Christina Hartman

Langman & Morris's "Islamic Terrorism: From Retrenchment To Ressentiment and Beyond" was very informative, I learned a lot about how Islam was once a very dominant religion, and how it ceased to be a hegemony, and how it slowly gave rise to so many (sometimes violent) fundamentalists. Most of what I have to say, however is on Bruce Sterling's "We See Things Differently," because I believe there are a lot more connections to be found and comments to be made in a short story rather than in an informative essay, since the essay essentially lays it all out for you.

I love how this story is written in the first person by a "terrorist," and he's not necessarily demonized or lumped into the group of crazy religions middle easterners who pack machine guns under their robes and bombs in their turbans. One line that really struck me was on page 778, "It is not that we value our lives lightly. But that we value God more," even though I've watched plenty of shows about what makes a terrorist, I've never heard it put that way and I think it really aids in making these "terrorists" seem more human than they're often portrayed.

The irony of Sayyid calling himself "Charlie" wouldn't have even registered with me if we hadn't discussed it in the main class. Bruce Sterling is sure full of lots of metaphors and ironic twists! Choosing the name that we gave to our enemy the Vietcong in the Vietnam war, which we lost, is such a subtle way of foreshadowing what is going to happen!

I also am intrigued by the way Sterling made Tom Boston, this huge rock star, play jazz music because jazz hasn't been that huge in years, and even if it was, I have yet to hear any mega-popular band that has a saxophone and a glass harmonica use such powerful political lyrics! I wonder why he decided to make Boston play that style of music, and if it has anything to do with the Harlem Renaissance, when black people "invented jazz." Maybe Boston is trying to make a statement about his ancestors? Maybe that's a bit of a reach but I thought it was worth mentioning!

In this dialogue journal response I was trying to help myself understand the story better by writing about it, and also I was trying to empathize with Sayyid by considering his point of view while writing. I felt myself almost on his side while I was reading the story, and some of the things that were mentioned have stuck with me, and I've thought about them since I read the story. Particularly the part about how we accuse muslims of enslaving their women, while our women spend hundreds of dollars every year on making themselves beautiful, they go to great pains to be beautiful, all for the "lust of men".

This relates to the university studies goal "ethical issues and responsibility" because it deals heavily with the issue of terrorism; something which is taken very seriously in this country right now, and which has an incredibly negative stigma, and for many good reasons! But it takes terrorism, and tells us the story of a terrorist and doesn't even make him look like a bad guy! In my paper I was trying to get across how unique that is to read in this day and age. It makes us think about morals, and if we would be willing to die to protect our country's values and morals.

People interested in reading this essay would be people with strong ties to 911 because they'd probably have some very strong feelings on this subject, although I'm not so sure they'd be too happy about what I have to say about it. If I had the opportunity to rewrite this piece I would definitely make more connections to real terrorist organizations operating now, and would question weather these groups were similar to Sayyid, or that is to say, if they were fighting for the same reasons he is. I would also make more references to current events because this is a very hot-button issue right now.

Sterling, Bruce. "We See Things Differently." The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990. Edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993

Langman, Lauren, and Douglas Morris. "Islamic Terrorism: From Retrenchment to Ressentiment and Beyond." Essential Readings on Political Terrorism. Edited by Harvey W. Kushner. Gordian Knot Books, 2002