Thoughts After compiling planned bibliography

"...he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned. " -Jorge Luis Borges

Sweet merciful crap. This is a lot of theoretical reading I am going to do. Prof has said my topic is very broad and may need to be narrowed down. Among the works to be cited are I think 4 books that I will certainly not have time to read in their entirety (one I have read in part before, the Gourevitch book, and I know what I'm looking for in it, more or less).

Rwanda is more or less the germinating point of the ideas and thoughts behind this paper, and the Frontline "Ghosts of Rwanda" film is how my interest with it started. I think that fits into the multiliteracies trends we've been discussing in a big way. My entire life I've been someone always most easily reached by printed words and nothing else; something about the simplicity and plainness of it. I've read hundreds if not thousands of passages, fiction and non-fiction, that describe horrible things being done to people, and been affected by it. But there's a part of that film where a girl who has survived an Interahamwe assault is being treated.

She's looking at the camera the same way a kid does when he scrapes his knee and is trying to be brave and not cry but he knows you're watching and is embarrassed and tears just flood out, except of course her knee hasn't been scraped. She has a giant split on her head where someone tried to machete her but didn't use enough force to break the plates of the skull, only the skin. She's holding up a hand and all the fingers stop suddenly at the first knuckle, and flies are landing on her the way they would a dead person only she's still alive and looks right at you watching her. That hit me in a way that films about say the Holocaust, however realistic, simply don't, and even unflinching descriptions of warzones can't using only words. You can watch it online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSJjfd4V2Mc&feature=PlayList&p=6660341BAE01BF62&index=10 that part starts at the 9 minute mark.

So Rwanda in 1994 is the starting point, the peak of interest. I don't want to leave it behind, but I also see that it cannot be the main focus if I want to write something besides a history paper (and I do). I intend still to stay with my plan of a project that has 5 parts with the greater focus on what has gone wrong in the past and what can be changed in the future, but I can certainly see that this would mean sacrificing depth in one topic for a wider scope. Need to focus on International Criminal Court and UN Security Council.

Input/Advice on what to focus on welcomed, anyone from class viewing this/facebook stalkers.