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March 28, 2024, 08:24:25 pm

Author Topic: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif  (Read 17056 times)  Share 

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Aqualim

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The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« on: December 24, 2009, 11:58:33 am »
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Just thought I'd make a thread for all the people who are studying this book next year, so that we can discuss/share ideas about the text.
Also just wondering if anyone has read it as yet? I read it over the past two days, and took fairly brief summary notes from each chapter, (mainly the ideas that weren't expressed in the study guide). After reading the book, I found that it's basically a novel about various 'mini-stories' that have occurred in Najaf's life, both in Afghanistan and in the Woomera Detention Centre & Melbourne.

Personally after reading the novel, I think the story would have made more sense if I read every second chapter e.g. 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. and then once I got to the end, I would come back and read the even chapters e.g. 2, 4, 6, 8 etc. This is because it jumps from him being a child in Afghanistan, possibly 20 years ago, then in the next chapter, it is him 20 years later in the Woomera Camp.

What are your thoughts on this book? (If you have read it)

jay1993

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Re: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2010, 05:19:59 pm »
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yeah! im doing this book too. Found it okay as a novel but i suck at English lol in terms of writing peices.

Are all the conflicts in this novel between Najaf and someone/something else? Or do other characters also encounter conflicts?
I found the layout of the 'mini-stories of his life' being every second chapter made the book a bit messy. It didn't really build on or anything...

Aqualim

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Re: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2010, 07:33:37 pm »
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I found the layout of the 'mini-stories of his life' being every second chapter made the book a bit messy. It didn't really build on or anything...

I completely agree here, it was basically Najaf taking every dramatic event in his life and turning it into a chapter.

Are all the conflicts in this novel between Najaf and someone/something else? Or do other characters also encounter conflicts?
I suppose the story is mainly focused on the trauma that has occurred in Najaf's life both in Afghanistan (mainly afghanistan) and Australia. But I guess you could say all the people he has mentioned, especially his family, have dealt with some form of conflict e.g. when his older brother Gorg Ali dies from a sniper in the head, and his family as well as Najaf experience the pain of losing another member of the family. (Najaf's dad died as well)

mandy

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Re: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2010, 09:59:44 pm »
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I'm studying this novel as well and I just finished reading it today. I thought it was good with some interesting quotes. I didn't remember to write them down though, so I'll have to do that the second time I read it. 
2009:
Biology [34]   Vietnamese [36]
2010:
English [48]   Chemistry [37]   Further [38]   Methods [39]   Specialist [29]
2010 ATAR: 97.20
2011: Bachelor of Biomedicine @ UniMelb

Aqualim

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Re: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2010, 11:27:07 pm »
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I'm studying this novel as well and I just finished reading it today. I thought it was good with some interesting quotes. I didn't remember to write them down though, so I'll have to do that the second time I read it. 

Quotes for Context? I'm assuming your planning on doing an essay for that piece of assessment then. Personally I'm going to write a speech which strongly relates to the ideas of the text, this method being far easier to talk about pretty much anything (even real life situations) without the need for quotes :) Well thats what I have done in Year eleven anyway, not sure about year twelve.

Also did anyone else find the text to be very similar (at times) to a documentary of the history of Afghanistan? personally when all these names were popping up, it made the story confusing and hard to visualise. But still I took the important parts of the story out, and made a summary for every chapter, which will hopefully help when I re-read the book closer to the beginning of February

mandy

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Re: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2010, 11:32:51 pm »
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I'm studying this novel as well and I just finished reading it today. I thought it was good with some interesting quotes. I didn't remember to write them down though, so I'll have to do that the second time I read it. 

Quotes for Context? I'm assuming your planning on doing an essay for that piece of assessment then. Personally I'm going to write a speech which strongly relates to the ideas of the text, this method being far easier to talk about pretty much anything (even real life situations) without the need for quotes :) Well thats what I have done in Year eleven anyway, not sure about year twelve.

Also did anyone else find the text to be very similar (at times) to a documentary of the history of Afghanistan? personally when all these names were popping up, it made the story confusing and hard to visualise. But still I took the important parts of the story out, and made a summary for every chapter, which will hopefully help when I re-read the book closer to the beginning of February

Yeah, for most of the history bits, I skipped a few sentences at a time, lol. Cos I was lazy and I wasn't gonna remember the names anyway haha.
2009:
Biology [34]   Vietnamese [36]
2010:
English [48]   Chemistry [37]   Further [38]   Methods [39]   Specialist [29]
2010 ATAR: 97.20
2011: Bachelor of Biomedicine @ UniMelb

Aqualim

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Re: The Rug-Maker of Mazar-E-Sharif
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2010, 05:39:04 pm »
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I'm studying this novel as well and I just finished reading it today. I thought it was good with some interesting quotes. I didn't remember to write them down though, so I'll have to do that the second time I read it. 
Quotes for Context? I'm assuming your planning on doing an essay for that piece of assessment then. Personally I'm going to write a speech which strongly relates to the ideas of the text, this method being far easier to talk about pretty much anything (even real life situations) without the need for quotes :) Well thats what I have done in Year eleven anyway, not sure about year twelve.

Also did anyone else find the text to be very similar (at times) to a documentary of the history of Afghanistan? personally when all these names were popping up, it made the story confusing and hard to visualise. But still I took the important parts of the story out, and made a summary for every chapter, which will hopefully help when I re-read the book closer to the beginning of February

Yeah, for most of the history bits, I skipped a few sentences at a time, lol. Cos I was lazy and I wasn't gonna remember the names anyway haha.
Exactly! I'm just trying to come up with an idea of what I should write about when it comes to the SAC (which isn't for ages, I know).

Seeing as the book shows that different people respond to conflict in different ways, I'll have to draw upon the idea of how some people will react to the conflict around them e.g. The reason the war started in the first place, whilst other people, namely Najaf, are resilient and deal with the issue that has arisen.