world literature in kabul 2-25

Letter from Kabul 2/25
In my world lit class on Monday I gave an exam that I had so much fun creating I was wishing I could take it myself! I was thinking too that some of my lit loving friends like Susan would really enjoy taking the class. The class is small: smart articulate handsome urbane even Nemat; Tamina, who lived in US most of her life (prefers to live her) , went to UC Davis and really gets everything we read; round jolly Hassan who loves poetry the most and works at one of the ministries downtown where all the suicide bombers congregate; his friend B who is blindingly handsome esp when he smiles, is only taking the class because Hassan told him to (and so is my challenge because all the others love literature.
Tonite as part of a poetry and music section we read Mr. Tambourine Man, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and two Gary Snyder’s poems that Kipchoge has turned into songs. It ‘s often a challenge because they know so few western references but it was great. First we read it and I invited them all to weigh in on what they thought. I told them about the Pied Piper children’s story, comparing Dylan and the tambourine Man to the pied piper of the 60’s story. Predictably Nemat got right off what it was about (on one level), B didn’t like it, Hassan loved it. I downloaded Dylan at Newport in ‘64 singing it, got all gooey nostalgic, thought of Richie. B liked it when he heard it sung. We talked about Lucy and the Beatles – they had heard about the Beatles from their parents: Hassan’s father had told him about their political stance but Tamina said her parents talked more about them as stylesetters, haircuts, etc. (this was during the 70’s when the scene here was actually progressive). Tamina finally chimed in about the secret meaning of the two as in The Tambourine Man was the dealer, etc( I hadn’t planned to bring this up because I wasn’t sure how it would go down- some of my colleagues were aghast that I was doing Lucy). They liked Kipchoge’s version of Snyder’s AS FOR POETS – they said it made the poem more accessible.
I teach 6:15 – 7:30 PM MW and 5-8 Sun, Tues Thurs. Most students work so can only come in the evening. (the Univ Bd of Directors doesn’t like this, wants it to be a day university but the only ones who can come during the day are the children of the elite and even the evening students are from priviledged families for most part bec with no real public education for 20 plus years, the poor are illiterate.) It doesn’t sound like much but it is quite exhausting, the pile of papers to correct is bottomless and It’s like performance for the STT classes. I will write about them another time.
About photos I’ve downloaded over the past week: the first set are from an art show at the French Cultural Center from students at a girl’s high school and boys from the French Lycee (my escort Sangar, went to the Lycee when the Taliban were in power). While I was having lunch at my first Afghan restaurant (I rarely eat out unlike my colleagues- most of whom go to over priced western style restaurants- sometime I’ll writ e about food-it’s a whole discourse of it’s own) a young woman came up to me and handed me an invite to the art show- her photo is among the ones I downloaded, just below a painting she did of a house in a bucolic setting her family home until it was destroyed. While I was looking at a poster for the Afghan Theater company! The (French) director came up and introduced himself_ I gave him my card that says Professor of Eng and Drama and his eyes lit up. He showed me their deluxe proscenium theater with plush red velvet seats and my eyes lit up. Result is I will take my lit class (we’re looking at Tartuffe later in the semester, one of the Afghan Theater’s Productions last summer). Also coming with are my newly formed Theater group- my proposal is to have a for credit class in the fall with a culminating production. The all-Afghan Theater Co is leaving for a 7-month Paris residency next week.
The other set of photos is from Zuhra’s brother’s engagement party last Sunday, which I was told by a veteran \afghan wedding partier that this one was as good as it gets—I had already thought this- more later. I’m very tired and have morning curriculum committee meeting Manana.