

This is an important concept because many people want to condemn all stereotypes, especially students belonging to a “new” generation.  Students are prone to defy information inherited from previous generations, wishing to discover “new” information never before discovered.  (I know I may be going on a tangent, but it is something that I have been contemplating for a long time, even before this class.)  The desire to discover new information is not inherently bad, because it is what encourages new inventions to be made, etc; but we also must realize that we use the information gained from previous generations (that once was considered “new” as well) to be able to discover what is “new” today.

            So anyway, the purpose of that tangent was to get all of us to think even more deeply about stereotypes we have inherited, and the “information” (some true, some false) by which they were conceived, and to reconsider (again) the entire Orientalist view. 

 

A Pigeon and a Boy, the First Two Chapters

            I have started my outside reading with a book titled A Pigeon and a Boy.  It is a novel written by Meir Shalev, and originally published in Hebrew as Yona V’naar in 2006.  It was translated into English and published in the United States in 2007.

                  Chapter one starts out with an old man describing a battle that he was in, and an old pigeon raiser that let a pigeon go free right before dying in the battle.  We learn that the author is listening to the story; he is a travel guide, leading a group of tourists (bird watchers, I believe) in modern Israel.  The book is addressed to his mother, whom he appears to be writing a letter to about his experiences.  The first chapter is somewhat detached from the second, and I have not figured out the exact relationship between the author, the old man telling the story, and the pigeon raiser.  We also get a glimpse in this chapter into the author’s failing marriage.

                  Chapter two takes us back to the author’s childhood, and tells us about his experiences as he grows up in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  His father, whom he affectionately calls Yordad (Your Dad), is a well-known pediatrician.   He has a brother named Benjamin, whom he is always jealous of because of his abilities.  His mother’s name is Raya, and she is an independent-minded woman.  The author is obviously very attached to both his parents, but especially his mother, and constantly details exactly how he saw or heard his mother react in any given situation.  He relates many stories of his childhood, including their move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that seemed to break his mother’s heart.  The second chapter is sad, though, as it chronicles how his parents drifted apart, and eventually his mother leaves his father and moves to a different part of town.  The chapter continues to relate different stories and memories, all the way until the author and his brother are married and his mother dies at a young age.

                  I can’t wait to see what happens in the next chapters… so far, the author brings in several different “trails,” and I can’t wait to see how he brings them all together!

My Under-Developed Ideas!!!!

            Dr. Webb said that our blogs could be our under-developed ideas… so here are my under-developed ideas!  I certainly have many!

                  First, I have learned many new things about Orientalism in this past week, especially since I have not had much exposure to it before.  I think that the whole concept is very intriguing, and have not understood the breadth of it until now.  One thing that we talked about in class that particularly intrigued me was the way that we romanticized those people we call “Orientals,” while at the same time labeling them “barbaric.”  I guess the two terms do not have to contradict each other, but I always thought of “romantic” as having a positive connotation, while “barbaric,” of course, as having a negative connotation.  I think it is interesting how we think of the Orient as a beautiful place, while also being frightened of it, because it is so different from our own culture.    And because it is such a different culture, I think we tend to think of the people there as being totally different than ourselves, when in reality, humans are humans, no matter where on the globe they live.

                  Another interesting idea about Orientalism is the veil that it tends to create, and the dialogue that veil prevents.  This is ironic, though, because Orientalism also fosters a general interest in the “other” culture.  But usually that interest is satisfied only by reading about the “other” culture, instead of experiencing that culture for oneself.  The problem is that, if one does experience another culture, he will probably want to write about his experiences; but experiences are always viewed through the eyes of the one experiencing, and may be totally different from what someone else would experience.  No two people experience the same thing (or culture) the same way.  I think that is why when one reads a travel guide and then travels to that same place, he does not always think that the guide was accurate.

                  So there are my unfinished thoughts from class the other day!  I hope to be able to delve deeper into some of these ideas, and answer some of my own questions!

                  

First Look into This Class...

I am very excited about this class, though a little intimidated, too!  I think this class and its awesome focus on Middle Eastern literature is going to be an amazing journey!  Even more, I am very excited about my group, Israeli Literature.  I cannot wait to see what interesting things I can find out about Israeli literature, especially since I have never really read any of it before!

                  The book that we have been reading together, Orientalism, has been very intriguing so far.  I have heard about Orientalism before, and have a rough idea of what it is, but have not studied it in depth until now.  The book and what we have discussed in class so far has caused me to contemplate my world view and how it has been affected by being raised in the West.  Until now I never would have thought that there could have been a different “North” and “South,” or a different map of the world, if they had been based on an un-European point of view.  I had also not realized the greatness of the tragedies that happened to many of the indigenous people of the lands that were being colonized by European nations.  All of these new realizations has caused me to think much more deeply about my worldview. 

                  Also, I really enjoyed the article that we read about Dr. Webb’s book that is going to be published.  I was very impressed with how much research was involved with the class that the article was about, how many different sorts of activities the students participated in for the class, and how many student quotes there were in the article (even though Dr. Webb said that there had been many more before the article was published).  I am thrilled and honored that Dr. Webb is having us help him with this book project!

                  See you all in class tomorrow!