Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Comment on Uwem Akpan
I posted my comments here. I would be very happy if some of you discussed the stories in the comments section to this posting. I'm curious to know what you thought of the stories. I believe they and films like Monday's Girl offer a very strong "grounding" in the kinds of environments that we are talking about. Real people (even if fictional characters) are the ones we "observe" and "interpret" when we do data analysis.
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2 comments:
Professor Kevane's interpretation on the audience of these stories provided great insight to what Uwem Akpan was trying to convey. It reminds me of a quote from an old aboriginal wise women who said "if you come to help me you can go back home, but if you consider my struggle as a part of your struggle for survival, then maybe we can work together." It has put these stories into perspective as in what I think Akpan wants us to take away and how we should react to its sadness.
To comment on Ex-Mas Feast, I thought Akpan's decision to call the baby "baby" tells us a lot about the reason for having children in this environment, which was solely to add income.
I also was a little caught off guard by the fact that on page 9, Maisha, the prostitute, explains that she will not take Baby into town because she feels that it is child abuse. Anyone else find this interesting...?
Interesting point. it is a struggle for most of us to enter the mind of someone like Maisha- the reader probably feels more comfortable with Jigana. Would be interesting challenge to rewrite story from Maisha's point of view, with her voice.
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