Response to the Readings

Both of the readings seemed to be interesting, yet the ideas from the book I felt I could relate to better. Looking back at the quotes that Julie pulled out for us to respond to I felt that the quote about Theo Van Gogh to be the most interesting. As Buruma describes that death of him in an ironic way, I think back to the end of Chapter Five where Buruma discusses the significance of Van Gogh not being afraid of being killed because of Submission because he felt that he wouldn't be seen as responsible for its production. Van Gogh argued that he had been there just to support Hirshi Ali while she put the eleven minute film together. I find that to be somewhat ironic. Theo Van Gogh was a very outspoken man yet felt that he would be threatened by anyone after Submission appeared. The description in the end of Chapter 5 matches the quote on Page 112 very well.

As having discussed with Shirley and Julie on Friday, the attire of 2nd generation immigration is a very interesting topic, so much so that we have changed our research question to explore it. Having not thought much about this issues until reading Buruma, I think the whole idea is rather complex yet fascinating. How do the younger generation immigrants make their decisions on what to wear? The quote about religious attire being there just as a fashion statement is a bold statement yet seems to not stray too much from the truth. Alongside this quote, Buruma illustrates some great examples about how women especially on Muslim beliefs are dealing with this situation. From what I understood, I feel that Buruma thinks that many of the women are not wearing their headscarves for the right reasons, or for any known reason. That whole idea really fascinates me, I wonder if the religion is creating the fashion choices or on the other hand, if by wearing the headscarves that religion just goes with it. It's a complex relationship in my mind.

The quote on rappers just make it want to role my eyes, because in general at least here in the United States, I see rappers to be confused individuals. They pretend to be something that they really aren't, in most cases. The quote on rappers playing in on murder only makes their lives in Amsterdam seem to be ironic. They are normal individuals living in a tolerant society yet making statements are very intolerant of others. It just doesn't make much sense to me.

Aside from Murder in Amsterdam reading, I found the article to really not be that interesting (sorry). I appreciated the explanation of what the Virtual Knowledge Studio is because I didn't really understand what it was all about until now, but I found it more to be a tool for dealing with the issues that Buruma mentioned more than them having something in common.

From the article, I took out the path that they are taking to making e-science actually mean e-research which it enlightens me yet to me it just meant that more parts of research would be used to come to a solution in humanities and social sciences. Yet it seemed ironic because while expanding the ideas of attaining knowledge, I felt that there was an overall idea that too much knowledge is not good.