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Drawing on Potter\u2019s background in journalism, the class tends to feature more historical reporters than anything else. We\u2019ve read about Edward Murrow, the pioneering radio broadcaster who covered the bombing of London during WWII, and we discussed Dorothy Thompson, who once said Hitler posed no threat to the world in an article and then dedicated the rest of her life to making up for that mischaracterization. Basically, we learn about people who were trying to write things down during times where it must have felt like everything was going wrong.<\/p>\n
The class started out simple enough. We read Rilke and thought about how important artists can be to the world, and we read Sinclair Lewis\u2019 It Can\u2019t Happen Here<\/em> and talked about the impact both journalism and literature can have on politics. Class period mixed lectures, small group discussions, and self-reflective journaling in response to Potter\u2019s thought-provoking prompts. As the semester progressed, it became clear how well Potter was integrating reading material with politics both old and new. We learned more about the complicated politics of the Spanish Civil War than I ever had in history class, and I thought about whether I would be brave enough to risk crossing the U.S.\/Mexico border to try and save my child.<\/p>\n Although still an English class, \u201cWorld on Fire\u201d has made me think about politics in a way I never have before. We\u2019ve talked about the power a single individual can have when they stand against oppression, even if the act itself doesn\u2019t seem to change much. There were class exercises that challenged me to think about what exactly I would risk for my beliefs. Am I passionate enough about writing to distribute pamphlets under a Nazi regime? Would I keep a newspaper running against direct orders from my government? \u00a0\u201cWorld on Fire\u201d seems to be helping me grapple with these questions. Besides discussing more historical wars than I would have expected from a genre studies course, the class has come to serve as some form of combined moral compass and long-term therapy session for dealing with the world outside of UMich. As I\u2019ve written about before<\/a>, I have a hard time with politics. It feels like the state of the world is constantly weighing on me, and it can be difficult to feel that anything I do would actually be helpful in the long run. Potter seems to have expected this from his students, for one of the first things we talked about at the beginning of the semester is how hard it can be to find a balance between \u201cradicalism and grocery shopping.\u201d I left that first class period feeling that yes, we have a responsibility to try to make the world a better place, but I still have the right to make sure my own needs are met. But the question of \u201cHow?\u201d still remained.<\/p>\n While I\u2019m still not sure how to do anything as drastic as saving the world, English 318 has certainly been helpful when it comes to saving myself. As it says in the class name, the course is about \u201csurviving a world on fire.\u201d With our class readings and discussions as tools to help us, we\u2019ve spent the semester making \u201cTop Ten\u201d lists for how to survive a world that seems to feel like it\u2019s constantly burning in some form or another. Quotes from everything from novels to newspapers to punk songs get pulled out and used as the basis for some form of \u201csurvival tip.\u201d Rilke quotes turn into calls to action for protests and Orwell is used to justify taking a step back and moving to a farm when a break is needed.\u00a0 These lists have offered a space for reflection. I\u2019m able to sit down with these lessons learned through stories and try to balance the urge to burn down every system of power I don\u2019t agree with while also doing things like eating breakfast and doing homework.<\/p>\n Now that we\u2019re at the end of the semester, I\u2019ve been going back through my lists to create a final copy; a single list that will encapsulate all I\u2019ve learned from this class as well as serving as a road map for surviving the future. It\u2019s been strange doing this during the time of COVID-19. My past lists were based entirely on politics. They talked about the importance of community-based organizing groups and getting people to vote. I wrote tips telling myself to reach out to friends when I needed a hug. None of that feels relevant today. While they were massively useful at the time, I feel like I need an entirely new set of tips for navigating the world today. Today\u2019s fire is not the same as last month\u2019s.\u00a0However, this is not to say this has all been for nothing.<\/p>\n Though the class, and these lists, were originally created assuming current politics were the \u201cfire\u201d we\u2019d be dealing with, Potter\u2019s approach has been massively helpful when it comes to dealing with COVID-19. The survival lists have taken on a new meaning. In some terrifying ways they\u2019ve become way more literal than anyone could have predicted when the semester began, but they also offer more than just simple reflection. In combining the books we\u2019ve read with our own personal reflection, these lists serve as a call to action that will hopefully expand past quarantine. \u201cSo you\u2019ve decided how you feel,\u201d they seem to say, \u201cbut what are you going to do about it?\u201d Each one is a personalized reminder of how stories from the past can inspire new ones for tomorrow.<\/p>\n As I\u2019m going through the stories I felt were important enough to add to my lists in the past, there\u2019s one that I keep coming back to. Even with the prior appreciation I had for stories and the ways we keep repeating them through time, I don\u2019t think I really realized how important written records can be until we studied the Oyneg Shabes Archives.\u00a0 Set up by historian Emanuel Ringelblum, the archives offered a place for Jewish people to record their everyday life from within the Warsaw Ghetto. Diaries were distributed for people to write in, and once full, they would be buried in hidden rooms underground. Getting caught would mean certain death. But still, these people risked their lives to record the trauma they were living through. The motivation came from the knowledge that the Nazis would do anything possible to wipe out all record of Jewish life outside of the ugly characterization they were creating through propaganda. The people in the ghetto knew that if they didn\u2019t find a way to tell their stories, they would be lost forever. So, they wrote, and they collected, and they drew.<\/p>\n Most of the people involved in the archives didn\u2019t make it through the war, and only two of the three hidden rooms have been uncovered. Still, what has been found has been vital towards understanding just how much these people suffered from Nazi brutality. Testimonies of Nazi beatings and rapes are interspersed with pages dedicated to old family recipes, showing just how much suffering became a part of everyday life. Also, among the diaries that were written with the express purpose of documentation are newspapers, letters, and drawings from children. These scraps of life help show the Holocaust as something more than just a death toll, humanizing its victims in a way Nazi Germany never would have allowed.<\/p>\n At one point in the semester it astounded me that people still thought to write things down in a time where every day must have felt like a fight for survival. I don\u2019t think I could have fully understood why someone would risk their life for the sake of a journal, a story. However, that\u2019s changed. While a virus cannot be compared to a carefully planned genocide, the need for documentation feels just as urgent. Thousands of Jews were dying each month due to the ghetto\u2019s horrible living conditions, but the stories they told have lived on. Thousands are dying each day across the world due to COVID, but it feels like we\u2019re still trying to sort out our stories. Whether we like it or not, history is going to get written. Stories will get told, but it\u2019s up to us to make sure they\u2019re true. The President\u2019s speeches are already being recorded, but who\u2019s going to remember what the person on the brink of death in isolation has to say about all this? We\u2019re fortunate enough to live in a time and a country where we won\u2019t be taken to concentration camps simply for writing a diary, and we should take advantage of this fact. Stories are important at any time, but when living through times of crisis, they become vital.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even with an entire class built round the idea of surviving a political and societal \u201dfire\u201d, I still feel like I\u2019m going into this whole quarantine thing blind. Like everyone else, my life has been entirely flipped upside down in the past few weeks. I\u2019m stuck in my childhood bedroom in a town I thought I had left behind for good, and the summer study abroad program I\u2019d been looking forward to has been cancelled. Classes feel weird and inconsequential, and it\u2019s hard to feel motivated about doing anything but going into survival mode and frantically planting a garden. Even Potter\u2019s lectures have been becoming sporadic as he deals with his own problems caused by this virus; however, I also know that this class has left me more prepared than I could have expected. I\u2019m already imagining how this event will be viewed as history, and I\u2019m trying to think about the stories that will get told \u2014 and the ones that won\u2019t. Who\u2019s responsible for keeping track of those? I\u2019m not a famous journalist who can go and write some book that changes the general opinion, but if anything, this class has taught me the power of the small act. I can\u2019t make headlines talking about politicians, but maybe I can do my own documenting. Whether that\u2019s through starting a public blog or keeping a private diary, I know these stories have value.<\/p>\n So now, as we\u2019re stuck in isolation and turning to the stories that come across in other forms, through TV or podcast, books or Twitter feed, I urge you to think about the power contained in them. Maybe try making your own list; what media have you consumed lately that resonated with something inside you? How can you turn that into a lesson for getting through this moment in history? Is this something you would risk your life to make sure people remember? At the end of the day, stuck inside while the world seems to burn at a terrifying pace, stories are all that we have. They won\u2019t beat science when it comes to survival, but they help create a species worth saving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If there\u2019s one thing I believe in, it\u2019s the power of stories. The things we tell each other, sharing both our lived experiences as well as narratives from the depths of our imagination, are what make\u00a0us human. Our entire society is built on stories in some form. We have myths, fables, religion, even historical documents. Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,75,8],"tags":[57,52,210,66,211,212],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-course-spotlight","category-opinions-reflections","tag-course","tag-english","tag-english-318","tag-englishmajor","tag-how-to-survive","tag-world-on-fire"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1158,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions\/1158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}