tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3149538043581198256.post7570695188216859969..comments2023-10-30T03:59:35.059-04:00Comments on Pilgrimage: An Unpleasant WelcomeZoe Ferrarishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07075189439577517904noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3149538043581198256.post-35279623880595796432009-09-18T00:03:12.909-04:002009-09-18T00:03:12.909-04:00rtsfan, thanks for writing - and forgive my late r...rtsfan, thanks for writing - and forgive my late reply! I've been doing much too much traveling and haven't been here in a while. I appreciate reading your comments. You're right to point out that the details come and go, but whether it's fear of Communism or terrorism, there's is usually a bureaucratic impulse that can be carried too far. Shanghai Girls sounds like it would provide a good analogy/sad backdrop to what may be going on today to a different group of people.Zoe Ferrarishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07075189439577517904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3149538043581198256.post-32369766564639292182009-07-15T21:36:36.235-04:002009-07-15T21:36:36.235-04:00First, I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed...First, I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed reading Finding Nouf. Both of my book groups have read it and it has led to many interesting discussions. Homeland Security reminds me too much of the McCarthy years when Americans lived in mortal fear of Communism. So many of the freedoms and rights we take for granted - and that is the key, isn't it? - that we take them for granted - can be denied instantly. I just finished reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and the strength of her most recent novel is the clear laser sharp beam of light she focuses on the Chinese American experience from about 1937 to 1957. Near the end she describes a situation very similar to Homeland Security. Within a few short years Americans went from being given a reprieve of the Exclusionary laws to having habeas corpus denied in the Communist hysteria that gripped the national psyche with Mao's rise in power. She makes palpable the fear in the community knowing that at any time someone could be arrested and deported for actions as simple as sending money home to their native village. Even greater was the fear that perhaps America might resort to internment camps for the Chinese as they did with the Japanese. When I first began reading that section of the book I thought, "Thank goodness we have moved beyond that kind of thinking, that we have become wiser." But the truth is we have not. And the frightening thing - the truly Kafkaesque thing - is that once it is put into place there seems to be no one with the skill to untie that bureaucratic Gordian knot. Thank you for reminding us so eloquently and movingly how much we all have to lose in our haste for self-protection. Fiction can be a powerful medium in helping us understand this.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10033053399438505862noreply@blogger.com