September 30

Banned Books Week 2015 (September 27th – October 3rd)

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What a coincidence! Just as we were discussing the controversy and banning of Persepolis in class today, I discover that it is actually Banned Book Week 2015. Yes, that’s a thing now… Actually, considering some of the points you raised today, it is important to remember that there is still a need for vigilance to ensure the freedom to read. In 2015, books are still challenged (when an individual or group requests the removal or restriction of materials from a library or curriculum) and banned (when materials are removed outright from circulation) worldwide.

I’m sure many of the books you will find on the list in the link below may surprise you (Harry Potter?! Surely not…) Those of you who are avid readers, please feel free to share in the comments which of the banned books you have read and your thoughts on their inclusion on the list of banned books.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics

A Look At Banned Books By Printerinks

September 30

Noah Berlatsky Opinion Piece (Your thoughts)

Noah Berlatsky sporting a serious 'fro...

Noah Berlatsky sporting a serious ‘fro…

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/sex-violence-and-radical-islam-why-persepolis-belongs-in-public-schools/274152/ 

Noah Berlatsky (2013) shares his thoughts on the absurdity that was the banning of Persepolis from Chicago Public schools. Please leave your thoughts on the issue below. Consider what we discussed in class today regarding whether or not we felt such censorship was justified and whether we feel that Persepolis is a suitable text for middle school students.

 

* Please feel free to research further into the alleged reasons why Persepolis was banned.

 

September 26

What I think Satrapi is trying to say

Throughout Persepolis, Satrapi doesn’t really take a particular stance or side when it comes to topics like war and revolutions. Although we do see Marji’s strong comments about her views on war and martyrs, at the same time we can see how Marji is learning to see things from other peoples’ perspectives. And what it’s like to be looking at the same thing from a different angle.

This is evident when Marji had written four pages on the historical context of the Arab conquest and war, and yet was puzzled to notice that her teacher, or for that matter all the other students, were completely unimpressed by her work. And yet, when Pardisse came and read out an emotional letter addressed to her late father, the entire class was shown to have started crying along with her. Clearly this confuses Marji, because she then goes on to question Pardisse about why she feels the way she does about her father, and tell her that her father died as a hero of the war and protector of his country. But Pardisse’s response said strikes a chord within Marji when she states that she would rather wish him to be alive in jail than dead as a hero. You can see that Marji is contemplating her previous thoughts on her own father being a “defeatist” and not being patriotic.

One way in which Satrapi makes it difficult to come up with answers to certain topics is by putting across two different sides of the same coin. This shows when Marji and her father rush home to tell her mother about the Iraqi’s bombing the country, and Marji’s mother is shown to be taking a shower, and that too, completely oblivious to what is happening. With this, Satrapi is trying to indicate that there will always be national repercussions of war, but all the citizens and their families and children that are impacted as well will have to carry on with their daily lives as war runs rampant across their country.

In conclusion, I think that the viewpoint that Satrapi is trying to put across is that things like war, revolutions, martyrs and prison can be very differently interpreted depending on who’s shoes you’re standing in while you’re looking at it. It’s kind of like taking a picture, where the focal point is the same but the angle at which you take the picture differs each time.

September 26

Satrapi’s Message

 

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What does Satrapi want to say about war, revolutions, families, martyrs, prison? — and where do we see the author making it difficult to come up with easy answers for any of the topics?

Mostly, in Persepolis we see from the perspective of young Marji. However, Satrapi does not sugarcoat things about the events in Iran at the time, we see this when there are vivid drawings of the torture. She wants the readers to see what the children in Iran were exposed to. The state that the families were in, like where we see when there was an emergency everyone in their building would run to the basement and afterwards desperately calling each other to make sure everyone was okay. The families continued their daily lives as much as they could. Marjane’s friend Pardisse said that she would rather see her father in prison and alive then dead and ‘a hero’. Unlike Marjane, Pardisse’s family were not worried about the father’s reputation or hero status. It was something they couldn’t care less about. Even after the death of her Uncle Anoosh, Marjane still wasn’t able to grasp this.

War is a difficult topic to touch on, but I think Satrapi did an impressive job with her dark humour. It often conveys the innocence of the children and contrasts with the sensitive issues. I also noticed Marjane Satrapi does not want you to feel sorry for her, in reading the novel I realized that Marji is going through something a child should never have to go through (surviving throughout the war) but not once did I feel pity for her. She was a strong child, which may not be the perspective of other children in the war.

I’ll try to simplify my thought in a list,

Satrapi’s message:

  • War – Just because there is one your life doesn’t stop or completely revolve around it. Also, you always think it happens to other people but never to YOU or your family. She says it nicely in this quote I found: “We dehumanize what we call the “enemy” so much that we forget that when someone goes and attacks Iraq, those people there are just like them and have friends and families and hopes and dreams”. Incredibly well said, Satrapi.
  • Revolution – The people on the other end are people too.
  • Families – THEY ARE SO IMPORTANT IN THIS NOVEL. It is such a big part of the story. We see so many different families in this book and their perspective. Marjane’s family, Pardisse’s family (suffering a loss, father seen as hero), Laly’s family (ex-prisoner father), the ‘fart joke boys’ family (lost all belongings), the ‘boy Marji was TOTALLY in love with’ family (moved away to the US). We see how they deal with the revolution in their own way.
  • Prison – This one is a little difficult because we see how Marji sees ex-prisoners as ‘awesome’ and ‘heroes’. But is obviously upset when Uncle Anoosh is brought there. Once again, minimal sugar coating (the humor makes it seem like a lighter topic) when we see the torture happening, like the panel with the man with all his limbs cut off or the man being whipped.

Those are my current thoughts. Also, I enjoyed what Sehaam said on the black and white thing we discussed last class 🙂 .

 

September 26

My thoughts on the ending of Persepolis

The ending of the novel shows us Satrapi’s feelings when leaving Iran. We can clearly spot from her face expressions the despair she was drowning in. She even wanted her parents to leave so that she won’t see the sadness on their faces. The fact that her mother fainted shows that her parents were trying to hide their real emotions about her leaving Iran. Although they tell her that they’re happy for her to get a good education, sadness appears on their faces satrapi_153_better_just_go

September 26

What I think of Persepolis’s ending.

The first thought I had when I read Persepolis’s ending is that it was a very important part in Satrapi’s life.

For one, the part of her life which Satrapi would put last in a graphic novel which is an autobiography obviously had to have some importance. But other than that, I think it mostly comes from the last couple of panels on the last page. The way Satrapi compares saying goodbye and dying implies how bitter it was for her to leave her parents in Iran, while she went to Austria. There’s also the fact that she saw her mother pass out, with her father holding her. Combining this with the fact that this is the last panel, and that this panel is the biggest one on the page, with the parents on the front and Marji in the back, looking at them, she understood that it wasn’t easy for anyone, not even for her parents, and that they mey even be suffering more than herself, and from there, she again saw how much her parents loved her, and that it is for her protection that all of this happened…

 

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September 26

Persepolis: Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this novel. I did not think I would. I thought it was going to be political, which made me a little hesitant. But I think what made me want to read it was the fact that it was a graphic novel. I had never read one before and the idea was pretty cool, plus I haven’t read a book with illustrations since the 4th grade so it was quite the throwback.

I made a list because I don’t want to be all over the place,

MY FAVOURITE THING: The fact that the book was SO REAL, she probably exaggerated a little bit obviously, but it was true to Marjane. She did not glorify Iran or the West. It was genuine.

MY LEAST FAVOURITE THING: This wasn’t my least favourite but It was something that bothered me a little bit. Random people (or ‘close friends of the family’) would just show up at their house to ‘tell their story’. Like the family that lost their belongings, Uncle Anoosh, The maid and her son, Laly’s relatives that went to prison, etc. They turned up at Marjane’s house and told their whole life story. Where are all these people coming from and why are they specifically coming to Marjane’s house?. Like Satrapi, there are other ways to bring characters into the story than having them just show up to your house uninvited. Maybe that was how it actually happened, but I saw it as a cheap cop-out of bringing people into the story.

MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER: Her mom. Yes! Woman power all the way! Get it, girl! Honorable mention to her grandmother, she made me smile sometimes. She was a little nuts though, soaking her boobs in ice water and putting plants in her bra (What are you even doing, Grandma?). At the end where she was comforting Marji before she left was nice and cute and it reminded me of my grandma.

THOUGHTS ON ENDING: Cute, bittersweet, but definitely not the real ending. Satrapi had her second book in mind when she wrote that. S

QUICK CONFESSION: If this book was not a graphic novel I would not have liked it this much. Some books aren’t meant for anywhere outside your imagination but some books are better with the images the author had in mind.

QUICK SPOILER: Look at the last panel in the first book. Now look at the last panel in the second book. Cool right? I know. Good one, Satrapi.

September 19

What does Satrapi want to say about war, revolutions, families, martyrs, prison? Where do we see the author making it difficult to come up with easy answers for any of the topics?

I’m not quite sure to have clearly understood what Marji wants to say about war and the revolutions, but I will try answering the question as best as I can.

In my opinion what Marji wants to say is that during war anything could happen, that war changes people, for example when Anoosh dies Marji gets mad also with God and this brings her to start ‘forgetting’ about him, and this event might mean she’s growing (so changing). I think she’s also trying to show what does the word ‘revolution’ mean, from what I understood for her the revolutions are symbol of patriotism, symbol of fighting for her country.

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I think this picture represents what I’m trying to say.

September 19

What does Satrapi want to say about war, revolutions, families, martyrs, prison? — and where do we see the author making it difficult to come up with easy answers for any of the topics?

Wars, revolutions, families, martyrs and prison are major topics in Persepolis, but the thing is that they do not have a simple answer. They are topics which sometimes, we don’t really know wether they are good or bad, or in the middle. It seems even that Satrapi herself isn’t really sure about what is the answer.

For instance,  Satrapi saw people who went into prison and participated in revolutions as heroes (which, in her perspective, is a good thing). Yet, she knows that because of those things, many people die, which is a bad thing. An example includes when Pardiss’s father dies in the war. This is the kind of situation where the question “are people who die at war heroes?” can have different answers, none of them being right or wrong. On one hand, Satrapi sees the “positive”, saying “Your father acted like a genuine hero, you should be proud of him!” while Pardisse symply responds “I wish he were alive and in jail rather than dead and a hero.” I believe the reason why this has struck Satrapi so much is because she noticed that not everyone had the same way of seeing things. Although it isn’t easy to come up with an answer here, I think that Satrapi wanted to say that war needs sacrifices, and that they serve freedom. Also, I think that because of uncle Anoosh, Satrapi doesn’t want people to think that everyone in prison is neceserally a bad person. Is she right? I still don’t think there are any right or wrong answer here, since it can be more or less subjective for each person. Transitioning to family, there’s a moment in which Satrapi wishes that her dad went to prison, got tortured, and/or almost killed, just so that she could consider him as a martyr or hero. She also gets mad at him because he won’t go and fight at the war, not being conscious of all the risks of doing so.  She clearly loves her parents and family, but yet, she’s ready to sacrifice her dad for her country. By acting like this, Satrapi doesn’t make it easy for anyone and herself about what she thinks of family, nor for any of the other topics…

In conclusion, I’d say that according to Satrapi, there are multiple sides to everything. Wars and revolutions kill millions, but at the end give freedom. Although prisons are for criminals, not everyone inside them may be “bad”. According to Satrapi, anyone who died in a battle bravely become maryrs, and she doesn’t care if someone from her family has to become one, since she would like to be proud of it.

 

 

AAAAAAP