Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Ah, humanity

Looking back at our posts from Week 1, I feel that most people pulled a Bartleby in response to first topic. The question from Week 1 was, "How does the war in Iraq impact you?" The war impacts everyone, even if you don't have any friends or family in the military. However, most people, instead of really trying to think of some way that the war impacted them that maybe wasn't that straightforward, simply chose to say, "I would prefer not to," a la Bartelby. It is much easier to simply say, "The war does not impact me at all," and turn away, avoiding having to take a position and dealing with a potential conflict or argument, then take a stance, and that's what a lot of people did.

No comments: