Book Club: Persepolis (+ April Book Pick)
This is happening. We're reading. Check out Badoor's awesome illustration for Persepolis though ha? Ha? How about that.
If you haven't heard about Book Club before, check out our read for February and my short introduction to book club here.
Our first in-depth read for the Shda3wa Book Club was Persepolis, a graphic novel autobiography about Marjane Satrapi's life, as she grows up in Iran before, during, and after the big revolution.
Our Review
No Spoilers:
It was a very educational read, to say the least, and definitely worth the read if you're interested in the modern history of Iran from a personal (and very importantly, female) perspective. The book is basically divided into a series of mini-stories from Satrapi's life in chronological order, from her early childhood into her early twenties. There was no debate on the fact that we learned a lot from the book, and many stories stuck out more than others. Most of the group, however, found that the excitement of the plot started to plateau after the ending of the first volume (Persepolis is essentially two volumes). It's no surprise considering the beginning started us off on such a high note and got the ball rolling pretty fast. The narration style was exciting and engaging, and the illustrations were simplistically beautiful. Still, the speed at which the second book went by was too contradictory to the explosive first book to some of us, so about two of us had to struggle to finish the book. Personally, I was okay with it because I felt like the slow down was a reflection of the slow-down of her life at the time; childhood can seem very thrilling when everything is new and there's so much to explore, but as the innocence slowly gets chipped away with experience, it all sort of slows down and feels like you're going through the motions.
There was also an issue of details that came up during the discussion. Earlier on in the first volume, Satrapi divulges all the details that went through her kiddy brain and her experience growing up. As the story goes by, some major events are left without details; left as is for the reader to ponder on his/her own. While this wasn't an issue for me, because I felt like Satrapi was making a statement by deliberately leaving out certain details, others felt that it was a lazy neglect, or even that she might have been hiding something that she was too afraid to illustrate. In the more in-depth analysis, I'll point out exactly which parts of Persepolis I'm referring to, and get into more details about our theories.
Also, as with Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples, there was the issue of the truthfulness on some parts of the story. When a story is classified as fiction, the truthfulness of the details are obviously not hotly debated, because at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if the Evil Queen's narrative was true or not, and it's fun to guess. With non-fiction, however, people are a lot less welcoming of dramatic exaggeration. For me, personally (I love that I'm writing this so I get to tell you EXACTLY my point of view), I love playing with the idea that not everything is necessarily true, but it didn't bode well for everyone, and understandably so.
Because it's super hard to go deep (heh) into the analysis without spoilers, let's get into the Spoiler-Full analysis (which includes details on the previous discussions + more analysis into the themes).
Yes Spoilers
Plot Pace
We first discussed (and argued) about how the flow slowed down dramatically after the first book (especially after she just gets back to Iran). While it could be said that plotline-dragging is a great illustration of what it must have been like to be depressed after having come back from some traumatic three months in Austria, it still wasn't enough to ease the reading flow for some group members. This was easily the most important point brought up during the group discussion, and understandably so since it affects the reader's enjoyability of the graphic novel. Personally, it wasn't an issue for me, as I took each mini story at a time, but it undeniably left a bitter taste for most of us.
Details
Then there was the issue of details (or lack thereof). As I'd mentioned earlier, her childhood section was robust with all kinds of details on her thought process, the characters around her, the dialogue, and just the plot in general. There were two major events in the book that were very obviously lacking in details, so we can safely vouch that it was done deliberately: the first being her three-month homelessness and depression in Austria, and the second being her marriage. Her Austrian trauma was inarguably one of the most important phases of her life, especially since she had to undergo the phase as a foreign teenager, but she seemed to sort of zip through the events without detailing what it must have been lack to be homeless and completely alone for three months.
We've come up with several possibilities as to why this is; my theory is that the details were deliberately left out in order for the weight of the trauma to really hit us, and to show that a bout of depression can go by like a blur. This is backed up in The Veil (p.243) when Satrapi goes back to Zozo's house to ask for money and is actually surprised to hear that her parents were trying to reach her for the last four months, as if she hadn't realized she disappeared for so long. Another theory that was brought up was based on her line in The Veil (p.239) where she states: "Nights on the street could end very badly for a young girl like me." Is this her implication that she got sexual assaulted during her homelessness, an experience that would be naturally too difficult for her to illustrate and detail on paper? The way it was difficult for her to put, in pictures, what it was like to talk to her parents after having been missing for four months in the last two panels on p.243 in The Veil; the panels were left with only text, but the emotions seeped through the words, subtle but powerful.
Another instance where the details were sort of left out were the details of how her marriage to Reza fell apart. This wasn't an issue that was as strong as the Austrian homelessness phase, because she did actually give clear indications in The Wedding (p.312) that the marriage was doomed from the start, and noted that they pretty much fought about every little detail, but one of us (Ali Haji) wanted to know more about the things they fought about, and find out more about how their marriage deteriorated. I feel like The Wedding summed up the entire relationship perfectly, and emphasized that it didn't matter what they fought about, they just weren't compatible as a couple and got married for the wrong reasons. Ali Haji, my husband, furiously disagreed.
Themes
Human Hypocrisy
This theme became incredibly clear from the very beginning of Persepolis, and it was maintained throughout the entire story. As with most things in life, it all started with her parents; loud and rebellious against the Shah's regime for his injustices, but they still employed a maid who wasn't allowed to sit with the family for dinner. Satrapi knew this, and she felt the cognitive dissonance early on in her life, as she stated in The Letter (p.33): "The reason for my shame and for the revolution is the same: the difference between social classes. / But now that I think of it, we have a maid at home." In the same chapter, their maid (Mehri)'s love-letter affair with the neighbor comes out, and Satrapi's parents immediately and without sympathy went over to tell the neighbor that Mehri is a maid, implying that her social class is too low for her to marry the neighbor, "because in this country you must stay within your own social class." I don't know how Satrapi didn't explode at that point when she thought, "Dad, are you for or against social classes?" Human beings, we talk the talk but we still walk around encouraging stereotypes because it's too much effort to do things differently, 'it is the way it is.' Right after the Shah was overthrown, Satrapi's schoolteacher told everyone to rip out his picture from the textbooks, and Satrapi exclaims, "But she was the one who told us that the Shah was chosen by God!" (The Party, p.44). People who were political heroes were suddenly traitors, and vice versa. In this illusionary fight for freedom and equality, 20th century sexism first becomes evident when Satrapi is told she couldn't possibly be a prophet, because she's a girl.
I could go on, there's SO MUCH hypocrisy illustrated in Persepolis, but I get tired just thinking about it. Her "cultured" friends in Austria who turn out to just be hipsters trying to feel cool, her "liberal" blonde Iranian friends who chastise her for having had sex with more than one person, the entire country who suddenly pretend to be religious after the revolution, and even Satrapi herself when she hides her Iranian identity in Austria or when she framed the innocent man so that the police don't notice she's wearing makeup. All these instances (and many more I'm sure I forgot) seem minute in terms of the entire plot, but they're powerful illustrations of a human truth.
Religion and Politics + The Importance of Education
A tale as old as time; organized religion is used merely to create a restrictive political system. This was the case before the revolution when it was "known" that the Shah was chosen specifically by God, and then when it turns out he's actually a liar and fundamentalist Islam is the way to go. You can run around and raise your fist against the system, but there is always a system that wins, because the system is hammered into gullible children as finite truths, and punishes the children who question the details or point out the contradictions. Another interesting theme that intertwines this theme is the theme of the importance of education. From the very beginning, Satrapi's readings and studying helped her solve her cognitive dissonance and solidify her moral code. You'll notice that education always got Satrapi out of trouble, whether it was studying aerobics and becoming a teacher, or to get out of the rut she got into after realizing her marriage with Reza was over, and even as her way out of Iran at the end of the book when she decides to go to France. What connects these two themes beautifully is that the classroom isn't considered "education," education is the result of intrinsic motivations and the initiative to learn from so many different sources of knowledge, the way Satrapi learned from different philosophers, scientists, and novelists. Satrapi's saving grace was that she followed her curiosity and allowed herself to suck in as much knowledge as possible with an open mind, that she put in the effort to learn instead of just take in what Iran's system was teaching her, because the system's truths are fickle.
Character Development
Persepolis is all about character development, since it's duh-ly an autobiography. It's difficult to critique character development in non-fiction, because who am I to tell someone they have issues with their character? We all agreed that there were many instances when we didn't particularly like Satrapi as a person. It's really interesting that she displayed a lot of her mistakes and flaws so powerfully that we reacted so angrily to them, but it was essential for her to not only be honest about her journey, but to bravely point out that she's aware of the aggravating mistakes she's made along the way. There were many, but we are all clearly talking about The Makeup (p.285), when Satrapi frames an innocent man to get him arrested so that the police don't notice that she's wearing makeup, betraying everything she ever fought for and the integrity she spent so long verbalizing ever since she was a little prophet-to-be. The real shock came in when we realized she didn't show an ounce of remorse when recounting the story to Reza and her grandmother, laughing even! Nothing felt quite as satisfying as watching her grandmother scold her and shame her into realizing what she had betrayed. Personally, I love that she had all her flaws in the open, it really showcases her humanity, and it's fantastic to feel the contradiction that her flaws create: they alienate her from the reader, who starts to feel a dislike towards her, while also making her more relatable.
Art
I just had to point out how much our group raved about the illustrations in Persepolis. The beautiful but effective simplicity in the artwork really managed to somehow emphasize her points more clearly. Almost each story has that one big panel that just wows you and sends the chapter's message in just one picture. Off the top of my head: Siamak's family crawling towards safety in The Sheep, the final image in The Sheep with Satrapi floating in space as the war is declared, Satrapi's first party in Austria in The Pill, the brilliant Tripping illustration in Hide and Seek, and the final panel of Book One in the airport as she's just about to go to Austria in The Dowry.
TL;DR Our Review
Bader: 3 Stars
Noor: 4 Stars
Ali Haji: 2.75 Stars
Reem: 3.5 Stars
3.3/5 Stars
APRIL BOOK CLUB PICK:
Blankets by Craig Thompson (2003)
- Romance, Graphic Novel, Memoir
THANKS FOR READING IF YOU ACTUALLY READ EVERYTHING!
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