Week 5: The Lost Stories

I found it particularly interesting when it was being discussed in the book how they have very little control over how their own stories get told. He discusses in particular a girl on page 249 : "She is a woman who had a camera pushed into her face and she stared into the lens. I have no doubt she wanted to tell her story, or some version of it". It really goes back to fragmentation that we discussed earlier in the quarter because we get such a small version of what is happening to the Sudanese and it most of the time is being told by someone else. As Professor Rowan used the example in class, it would be the same as a journalist snapping a photo of one of us in class, asking a few short questions and then telling our story to someone else. It just wouldn't be the same as a first person account. That is what the novel does so well. The stories like these continue to mount one on top of another of people who really experienced this and have not had the chance to have their story be heard. It is sad how Valentino is forced to break that fourth wall and point out to us in essence, 'hey look what I have to do to get your attention.' I am interested and at the same time saddened the further I go on and here the story of The Lost Boys and these displaced men and women.