A vist to Iran with Persepolis

Despite the confusion with the discussion date changing several times, we had a nice turnout for our discussion of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Our discussion started with an examination of the graphic novel format. Most members seemed to feel comfortable if a bit unfamiliar with the format while at least one member distinctly preferred written text. We speculated on the elements our own personal childhood memoirs might contain if written in graphic novel form. We seemed to agree that Marjane was politically aware at a much younger age than we were. We discussed her family stories of prison, torture and displacement and agreed that they were vastly different from family legends we hear at our family reunions. We touched on Marjane's religious experiences and concluded that her parents were intellectuals first and weren't particularly devout to their religion. When we considered the social climate in Iran after the fundamentalist revolution and the Iraqi war, we identified some elements such as unreliable press coverage, social sanctions for opposition to the war and shrouding the true psychological costs of the war under patriotism. For many of us, this was an introduction to the history of Iran and possibly a first encounter with an ordinary Iranian citizen. Marjane's story continues in Persepolis 2. I have ordered a copy for the library if any of you are interested in following her coming of age story. Persepolis is being made into a movie to be released in April 2007. Here's a site to learn more: http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/. Persepolis was the selection for the "Seattle Reads" One Book One Community program for 2006. Part of their tradition is to make selections available in braille. As you might imagine, this posed some problems for a graphic novel. This link has several parts, but you might find the audio stream of their discussion interesting: http://www.opal-online.org/OPALpromo20060320.htm. On the left hand side of the page, click on the triangular play button to stop the guy from talking to you about other OPAL programs. On the left hand side menu of the web page, click on ARCHIVE, click on the top selection, BOOK DISCUSSIONS AND OTHER LITERARY EVENTS. Scroll down the chronological list until you see "Book Discussion of the graphic memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, held on May 30, 2006" , click on it and select your preferred format for listening to it (just use the top one if you're not sure). This was something new for us, both in format and perhaps the most political book we've discussed. Everyone was a really good sport about, and I think it was a good experience.