Tag Archives: Persepolis

Respondent: The Return

I agree overrall with cbrownv that Marji’s grown a lot. Her experiences in Austria definitely helped that happen. She tried to fit in in a country that was mostly foreign to her and adopted a new family of sorts in her efforts to figure out who she is. She fell in love and had her heartbroken and then lived on the streets for a few months. She matured because of those experiences and returned home to Iran to finish what she started in Austria. I think her going home was a clear indicator that she realized that she had to make sense of who she used to be before she could figure out who she’s becoming so that she could recognize the difference between the two. She seemed so unwilling to believe that she had changed, that she wasn’t the prophet-aspiring Marji who had all these beliefs. I think she really wanted to believe she was still the same girl and she was taking a detour for the moment and could easily go back to who she was. It wasn’t until she went back home that she understood that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

I think we see Marji grow even more in this particular chapter because she is now looking at her origins through more realistic lenses.

She’s looking at the world through an adult lense at this stage in her life, not “realistic”. I only say adult instead of realistic because I think Marji saw the world in a way that was realistic to her at that age. Her innocence lead her to view the events happening around her in that sheltered way that children do. In this chapter, her perspective about the events of her childhood and the state of her country then and now have definitely shifted.

When she finally arrives home she is more reserved and quieter in her approach towards her parents as well as speaking about current topics in Iran.

I thought a lot of her subdued behavior could have been due to her feeling ashamed that she wasn’t as involved in her culture as she used to be. On page 193, she talks about how she was distancing herself from her culture because she was trying so hard to fit in her with new friends. In the lower panel, she mentions that speaking to her parents reminded her of her cowardice and betrayal. That part of the book was the first indication I picked up on about the identity crisis she eventually developed. It was easier for her to be outspoken about what was happening around her in Iran because she knew what she was talking about. She was much more informed before she went to Austria, but after she stopped following TV reports about the situation and had less discussions about it with her parents, the less she had to say about it. When she returned home, I felt that the change in behavior was fitting.

Leon.L Persepolis

First Readers

After finishing Persepolis,  I’m still trying to figure out what were the main points that I should take away from it. Of course yes, it’s a wonderful autobiography but I believe there are other themes that we should take from it. One thing I’d like to focus upon is the art. The first thing you notice is that it’s in black and white, and that the animation isn’t the best. I think the black and white nature of the comics could draw a direct relation to how there are two sides to the conflict between Iraq and Iran. In the comic there is no gray area between this war, you are either for one side or another. I felt quite strangely about the animation. When she was a kid, I felt the animation suited it very well. It was a war, a revolution, and the experience of death through a kids world. When she was older I felt that the animation didn’t fit in with the adult world. There is a scene in the second part of the book that I’d like to refer to how the kiddy animation style played out but I’ll save it for another time. My opinion of the book isn’t solely about just the imagery. I feel one of the things that I enjoyed in the book that played out consistently well was her narration, and dialogue. Her writing style worked well when she was a child, a teenager, and even surprisingly when she was a more mature adult. This was a fun book, and I’m actually excited to report on this in a few weeks.

Searchers – Persepolis

I must apologize, I have failed as a searcher. I was going to try to track down a listing for “Dialectic Materialism,” the comic book version that Satrapi said she read in “Perseplois.” It turns out I was not the only one that has tried to find this title as I stumbled across a forum post here.

This lead to two things, one was an interview with the author of “Persepolis,” and this part caught my eye.

“Dave: You didn’t grow up with comic books, though, right? You mention the one your parents gave you on dialectic materialism.

Satrapi: That was the only comic book that I read. My cousins were reading Tintin and these kinds of things, but in Tintin you don’t have any female persons, so I couldn’t identify with any of it.

I have read some comics, a little bit, but I don’t come from a culture of comics. When I see my other colleagues, all of them from the age of five wanted to become cartoonists. I had so many professions before. I didn’t want to do this particularly. It just happened.

All my life it has been like that. I’m a very hard working person if I have to be, but I won’t kill myself to achieve a goal. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.”

(The whole interview can be found here.)

I found it very interesting that someone that had not grown up with comic books still ended up making one.  The other thing I found was a theory that the book that she read was “Marx for Beginners.” I was fortunate enough to find a copy that I could flip though, but I do not believe this is the book Satrapi read, mainly because the book itself is less a comic book and more of a heavily illustrated novel. And I also could not find what Satrapi described in Persepolis on pages 12 and 13.