Novels, Cultures, Opinions

As a last blog post, I recommend to current, past and future Glenn fellows interested in learning about cultures to read the following novels. This blog post idea came to me while I read Samuel P. Huntingotn’s The Clash of Civilizations? (1993). Though, I must clarify that I do not agree with his argument that the only cause of conflict among people is cultural. Having said that, I will go through parts of the article as my ideas came to me:

“The interactions between peoples of different civilizations are increasing…” This is where my first thought occurred; I agree. Since there is an increase in globalization, more people should be aware and knowledgeable about other cultures and ideas.

“An Ibo may be… an Owerri Ibo or and Onitsha Ibo in what is the Eastern region of Nigeria. In Lagos, he is simply an Ibo. In London, he is a Nigerian. In New York, he is African”. A well-known Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, writes about cultural clashes in his novel, Things Fall Apart. His follow up novel is No Longer at Ease, where the main character experiences cross-cultural pressures.

“…the carnage in Bosnia and Sarajevo”. Slavenka Drakulic keeps true to this carnage in her novel S. A Novel about the Balkans. She focuses the story on a woman and what she goes through, being a woman, during the horrors of war. Needless to say, this was a very desensitizing book. She has also written other novels such as, Café Europa and They Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly about the Balkan culture and the Balkan war criminals, respectively.

“Modern democratic government originated in the West. When it has developed in non-Western societies it has usually been the product of Western colonialism or imposition”. This idea is explored in William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden. He argues that the West must take responsibility of the negative consequences that have occurred from the West’s help in poor developing countries.

“Mexico has stopped defining itself by it opposition to the United States and it instead attempting to imitate the United States and joining the North American Trade Area”. There have always been migrations from Mexico to the United States. Now it has become a much more sensitive issue with so many deaths being reported. Luis Alberto Urrea follows 26 men that attempted to cross the U.S./Mexico border in his novel, The Devil’s Highway.

Finally, the article mentions Confucian-Islamic ideas. Snowflower and the Secret Fan novel by Lisa See goes into the old tradition of foot binding in China. The other is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini that follows the life of two Afghan women.

All these novels, fiction or nonfiction, are a great way to inform you about different cultures and opinions. I encourage you to pick one up and immerse yourself in a story and culture.

CFC