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11/11 Notes
-culture is constructed, other cultures seem “WIERD” to us
-children learn by active teaching = “WIERD” ; parents take active role
-teaching keeps you focused on one goal, doesn’t help w/ brain growth
-every book suggests that another book might give us a fuller picture (kgould’s post on the graphic novel Palestine)
-ckosarek: Ofed Grosbar’s “The Drama of the Suicide Terrorist”
western view: internal, personal, we would never die for a collectivist society, “private act”
eastern: collectivist, feel tied to culture
-Americans don’t have a unified culture to protect
-May not be the view from all of the western countries
-individual interviews, anecdotal
-doesn’t back up claims/generalizations w/ percentages, facts
-Berko divorces collectivism by speaking about individual groups, separates men vs. women, and dispatchers and the suicide bombers, puts them against one another
-conflict: being a Israeli woman interviewing Palestinians
-have been under occupation, suicide bombers are a way of fighting back
-more information from the women, but stressed emotions in men
-women as suicide bombers: fade in to the background, don’t call as much attention as men, clothes can hide bombs, men can’t search women
-in the book, women have conflict with families, and honor, and try to run away from consequences
-women as tools by other men
-can get more liberties while going through training
-gets respect
-challenges some social roles, but plays in to the ones that a woman has to sacrifice for the family
-don’t focus on the courage it takes to carry out a suicide bomb, something casual, machine like, don’t think about death
-emphasizes fear, marginalization
-brings out frightened adolescent story: familiar
Individual/Collective
English Majors (WIERD)
-Individualistic, interpret it on your own
-less aware of “WIERD-ness” of other forms of literature
-valorize the creative, idiosyncratic
Comp Lit Majors
-group canon
-bring in other perspective
Bio Majors
-collective, building off knowledge
-when you isolate something, you have to look at the whole
History Major
-collective, drawing larger conclusions about time and place
Sociology
-collective, how society relates to the individuals
-how it affects the group, not individuals
Cities
-collective, different groups affect the city
-individuals matter in how they affect the whole
East Asain Studies
-collective history, language
-dynasty
Education
-collective aims, individual approaches/focus (maybe too much??)
Anthropology
-collective, every society has its own distinct characteristics, but don’t look at them in isolation, comparative
Math
-abstract
-if you don’t apply math to anything, can’t understand it
-use math, to apply it to human life
-something outside of us, but we have made it around us, studies things that affect us
Arne Naess: life would be better without humans
Gender
-personal is political
-nothing outside of politics
-everything motivated, or interpreted through politics
-person’s life is affected by societal expectation, can’t escape that because society won’t back you up (need job, honor, etc)
-author says: personal is personal, looks for individual examples
-book implies but doesn’t exchange in political analysis
-but they can become suicide bombers because of cultural/social/political reasons
-large offset in data
-can’t interview successful suicide bombers, catch 22, can’t successfully understand them
-these people failed because they changed their minds when seeing victims as humans, child was present, malfunctions, couldn’t get through security checkpoints, guilt, fear, maybe some wanted to get caught
-if they would do it again, then they would serve that purpose, no way of knowing if they are genuine
Dispatchers:
-absent father figure
-mellow undertone, didn’t have fiery undertone of suicide bombers, detached, no responsibility
-Jewish friends, but can still become a dispatcher; don’t have to face the victims directly
-power, detachment of dispatchers vs. fragility, marginalization of suicide bombers
Work of Fiction
-validity
-changing stories
-personal reality becomes overall reality
What would be the next book:
-read on collectivism, opposite view, perhaps: graphic novel Palestine, history of suicide bombing, the Qur’an, get an idea of Israeli perspective, living in both communities, observing
-if you give an English major a book…many next steps
-everything changes the story
-any individual act is always scripted politically
-personal is personal but channeled politically,
-most readily available outlet for their frustration
-the bigger picture could be the Palestinian collective aims
-Palestinian kids ask army, vice versa
-understand how they live
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