Don Juan is turning out to be more interesting than I expected. While this is a seemingly ancient play, the translation is quite understandable, and the plot is actually amusing. (Who thought that a play could be fun?!)

It is fascinating to read how Don Juan promises to marry two women at once – Charlotte and Sganerelle. Perhaps this symbolizes dual commitments that we sometimes make in life, a commitment to two things at once whereby it is impossible to keep both. Anyway, it is rather amusing to see the two women fight it out and debate which one of them is really beloved by Don Juan. I was also amused by the part where Don Juan is supposed to be killed.

The discussions about religion and creation are fascinating, as Moliere was well ahead of his time. He wrote this play during the Enlightenment, and who knew that we would still be having these debates today?

Michael B.

highline project

It’s interesting to revisit the hippie/ counterculture movement in New York that I learned about in my history classes some time ago, this time through the eyes of Patti Smith. Our reading so far contains everything from homosexuality to LSD, both of which were glorified and normalized in the 1960s. Interestingly, the narrator is deeply religious – Christian – and it is ironic to see religion juxtaposed with drugs and deviancy (as homosexuality was then known).

I am interested by the references to streets in Manhattan, where I worked this summer and with which I thereby familiarized myself. Even though the novel refers to the 1960s, an era I did not have the privilege of living through, it does not feel distant or remote because of the constant references to Manhattan. I am also interested by the references to Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in that eventful and fateful decade, just like his brother Jack. (On a side note, I recently learned a theory about why the Kennedy family has suffered so much. Ask me when you’re free if you’re interested.) For many Americans, the  Kennedys were the personification of good ol’ American boys – young, handsome and all. I imagine what the country must have felt when its dreams were shattered, when two Kenendys were taken away from them in a single decade.

My history teacher once said that if she could go back to any decade in American history, she would go back to the ’60s – if only she knew that she would make it out alive. I agree – from the Six-Day War to the Vietnam War to the political assassinations, it was the decade that made us who we are today.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newsweek-cover-1968-the-year-that-made-us-who-we-are-58630047.html

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is certainly the case with Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, which contains scores of pictures but not a single word.

Looking at the images, I can’t help thinking of the immortal words emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty:

”

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

When I think of immigrants, I think of all that they left behind in order to come to a better place.

Even though a person may not speak English or know the intricacies of American history, his soul yearns for freedom, and it is that freedom which makes the agony of change worthwhile. It is truly an amazing experience to see a person abandon his roots and choose to come to the United States. Some people are Americans by birth; others are American by choice.

Theodore Roosevelt once said that a person who claims that he is American and something else is not American at all, because we have room for only one flag on our soil. There is no such thing as “dual loyalty,” which is why I – along with many others – am so bothered when people refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, claiming that they are really from a different country. This is nonsense bordering on treason, but I can see that the families depicted in the picture book are proud to be Americans. Their story is the story of millions, the story of learning a new language and adapting to the ways of a new land. It is a story of acculturation and assimilation, reconciling the ways of their home country with those of the United States, hanging on to the past while yearning for a brighter future. It is a story of growth, as is symbolized by the flowers in one part of the book. And it is, above all, a story of finding one’s way in the world – as we see on the last page of the bok, with the map and the suitcase. The immigrants have finally found their way home, and it is America. “This land is my land; this land is your land.” Welcome!

In class, we discussed how the terrorist attacks of September 11 will be remembered in generations to come. It seems that Pearl Harbor has been mostly forgotten: how many Americans can even identify the day on which the attack took place?

Will the same be the case for 9/11? I would answer, NO. The attack was witnessed by millions of people due to technology, television, and the like. It’s interesting how technology can be used for such nefarious purposes, as seen with terrorism and the Holocaust, and at the same time it can be used to witness the horror – and thereby engrain it in our collective memories. After all, who can forget the image of airplanes flying into the World Trade Center?

9/11 shows, above all things, that nothing in life is permanent or guaranteed. Who would have believed that such an attack could take place, that the Twin Towers could be toppled by a mere nineteen men? If a mere 19 people have the capacity for such evil with such great consequences, imagine how much good can be done by a different group of 19 people – or even by a single person.

Reiff takes issue with President Bush about the cause of the terrorist attacks – namely, the hatred of American freedom. But Bush is absolutely right on this: Freedom is not free.

To be continued….