First off, I figured that this would be a basically easy assignment. After all, my background knowledge of the Republic of Turkey is extremely limited. And since I love folklore, I tried a google search for it. And came up empty. Ok, I didn't look very hard. First off, one of our guests said folklore wasn't a big thing anymore in the middle east. Also, I suffered a lapse of ADD and got distracted. I found the website for the Republic of Turkey: Ministry of Culture and Tourism http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN/Default.aspx?17A16AE30572D313D4AF1EF75F7A79681D9DD78D03148A6E
Guess what caught my attention? They have a whole section on works that have been stolen over the years. Now there's a greeting; "Hi, welcome to the Republic of Turkey. I'm Jan, and I'll be your hostess for your visit. Now, here at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, we welcome all nationalities and faiths. Incidentally, here's our section of what famous works have been stolen. Now over here to the left..."
These are artifacts stolen from museums and libraries. The one I thought was the funniest was the bibliographic list of the 62 stolen bindıigs from Yusuf Ağa Library. I guess some Rent-A-Cop wasn't doing his job. The one commonality of them all is that they were made of leather. I wonder if the local vegans were suspected. But seriously, it's bit strange to have that on the official home website. On the other hand, they also had a Recipies section.
When I checked the all-knowing wikipedia for something, all I could find that was interesting was this segment from Prose of the Republic of Turkey: Orhan Pamuk is a leading Turkish novelist of post-modern literature. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. The most recent of his novels is "Snow." Pamuk is the winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.
That was really all I could find that was remotely entertaining.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Embroideries
Wow! This book is very sexually explicit!. After dinner with friends, the men go off into one room and the women into another. Basically, the whole book is in one setting: the Satrapi home. The time frame is set sometime after Persepolis 2, and Marjane is an experienced divorcee. Because of this, the women (who are all older than Marjane) feel free to discuss past marriages and sexual experiences. They also are comfortable with relating anecdotes of others' experiences.
One of the stories I personally found most horrifying was that of Parvine. When she was 13 years old, one of her father's acquaintances was 69. He was General Mafakherolmolouk, and her parents thought the union was fine. They were married a month later. Fortunately, on her wedding night, Parvine decided this was out of the question and said she had to go to the bathroom. She sneaked away to her aunt's house, who was more progressive. Parvine stayed with her aunt for the next four years, until he kicked it.
When I first read this story, I was so shocked at her parents that I just sat there for a minute. How could loving parents do something like that to their daughter? Why would anyone in Iran think that it was okay, and have it actually be legal? Since to me this is very much a moral issue, I checked from where Muslims get their ethical standards: Muhammad. Apparently, Muhammad's third marriage around 622 was to a girl named Aisha, who was only six at the time. He was 53. Considering this historical backdrop, I would find it hard for a Muslim to explain to me how the Koran doesn't repress women. I think the whole thing is disgusting, and my heart goes out to that young girl.
Another segment I found interesting was on nose jobs. When Marjane was young, she and her friend Payman decided that her grandmother's nose was so ugly, that the two of them should go into business to buy her a nose job. According to grandma, "Their solution consisted of buying cigarettes and biscuits at the supermarket and reselling them a little more expensively in the street." I guess they must have been pretty cute then, because they ended up making 750 tumans. However, since the operation cost 7,500 tumans, Marjane's mom took them to the toy store, where they blew it all in one glorious spree.
I think it's interesting how we talk about appearance being such a big issue here in the US, but here are two Iranian girls working all summer to get Marjane's grandmother a nose job! I wonder if she was at all offended, but I guess the age factor of the two girls outweighed the inappropriateness of their business venture.
One of the stories I personally found most horrifying was that of Parvine. When she was 13 years old, one of her father's acquaintances was 69. He was General Mafakherolmolouk, and her parents thought the union was fine. They were married a month later. Fortunately, on her wedding night, Parvine decided this was out of the question and said she had to go to the bathroom. She sneaked away to her aunt's house, who was more progressive. Parvine stayed with her aunt for the next four years, until he kicked it.
When I first read this story, I was so shocked at her parents that I just sat there for a minute. How could loving parents do something like that to their daughter? Why would anyone in Iran think that it was okay, and have it actually be legal? Since to me this is very much a moral issue, I checked from where Muslims get their ethical standards: Muhammad. Apparently, Muhammad's third marriage around 622 was to a girl named Aisha, who was only six at the time. He was 53. Considering this historical backdrop, I would find it hard for a Muslim to explain to me how the Koran doesn't repress women. I think the whole thing is disgusting, and my heart goes out to that young girl.
Another segment I found interesting was on nose jobs. When Marjane was young, she and her friend Payman decided that her grandmother's nose was so ugly, that the two of them should go into business to buy her a nose job. According to grandma, "Their solution consisted of buying cigarettes and biscuits at the supermarket and reselling them a little more expensively in the street." I guess they must have been pretty cute then, because they ended up making 750 tumans. However, since the operation cost 7,500 tumans, Marjane's mom took them to the toy store, where they blew it all in one glorious spree.
I think it's interesting how we talk about appearance being such a big issue here in the US, but here are two Iranian girls working all summer to get Marjane's grandmother a nose job! I wonder if she was at all offended, but I guess the age factor of the two girls outweighed the inappropriateness of their business venture.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Persepolis II
The sequel to Persepolis covers Marjane Satrapi's life from age 14 through 22. The beginning starts off with her living in Austria in a boarding house run by nuns. Eventually she leaves to live with her friend Julie. There, she explores western culture while growing up physically. When she comes to terms with herself, she goes to live in a wohngemeinschaft, which is a kind of communal apartment. Her mother coes to visit for awhile, and helps Marjane to find new lodgings. In the months following, she has problems with her boyfriend and at the university, which eventually convinces her to return to her parents' home in Tehran. Through the next few years, she meets someone, gets married at 21, and gets divorced. The book ends in June 1994, with Marjane leaving to go to the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg.
That's just the basic outline. There is really so much more to these books. The issues she covers are complex, personal, political, moral. Although the format would possibly lend itself to elementary, due to the sensitive issues inside I wouldn't recommend it to anyone before late junior high. It is wonderfully accessible, though, and it would be nice if parts were included in world studies classes. I've liked graphic novels for years, but this is the first I've read from the Middle East, and the first autobiography. In many ways, I love how the world is becoming more globalized. American comic books sparked interest in Japan through America's occupation during WWII. By the 70's, manga had been developed in Japan and American comic books were extremely successful. And now for the past few years, manga has been gaining popularity in the US. The fact that this back and forth has attracted attention in the Middle East along the way is very encouraging to me. A woman from Iran has taken a form that is not native to her country, and used it to tell parts of her life. She tells it with humor and conviction, and while being sensitive to all aspects as far as I can tell, she still lays the bald truth out there. For that, I admire her.
That's just the basic outline. There is really so much more to these books. The issues she covers are complex, personal, political, moral. Although the format would possibly lend itself to elementary, due to the sensitive issues inside I wouldn't recommend it to anyone before late junior high. It is wonderfully accessible, though, and it would be nice if parts were included in world studies classes. I've liked graphic novels for years, but this is the first I've read from the Middle East, and the first autobiography. In many ways, I love how the world is becoming more globalized. American comic books sparked interest in Japan through America's occupation during WWII. By the 70's, manga had been developed in Japan and American comic books were extremely successful. And now for the past few years, manga has been gaining popularity in the US. The fact that this back and forth has attracted attention in the Middle East along the way is very encouraging to me. A woman from Iran has taken a form that is not native to her country, and used it to tell parts of her life. She tells it with humor and conviction, and while being sensitive to all aspects as far as I can tell, she still lays the bald truth out there. For that, I admire her.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Persepolis, # 2
It took me forever, but I found a trailer for persepolis that had english subtitles! Take out 52 seconds at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UPrPPg56_zA
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Persepolis
Persepolis is a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. The introduction gives the reader background information of Iranian history from the second millenium B.C. until today. The first chapter of this book opened with the 1980 'veil'. The year before was the "Islamic Revolution", and after the law made it mandatory for females to wear a veil. At this time, the author is ten years old. She flips back and forth between childish impressions and an omniscient view. It's actually very effective, giving us perspective while also giving us the big picture. It allows the reader to make comparisons of how what things happen to the country affect the author at the time.
One of the things I found the most interesting and confusing was the idea that at the age of six she wanted to be a prophet, and God visited her at bedtime. She created her own commandments and read them to her grandmother, who was the only one who would listen. She even told her teacher in school that she wanted to be a prophet. Since this caused some waves, she started saying she wanted to be a doctor. This makes her feel guilty to God, and eventually they become distant (I know, strange, but it's her story, not mine).
One of the things I found the most interesting and confusing was the idea that at the age of six she wanted to be a prophet, and God visited her at bedtime. She created her own commandments and read them to her grandmother, who was the only one who would listen. She even told her teacher in school that she wanted to be a prophet. Since this caused some waves, she started saying she wanted to be a doctor. This makes her feel guilty to God, and eventually they become distant (I know, strange, but it's her story, not mine).
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