Looking around YouTube, I found an interview on IFC with Marjane Satrapi, where she basically goes into what comics she read as a child. She explains that most of the comics that she read, she read in France, and the first comic she received there was Art Spieglman’s Maus. She talks about how before reading Maus she thought that comics were only for children, but after reading that she realized that for her, the images and the text aren’t separate, and that comics are just another way for her to express herself. She also discusses how her grandmother influenced the way she thinks in terms of ethics.
Searcher- Persepolis
I thought with all the Twitter questions I would start by linking everyone to the main website for the film. There you can find your trailer and get a feel for the movie. http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/
I am enjoying the novel greatly and I wanted to learn more on my own about persepolis itself. As a history major this are of the world is outside of my concentration and my curiosity won. I discovered http://www.iranchamber.com/history/persepolis/persepolis1.php which gave great layouts of palaces and has many pictures.
I was following links and reading reviews about the graphic novel when I came across another book by her following the lives of women she also did one for the personal history of her uncle. http://www.amazon.com/Marjane-Satrapi/e/B001IGFN9I/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
she is amazing at dissecting and illustrating personal and intimate stories and bringing them to life for people who have never known about the culture or people or religion to understand. She has written many graphic novels but I think persepolis may be the only one to gain such high recognition.
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.
Searchers – Persepolis – The Concept of “Ketman”
In a nutshell, the concept of “ketman” (similar to the concept of “taqiyah”) is the act of denouncing one’s true beliefs in public while secretly maintaining a fervent belief in them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketman
For someone like Satrapi and her family, living a life under the Islamic Republic would have required that they practice Ketman. What’s interesting is that the same practice that evolved out of the Shia subjugation at the hands of the Sunni would come to be reclaimed by the victims of a Shiite regime. Also, the concept found resonance with East European writers living under Communism, who recognized their own suffering in the tales of persecuted Shia in the Middle East.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200607/hitchens-persian/3
Persepolis – because of it’s stand against the tyranny of the Islamic Republic – can really only be viewed in Iran as pirated or smuggled-in material. I just thought it was interesting that a novel displaying classical Iranian themes of political and religious persecution (ketman) should have so much in common with the works of the Eastern European dissidents, and find its only way back into Iran in the form of samizdat. Those struggling under Communism borrowing from ancient Persian tradition while the Persians of today resort to some of the same distribution methods those under Communism used decades ago.
Response: About the Monkey King
I found it interesting that so many of the responses to American Born Chinese were related to the Monkey King, and I have to wonder why. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the Monkey King story, but it didn’t attract my attention the way it did so many. For me the best part of that arc was easily the end, when he discover his disguise and how he used his story to influence Jin.
Still, the question is worth asking… why were so many readers drawn to the Monkey King moreso than Jin? He is certainly more fantastical (Monkey King vs. awkward high schooler is a pretty easy win for him, I’d say) which is more expected of the graphic novels on some level, especially after something totally different like Jimmy Corrigan. Still, that couldn’t be all there was to the appeal. There was certainly a sense of humor than came along with that story, and to some degree the Monkey King himself was also more likable than the awkward teens we deal with through the rest of the story. Even though he is making a similar mistake, he’s an ass-kicking monkey making an allegorical mistake rather than the more realistic struggles we see from Jin. Compared to the perceived lack of backbone from Jin, I can see how this is a relief for some.
It’s also interesting that so many of the responders recognized him from elsewhere. This familiarity may have also had something to do with why he garnered as much interest as he did comparatively: he was a flashback.
All that said, personally? I liked Jin’s story better, but that was just me.
Searchers – Persepolis
Here is a link to the site for American travel writer and documentarian Rick Steves, specifically his series on Iran.
http://www.ricksteves.com/iran/iran_menu.htm
I thought that it would be good to get some kind of background on Iran while reading Persepolis, especially in light of the fact that most Americans – just by accident of the media in our country – have a poor understanding of the country. Steves’ documentary is decidedly non-political and will present a side of Iran that most non-Iranians probably had no clue even existed. (Biggest surprise? A lot of Iranians actually like Americans.)
I think that it’s important to balance the picture of the political Iran – the Iran of the Revolution, the Iran of the recent electoral coup d’etat, the Iran of Evin prison – with the Iran experienced by the millions of Iranians actually living in the country day in and day out. I think you could easily compare current day Iran to the late Brezhnev-era Soviet Union – the vast majority of the people know the government is corrupt and illegitimate, and a growing number are openly challenging the ruling regime. Persepolis is a great story of how that current regime came to be, and I think one of the most interesting things about reading it is seeing how some of those absurdities / inconsistencies that Iranians today have to deal with originated in the first place.
(Incidentally, Satrapi herself, currently living in France, is unsurprisingly a supporter of the Green opposition movement around Mousavi.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.0.3433629806
I think Marjane Satrapi – forced into exile, where her most important creative works enjoy much more support outside of Iran than within – is a great example of the Iran that could have been, if only the Revolution had turned out differently.)
Response to Monkey King
To be honest, I was not aware of what this particular monkey king myth was refering to until I read the post about origin of Monkey King.
The story of Monkey King is very famous in China, including near eastern Asian Country. It is not only a popular novel written in 16th century but also been put into comics and anime numerous times.
Since I have not yet finished the entire book, My mind wandered on how the exact story of monkey king fits and correlates to the story of the kid who is struggling to fit into America.
Monkey King feel like the alien of the groups (deity) that is around him. He feels somewhat ridiculed and put down as inferior as these other forms of deities look down on him. Not only that he feels awkard himself being different.
This is how Jing feels among these group of Americans whom are not yet willing to accept him as equal and one of them.
The struggle to fit in and be not different (while not wanting to accept it and be known to others that he cant) touches my mind as I was a foriegner who moved into very white community few years ago.
In that sense, the book “American born Chinese” is rather personal story to me.
Response to “it’s easy becoming anything you wish…so long as you’re willing to forfeit your soul.”
I feel that Emma’s post hit on an idea that began bugging me about American Born Chinese once I finished the book.
Emma concluded that “It seems as if they trade in their decency, their humanity – their soul – for a “new identity,” when they are who they are the whole time.” I agree with this statement completely, but my issue lies with the way that Yang incorporated the idea into the book.
For me, the book fell apart at the end rather than everything coming together. Danny is really Jin, Chin-kee is really the Monkey King, and Wei-chen is really the Monkey King’s eldest son, who was sent to earth to test his virtue, and Jin’s part. God (or some variant thereof) helps the Monkey King realize who he is, the Monkey King helps Jin realize who he is, and Jin helps Wei-chen realize who he really is… which is… just a regular human? I haven’t quite figured that last part out yet.
I thought the tie-in of the three separate stories was too much of a punch in the face – even too kiddy-like. Was this intended? I think so. But I still don’t agree that it was the best way to show that people are who they are. In fact, it makes it hard for me to take the book seriously. I would have preferred to make a connection among the stories on my own.
Searcher: Gene Yang Interview with “The Trades”
http://www.the-trades.com/article.php?id=5053
Here’s another interview with Gene Yang on the subject of American Born Chinese I thought was interesting. It covers some of the inspiration behind the novel, themes present throughout it, and so on. Yang also says a bit about why he chose comics as a medium for expression. It also touches on some of the research Yang did for the novel.
Another Interview with Yang
This is a pretty good interview; they sat down with him sometime after he got the Nomination for the National book award. He talks about what got him into comics in the first place, and what he used to read (Marvel no less). I, Personally, like to know which side of the DC v Marvel debate published comic authors are on, should they choose a side. He also talks about whether he uses this as a catharsis for some own personal issues he may have had with his ethnicity. He also pays homage to works like Maus and Love & Rockets for opening up readers’ and critics’ minds for works of this nature.
Searcher – Comics in Ed.
http://www.humblecomics.com/comicsedu/index.html
This is Yang’s proposal for a final project for his Masters of Education degree, and it’s important because… obviously! Well, obvsiouly it doesn’t get as deep in to the… accoutrements, as we do, but it does echo some of the stuff we’ve been talking about. Though, the general thesis of his ‘strengths’ seems to be about ease of access, whereas we’ve been dealing with some pretty difficult works. Give it a glance, maybe you’ll learn something.
Also, this is the actual project that came of this proposal – but it’s teaching algebra, so not as related.
Searchers – Yang’s “Monkey Kingdom”
http://www.humblecomics.com/monkey/
[As another searcher noted, Yang’s website is Humble Comics, and the site is truly humble in itself. Still, it is a great little resource into the mind and works of Gene Yang. There’s a list of his comics, showing the cover art, with a little blurb about why he wrote it and what he was trying to accomplish for each one.]
In the “Sites” section, there’s a link to his “Monkey Kingdom” page which is pretty interesting. We already have figured out that Yang’s mother’s stories about the Monkey King were very influential to him. Here he dedicates an entire webpage to the Monkey King, where you can learn more about said monkey. Sections include: “Who is the Monkey King?” (insightful commentary from the author about the Monkey tale ((pun intended)) and his relationship with the fable), “Monkey in the Media, (other instances of the Monkey King story in Western culture)” and “Monkey Goodies” (two little flash projects Yang did during college).
This page gives us a deeper look into one of the major characters (or since they’re all the same guy…THE main character) in American Born Chinese.
Response to Monkey King
If Davec had not posted about the Monkey King mythology a few days ago I certainly would have. He did a great job pointing out the main ideas. I just want to build upon certain ideas, mainly the idea of Son Goku from Dragonball Z and Son Goku from Journey to the West. Like Davec mentioned two of the main comparisons are their accessories. Both of them use a staff in battle and ride on a cloud.
One of the first things I noticed in American Born Chinese, was the use of the cloud, especially on page 71 when he was being chased by Tze-Yo-Tzuh (God). In Dragonball the cloud is given to Goku as a gift, that only the pure of heart could ride. The cloud is introduced in American Born Chinese as a discipline to master. In Journey to the West the Monkey King could perform a move called the cloud somersault that allowed him to leap to vast distances in one leap.
For both of them, the staff’s main power is to grow from the size of a needle to a coliseum column. In the story of Journey to the West the staff was actually used a support column for the Sea Dragon’s palace and weighs 13,500 pounds. In the Dragonball franchise, the staff is dubbed as the Power Pole. The pole can even reach the moon if the owner wishes it so. The staff is used throughout all three stories (American Born Chinese, Dragonball, and Journey to the West).
American Born Chinese and Dragonball draw from Journey to the West and represent the same two ideas in different variations.
NPR Interview with Gene Yang
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18328964
Scroll down a bit for the actual interview. Highlights include Yang discusses the place of Kinko’s in the comic book industry and his roots as a “minicomic artist”, as well as cartoonists like Scott Adams (Dilbert) and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) who aren’t supertalented artists but are effective cartoonists. He also discusses some of the influences that went into the character of Chin Kee (including, apparently a cartoon by Pat Oliphant). Check out the Audio Slideshow too.
Response to John’s Question
First reader John Yi asked at the end of his post if we really liked Jin in American Born Chinese. I decided to respond because it wasn’t a question I’d considered all that closely while reading.
Simply put, for me the answer is yes. I understand your complaint that he seems to be moving backwards or nowhere at all during the book, but I think it’s important to remember that the end isn’t really the end. This is a story of a young man. At the end even if he got nowhere it doesn’t mean he has nowhere to go.
Besides that, he’s a funny kid. Even if his lack of self-confidence is frustrating at times, he is likable. He definitely has redeeming characteristics that are worth at least some amount of merit.
Chin-Kee, on the other hand, does provide a problem. No one in that story is remotely likable. You feel bad for Chin-Kee to some degree just because he is such a terrible stereotype, but he is also supremely unlikable. Danny is certainly no better, either. He lacks any notable personality, and spends most of his time being embarrassed and/or horrified by his cousin. The whole story line is mostly just uncomfortable to read, and I agree with you there.