Couldn’t Put it Down: Persepolis

Ok, ok yes I know but… I really liked it! To be honest, I liked it so much, and was so eager to see how it all “ended” I kept reading through to Persepolis II (which I found a bit less exciting and detached from but I’ll save that for next week :).

The reading of this memoir could not have come at a more poignant point in my life (and perhaps in light of all this North Korea talk, perhaps within our own American “history” as well). I have been utterly terrified (paranoia) lately of air attacks, war in our own backyard, and thinking of simply leaving the country… what a coincidence. I got to live it at least for a moment throughout the reading of Persepolis. I think much like the characters in Special Exits, I was able to relate to Marjane and make connections to the worries of my own life throughout the story line. The part that simply killed me was the saying good-bye to her family. I have never lived more than a city over from my own family members and I could only imagine the pain. Of course I cried as I lived out my own process of how I would say good-bye to my own loved ones should I ever leave the country. This is likely my reason for the continuation of the reading of the story line. I couldn’t imagine being left with this feeling of pain, sorrow and emptiness.

There is simply so much to talk about. Where do I start? Well, let me start with illustration. Many have criticized Satrapi for her “overly comic” and “drab use of black and white” to illustrate such a powerful story. Some might also argue that the images convey much less emotion or trauma as perhaps another style of drawing may have. Perhaps this is true but to be honest, why is there any need to add such colorful distractions and overtly represent a pain and suffering already so embedded in the story and text itself? I don’t think there is any need for this. I hate to keep referring to Maus, but was his story of the Holocaust any less moving because it was depicted by mice, rats, pigs and only in black and white? I know many have argued the otherwise, but it would be surprising to find anyone who has read these memoirs to be moved nonetheless. I would also argue that Satrapi’s illustrations do a fairly ok job of capturing emotion by using techniques of life and making facial manipulations (such as wide eyes) to help emote this emotion through her illustrations. I wonder if others think if color and more detailed illustrations would have actually detracted from the depth and importance of the story. In some ways I feel so. What do you think?

In many ways I feel that this memoir is very much one that includes religious, social and political notions. Although it is at its essence a memoir, even Strapi in the introduction explains her reasons for writing this, much of which, although just to ensure that various peoples’ lives were remembered and voices were heard, these are nonetheless very political lives and extremely political voices. Every action in Persepolis seems to have been a political and religious act once the revolution came. I think she makes this purposefully clear throughout the telling of both I and II: Makeup, hair, music, parties and so own. It is not only a political story of her life but I feel (and I believe she is even trying to tell the reader this in to intro) that it was a means for telling the story from the “others” perspectives. She very much wants to humanize her people, Iranians, and present them in a very relatable manner so that perhaps in some ways, she may be able counter balance the recent “demonization” of  “those kids of people”.  I believe that “The Key” was a very telling way of doing this: She explains that the explanation of the key was only told is poorer schools and this is a tactic we use very much in America; from recruiting to having mostly POC’s in our “America the brave” commercials. So as a skeptical America, and one that seeks to find out any and all perspectives this helped for me to see “the other side” I always thought existed. There was not very much of a choice not to follow this way of thinking (what some label as “extremists), it was pretty much do as we tell you or die. Yes, that black and white.

In regards to this black and white mentality, as I have mentioned previously, the illustrations are used to hit home this black and white thinking. Although the illustrations themselves are very much black and white, the story and its characters are not. Again, I think she does this intentionally. Perhaps it is the view the outsiders have, that Marjane’s people are “extremists”, thinks in black or white, but her reality and the reality of the people around her seem to challenge this perception. Though they go along with the new Islamic nations rules, they still party, paint their nails and struggle to keep their individual identity alive. We see on many occasions Marjane challenging this black and white way of thinking. To further complicate the matter, Marjane is often confused by the complicated and multi-dimensional messages that her parent’s actions and words send her. It goes to truly show that never are things so black and white. Even within a revolution, or within people who protest or even die for what they believe in, there are always words, actions, mentalities that perhaps are contrary to their own belief system or even coincide or perpetuate what they are fighting against. And that’s ok. I think this simply makes them human and multi-dimensional.  Strapi does this very well throughout this memoir. I believe to my core, that all of the goals she set out to meet, all of her motivations to write this book were not only meet but also exceeded.