*if you only get to read one of these, that is okay. I'm noticing I've crunched a lot into this semester. When I used these books in a previous spring semester, we had almost two to three more weeks in that semester.
Before I talk about our next set of four books, I’d like to reply to some posts and questions. Mary Posted about what constitutes scholarship and art. My colleagues in the School of Theater and Dance would probably argue that dance/movement is art and research and scholarly. I think back to how I was taught about art in the 70s in college—mostly painting, sculpture and drawing counted. And Western Euro artists. The histories of our definitions in the Western world are multiple—and yet the menus of what we are offered to study are so narrow and very traditional (referring to what others say about if art even is research). By me challenging if something is art, have I become an unknowing gatekeeper of definitions and western truths? Mary posted about being confused as where lines should be drawn. If I think about that in dogmatic and practical terms, that’s pretty much why we have so much violence in the Middle East—the Western world drew lines without much regard to people’s histories and values. Lines divide us—can some lines bring us together? What about sight-impaired folks? What is art/ful for them? I wonder how I have been conditioned so narrowly in art and other areas of my life as to what can count and what can’t count—read as art, as good teaching, as learning, etc. If art can be process/product/sound/movement/idea/action/political/eco/thoughts/--it seems there might be room for lots more.
For example, Lily Yeh doesn't hand people solutions, she talks to and with them and listens to them. Is it possible for me/us to listen to students? I grew up with white working class hospitality and an ethic that I helped anyone who needed help. Some do not have this luxury and fear or have pride of not appearing to not know.
About project ideas—Ahmad posted about creating a video inspired by games. Susan posted about personalizing de-cluttering in terms of inner voices and pasts. Mary posted about labyrinths. There is one in Lubbock at a Presbyterian church on Salem. They advertise it on the local NPR station. I'm looking forward to checking on the beginnings of blogs that people posted this past week. Halle posted about classroom teachers being forced to learn and take over arts teaching in schools. Not a bad idea entirely, for them to learn more about art. In the State of Texas, more school districts are adding art teachers at least. Jennifer posted about Lily Yeh and listening and healing--how's that for a pedagogical strategy and in her case a art-based ideology and methodology. Keep in mind, that art making = research. Art making is research. Always has been.
Our second book is a series of books titled I Live Here by Mia Kirschner. These may be very difficult books to get through. See if you can. She co-creates/collaborates four artist books telling stories through journal writing, images, novellas, etc. Each book takes on specific geographic and social issues: the war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, the border and globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi. Four examples of making art utilizing social themes. I am hoping we will not only learn about other parts of the world with art, but make connections to what might be possible in our own backyards.
I want to alert you once again to the multiple methods being used to gather information and make art in her books: book making, journals, stories, interview, collage, photo, cartoon, and even fiction/s. Notice her detail to histories and nuance. It reminds us as teachers and artists the importance and care taken to develop stories/histories. How you will write about and talk about your ideas is very important. Her book reads almost like oral histories. She is witnessing to the horrors of war and other social injustices--multiple in each book. (In your projects, you may also consider talking about your project on video and not write—keep that in mind as an option.)
Historically, many groups (Native Americans and other indigenous groups) are rarely self-represented in books and histories. They are usually subjects/objects people in positions of power study. Historically and presently, many groups have no written languages just spoken. And many are disappearing and their histories and languages go with them.
Keep in mind that if you ever want to use photos of children or their stories, you need to get permission from various constituencies: the school, the parents/guardians, and Tech. Texas Tech has an Office of Research Services, where anyone connected to Texas Tech petitions the IRB (Institutional Research Board) for permission to continue with research involving subjects. That means, your ideas for research are presented to them and you fill out many forms to get institutional approval before you have any contact with anyone in your study.
Oral histories and personal art tend to be exempt. So, autobiographical or autoethnographic work is usually exempt. In autobiography, I write about myself. In autoethnography, I not only write about myself, but analyze or rethink my experiences through introspection and reflection--you can google both of those terms. We will not be spending huge amounts of time reading about those two methods. Often, authors and researchers do not use real names, especially when creating research on important issues--that is so particular people can not be identified. Then again, there are times when writing demands naming. That is one tightrope artists and writers walk. If you photograph people and do not use their faces, you do not need to get permission from them to use the photo. That's why you see photos in art books with bodies and hands and no heads. Impossible to identify.
This series of books models for us a method of book making. You could explore this method digitally as a digital book. Please keep in mind that as you develop your idea/s, you need to trace your ideation (original idea/s) and your history of what happened and how in your writing. ALWAYS cite artists, website, articles, books, blogs, conversations--everything you have done to give the reader a full range of what you have accomplished. We put most of that in a reference section at the end of the paper. When you cite an article by Check (1999) for example, I know I can go to the reference section and look up that book or citation. It's very important and a courtesy to leave a learning trail for people reading your art and writing. That's the most important purpose for research in my opinion. So, you just don't name an artist, you leave behind websites and other delights for readers as a courtesy to lifelong learning.
I hope you found some value and diversity in our first book. I want you to notice the interplay of methods used to deliver information and art and questions. Mia has used first-person accounts and interviews, video, photo, collage, graphics, illustration, bookmaking, journals to deliver her information and art. As the artists in our first book, there is no one-way to do something. There are many ways. So, we look at these books in a minimum of two ways: as stories and as art. I will try to form sections of questions for us to explore what we've read. Think about not just that part of Russia, but the connections we have to these stories. Quite possibly, where are my/our war zones? How do I negotiate setback and disaster? Sometimes schools can be war zones. I will talk about that in some of the directed questions. I am hoping that you can react to these stories with questions and connections. Possibly think through our privileges living where we live. Notice who is coming to the relief of these people and who isn't. It's a lot to comprehend and take in.
Intro to Book: This is What I Know
ReplyDeleteWhat do we really write and talk about? How do we give ourselves permission to talk about things that are really important to us? How do we negotiate that publicly as artists and teachers? There is so much that will never get told.
This is what she knows... She describes hotels and cities. And introduces us to children and adults: Ruslan, Yakha, Hedda, Zarima, and Zalina. Your reactions to the introductory material in the book? Have you ever thought how you introduce people around you? The words you use? Photography can be used quite literally as art--Documenting my Neighborhood through Photojournalism. What would your neighborhood and community look like? Any connections to your lives with these people?
This is what I know--is a very strong position and title. I started to think to myself, what do I really know about myself and others? About my workers? My family? Friends? Community? What do I think I know? And what do I don't know? Your reactions.
I know very little about my neighbors. We get together once a year in my front yard for barbecue, but we discuss very little about private lives. I think we all are mostly private who just want to enjoy the day. What I do know is my neighbors across the street are retired teachers from New Mexico. They have two children and a few grandchildren. The two of them are very active in their church and walk at the mall early in the morning. My neighbor next door is self-employed, has one daughter who is married. His parents are both living, but his wife's parents have both passed away. Another couple down the street are both retired. One of my friends at Tech took over his job after he left, his wife is retired from the post office because of her back. That's about all I know about them. Maybe that's more than most, but I'm not sure.
DeleteI have a friend here I've known since 1984. She is a nurse and she has been to Haiti and Sierra Leone at least a dozen times to help the people there. She has seen much trauma and death, but continues to go back every year. They celebrate upon her return and treat her like family. I want to interview her when she comes back from Africa this time--I want to film her. She sends emails and pictures. I haven't saved them all, but I wish I had. I think she is very special to volunteer for this work--most of which is on her dime.
I am enjoying the stories in the first book and I'm learning so much about their struggles. I feel the stories are easy to follow and interesting. We are so lucky to live in America where there is so much opportunity. I don't have to worry about where I'm going to sleep, or what I'm going to eat, or if soldiers are going to come and take away my husband. I know I have been blessed and I remind myself of that everyday.
line 3 above--private people who just want to enjoy the day.
DeleteTo me, "This is What I Know" brings to mind my work with Divorce Care and helping people redefine themselves and get their lives back together. It's a strange skill, born out of experience and shared desperation. To be able to help someone at that critical and crazy time of life is only possible if you have walked that life yourself. I have seen many people, and God love em for trying, who are pastors , and happily married, who have no sense of what it is to have your dreams and your life as you know it ubruptly end. You have to deal with the death of your marriage, and the death of the truths of your life as you knew it, and the truth or falsehood of love as well as the death of the future you had imagined with your children, and being grandparents, and being in the same family growing older....so many losses. So...what I know is how to navigate this pain. I am an expert on loss and reinventing oneself. I am an expert in sniffing out when a person is lying to themselves or accepting abuse but calling it something else. It's a special skill. When I see someone I know from Divorce Care....someone I have helped through the darkness, there is a special kinship between us when we meet in the grocery store. I never expected to travel this road or be this well known by so many....but as luck would have it, this is my life and this is what I know.
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DeleteEver since I moved out to Ventura, CA last year all the way from Texas, I explained to my family, friends, mentors, etc about what my neighborhood looks like and what surrounds my apartment. When they visualized the idea what might looks like until I showed them via facetime or snapchat so they can get the glimpse where I live and how beautiful it is. Last week, my mother and my grandmother came out to visit, they were surprised and told me that they were wrong about the places that surrounds my apartment. All of these times, they were worried that I might be vulnerable and get hurt by bad people. I told them don't be silly because when I first check out the apartment with my boyfriend, before I enter, there was a sign of God. There was a church behind my apartment and I knew this apartment is the one will keep me and my boyfriend safe for who knows how long. I kept telling my friends and my family that they don't need to worry because God would do anything to keep me safe or a way of Him telling me everything will be okay.
DeleteUntil then, I don't know what it is, but I have crossed so many path that I was meant to be connect with strangers who became friends with me with similar reason. This one called Numerology?? There was a pattern in each person I happened to notice and knew which path I should go and one to avoid - kinda like what Robert Frost mentioned in a poem "...Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
So what I'm trying to say, everything happen for a reason where we crossed path with others. Some stay and some go unnoticed. Some made efforts and some did not. Like what Mia Kirschner did with the book I Live Here- documented every details, every memories - kinda made me wish I could do that with my past, just to share stories with my future children, grandchildren...maybe I will.
I want to spend a bit of time on Judith Herman and her book: Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (1996). You can google her. I used her theory of war zones as a way to write about my life and the artists David Wojnarowicz and Keith Haring in my dissertation. Herman meticulously sets out to trace the histories of violence against women, war vets, and political prisoners--still valid to this day. Herman created the post traumatic stress disorder theory. She traces how middle class women in Europe were defined as hysterics in the late 1800s. And what happened to was vets historically from wars--coming home numb and quite troubles from what they saw and participated in. We have that to this very day. Herman becomes a way to think about and through violences--such as in our book. So, the first half of her book is about Trauma and violence. The second half is about the possibility of Recovery. I have used that book in this class. It's a difficult read, but clear in terms of what is really happening to millions of Americans. Part of recoveries, if possible, are (and I'm reducing it here) 1) Create Safety. I need to feel and be safe. 2) Remember and Mourn--grieve for what happened and what I may never be able to have and 3) The possibility of recovery--and that is very complicated. But, it's a theory--it's how I teach.
ReplyDeleteI try to create safer spaces for people to invent, imagine and grow--however they need to. I pretty much have documented in some of my art how junior high and high school were literally war zones for me. Name calling, abuse, violence--luckily for me my house was a safer space for me. The public spheres weren't. So, Herman becomes a lens for me. I just wanted to alert you to her and her history.
Back to our book. The Daycare Lady. I am trying to imagine her tenacity and will to live.
And the Ghost-Woman. I tell people that I do ghosted work. I create dresses to honor working women and install them in the elements where the dress wears, tears and fades away, just like the lives of many workers. Janet Zandy in a book called HANDS defines a theory of ghosted work. I also use that theory. So, as you can see, through reading and need, I gather and/or create theories that will ground my art and writing. In other words, it helps me to continue making the art I need to and helps me rethink issues I am working on.
Your thoughts on this part of the book?
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DeleteFor the Ghost Woman...it remind me of the stories I heard about the Ghost Writer..I am not sure how exactly happened with writer but either he or she was killed or disappeared after discovered the truth in writing. Then it gets to me for every artists out there doing their art work but want to be anonymous. Why? No one have the answer to the question, but could it be a reason to stay alive or remain hidden? Just like we see graffitis on the buildings, then we would ask who did this or that? Yes it is not ghost work, but curious about what is the story of this particular graffiti?
DeleteHere is one: http://banksyworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/banksy-graffiti-in-palestine.html
Another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUHkKwCoxEo&feature=youtu.be
Chechen War, Chechen Women
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest with you. As I was reading this last night, and I saw the comic/graphic illustrations, I though to myself, I don't think I am interested in this enough to even read it. So, I stared reading slowly. And then, I couldn't put it down. I learned about the histories of the Chechnyan people from the Czars to the Stalin to the present day. And the authors connections to Jews in Poland. A quote--"...sometimes I think that the world is dying, melting, and forgetting."
In 2008, I took my sister to Poland to rediscover our Polish roots. Warsaw and Gdansk. To look for an old Check farm somewhere southwest of Gdansk. I saw the post WWII Soviet-style apartments people in Warsaw still live in. Poland has only been a free country since 1989. We toured sites that talked about the martyrdom of the Polish people. This included museums, one just opened, that represented the multiple genocides perpetrated on the Polish people. Poland was not allowed to do this under soviet rule. Poland is making sure no one will forget what was done to it so it never happens again. There was no need to visit a former concentration camp. Warsaw has markers everywhere reminding people of the 100,000s that died in Warsaw alone. Death was everywhere.
So, how do you connect to this series of stories: Going Home, Every 50 Years, The Camps, Zara's Husband, Getting By, and Zamani? Notice how the artist structured the graphic illustration? How will you structure your information and what is necessary to tell about your project?
I didn't think I would like reading the illustrated story for some reason, but once I began reading, I couldn't stop either. I have never read history that was written in this way. I believe it needs to be told in this manner to make it easier and more interesting to follow. It's not just facts, so it brings to life these individuals, their communities, their everyday struggles. It's difficult to turn away because you want to see what will happen in the next frame--like a good movie, only it's not a movie. I feel as if they could have been my relatives. The ones that didn't make it to America. Then I realize, hey, they are my relatives.
DeleteI think people today document themselves every minute by posting their selfies and stories in the social media. Sometimes these stories play critical roles in pursuing their political and social rights. The best example is “My Stealthy Freedom” a Facebook page that Iranian women post their photos to show their oppositions toward Mullahs and the Islamic dress codes for women.
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DeleteI was glad to read this book, and I, also, was captivated by the stories written as comic strips. They were so unfunny. I guess that was the point.I remember hearing of this when it was going on but of course never realized the finer details of the displaced persons and the living conditions. One of the leaders mentioned, Putin, is still in power today. I think it's important to understand this history and situate it in light of what is happening today.
DeleteI have a thing for comic/graphic illustration book. It just draws/reels you into their story. But their history, deep enough, gets you to see the other way around, different perspective of what we did not know. I read similar graphic illustration book called The Maus - it is basically about WWI or WWII. The book was very graphic, very intense feeling that I can't shake, but visualize the danger, the fear innocent people are in...I mean, I can't imagine going through like that...Still can't help wondering about the ancestors we learned from the past - fought through it or died fighting to protect the civilians.
DeleteMoscow. The Ukrania Hotel
ReplyDeleteNotice how the artist writes her essays. And the photographic essay on the last few pages. The dead bodies and the girl playing near a missle.
She writes: "There is no dignity in these pictures. Just human remains. Just this quiet, soulless end."
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DeleteOur second book: Burma
ReplyDeleteKaren refugees; intro, Camp Umphang, and Don Ban Yang Camp. When I was young in the 1960s, I remember traveling to a hospital in Appleton, WI where my dad received electro-shock therapy. My dad had a history of depression. I mention this, because during severe bouts when he did not work, my family must have gone on some type of aid as we received boxes of food with no labels: huge bags of rice, evaporated milk, dehydrated potatoes--we always ate real foods. Reading the intro took me back to our kitchen and my mom unloading that box. I never participated in whatever conversations or concerns took part with my older brothers, my mom and other adults. I imagine the uncertainty, the fear, not knowing--we were working class with no other sources for income. That's what raced through my mind as I read the intro sections to this book.
Has anyone ever constructed a list of some sort? Here we read a list of everything that is wrong. Once again, we read more of the realities of war--realities that aren't represented much in films or on tv. "This red string is for you, Mama;" Your reactions? Your connections.
From about my 7th to 10th birthday, I remember having such a wonderful time. Our neighborhood was booming with young families, benefiting from WWII economic expansion. However, I knew there were things going on that weren't picture perfect. My oldest sister was struggling as a single mother, so my niece came to live with us--permanently. My nephew was sent to live with his father. There was also a time when my mother rationed food. That was the first time I learned of that word and I was fascinated by it, because my father could only have one glass of milk at dinner. I know that wasn't the only food that was rationed, but I really felt sorry for him because he loved milk. So I told him, "when I grow up, I'm going to give you all the milk you want to drink." I smiled and he smiled back. All I knew is, we would have enough and it would get better in the future. The time of our apparent struggle, were the best years of my childhood.
DeleteI'm about to leave town, so I'm not editing today!
DeleteMy 92 year old WWII Veteran Dad makes lists all the time, every day. I get his grocery lists and I go to the store and get what he wants. And, being a child of the depression, what he wants is what he needs. I wish I could say the same for myself. He is so frugal. I have before, but I do not anymore, but him stuff that isn't on his list that I know he would like. He always gets upset at the extra $3 I might spend. So much so that I give him the money just so he can stop worrying. Now I just stick to the list. I am wanting to make an art piece out of his lists. I've saved them on my dresser, pulling them from my purse every time I come back home after being at their house for the weekend. My mom has dementia, and my dad, ever the provider, pays the bills, makes his lists so we can do the shopping so he can care for my mom. He loves my mom with a passion that goes beyond description. She cannot love him back right now...all he has are memories but everyday he exists for her. He is there to make sure she gets the care she needs. He cries all them time. He still suffers post traumatic stress disorder from the war. I have 7 brothers and sisters and it has defined all of our lives. His participation in the war has been a huge part of our upbringing, and we weren't even born yet. He married my mother as a young man after the war. We were raised in the aftermath, and survived amid the mental struggles that my dad had to carry on and raise 8 children, and deal with post traumatic stress disorder. So, these lists, they define him as a lifelong caretaker. He sacrificed so much, not only for my family and his wife, but for the whole world. Growing up in the shadow of WWII, we all sacrificed as a family. I want to do a series of paintings of him, recognizing that he is still fighting, and these lists will form the background on which I paint.
DeleteI also grew up with parents who endured the Depression. It is amazing how that event is still effecting generations of people eight decades later. My father never stopped telling me that he paid for my college and trying to control me with money. In reality, he paid for three semesters of a community college degree, and I paid for an undergrad, an MS and and MFA and am now paying for my PhD. He tortured me those three semesters with threats of withdrawing his support. He and his seven siblings were abandoned during the depression by their father who was an abusive alcoholic. The mother raised them, I think she was abusive too, but till this day, my aunts an uncles still talk about her like she was Wonder bread. This all occurred in Northern Maine. My mother's family owned a farm and were blessed with love and care, their parents were unbelievably loving and kind to their kids. My mother raised me with the same love she enjoyed as a child. My father abused me with the hate and abuse he learned. I have lived and struggled with chronic bi polar my whole life. It is no wonder why...
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DeleteChildren and childhoods. Brothels and prostitution. The lives of sex workers. The complexities and realities of survival. Note how was and poverty limit everyone, everywhere.
ReplyDelete"The Princess of the Sagawa Tea Shop" essay: Have any of you every thought of writing a story of something or someone? No matter how short or long?
"In my mind I have a dream at the end of which I am living quietly and peacefully with my parents and my brothers again." What do you dream about?
"Join the army...or go to Jail!" essay. Boys liked using guns but would run away at a moment's notice. What is it like to never have an ordinary life? What is gained or lost? What may never happen?
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DeleteYoung people are so unbelievably fortunate in this country today, I look at the young students walking around our campus with their cell phones and skate boards. I sit in the back of classes and watch them surfing the internet when they should be listening to lecture. I feel mean telling them to put their devices away. I sometimes think they don't understand how incredibly lucky they are to be able to sit and listen to a lecture, to look at great works of art that portray the stories of centuries of history. Many of them are near illiterate, I notice as I grade their papers. It is sometimes hard not to think that their minds are more impoverished than the kids who have lived the lives of suffering we've been reading about in the I Live Here books. We might ask, who is poorer, a child from a poor country who gets his hand on a cast off American twenty-year-old text book and considers himself extremely lucky to have it, or the students who sits in the air conditioned rooms here, never opens their brand new textbook and sleeps through one amazing lecture after another...
DeleteAt the end of the day, I am glad to have read this book, however disturbing it may be. I guess the good thing that came out of it is that it gives me one more example (with careful excerpts) to share with my students. I am having them write an essay about their American Dream but with reading this, and other information about the school girls who were kidnapped from Nigeria by the Boko Haram in 2014, I am having them do some research about people in places that do not have rights or access to the American Dream and I'm having them add this and create a persuasive essay, one about taking the advantage you are offered as an American and live your dream. I think it is better for them to understand that our freedoms do not exist in every place in the world, and we very carefully must protect those freedoms that we all value.
DeleteSusan, I like your thinking how you want your students to act as in thinking and express about their American Dream after sharing the information that might disturb, but they could definitely turn one another around.
DeleteMary, you're right. I witnessed teachers giving lectures how lucky students are to have what people don't have in the past and now as poverty to middle-class. Beside young people will understand when they get older, but how can we demonstrate a way to give them a reminder that they are blessed to live fortunate life? Text and Drive, Drunk and Drive do show some persuasive impact on them, but the reality doesn't set until they are in real serious action. What about fighting to keep your freedom? How can we affect young minds to understand?
Mae Sot. Thailand. Hotel room. Night
ReplyDeleteThe Story of Mi-Su.
As I read these stories, I think about the throw-aways--there and here. Those real lived realities of people whose complex living situations challenge what I have been taught as right and good; and who is responsible and happy endings. Simultaneously, I think of kids in schools here whose complex lives and environs create situations that seem equally unnerving and challenging at all levels.
These books serve as witnesses to global genocides and violence. Our next book will bring the violence geographically much closer to us. What kinds of physical and psychological distances do we as cultures or individuals create or manage or tolerate such histories? Is there anything we can do as artists or teachers? How do I/you stay numb/alert/sane while reading these books?
Note the power of telling stories. Are there any alternatives to war? Is it possible to teach peace? What might that entail? (I had to ask this last question for my own sanity's sake.)
I feel that it is a world-wide responsibility to stop genocide, just as I feel it is a world-wide responsibility to protect world heritage sites and world treasures. It is too much to put the responsibility for the stopping and starting of wars in small and poor countries. I used to believe that world peace could only be accomplished at the local level, that it needed to start neighbor to neighbor, but in Burma, we know that the small villages, where people lived peacefully in communities, were ravaged by military regimes. Where is there justice for the child forced into prostitution and soldiering? How are these children restored to their childhoods? Maybe it is not enough to live and love locally, but we also have to share these personal individual stories. I remember the news of this war in Burmese, but it is only a faint shadow, a faint and distant memory eclipsed by three decades of wars that occurred afterwards, including the attacks on the World Trade center. Where are these children now? Who saved them? Religion? The US aid workers, the Red Cross. I do not know. Through art and writing and hearing their stories, they're brought into focus once again.. my whole life I only wanted to love and be loved like my mother loved me. I would take a baby or a child from one of these countries in a second and pour all of my love into them. If only there was a way.
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DeleteIn my mind the point of reading these stories, however difficult is so that we don't stay numb to them. I am using this accounting of the pain of other people, real people, as an impetus to help my students not be complacent in their lives. I am very careful with what I show them because I think only so much is appropriate, but I can read an exerpt and use it as a writing prompt, or I can read an excerpt and lead them to research the sitation or the part of the world, just to raise their awareness. We really do not know what future leader or instrumental person we have in front of us at the time as teachers. Someone had to suffer and wrote this book so that we may find out and perhaps at some point it will help others not suffer the same fate. I do not think there are any mistakes, so if I feel led to incorporate some of this awareness into my class, and I see a perfect opportunity, I am likely to do it. You never know who I might have in my audience and what they will end up becoming in the future.
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ReplyDeleteThe human history is full of violence and inequalities, but unexpectedly in the modern period, the situation has become worse, however, the humans’ achievements in science, technology, art, and literature are unimaginable. It reminds me Rumi’s opinion about ignorance and wisdom.
DeleteRecently, I read a book written by Rumi (d. 1273) a Persian poet and Sufi. The book is Fihe mā fihe, which “is the most important source for the actual situation of Rumi’s teaching, since it is a collection of the notes of students attending his class” (Encyclopedia of Iranica). The book has been translated into English under the title "Discourses of Rumi" by A. J. Arberry in 1961 and consists of 71 discourses. (Wikipedia)
In his book he says: ignorance is the necessity for life, and if the human being was totally wisdom and knowledge, Its existence could not be sustained.
Here, I like to mention that his text is very complicated and also doesn’t support ignorance. It was something interesting to me, and I wanted to bring it up here. However, I know it is not totally related to our topic.
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DeleteHave any of you every thought of writing a story of something or someone? No matter how short or long?
ReplyDeleteI have thought about writing a story, not a story like one of these, but I have thought about writing true crime. I have a very close friend who's young teen daughter was murdered by a boy she had rejected sexually. He stalked her with a fake account on facebook, lured her into the woods, strangled her and hid her under some bushes. The mother searched for her daughter by making public requests on facebook to help find her. At night, the story unrolled before us all on Nancy Grace. It was horrifying and strange to see how social media and media can unfold a local story of horror right before your eyes. It used to be that we were so removed from the news or the suffering of others, now we hold their suffering in our hands on our phones and tablets. I have thought about writing an account of how social media has changed so drastically the way we related and respond to each other's pain on a global and local level.
"In my mind I have a dream at the end of which I am living quietly and peacefully with my parents and my brothers again." What do you dream about?
ReplyDeleteI often dream about buying the home I grew up in as a child and restoring it to the way it was as I remember it. Houses are cheap in Maine, but I don't know that I can find work there to support myself. I often wonder if the old farmhouse holds our memories, if the spaces of childhood hole memory in a way that we can overlap and realign time's linear progressions. I am convinced it is possible, that I can replant my mother's gardens, that I can hide under a lilac tree and that I can find peace and happiness walking in the reeds and grasses that I walked through as a child. My dream life is always about going back and restoring my past to a time when it was just my mother and us kids playing, shouting, running and climbing again. I feel lost from myself, often.
Mary, Reading your post makes my heart hurt for you, and it's not because I've been in the same position, really but rather I think it's because I wonder if my children ever want to turn back time to when they were young. When I was a single parent, we did so much together. None of it was anything that took any large amounts of money. I mean...I didn't have it, but we had so much fun camping and driving across the country and playing all summer at campgrounds and on the beach. When I remarried, then a lot of stress entered our lives trying to blend 2 very different families. Those peaceful moments of just the 3 of them with me, with everyone on the same team, with the same heart....it ended. We had to share our time and our space. That will always be in my heart and my mind as our most wonderful time. And to this day, my kids are avid campers and recreate those wonderful moments with their friends.
DeleteI finished reading the Mia Kirshner book on the Chechen war this morning, it is very disturbing of course. I remember the events of that war very well, of course as very distal to my day to day existence. I remember the gassing in the theater and the aftermath of that, Putin and the world disdain for what happened there. I often wonder how Putin managed to stay in office, Russia, to me, probably in my ignorance of the world and how it works, has always seemed like a place of complete and utter strangeness to me. Ever since the submarine with the poor boy sailors on it was lost and that drunken Prime Minister wouldn't let anyone help them, and they all drowned. I know the history of Russia is violent, with Stalin having starved and killed many millions of people in the first quarter of the century. One would wonder, will they ever be ready for peace over there? I especially enjoyed the piece in that writing about the little girl who was a piano virtuoso. I loved that she connected so strongly to Beethoven. I also play Beethoven and find that as a composer and teacher he is my favorite as well. I have read many of the great Russian authors, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Pasternak, I wonder how such amazing beautiful incredible works come out of a country so full of war and suffering... It is beyond comprehension to me. I don't know what else to say after reading these stories, war is a terrible thing, children are suffering, there is nowhere on earth a child should suffer but they do and they have and they will always suffer.
ReplyDeleteHow I can use the computer for my visual documentation. I think we always document our ideas, works, and daily lives by computers.
ReplyDeleteThe question is can I use my documents؟ Regarding visual documentation, what is the differences between my work and the artists in the book, “I live Here?" The difference is that those artists see visual documentation as a research method to express things and ideas that can’t be easily explained by writing, as well as having more and better impact on their audiences. When I consider visual documentation as a research method, I need to find a proper and personal ways of visualization and classification in my process of research.
In our art classes, we get students to find an old hardback book at a garage sale or half priced book store, etc. Or one dusty from the shelf. We go through and gesso the pages, or leave them with text and do our artwork on the pages as if it's a sketchbook. I am sure a lot of people do this, but libraries are giving away old books all the time, and the ones with the most patina end up looking the best. I am planning a course for healing with art, and will probably use this method for students to document their work in the course. This is not a high school course but rather one at the Art league in my area. And....I think I might switch my semester project to this. I will document this along with my other idea and see which one I want to use in the end.
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