The process of the cultural myth essay has been enjoyable so far. I chose a topic that I have been able to thoroughly research and most importantly, that I like. Although I enjoy writing, it is extremely difficult for me to write a paper when the topic is boring and uninteresting.

The research has been fairly easy because I have been able to find plenty of information. On the other hand, because there is so much information to sort through, it makes it difficult to search to find exactly what I am looking for. At first, I had to sort through many different resources I had found and chose what I think will be the most helpful for my paper. While at the library, I found several books but my favorite is a collection of different comics pertaining to different types of Jewish humor. What I have found so far is that many of the stereotypes of Jews are often reflected in Jewish humor. For example, many Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld episodes are about cheapness, stinginess and always what the Jewish family is like.

At first, I wanted my cultural myth to solely be the stereotype of Jews being cheap. Through my research I have decided to narrow it down a little more and am writing about the influence of Jewish stereotypes in humor and vice versa. Because I took a history class based on Jewish Humor winter quarter, I was able to use the knowledge I gained from that class reflect in my paper. I was able to move pretty smoothly along with writing my paper because I chose a topic that I found intriguing.

Memorial Day is a holiday that is often regarded as just another day off from work or school. I think that as an adult, I am able to reflect on what this holiday actually means and the importance of remembering and respecting those fallen and active in military services.

As a sophomore in high school, our class took a trip to Washington D.C. We visited many places, including the Arlington National Cemetery. At the time, I don't think I appreciated the beauty that I was surrounded by. Looking back, I wish I would have had the insight I do now. Although I do not have any family members and close friends that have fought in wars, I do know of some friends that have made the choice to fight for our country. Freedom is often taken for granted by American's because I feel that we do not always take the time to realize how our freedom was granted in the first place. Freedom is never free and we have amazing men and women who have chosen to risk their life, contribute an act of selflessness and fight to protect our country.

On the other hand, I do not think that war is something that we should be involved in because so many lives are lost, often times, for wars that we should not be fighting in. What I think is honorable about those who are in military service is their reason behind joining whichever branch of service.

It does not matter that someone close to me has not been a part of the military services, today I reflect on the importance of those people. I think that so very little do we come in contact with someone that changes our life by committing selfless acts. These people should never be taken for granted, although they often are. I would not be the person I am now without the help of my family and best friends getting me through the difficult times. Today, I take a moment to reflect on how lucky I am to have the best, strongest family and the most supportive friends. I am so thankful for those people in my life that have kept me going during times I did not think I would see through the next day. THANK YOU!

The documentary we watched on Sarah Baartman's life amazed me. I cannot grasp the life that she lived. One of the commentators, when explaining Baartman's court case, said Baartman could either continue to be a part of the freak show, make a small profit and be fed or go back to slavery in Africa. Neither of those options seems appealing in the least bit and personally, I believe Baartman was told what to say in order to make her situation seem better than it truly was. I think Sarah Baartman was put in an impossible situation and was pushed to make a decision that forever changed her life.

Sarah Baartman, better known as "The Hottentot Venus," was taken away from her homeland and she was forced to be nude and show off what made her unique. This seems humiliating; instead of embracing what makes her an individual, she was instead her obligations made her strongly oppose it. Sarah Baartman was looked at as a "freak" simply because her body was different. Her enlarged genetalia and large butt classified her as a "freak." When in actuality, she suffered from steatopygia. Steatopygia is prevalent mostly in Khoikhoi women, although men may suffer from this disease as well. Ironically, the Khoikhoi people think of steatopygia as beautiful.

I think in the case of Sarah Baartman, the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" holds true. Often times the media reflects beauty through skinny, beautiful, unrealistic women. The Khoikhoi people thought that Sarah Baartman's uniqueness made her beautiful. The essence of beauty can often be lost through airbrushed models. Instead, we should embrace the unique traits of an individual. Whether it may be something that the media would perceive as beauty or something that just makes a person different, these characteristics should be fully embraced.

While searching the internet, I found out that Baartman gave birth to two children. These children had to grow up motherless because she was taken away from her family and her home. Her children had to suffer simply because someone found Baartman's unique qualities freak-like.

Here are some websites I found interesting:
1. http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/saartjie.htm
2. http://www.hottentotvenus.com/index2.htm

A cultural myth I would like to analyze are the stereotypes of being Jewish. Jews are often thought of as being cheap and stingy with their money. This stereotype refers back to the Holocaust and post-Holocaust when the Jews had their money, jobs, family, and everything else taken away from them. The Holocaust survivors, including the ones who fled, had a difficult time obtaining jobs after the Holocaust. They were often criticized for becoming doctors and lawyers because some did not feel the Jews were worthy of having these jobs. Because the Jews knew what it was like to lose everything they had, they valued every cent that they earned.

The television shows, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm as well as Woody Allen movies are good examples of stereotypes and myths that are prevalent within the Jewish community. Seeing these stereotypes come alive through these programs makes it easier to envision what the stereotype actually means. These movies/shows add humor to a demeaning stereotypical assumption of the Jewish community.

I am Jewish and these stereotypes directly affect me as well as other Jewish followers. I never truly saw this stereotype within my family because my dad and grandfather are extremely generous people and they would rather spend more money on quality than buying something cheaper just to save money.

Today, the status of this myth is the same, but humor is often used to relive this stereotype. Although there may always be a deeply rooted myth that Jews are cheap, hopefully I will be able to relieve some of these stereotypes behind the myth.

Upon completing M. Butterfly, a prevalent theme I found throughout the book was race and more specifically, racism. Several times David Henry Hwang points out how the Chinese are culturally viewed as submissive and gentle, yet arrogant. On the other hand, the Westerners are dangerous and powerful and are often referred to as "foreign devils". I believe that misconceptions such as these are often the strongest factors behind something as simple as a misunderstanding or something as intense as war.

I feel that most have lost sight of how important communicating with one another truly is. I think the biggest problem between Gallimard and Song was their lack of communication. Gallimard did not take the time to understand who Song truly was and therefore, was misled. He allowed beauty to overwhelm his senses instead of attempting to evaluate and solve the dilemma that was at hand. When certain elements are thrown in to life, we must learn how to deal with them instead of walking the other way.

I don’t mean to lecture the importance of communication, but several times in my life I have been forced to deal with these situations and looking back, I wish I would have known what I know now. Just a bit of background – when I was younger, my family was the ideal family, living the American Dream, so to speak. My parents had been together since high school and I have two younger siblings. My dad brought in enough income so that my mother never had to work and we were able to be in an excellent school system. To make a long story short, there was a strong history of alcoholism on my mother’s side of the family and when her mother was diagnosed with cancer and later passed away, of course, alcohol was the easiest way to deal with the situation. Instead of trying to communicate with her family the pain that she was feeling, my mom shut everyone out and refused to believe she had a problem. As a result of this, she has lost all of us. I am not looking for sympathy, only attempting to share my experience with the cause and effect of lack of communication.

I feel that most of the wars we are fighting only prove to be a losing battle. I may be naïve but resorting to violence is unnecessary. Instead of attempting to make someone understand our perspective, physical actions or simply doing nothing are easier to succumb to. I really enjoyed the perspective M. Butterfly has given me and found the play, although relatively short – inspiring.

The April 2009 issue in the magazine, Marie Claire, I found an interesting article ~ http://www.zinio.com/pages/MarieClaire/Apr-09/388692895/pg-126 (click 'inside')

This article intrigued me because it is the complete opposite of Seierstad's The Bookseller of Kabul and other related discussions that we have had in class.

"Ladies First" informs readers about an isolated village with only 500 people, and is located in southwestern China where women are more superior than men and daughters are more valued than sons. Yes - a matriarchy. According to tradition, money, land, etc are passed from mother to daughter and the men are never in control of either. Men do the hard labor while women are the head of the house and do the housework and farming. In this part of China, there is free love. This means women may have lovers with no strings attached. The following quotation I found to be extremely intriguing - "When Maoist forces tried to impose their values on Mosuo during the 60's and 70's - introducing Western-style marriage, attempting to take land out of women's hands - not a single man in town signed the petition supporting them. The Mosuo tradition was too ingrained - and beloved" (121). I think this is important to keep in mind when reading The Bookseller of Kabul and other related stories or articles pertaining to traditions. It is so interesting to me that as strongly as Afghani men feel about being the superior, the head of the family and in charge of the money and land, Mosuo men feel just as strongly that women should fill these responsibilities. Most likely it is due to the isolation of this village that westernization has not been too strongly imposed upon these people. Also, the words war, jail and rape do not exist within their language.

Although this tradition of women being superior to men may seem strange, this is all the Mosuo have known. After reading The Bookseller of Kabul and learning about severe inequalities and discrimination towards women, it is empowering to discover that somewhere around the world, women are treated in such a positive light.

After reading a good portion of Dear Miye, letters home from Japan (1939-1946), I decided to research a bit more on the background of the author May Kimoto Tomita. Although thus far I have read many of her letters, I feel as though I only know about her daily life.

I stumbled upon this article: http://www.cerescourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=55819&TM=26960.72.

This article states that she recently died on March 9, 2009 from pneumonia. She earned three degrees from Berkley and was a human rights activist among accomplishing many other successes. I also learned that she has a family, but her husband and son have already passed.
One of my favorite letters in this novel is a letter to Kay on pages 200-201. I enjoyed the questions that Mary brought up and allowed me to think on a deeper level. Some of the thoughts brought up were death, democracy, ideals of Japan and their ways of life, love, fate and reality. I found Mary’s strong opinions on the Japanese way of life interesting. She seems to have such a strong bitterness towards the Japanese way of life and justifies this by just saying “they know no other way of life,” (Tomita, 201).
I love how this book is written in letters from Mary and her two friends Kay and Miye. Because this book is written from a more personal perspective and not a formal journalistic point of view, the novel is much more effective. I enjoyed the pictures because it allowed me to put a name to a face and I felt that it allowed me to know the people better. I am not a history buff or even particularly a fan of history, but the way Tomita wrote this novel, it actually sparked my interest because it was about her personal story that was affected because of the events that occurred in history.

I truly enjoyed reading The Bookseller of Kabul and found the raw, real material allowed the reader to peer in to the life in Afghanistan. I thoroughly enjoyed the narration of some who actually experienced daily life in Afghanistan and not just a third-person narrator; this made the novel intensely more meaningful.

So, when reading the reactions of Shah Muhammed Rais as well as four various journalists, the reviews surprised me. To begin, I would like to point out that when an individual feels as though those close to them or they personally, have been attacked, it is all the more reason to fight back and say they have not been justified in their alleged portrayal. Also, the journalists' perception of Rais was that he was kind and had a calm demeanor. Clearly, if Rais knows he is under scrutiny, he will be on his best behavior. I think that meeting with him on one or even several occasions cannot truly depict the essence of who he is. When Asne Seierstad lived with Rais and his family, she was able to experience the - who, what, how, where, why and when's of this family. Also, as stated in The LA Times article (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-bookseller25-2009feb25,0,2200694.story), Rais claimed that Sierstad went into Afghanistan with a predetermined view of what her experience would be like and how the culture was; essentially, with a closed mind. I beg to differ because if I recall correctly, Seierstad chose to wear the burka and was treated as one of them. Even if she had thoughts about Afghani culture before entering the country, I do not think those opinions showed in her novel. Also, Leila, Sultan and Mansur were the only ones who spoke both the Afghani language as well as English. So, they could have interpreted and told Seierstad the story in whichever way they chose, omitting any parts in which they did not want her to know. Although I have never traveled to Afghanistan nor met the Rais family, I never felt that this novel was scandalous or an attack on the family. I really felt as though it was a look in to life in Afghanistan. I found it interesting that Rais is in pursuit of filing a lawsuit against her and in turn has taken the opportunity to write his own novel. In Rais' defense, I do think that a portion of the revenue from The Bookseller of Kabul could have gone towards the Rais family to help them support themselves. Something that I thought was heartbreaking was that according to The LA Times article, after the novel was published, the family was forced to split up and take refuge in Oslo and Canada. This makes me think the brutally honest novel led to the family members fearing their lives. Generally, I feel that Seierstad did not intentionally show the Khan family in a negative light, only from her perspective. I feel a statement she made to Times Online summed up how I feel about this disagreement: "I wrote my book, he wrote his. That is fine, and the reader can judge."

I found it interesting that in David Spurr's The Rhetoric of the Empire, he discusses the reflection of a report/journalist. He says that when reporting, reflection is not truly permitted in order to be an unbiased reporter. But, this forces the journalists to be at a distance from the audience. I believe Seierstad defied these rules and because she wrote in an intimate way instead of from a reporter's point of view, the novel was written successfully. Spurr also stresses the importance of clearly painting a picture for the reader to visualize. Although in Seierstad's case, the picture needing to be painted was not merely just landscapes and interiors, but also what the Khan family was like. Even though scenery and landscape holds an importance in The Bookseller of Kabul, I feel that how emotionally involved Seierstad and the characters in the novel are holds more importance. This excerpt I think helps me to identify what type of writer Seierstad is, "Western journalism is filled with situations where the observer, from an exterior position, views the bodies of the captured, imprisoned, incapacitated or dead. In the postcolonial era, the dead or dying body has become in itself the visual sign of human reality in the Third World," (Spurr, 24). Seemingly, Seierstad is a mixture of postcolonialism era writing as well as western writing; although, she has more qualities of a western writer. Patterson's comparison of the two concepts of civilization; nature and uncivilized are defined by instinctive behavior. Seierstad to me, did not truly address any parties in her novel as uncivilized. But, it does seem as though some Afghani's are barbaric and uncivilized in the ways that most Americans have been. I say this only because of the customs and traditions that the country of Afghanistan has been built upon. Men having complete control over women and women having very little opportunity to become successful validates this point.

In conclusion, I did enjoy Seierstad's novel and believe that she did not falsify any of the characters in the novel nor exaggerate her experience, but only Seierstad and the Rais family know what actually occurred.

Works Cited

King, Laura (2/25/2009). The Bookseller of Kabul responds. Lost Angeles Times, Retrieved 4/12/2009, from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-bookseller25-2009feb25,0,2200694.story

Meo, Nick (11/17/2007). Revenge of the bookseller of Kabul speaks volumes about literary truth. Times Online, Retrieved 4/12/2009, from http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2884296.ece

Patterson, Thomas C. Inventing Western Civilization. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Spurr, David (1993). The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration. Duke University Press.

Hello, welcome to my blog! My name is Marika Kroll. I am from Cleveland and I am a sophomore Media Studies major with an emphasis in Journalism and Creative Writing. I would ideally like to write for an entertainment magazine. I took this course because it sounded like an interesting course and I have a passion for writing and learning about media and culture.

Outside of school, I enjoy traveling, writing, scrapbooking and spending time with my friends and boyfriend. I am extremely close with my family and I feel that nothing should be more valued than the relationship with your family.

On that note, I am enjoying The Bookseller of Kabul thus far. I like the rawness and real-life issues that have been addressed.

The reality of such a harsh world for women has shocked me. I cannot believe that women are treated as inferior; are allowed little to no education and forced to marry young and have no choice in choosing their husband or wife, and are forced to have an arranged marriage. I cannot imagine being forced in to a life that was not a choice of my own. Women are treated as objects and their only worth is being able to bear a son. Love is something to me that is a valued, a sacred bond between two people and should never be forced. After reading this, I realize how much I truly value the freedom of being able to love freely and choose the life I want for myself.

On an even more serious note, I found an article on Google News that shocked me. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/03/obama-administration-struggles-afghan-law-legalize-rape/). The Afghanistan President is going to sign a law saying that Shiite men will have the right to rape their wives. He only recanted this decision and is now taking it into consideration after pressure from the U.S. Hilary Clinton could be considered a feminist and has been speaking about positive rights for women around the world, including Afghanistan for quite some time. I think that Afghanistan needs to realize the difference between sustaining traditional law and blatant, intolerable acts of sexism. I understand that Afghanistan does not want to be westernized and I believe they should always keep their traditional laws, but also should recognize that women deserve to be treated equally to men. I find myself in the dilemma of drawing the line between wanting the U.S. to help make these changes happen and imposing my own personal beliefs. I hope that Obama will bring positive change and assist in making other countries more peaceful and women from other countries can get a taste of independence and freedom of choice.