Boy oh boy, is it time for blog post number two already?!

Well, for the past two ASTU classes, we have been discussing Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi in relation to its genre. The book is a “graphic narrative”, you could look at it as a kind of morph of a graphic novel and autobiography. It is not a graphic novel in that is it simply not a novel, but it is not just an autobiography because the illustrated aspect of the book plays such a key role in relaying Satrapi’s story to the reader. In fact, that is exactly what this post is going to focus on.

Why did Satrapi choose to tell her story in the form of a graphic narrative? What are the advantages of publishing a comic book over a generic autobiography?

For starters, comic books are generally easily accessible and quick reads; that is to say, there is not a lot of thought or effort that goes into reading a comic book, versus say a 200 page autobiography. Considering her topic, a comic book is a great vehicle to get her story into the cultural mainstream. She is telling a story of her childhood growing up in Iran, a topic that many people in the Western world know nothing about, so to deliver it in a way that is very comprehensible, accessible and in many ways relatable for all readers is a brilliant strategy. Not only that, but throughout the entire book she plays with the juxtaposition of war and terror with child naivety and humor which would be difficult to portray through a written autobiography.

Take for instance page 133.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Page 133)

Here is an example of a serious event that she is able to depict with humor. The two women are part of the women’s branch of the Guardians of the Revolution and they had the right to arrest Marji because she was improperly veiled. On the next page, she explains that if she were to be arrested, they would have the right to detain her without notifying her parents and torture her; anything is fair game. But despite it being a serious incident, Satrapi uses humor to recount the event. For instance, one of the women calls her shoes punk and as the narrator Marjane notes, “it was obvious that she had no idea what punk was”. Not only is her narration witty and sassy, so are her retaliations in the speech bubbles. When one of the women comment on her tight jeans, she quickly repsonds, “they shrank!!” I found this page to be really funny despite the fact that it is depicting a very serious issue for many women of that time.

Throughout the book, Satrapi expertly utilizes humor as a tool for conveying very heavy themes and it poses a very fascinating juxtaposition and makes for a very interesting read.

On a slightly unrelated note, what also struck me on this page and in a couple of other places throughout the book (particularly pages 93 and 74) was the use of the word “whore”. Marji was just a teenager and she was classified as a whore based on her veil positioning. The words “whore” and “slut” are tossed around loosely in this book to describe women who don’t follow the dress codes and that is a very mature concept for a child to understand – not only to understand but also deal with being called one. 

After reading Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and realizing how little I knew about Iran, its people and its culture, I started to wonder what else I had no clue about and that is when I realized that I have never tried Iranian food!

This is anarchy people!

So that you can truly understand just how devastating this is you must know that I eat as a hobby. There is literally never a time when I am not thinking about food; probably because I am always either starving or overeating. So that being said, I have not yet had a cuisine that I do not enjoy; I love (in no particular order) Chinese, Italian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Mexican, American, French, Japanese, Korean, El Salvadoran, and the list goes on. There is no cuisine that I have tried that I do not enjoy, but that is not to say that I have tried them all. Iranian is one of these cuisines! I was curious what Iranian cuisine looked like and I that is when I stumbled upon this glorious feast (and of course, promptly, my stomach growled).

Photo Creds to Grow in Grace Life

It looks so wonderful! The colors are just beautiful and it looks like a really balanced meal. It slightly resembles Indian and Mediterranean cuisine, with the kabobs and what not but boy oh boy what I would give to get my hands on some Iranian food. But on more of an intellectual note, it really is a shame that there is not more of a cultural exchange that happens between the states and Iran. That is to say, the ONLY reason I have never tried Iranian food before is because it is not accessible! Given our rocky relations over the past years, all you hear about Iran is negative and very rarely do you see Iranians represented as anything but evil in the media. So not only are we told a very limited amount of information about Iran, but we also see very little of their culture. As a result, it is easier to see them as an other, because we are not seeing representations of how we are all similar, only of how they are different and unlike us. This deprivation of culture is something that I never considered before as a result of the War on Terror, but it plays a key role in shaping how we understand it.

So it looks like I have two options if I want to get my hands on one of those kabobs. I can take a trip to LA cause I hear there is a lot of Iranian food spots down there, or I can make my way to Iran in order to experience not only the food, but also the culture, the people, the architecture and all the other beautiful things you don’t hear about in the media. Only time will tell.

“What is your earliest childhood memory?”

The answer to that question will invariably differ from person to person, but it will also vary depending on the person’s generation. For instance, if you were to ask me what my earliest childhood memory was, I would have no answer for you. Not because I don’t possess any, but simply because I cannot distinguish what memories I have retained on my own and what “memories” I have from one of my many home videos. This may not be the case for my dad, for instance, because he does not have access to videos of his childhood simply because the technology was not readily available the way it is today.

It makes me wonder if the way in which we are remembering things today are altering due to constant technological advances. Everyday thousands of photos and videos are being captured; does this mean that we are remembering more because we have a constant desire to record every moment of our lives? Or are we remembering less, because we are now reliant on technology to retain memories?

Momma taking home videos (Circa 1995)

My curiosity of this recent phenomenon was triggered by a new word that I came across in Shazad’s The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning, “technologies of memory” (Shahzad, 302). In her article, Shahzad states, “cultural and individual memory are constantly produced through, and mediated by, the technologies of memory” (Shahzad, 303). These include, but are not limited to, “media, textbooks, documents, the Internet, museums, monuments, or landscapes” (Shahzad, 303). In other words, the purpose of technologies of memory is to make sure that we don’t forget, to make sure that we remember, but to remember it in a certain way.

Take for instance, a history textbook. They are not subjective; they are very much opinionated. The authors have a certain worldview that frames the way in which they process and narrate certain historical events. And alongside the rest of society, they are telling the story they want to be told. Home videos serve the same purpose. My parents are the filmmakers, in the same way that historians and professors are the authors of history textbooks. My parents didn’t record their fights or all the times I got in trouble, rather they recorded the time we went to the Toronto zoo, and the park behind our apartment and the first time I rolled over. Similar to history textbook authors, they shaped the technology of memory to translate what they thought was important, what they thought was worth remembering.

Moreover, it is interesting to consider that the photos we upload on Instagram and the Youtube videos that go viral are technologies of memory in the same way that home videos and history textbooks are; one could argue that they carry the same weight, if not more. They are simple tools, that are very much a part of our everyday lives, and yet we often forget the power that they hold to shape not only our individual memories, but also our collective memories. So next time your teacher catches you on Facebook, you could say that you are simply making your contribution to framing our collective memory; after all, Shahzad said it herself that “learning is a social experience” (Shahzad, 313).