Gold Dust

When I first started reading this novel, I thought, "I cannot sit through 160 pages of a dude talking about how great this camel is." So I was a bit surprised when, probably around 75 to 100 pages in, I found myself wondering what was going to happen next. A novel about a man losing everything for a camel might seem a little extreme, but I found it to be an interesting look into the hearts of men and how that is shaped by so many things; climate, weather, animals, superstition and religion, play as important a role as the other human characters.

I also found that I had to keep adjusting my image of the characters and setting throughout the novel. When someone says "desert" I tend to picture a vast wasteland, with maybe a cactus or a dead tree, a camel or perhaps a scorpion the only signs of life. But in Gold Dust, the desert is both death and life. It hides oases, mountains, and valleys. There is life to be found for those that know what they are looking for. Also, I had to adjust my idea of what the people living in this region look like. Until I understood that these were Bedouin people, I had trouble picturing the men in "veils". Eventually I looked up a picture, and I thought, "Oh yeah! I get it now!" I liked that the translator took time in the afterward to address the veil, saying that it was not a religious or practical item, but rather a social one, used to manipulate emotion or intimacy. The author makes use of this in the novel; Ukhayyad often will cover his face more when he is confused or hiding something, or when he is unsure of himself. Dudu uses the veil to hide his true nature, even wearing two so that Ukhayyad struggles to understand the meaning of his actions and words.

While I will admit that Ukhayyad's love of his camel is baffling, I enjoyed the anthropo- morphic nature of the novel. If the author had chose to just say, "The camel ran away," "The camel was bleeding," or, "The camel cried out in pain." It would not have had the same effect as, "The camel's heart was not soothed. Distress flickered from his fear-stricken eye sockets(117)." In fact, my heart went out much more to the camel, who was the truest victim of the novel. He was just being a loyal animal, and despite what Ukhayyad felt, could not possibly have understood his circumstances! I wanted to hug him as much as Ukhayyad, despite the fact that most camels are vile creatures. The author is at his most poetic when discussing the camel and his emotions, and gave it feeling of being whimsical while at the same time so tragic. How Shakespearean.

Children's Books!

I was so surprised to hear that so many of the people in our class had not read a children's book in a long time, or that they were not exposed to books like these two when they were growing up. Maybe I am a bit of a dork, but I love children's books and still like to read them, although it is usually for a family member or because I have picked it up in a doctor's office or a friend's house from it's place on the coffee table. When I was a kid, I wanted to write and illustrate children's books, even long after I had moved on to Boxcar Children, Babysitter's Club, and Judy Blume.

I try not to judge children's books to harshly, for the most part. Whenever you are writing about something in a way that is supposed to be simplistic but also will grab the attention of a child, it can be hard to avoid images or texts that some may see as stereotypical or even racist. I think both the stories that we read were wonderful, especially the first one, but it is still important to take the discussion further. Perhaps you could ask the child afterward, "Where do you think this story took place? What is it like there? What are the people like?" And then help them to understand not only how they are different from the child, but also how they are alike. For example, in the first story, you could ask, "Why do you think Ahmed writes his name so differently from how we would write it?" or, "Do you think that everyone in Cairo dresses this way?" Reading to children is important, but it is only a small step in their development. If there is no discussion about the issues, the story may be remembered for it's bright colors, and nothing more.

I thought I would include some books on here that are different than what most of us think of when we are talking about children's literature:

I remember reading this book in elementary school. It's about a boy learning about his grandfather and the Vietnam War. I don't remember much about it, except it made me kind of sad and I wanted to go look at the wall.










This book tells the story of a family going through a divorce, and how although it is difficult, Dinah's parents still love her, and although things are changing, many things will be the same. My cousin's had a book very similar to this one when we were growing up. I remember it scared me but also helped me understand what they were going through.




This is a story about four animals that live together, but then the fox dies. The book talks about remembering all the wonderful things about Fox, and about how that keeps him with the other animals in their hearts. I also had a book similar to this one growing up. I don't remember when it was originally bought for me, but I do remember reading it and being just... mad. So I guess it moved me on to that second stage of grief! Oh well...

And there are books that deal with even heavier subjects...

Some of the best new books deal with different families...

War in the Land of Egypt

I just got War in the Land of Egypt in the mail Saturday (thank God, no mail on Columbus Day!), and finished reading it this morning. It was an easy read, and pretty interesting. I liked the idea of each progressive character tell a part of the story, it was a neat way get all the perspectives without being in third person. Sometimes at the beginning of new chapters I would have to remind myself who was speaking, but after a page or two it wasn't a big deal. I also liked how the characters talked to the reader, but not that they were aware of being in a chapter in a book. It kind of reminded me of 9 Parts of Desire, but the play made it seem like you were a witness to the events, the characters didn't know that they were actually in a play. Whenever they would say something like, "As the author of this chapter..." I would become annoyed that they were taking me out of the story. For something so emotional, I don't want to be constantly reminded I am reading a book, I want to use my imagination! Isn't that what we learned on Reading Rainbow?

The story itself was quite good; original and heartbreaking, while still being relatable and at times even ironic or comical. I found myself at first understanding the umda, but then later hating him. I was astonished at the watchman for allowing his son to go in place of the umda's son, then heartbroken when I saw him struggling with his son's death and with a force larger than himself. The Friend makes us see Masri as a human being, struggling with his ideas about family, country, duty, and self. One can feel the Officer and the Investigator's stories make us feel their frustration as the powers that be rule over everyone and make the final decisions.

The government and the bureaucracy surrounding it are so ridiculous it is hard not to find comedy in it's dark topics. The satire at times drips from the pages, as we see the auther, Yusuf Al-Qa'id writing a dark critique of the Egyptian government around the time of the 1973 October War between the lines of the novel. In fact, it is mentioned on the back of book that it was banned in Egypt.


More to come.. break time!

The Road to Love

(Warning: The following is quite rambling, I had no idea what I was going to say!) 

I have mixed feelings about the movie that we watched in class last Tuesday. I thought that the issues in the Arabic and Muslim community dealing with homosexuality were important to talk about, and made for a great discussion. I also thought that it was daring and admirable to talk about a topic that is considered by many to be taboo. But I had a difficult time connecting with the characters in the movie, mostly I believe because of the style it was shot in. I liked the idea of it being a "documentary," but I think that they could have done a better job of making the movie run seamlessly. If they hadn't been so focused on making the movie look like a documentary, I think we could have gotten a better understanding of the characters if it was addressed from an omniscient view instead.

However by the end of the movie, I found the lead character, Karim to be a relatable, sympathetic character. I found it interesting that the character was struggling with his sexuality in his later twenties, but thought it made sense, being that homosexuality is seen as such a taboo among many Muslim people. That may have been one of the most important issues brought up in the movie. In Western culture, many people find themselves learning about their own sexuality somewhere between middle school and college. They are often allowed much more contact with not only people of the opposite sex, but outside their own families in general, and can develop their own sense of self away from the expectation of their family.

I wish we would have seen more about Karim's relationship with his girlfriend, and how if changed as he allowed himself to understand who he was. I especially would have liked to see relationships between gay men that were not so adolescent and more mature, so it did not seem like sexuality was a game being played by a bunch of kids. The relationships between the men in the movie came off extremely awkward at times, but that makes sense, because Karim was at a place where he was just learning how to act in this new part of himself. Have you ever seen middle school kids flirting at the mall? That is what it felt like watching the movie. I found it hard to watch at times not because of the gay relationships, but because it made me remember my own early fumblings into adulthood. Oh, cringe!

9 Parts of Desire

Last Thursday I went to opening night of 9 Parts of Desire at the York Arena Theater. It is a play by Heather Raffo, which she performed as a one-woman show. In Western's production, six women took on the nine varying characters, which include a doctor, intellectual, expatriate, and a young American woman, to name a few. The York Arena Theater is a black box theater, and the actors performed in the middle of the room surrounded by the audience. I love black box theaters, and thought it was the perfect choice for such an intimate play.

All of the actors in the play did a spectacular job of truly embodying the women they were portraying, and their heart-felt portrayals made it seem like you were a part of the characters' stories. One of the best parts of the event actually occurred after the play, when they held a talk-back with the actors and director. One audience member brought up that he was very impressed with the women's accents, and they revealed that they had worked with the family that owns Tiffany's Liquor on their authenticity. The family was actually in the audience, and it was touching to see them speak with the women about the relationship they had developed. The family had emigrated to the US 40 years ago. They said that the play was more than they could have imagined, and they saw themselves and their friends from Iraq in the characters. (I'm sorry I don't have their names in here, I am sure they are in the program, but I don't currently have it with me!)

Attached is a interview with Heather Raffo, with clips of her performing in 9 Parts of Desire:

Blood and Oil

I had never seen the movie Blood and Oil before, but most of the information was not new to me. Watching things like this just make me so angry. We are supposed to be the greatest country in the world, but even though we have know since after WWII that we were going to become dependent on other countries for oil to use in our energy needs, we did nothing about it. If we had vigorously invested in alternative energy research, where could we be at today? But instead we compromised our national values and made deal after deal with countries that were not democracies, that suppressed their own people and had horrible records when it came to environment, religious, and economic policies. We gave weapons to countries to defend the oil we wanted that were quickly turned around and led directly to the invasion of Kosovo by Iraq and the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. We helped to overthrow democratically elected leaders in order to put in radicals that happen to support our oil agenda.

I'll rant more on this later..