Persepolis II.
Full disclosure: I was traveling all week and my reading of Persepolis was very much less than critical, interrupted as it was by Los Angeles and conference sessions. Also, my copy of the book traveled on without me, probably back to LA, because I left in a seat back pocket of a southwest jetliner. Luckily, I finished the last pages on the short flight home and offer these musings (without the benefit of the book to site pages):
What I found most intriguing about Persepolis II is how it is so much a bigger personal story than Persepolis I. The first book seems so much about Iran (with the narrator's voice, perception and reaction to all that is going on in Iran at the time). The second book is much more about Satrapi and all the VERY intense things that she went through after returning to Iran. Having seen the movie when it came out and reflecting on this, I was struck by the fact that this later story was "in her" but not told (in the movie). I thought about the people in our class that read the books as one and wondered how their experience was different from mine (then, when I saw the movie and didn't know the "whole" story and now when reading the volumes separately). I have the feeling that it must be better as one book and that the movie might have been better telling the "whole" story.
The ending left me disillusioned. I didn't get any closure for the narrator's journey through her childhood. I suppose her grandmother's death (on January 4-my grandmother's birthday) is a sort of "arrival" into adulthood (as a close death is for many) but that was not elucidated.
As I read the book, I was curious of the use of the ellipse. I eventually came to the conclusion that the thought bubble with the ellipse is a simple marker for "thinking" - no huge revelation here but I do wonder if there might be more to the use of the ellipse that I'm missing (as I said, just musings on my non-scholarly read).
Maybe if the ending didn't provide closure, it helps to invoke the time that she wasn't in Iran (as Marjane does more explicitly through narrative). There isn't a way for her to experience those years of childhood both in Iran and in Austria, and that relates to some of her turmoil in Persepolis 2. Marjane gives up the continuity of connection with people in Iran and experiences European xenophobia, with no reconciliation between what she sees and what friends in Austria think that they wish to see (i.e. death). Not only Marjane perceived as an outsider in both places, she knows how lucky/privileged she is to have survived the war, and she has to confront the ways that those years psychologically affect her parents, friends, etc.
ReplyDeleteThese years are critical to who she is as a person, but they may also render certain forms of closure difficult. How she processes Anoosh's death is left private, and this is certainly a pivotal moment of her childhood. How would his death have closure? I felt closure around her grandmother's death because from what readers can see of her life, she maintains a sense of conscience, of critical analysis of government, of herself in relation to nationalism as a woman, etc. On the other hand, her death seems abrupt within the text. On the other hand, death catches us by surprise, and distance can augment that effect.
I think a lot of what graphic novels accomplish is showing more so than telling, and I think a lot of frustration on the part of readers comes from not having things laid out for us, especially because so much of memoir is about finding "truth." What we're left with is pictures that allow us in various ways to unravel and speculate on truth. There are some really great quotes in Persepolis (1 and 2,) however, that carry a lot more weight because they are sparse, than they otherwise would. I placed a lot of importance on that last line, too, as a result: "Freedom had a price..." (187). The ellipses allows readers to continue thinking about the book after closing it, rather than thinking of the decision to leave off at the airport as a mere literary convention. I can't help but compare it to Bechdel's two graphic memoirs that similarly each end on a note that is both the same and different. I mean, Are You My Mother ends with almost the exact same scene as does Fun Home, except it's her mother we're dealing with, and not her father. Persepolis 1&2 both end at the airport, but more time has elapsed, and thus more growth renders the situation different.
ReplyDeleteJeez Darin, How much closure do you need other than leaving Iran, maybe forever and ending her marriage? both of these events allow Marji to put herself on the timeline, and one door closes, another opens, right? choose a new life for herself, and home. I don't think there will be a Persepolis 3... and if there is I hope it's called Paris.
ReplyDeleteI think that the grandmother's death was an inevitable closure that just reminded the reader what you lose when you leave. The small tacked on mention shouldn't be read as the closure of the book's essential questions.
Well you warned me about the conference so i'm not gonna beat on you but you sure instigated some great responses here.
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