Weekly Championing 11
I have another filled championing to do because, since I've been out-of-internship and have convocated my way out of school (aside from still being a graduate student . . . deferred, you know?), I've had a lot of time to read.
In the last week I've finished four books, including Tina Fey's Bossypants and Pultizer Prize winner Paul Harding's Tinkers. But, as good as I did find those books, I'm leaving my championing to the two others I finished (and a third I finished a few months ago).
So, first let me champion the following two books: Safe Area Gorazde and Palestine, both by Joe Sacco.
Both are graphic novels based on Joe Sacco's reporting from war zones and refugee camps and they're amazing. Both of them were super eye opening as to the plight the Bosnians suffered at the hands of the Serbs during the Bosnian War and to the plight of the Palestinians in Palestine/Israel.
Neither are very interested in telling both sides of the story. Indeed, Safe Area Gorazde managed to make me completely unsympathetic to the Serbs and Palestine made is very difficult to be sympathetic to the Israelis, but I know that, in reading these books, I wasn't that interested in looking at a balanced account because I feel like both of these books are telling the stories of people we don't hear too much about in the United States. I know that I had very little knowledge on the wars that went on during the breakup of Yugoslavia beyond knowing the name of Slobodan Milosevic and I had even less knowledge about the Palestinians.
I just really appreciated hearing untold stories, even if those stories are not necessarily representative of all the people in that location and I'm grateful to know more about some more recent global conflicts as it really spurs me to think beyond the microcosm I live in and think about how I can broaden my ideas and skills to have some kind of effect in the world at large.
Suffice it to say, while I've been searching for teaching jobs, I'm broadening and expanding my search into a few different fields, too. The interest has always been there but I can honestly trace my belief in acquiring the push to think I may be able to do something with it.
I just want to quote a small passage taken from Palestine, because it really made me stop and think, "Fuck."
"A group of Israeli soldiers topped a Palestinian youth of 12 or 13. The soldiers took cover under an awning and they made the boy remove his keffiyeh and pointed to where he should stand- in the rain.
"Perhaps for the boy it was one of dozens of humiliations bad enough in his personal scheme of things, but no worse than others he'd experienced . . . I don't know.
"And I'd come to the occupation and I found what I'd come to find, and here it was again, and something else, too.
"The boy stood there and answered their questions, and what choice did he have? But what was he thinking? Was it, one day it will be a better world and these soldiers and I will great each other as neighbors? Or was it simply one day- one day!
"And beyond the particular abuses of this time and place, beyond the really big questions- the status of Jerusalem, the future of the settlements, the return of the refugees, etc.- which must be raised and then hurdled if there ever it to be peace, is something else- And if I'd guessed before I got here, and found with little astonishment once I'd arrived what can happen to someone who thinks he has all the power, what of this: What becomes of someone when he believes himself to have none?"
I think that reading books like these completely put my existence into perspective. Nothing I deal with is anything like what these people go through/went through on a daily basis. Every time something goes wrong for me I kind of just put my head down and keep moving.
And speaking of crappy lives . . . How about some fiction!
My second championing goes to The Hunger Games which I just finished, quite literally, about half an hour ago. I know, I know. I'm late to the party. Everyone probably read this book a million years ago.
I'm slow on the uptake. I can't help it.
Anyway, it was really good. Katniss Everdeen was a super great addition to the growing pantheon of lady heroes. I also wish that she was at least 18, instead of 16, because then I could have a proper and perfectly legal crush on her.
It was shockingly violent. I wasn't expecting that because it's a YA book, but dude. Talk about violence and death.
Still, even with the violence, I'd definitely give this book to my little girl (while also showing her episodes of Buffy and Xena) because there simply can never be enough women for her to look up to who are smart, resourceful, strong, serious, and aware. And, for that matter, I'd give this book to any boy, too, because it's just as important for them to see those kind of girls represented in their media, too.
So if you haven't done so already, read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Check back tomorrow for a review of the Xena episode The Bitter Suite, a super awesome musical episode that was easily one of the creative high points of a show that reveled in its creativity.
In the last week I've finished four books, including Tina Fey's Bossypants and Pultizer Prize winner Paul Harding's Tinkers. But, as good as I did find those books, I'm leaving my championing to the two others I finished (and a third I finished a few months ago).
So, first let me champion the following two books: Safe Area Gorazde and Palestine, both by Joe Sacco.
Both are graphic novels based on Joe Sacco's reporting from war zones and refugee camps and they're amazing. Both of them were super eye opening as to the plight the Bosnians suffered at the hands of the Serbs during the Bosnian War and to the plight of the Palestinians in Palestine/Israel.
Neither are very interested in telling both sides of the story. Indeed, Safe Area Gorazde managed to make me completely unsympathetic to the Serbs and Palestine made is very difficult to be sympathetic to the Israelis, but I know that, in reading these books, I wasn't that interested in looking at a balanced account because I feel like both of these books are telling the stories of people we don't hear too much about in the United States. I know that I had very little knowledge on the wars that went on during the breakup of Yugoslavia beyond knowing the name of Slobodan Milosevic and I had even less knowledge about the Palestinians.
I just really appreciated hearing untold stories, even if those stories are not necessarily representative of all the people in that location and I'm grateful to know more about some more recent global conflicts as it really spurs me to think beyond the microcosm I live in and think about how I can broaden my ideas and skills to have some kind of effect in the world at large.
Suffice it to say, while I've been searching for teaching jobs, I'm broadening and expanding my search into a few different fields, too. The interest has always been there but I can honestly trace my belief in acquiring the push to think I may be able to do something with it.
I just want to quote a small passage taken from Palestine, because it really made me stop and think, "Fuck."
"A group of Israeli soldiers topped a Palestinian youth of 12 or 13. The soldiers took cover under an awning and they made the boy remove his keffiyeh and pointed to where he should stand- in the rain.
"Perhaps for the boy it was one of dozens of humiliations bad enough in his personal scheme of things, but no worse than others he'd experienced . . . I don't know.
"And I'd come to the occupation and I found what I'd come to find, and here it was again, and something else, too.
"The boy stood there and answered their questions, and what choice did he have? But what was he thinking? Was it, one day it will be a better world and these soldiers and I will great each other as neighbors? Or was it simply one day- one day!
"And beyond the particular abuses of this time and place, beyond the really big questions- the status of Jerusalem, the future of the settlements, the return of the refugees, etc.- which must be raised and then hurdled if there ever it to be peace, is something else- And if I'd guessed before I got here, and found with little astonishment once I'd arrived what can happen to someone who thinks he has all the power, what of this: What becomes of someone when he believes himself to have none?"
I think that reading books like these completely put my existence into perspective. Nothing I deal with is anything like what these people go through/went through on a daily basis. Every time something goes wrong for me I kind of just put my head down and keep moving.
And speaking of crappy lives . . . How about some fiction!
My second championing goes to The Hunger Games which I just finished, quite literally, about half an hour ago. I know, I know. I'm late to the party. Everyone probably read this book a million years ago.
I'm slow on the uptake. I can't help it.
Anyway, it was really good. Katniss Everdeen was a super great addition to the growing pantheon of lady heroes. I also wish that she was at least 18, instead of 16, because then I could have a proper and perfectly legal crush on her.
It was shockingly violent. I wasn't expecting that because it's a YA book, but dude. Talk about violence and death.
Still, even with the violence, I'd definitely give this book to my little girl (while also showing her episodes of Buffy and Xena) because there simply can never be enough women for her to look up to who are smart, resourceful, strong, serious, and aware. And, for that matter, I'd give this book to any boy, too, because it's just as important for them to see those kind of girls represented in their media, too.
So if you haven't done so already, read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Check back tomorrow for a review of the Xena episode The Bitter Suite, a super awesome musical episode that was easily one of the creative high points of a show that reveled in its creativity.