"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi , 2004)

(160 pp (graphic novel))

Book club selection (via Nicole; session held (via Zoom) mid-October 2020).

liked the tone of the discussion about the revolution - effective at ferreting out the hypocrisy 

attitude of many toward Islam today reminds of Communism in 30s-50s, and still to this day.  Wilful blindness.  example: so intent on supporting Palestinians (or some vision of what that might stand for?)  against imperialist Israel that refuse to see that Palestinians (or aspects Islamism writ larger) has issues (like everything).  Very strange.

A religion founded on conquest and "end of time" religious principles, sometimes this bleeds through.

Iran as a political mess - poor, illiterate. Tehran no particular history. 

tough sequence post WWI:  shah-revolution-iran/iraq war

didn't so much like:  author felt very superior to other women she viewed as less enlightened . . . hmmm . . . associate freedom with sex and drugs, next stop is the analyst.  Husband as someone they all knew wouldn't last - huh?

didn't really care about her relationship travails

useful to see ourselves in these ostensibly extreme situations

when everything becomes political . . . how much do we differ?  government control of schools, ideology, statue toppling, street mobs 

after tracking this pretty closely with govt major and law school - now totally (and happily) keeping distance from politics

cycle when something like this lasts >1 generation . . . folks grow up in it . . . how to change?

you get a scenario where an all-encompassing $6T govt is claimed to hinge on a single SCt seat . . . each of the last dozen vacancies was claimed to determine the fate of the republic . . . 

deep orthodoxy in US; % of educators with identical political views

things that resonated:  tourist to Caspian; Reghabis leaving before borders closed

good book, thought-provoking


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