Reading Lolita in Tehran and Persepolis – April CC Book Club Selection

[Mary13]

Our April selection will pair two unusual and complementary memoirs: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi and Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi. Both books explore the challenges faced by Iranian women living under strict Islamic rule.

Reading Lolita in Tehran was written by a teacher who met with a select few of her female students to read forbidden Western classics:

”This book transcends categorization as memoir, literary criticism or social history, though it is superb as all three…Nafisi’s Iran, with its omnipresent slogans, morality squads and one central character struggling to stay sane, recalls literary totalitarian worlds from George Orwell’s 1984 to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Nafisi has produced an original work on the relationship between life and literature.” – Publishers Weekly

“An intimate memoir of life under a repressive regime and a celebration of the vitality of literature . . . as rich and profound as the novels Nafisi teaches.” – The Miami Herald

Persepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel about the author’s life in Tehran from age 6 to 14:

”A humorous and haunting memoir of a young girl in Iran by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is an absolutely amazing book, filled with happiness, grief and moments of childhood in a world where all children are forced to grow up. And it’s told in a comic strip format, with simplistic but stunning images.” – The Guardian

“Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is…one of the most delectable examples of a booming postmodern genre: autobiography by comic book…Like Spiegelman’s Maus, Satrapi’s book combines political history and memoir, portraying a country’s 20th-century upheavals through the story of one family.” – The New York Times

Discussion begins April 1st. Please join us!

[NJTheatreMOM]

Excellent choices! Looking forward to it.

[jollymama]

Also looking forward to joining this discussion. My local book group just finished discussing Persepolis, and I recommend!

For those who are interested, there’s also Persepolis 2, which takes the protagonist into young adulthood. It’s a much darker book. (The movie version combines the two.)

Reading Lolita is new to me … will check it out from the library … I found this extended excerpt on USA Today:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/excerpts/2003-04-30-reading-lolita_x.htm

Edited to inquire: how to italicize? and didn’t work for me; sorry!

[mathmom]

@jollymama
You need to use square brackets and the letter i.

 * text* 

[ignatius]

I requested the books from the library. Looking forward to reading and discussing.

[dragonmom]

I started Reading Lolita in Tehran years ago. Can’t remember why I never finished. I have Persopolis in my bookshelf but haven’t read it yet. I think I’m prejudiced against graphic novels - it seems harder for me to absorb the pictures than reading the words. I will give both of them another chance.

Does anyone have any ideas about which to start with?

[NJTheatreMOM]

Dragonmom, I did the same thing as you with Reading Lolita and am looking forward to going back and finishing it. I did read the Persepolis books around the time they first came out and thought they were great.

I’d suggest that you start with Reading Lolita because it is pretty much our main selection, then try to read Persepolis, which is wonderful, too, but perhaps more of an “extra.”

[mathmom]

I’m starting with Persepolis because I think I want Reading Lolita to be fresher in my mind when we discuss it.

Graphic novels aren’t my favorite genre - I’ve really only read a handful - but I thought parts of The Watchman were brilliant the way he used visual tools to create interlocking stories.

[NJTheatreMOM]

My plan right now is to read Lolita itself first (since I’ve never read it, and reading part of Reading Lolita a few years ago made me want to), then dive back into Reading Lolita, then quickly revisit Persepolis. Rather ambitious, as I don’t want totally to abandon the big Proust read I’m also in the middle of. Wish me luck!

[jollymama]

NPR article on present-day Iranians visiting Persepolis, FYI:

“[T]he past is here in Iran. The future lies somewhere else.”

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/02/19/467205019/at-persepolis-irans-grand-past-overshadows-its-frustrating-present

[NJTheatreMOM]

^Interesting piece with gorgeous photos, jollymama.

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

Just saw “bridge of spies” and doing some background reading about Mark Rylance ( of Wolf Hall fame) and portrays Abel in the movie.
Rylance is a renown shakepeaean performer, and former director of the Globe Theatee
I will post this in the bookman tale, discussion thread as well-
Relating to Shakespeare true identity.

From wiki

Shakespeare controversy

On 8 September 2007 **Derek Jacobi and Rylance unveiled a Declaration of Reasonable Doubt on the authorship of Shakespeare’s work, **after the final matinée of I am Shakespeare, a play in Chichester, Sussex.

The actual author was proposed to be Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere or Mary Sidney (Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke). The** declaration named 20 prominent doubters of the past,** including Mark Twain, Orson Welles, John Gielgud, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson and actor Leslie Howard,
and was **made by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition duly signed online by 300 people to begin new research. **
Jacobi and Rylance presented a copy of the document to William Leahy, head of English at Brunel University, London.[9] Rylance wrote (co-conceived by John Dove) and starred in The BIG Secret Live—I am Shakespeare—Webcam Daytime Chatroom Show (A comedy of Shakespearean identity crisis) which toured England in 2007.

[VaBluebird]

Azar Nafisi was one of the guests on Finding Your Roots tonight w/ Dr. Henry Louis Gates. I love this show. She’s fascinating.

[Mary13]

It’s April 1st! Hello and welcome to our discussion of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Persepolis. This pair gave me an education, no doubt about it – I knew far too little about life in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Two sets of discussion questions follow.

Discussion Questions for Reading Lolita in Tehran

1. On her first day teaching at the University of Tehran, Azar Nafisi began class with the questions, “What should fiction accomplish? Why should anyone read at all?” What are your own answers? How does fiction force us to question what we often take for granted?
2. Yassi adores playing with words, particularly with Nabokov’s fanciful linguistic creation "upsilamba" (18). What does the word "upsilamba" mean to you?
3. In what ways had Ayatollah Khomeini “turned himself into a myth” for the people of Iran (246)? Also, discuss the recurrent theme of complicity in the book: that the Ayatollah, the stern philosopher-king, “did to us what we allowed him to do” (28).
4. Compare attitudes toward the veil held by men, women and the government in the Islamic Republic of Iran. How was Nafisi’s grandmother’s choice to wear the chador marred by the political significance it had gained? (192) Also, describe Mahshid’s conflicted feelings as a Muslim who already observed the veil but who nevertheless objected to its political enforcement.
5. In discussing the frame story of *A Thousand and One Nights*, Nafisi mentions three types of women who fell victim to the king’s “unreasonable rule” (19). How relevant are the actions and decisions of these fictional women to the lives of the women in Nafisi’s private class?
6. Explain what Nafisi means when she calls herself and her beliefs increasingly “irrelevant” in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Compare her way of dealing with her irrelevance to her magician’s self-imposed exile. What do people who “lose their place in the world” do to survive, both physically and creatively?
7. During the Gatsby trial Zarrin charges Mr. Nyazi with the inability to “distinguish fiction from reality” (128). How does Mr. Nyazi’s conflation of the fictional and the real relate to theme of the blind censor? Describe similar instances within a democracy like the United States when art was censored for its “dangerous” impact upon society.
8. Nafisi writes: “It was not until I had reached home that I realized the true meaning of exile” (145). How do her conceptions of home conflict with those of her husband, Bijan, who is reluctant to leave Tehran? Also, compare Mahshid’s feeling that she “owes” something to Tehran and belongs there to Mitra and Nassrin’s desires for freedom and escape. Discuss how the changing and often discordant influences of memory, family, safety, freedom, opportunity and duty define our sense of home and belonging.
9. Fanatics like Mr. Ghomi, Mr. Nyazi and Mr. Bahri consistently surprised Azar by displaying absolute hatred for Western literature — a reaction she describes as a “venom uncalled for in relation to works of fiction.” (195) What are their motivations? Do you, like Nafisi, think that people like Mr. Ghomi attack because they are afraid of what they don’t understand? Why is ambiguity such a dangerous weapon to them?
10. The confiscation of one’s life by another is the root of Humbert’s sin against Lolita. How did Khomeini become Iran’s solipsizer? Discuss how Sanaz, Nassrin, Azin and the rest of the girls are part of a “generation with no past.” (76)
11. Nafisi teaches that the novel is a sensual experience of another world which appeals to the reader’s capacity for compassion. Do you agree that “empathy is at the heart of the novel”? How has this book affected your understanding of the impact of the novel?

(Questions issued by publisher.)
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/14-non-fiction/843-reading-lolita-in-tehran-nafisi?start=3

[Mary13]

Discussion Questions for Persepolis

1. The New York Times hails *Persepolis* as “the latest and one of the most delectable examples of a booming postmodern genre: autobiography by comic book.” Why do you think this genre is so popular? Why did Satrapi chose this format in which to tell her story? What does the visual aspect add that a conventional memoir lacks? Have you read other graphic memoirs, such as *Maus* by Art Spiegelman or Joe Sacco’s *Palestine*? How is *Persepolis* different and/or similar to those? How does *Persepolis* compare to other comic books? Would you call this a comic book, or does it transcend this and other categories? Where would you place this book in a bookstore? With memoirs, comic books, current events?
2. Written as a memoir, is *Persepolis* more powerful than if Satrapi had fictionalized the story? Why or why not? Compare this book to other memoirs you have read. What are the benefits and drawbacks of memoirs?
3. In an Associated Press interview, Satrapi said, “The only thing I hope is that people will read my book and see that this abstract thing, this Axis of Evil, is made up of individuals with lives and hopes.” And in her introduction to *Persepolis*, she explains that she wrote this book to show that Iran is not only a country of “fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism.” How does Satrapi go about challenging this myth? How does *Persepolis* dispel or confirm your views on Iran? In what ways does reading this book deepen your understanding and knowledge of Iran, and the current situation in Iraq?
4. How is *Persepolis* organized and structured? What has Satrapi chosen to emphasize in her childhood? How is the passage of time presented? Describe Satrapi’s drawings. How do the drawings add to the narrative of the story?
5. Describe the writer’s voice. Is it appealing? Which aspects of Marji’s character do you identify with or like the most, the least? Did your reaction to the little girl affect your reading experience?
6. How did the revolution exert power and influence over so many people, including many educated and middle class people like Satrapi’s parents? Why did so many people leave after the revolution? Why do you think Marji’s parents send her off to Austria while they stay in Tehran? Why don’t they leave/escape as well?
7. “Every situation has an opportunity for laughs.” (p. 97) Give some examples of how the ordinary citizens of Iran enjoyed life despite the oppressive regime. What made you laugh? How does Satrapi add comic relief? How are these scenes relevant to the story as a whole?
8. What kinds of captivity and freedom does the author explore in *Persepolis*? What stifles or prevents people from being completely free? How do they circumvent and defy the rules imposed on them and attempt to live ordinary lives despite revolution and war? Give some examples of their small acts of rebellion.
9. “In spite of everything, kids were trying to look hip, even under risk of arrest.” (p. 112) How did they do this? What do you think you would have done had you been a child in this environment? What acts of rebellion did you do as a teen? In way ways is Satrapi just a normal kid?
10. What does Satrapi say regarding disparity between the classes before and after the Iranian Revolution? Discuss some examples that Marji witnesses and contemplates.
11. At the core of the book is Marji’s family. What is this family like? What is important to Marji’s parents? What environment do they create for their daughter despite living under an oppressive regime and through a brutal, prolonged war? From where do they get their strength?
12. What is the role of women in the story? Compare and contrast the various women: Marji, her mother, her grandmother, her school teachers, the maid, the neighbors, the guardians of the revolution.
13. Discuss the role and importance of religion in *Persepolis*. How does religion define certain characters in the book, and affect the way they interact with each other? Is the author making a social commentary on religion, and in particular on fundamentalism? What do you think Satrapi is saying about religion’s effect on the individual and society?
14. In what ways is *Persepolis* both telling a story and commenting on the importance of stories in our lives? What does the book suggest about how stories shape and give meaning to our experience? Discuss some of the stories in *Persepolis*—Uncle Anoosh’s story, her grandfather’s story, Niloufar’s story.
15. What is Satrapi suggesting about the relationship between past and present, and between national and personal history? What role does her family history, and the stories of her relatives, play in shaping Marji?

(Questions issued by publisher.)
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/16-young-adult-non-fiction/775-persepolis-satrapi?start=3

[Mary13]

I’ll start by saying I feel like I was misled by the description of *Reading Lolita in Tehran, * from Amazon to Barnes & Noble to the back cover of the book, which states:

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov.

That is not what the book was about. After the first few chapters where Nafisi’s “girls” (more on that later) are introduced, they evaporate and it becomes pretty clear that the book is not about them at all, but about Azar Nafisi. Certainly that’s her right–it’s her memoir, after all–but as such, it wasn’t (for me) as compelling a story as it could have been. I found Nafisi’s writing to be sometimes repetitive, sometimes pedantic, and sometimes just a little odd.

I felt guilty about not warming to a woman who has suffered in ways that I can hardly imagine in my cozy cocoon in the American Midwest. I wondered if I was too far removed from her world to be touched, to feel the proper degree of empathy. But then I picked up Persepolis and was captivated by Marji’s story. So why is that? Is it all in the manner of telling? There were, at times, strong similarities between their two accounts of life in the Islamic Republic; Satrapi’s spoke strongly to me, but Nafisi’s did not.

[NJTheatreMOM]

@Mary13

I found Nafisi’s writing to be sometimes repetitive, sometimes pedantic, and sometimes just a little odd.

I agree. That is why I did not finish reading the book the first time I undertook it. It is really worth reading, though, I think, for the overall picture it paints.

[CBBBlinker]

Popping in to say I’m not quite finished with “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” but I definitely agree with Mary13. I thought the book was about the “book club,” but that’s such a small part of it. Plus, I find the organization of the book somewhat confusing – it jumps around a lot. More later when I’m done.

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

Popping in to say I’m still reading - had the flu last week- big set back

[NJTheatreMOM]

Ooh ouch, SJCM! Glad you’re feeling better.