Author: Karim A.

Hilarious Orientalism in Rotana Movies

On By Karim A.In Film, Orientalism1 Comment
Is 'Hamza's Suitcase' available to watch on Canadian Netflix ...

The Rotana Group is the Arab world’s largest entertainment company, and recently it released many of its goofiest movies into the international section of Netflix, making a presence in the Western world. The movies are unfortunately almost all in Arabic, which creates some issues for an American audience but as a Syrian-American, I can say that these movies have Orientalism at their very core.

Many aspects of Middle-Eastern culture and Arabic stereotypes are taken and exaggerated and distorted greatly. From views on women and homosexuality to camels to hookahs to terrorism to Arabian trap music; these movies paint a picture of the Arabic world that could not be farther from reality. The movies are a lot of fun to watch but the humor used is extremely shallow and can offer no new insight about the world (other than misleading Westerners that their stereotypes and presets about the Eastern world are true).

The Way Roy’s Writing Hits You

On By Karim A.In God of Small Things1 Comment

There are a plethora of disturbing books out there in the world, many of which I and our AP Literature class have read; but none hit harder than Arundhati Roy’s novel, “The God of Small Things.” There are two main reasons that her depictions of trauma hit hard: they usually come as a surprise and many moments are seen from the innocent mind of a child.

One of the most infamous and brutal places in the book is when Estha is molested by the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. The scene starts out innocently, Estha is asked to leave the movie theater because he was being too loud. The refreshments guy in the lobby starts asking him questions in return for a free lemonade, which is disturbing on its own but then comes the real shocker:

“Now if you’ll kindly hold this for me,” the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man said, handing Estha his penis through his soft white muslin dhoti, “I’ll get you your drink. Orange? Lemon?”

Roy 98

There always seemed to be something off about the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man (a great name by the way), and maybe this behavior pattern was to be expected. However, the way Roy fits this horror into a sentence that makes us think one thing (that he was going to hand Estha an ingredient or the drink) and shatters this expectation with just one word is simply cruel.

But Roy does not stop there, towards the end of this scene, Estha’s hand is covered in “White egg white, Quarter-boiled” (Roy 99). Needless to say, that description from the point of view of a confused child scars readers on a whole other level. God of Small Things is a book that does not refrain from giving the full story, no matter how gruesome it might be, and because of that, it is powerful.

“Dumb and Dumber”: Laughter Without Meaning

On By Karim A.In Comedy/SatireLeave a comment
Image result for dumb and dumber

The 1994 comedy directed by Peter Farrelly, “Dumb and Dumber,” still manages to impress audiences worldwide with its complete and utter stupidity to this day. You might want to check out the trailer and this list of 100 dumb things that happen in this comedy for context and a laugh.

Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are the two main characters, and Lloyd, a taxi driver, falls in love with a rich woman which he drove to the airport, who leaves a suitcase full of money behind. Seeking to return the money to her and gain her love, the two begin their journey to Aspen, the woman’s destination, pissing off several people along the way. Little did they know, the money left behind was ransom for a kidnapping, leading to several complications. Of course, on their journey, Harry and Lloyd spend “a little bit” of the money, only enough to get them each a lamborghini and a full new wardrobe, and at the end, one of them gets the girl.

In an Aristotelian sense, “Dumb and Dumber” can be considered a classical comedy (ignoring the semi-cliffhanger ending of the film). But unless one considers learning how to be a nuisance as valuable, this film is as far from meaningful as a film can be. There are multiple hyperbolized references to societal prejudices against the poor and women, but the way they are portrayed in the movie, the audience is not given a chance to even notice while they are uncontrollably gagging. Stereotypes are also evident and exaggerated throughout the movie, but are not critiqued in any way, shape, or form.

These comments on “Dumb and Dumber” can be extended to almost all laugh-out-loud comedies in the contemporary film genre, where the goals of the film makers do not extend far beyond making people exhale through their nose for money. However, comedies that tend to be more literary and a bit less stupid and where seeds of meaning can be scattered throughout can enhance the audience’s understanding of the world around them There seems to be a tradeoff between the amount of enjoyment a comedy can bring about and the weight of the meaning it carries.

The Surprisingly Meaningful Satire Behind Clickhole.com

On By Karim A.In Comedy/Satire1 Comment

Clickhole.com is a satirical “news” outlet that publishes daily content ranging from articles to quizzes on seemingly crude and unimportant matters. These images are representative examples of the content one would find there:

It is difficult to believe that this vile stream of content has a purpose more significant to make people laugh, but through these messages, clickhole.com is able to parody online outlets such as Buzzfeed and Upworthy that rely on clickbait to make a living. Clickhole does this by hyperbolizing the various techniques clickbaiters use to attract attention to themselves.

One of these techniques is the classic list. Whether it is “10 things you can do RIGHT NOW to lose weight” or “15 things you didn’t know you could do with an eraser,” lists tend to be attractive because the audience expects to gain multiple pieces of insight in a short period of time that they believe will change their lifestyle. Once the unsuspecting internet surfer clicks on the article and glances at the list, they realize there is nothing there for them to take in. But it does not matter for the creators of the advertisement-infested article, they make money whether the user likes the content or not. Articles like these are hyperbolized to cause internet users to ask themselves, “Who would click on this garbage?” and to discourage them from falling in the clickbait trap.

Another technique used by many companies to attract attention to their content is wholesomeness, or in other words, the “aww factor.” Clickhole satirizes this technique by beginning with a sarcastic phrase (“Absolutely Heartwarming” or “True Love” in the examples above) hinting at wholesomeness only to destroy that feeling with gore within the same sentence. This allows internet users to see how easily their emotions can be played and teaches them to avoid falling for this trickery.

Clickhole has the underlying theme of combating clickbait, but each article also has its own message, usually being that society pays too much attention to meaningless things such as royal families and celebrities and scandals that will be forgotten in a day or two. Despite being a load of fun to play around on and laugh at, clickhole.com was created for a purpose: to educate internet users the ways companies will use them to gain revenue and to waste their time. Unfortunately, Clickhole was bought by Cards Against Humanity and will no longer continue to produce new content as of just one week ago, but I believe that its message will continue to live on.

Will God be there?

On By Karim A.In Music PoetryLeave a comment

“Will You Be There” is a song by Michael Jackson which was released as a in 1993, it is part of the album Dangerous and also appeared on the soundtrack to Free Willy. The speaker is clearly Michael Jackson himself, or anyone placed in the difficult situations he was in when composing this song. However, the audience of the song is a strange one indeed, nothing of this world makes sense to be the true audience – except for God. When looked at in this fashion, this song turns into a plea for divine help from someone in the darkest times of his life. The song begins:

Hold me
Like the River Jordan

After doing some digging, we find that the River Jordan is a sacred river, whose waters have a spiritual significance that make it distinct from other rivers. It is also supposedly the place where Jesus was baptized, so we can conclude that Michael Jackson is personally asking God for him to be held metaphorically like he was on the first day he entered into his religion. Towards the end of the song, Jackson asks for forgiveness claiming:

But I’m only human

These few words can be taken to mean many different things. The simplest meaning or the most literal is that Jackson is complaining about the strict standards for men in today’s society mentioned earlier in the song. However, it can also be seen that in this line, the speaker is letting go, completely giving up, recognizing that the problem is out of his hands and placing the burden on God’s shoulders. After all this drama buildup, the last two lines bring in a hopeful and much needed twist:

You’ll be there for me
And care enough to bear me

These lines can serve as a volta, similar to a sonnet, where the problem and the emotional intensity and dissatisfaction become resolved at a divine epiphany at the end, very often immortalizing or idealizing some kind of love or person, which is exactly what happens with these lines, in which Jackson gives an affirmative answer to the question “Will you be there?”

Beloved and Exit West

On By Karim A.In Beloved, Exit West3 Comments

After letting both books sink in for a while, a similarity between the two works really started to make sense. Both works are set in real-world places and real-world times with real-world problems, Exit West is set in what seems to be civil-war ridden Syria and Beloved is set in the brutal time period of American slavery. However, they both have one element that distracts from the real world and adds a deeper level of meaning, making the story truly powerful.

The magical doors in Hamid’s novel and the reborn baby in Beloved serve add much more to the story than just a bit of spice and fantasy. Beloved serves as a metaphorical representation of the collective memory of slavery, coming back long after its abolition to haunt its victims and their loved ones, and the doors play with the idea of an immigration crisis to combat the idea of restricted immigration laws.

I thought it was very interesting to see how effective placing an out-of-the-ordinary element in a very serious book could be in creating advanced statement about the real world and how it makes the book a work of art and not just a fun page-turner.

Islam in “Exist West”

On By Karim A.In Exit WestLeave a comment

I was raised in a Muslim family my whole life and Islam dictates in a lot of ways how I see the world. However, when reading Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West, I feel like my Islamic world and the characters’ views of Islam are completely different. One example is the meaning of prayer in the novel, which strangely does not seem to mention God or worship in any way, shape, or form but is “a gesture of love for what had gone and would go and could be loved in no other way” (202). However, in real-life Islam and for most people, prayer is a way to glorify God and to reach some form of inner peace, and it is not optional in the way the novel makes it seem. Praying the five daily prayers is a requirement and one of the fundamental pillars of one’s faith, but this is not a reason to complain. Many people including myself and Saeed “value the discipline of it, the fact that it [is] a code, a promise [we have] made, and that [we] stood by” (202). Prayer is a truly mysterious thing and the experiences formed within it can be miraculous but can also be plain, depending on point of view.

On the other hand, some parts of the novel are ‘Godless’ and contrast heavily with the topic of spirituality. You would think that someone who seems to be so into their faith would abstain from smoking a joint whenever they want without feeling a sense of regret, but in this novel it happens. I believe Hamid wants to showcase religion as something that is more important at some times than at others, a sort of artificial, abstract idea that we refer to as a last resort, similar to what Albert Camus is getting at in his novel The Stranger. Personally, I believe that religion can be much more than that but in the strange world Nadia and Saeed are in, with its doors and long sentences, this is somewhat true.

Is Mersault Just Crazy?

On By Karim A.In Mutual Recognition, Power and Identity, Stranger1 Comment

The Stranger, a novel by Albert Camus, has one of the most interesting, strange, analyzed characters in literary history, Monsieur Mersault. What separates him from the rest of the character world is his pessimistic viewpoint of life, that it is absurd for everyone and that its only certainty is death. He clearly lacks the basic morals and emotions the rest of the world has, not mourning the death of his mother and killing a man for no reason other than it was hot outside.

Many critics of the story would say that Mersault’s indifferent viewpoint on life is the key to true happiness, defeating the systems of social power brought upon us by our ancestors, seeing the book as Camus’ guide to lead a good life. But is it? Or is it a counter-example to how to lead a life? Imagine a world where killing people for no reason is common, nobody cares for relationships, and the only thing on people’s minds are death. There is no doubt that there is power in the morality system, shaming the people that are not able to control themselves, but is it not necessary to avoid chaos?

Monsieur Mersault is showing himself in the story to be a complete Nihilist, and a pessimistic one too, far away from the existentialist and the optimistic Nihilist. It is true what Mersault thinks, life really does not matter because we are all going to die, but it is not worth still living it to the fullest?Even if life does not matter, is it not a good idea to make it a better place? His actions in the novel, firing off at the priest at the end, killing the Arab without remorse, and showing no respect to women throughout (except for fulfilling his desires), all point to the behavior of an absolute sociopath that really does not care about anyone, not even himself.

Life might not matter at all because we are only here for a short time, but that does not mean people like Mersault should be around to ruin it for all of us. There might be systems of power Mersault is fighting with his strange viewpoint, but the ones he fight are the ones that keep evil and dullness from taking over the world. Camus in this story is showing the audience the extreme existentialism that could be dangerous and that sprouts from his teachings and is telling us not to be Mersault.

Human-Tlic History and the Significance of the Rifle in “Bloodchild”

On By Karim A.In Short StoriesLeave a comment

In “Bloodchild,” we are to assume that there was a conflict on planet Earth which forced many humans out to probably other planets, one of them being occupied by an alien species of giant centipede called Tlic. The Tlic have had their fair share of problems too on their home planet. They are a parasitic species, needing a host animal to bear their young and reproduce for them. They used the wild animals on their planet as hosts for the longest time, but then the animals learned to eat the Tlic larvae and hinder the chances of the reproduction process from actually happening successfully. Lucky for them, the humans, coming as refugees from Earth, are the perfect host but it will not be easy to convince them of that role, so they fought. The technologically and physically superior aliens won the war and now the human species is forced to bear the young of the Tlic and are forced to live in reserves.

Gan and her family live on one of these reserves, and the second amendment does not exist on these lands. Gan’s dad, who actually was regarded a model citizen by the aliens, hid a rifle that was used in the war, showing how even for him, personal freedom was a necessary thing, as it should be for everyone. Gan takes out this rifle and dreams of killing T’Gatoi at first but soon, when he realizes his powerlessness and how he is nothing but an animal in this society, Gan turns the gun onto himself. It becomes clear to him that he will probably die doing his societal duty of bearing Tlic young like we can assume his father did and that his life is pointless.

However, this gun later gives him a sense of power over T’Gatoi and the Tlic species in general. Killing himself with it does show independence from the Tlic but the way he speaks to T’Gatoi and forces her to keep the gun in the house is even more significant. Gan orders T’Gatoi, “leave it here! If we’re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner!” (26) The rifle Gan’s father hid forces T’Gatoi to see Gan as more of a partner than of a subject, or even object for that matter.