Of the readings in our hard-copy text for this last unit, I was the most moved by Timothy Garton Ash's The Magic Lantern and it's heartfelt description and reminiscences of the Berlin Wall coming down. He made a point to go beyond the sensationalism and relate the more subtle and human interest angles, which really deepened my empathy for what the Wall must have represented. "Everyone has seen the joyful celebration in West Berlin, the vast crowds... corks popping... greatest street party in the world. Yes, it was like that. But it was not only like that... most of the estimated two million East Germans who flooded into West Berlin simply walked the streets in quite family groups...went shopping... then walked quietly back through the Wall... home". That is amazing- such a simple act that most of us take for granted. This had not been possible for "twenty-eight years and ninety-one days" (488).

Russian Disco was a fun and offbeat read that I really enjoyed. I liked all the stories, but my favorite was "The Columbo of Prenzlauer Berg". (This is due in part to the fact that Kaminer is referencing the American TV detective show Columbo- one of my favorites, and probably unfamiliar to younger classmates). The irreverence and satire Kaminer uses are an apropos representation of the post-communist German life- Berlin now a sort of melting pot... "Half the people who live in our building are Vietnamese, and half are Latinos who never tire of dancing to 'Guantanamera' ".

Such literature is just one facet of the postmodern movement that our e-text addresses in some depth. I'm intrigued by the notion of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard- that society has reached a point where there is no "social reality" anymore; with mass communication, the internet, media spins, etc. everything has become a "virtual simulation". I have to agree to a point. You see people walking everywhere with their gaze focused on a smart-phone screen, while passing through a reality they're unaware of.