Chicken With Plums

Chicken With Plums is another graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. This one takes place in the 1950s and follows the last few days of a man's life named Nasser Ali Khan, a musician. He is unhappy with his life and decides to commit suicide, and the book describes his thoughts during his last days alive. Nasser leaves his family and goes into isolation after his wife broke his tar, and Iranian string instrument similar to a guitar. He had been fighting with his wife for a while, and eventually admits that he never loved her. He was in love with another girl when he married her, but that girl's father wouldn't let her marry a musician. Nasser is visited by different family members during his isolation, each one bringing up one memory or another. It's interesting in the graphic novel; whenever he has one of these flashbacks, the background is black in the pictures, then changes back to white in the present. He recalls his mother's death as contemplates suicide, whom he had kept alive through his prayers. she found out he was doing so and told him to stop, because she was suffering, then she died. He wondered if someone was keeping him from dying as well, and someone was. It was his youngest daughter, Farzeneh. Farzeneh was his favorite child.

At the end of the story, Nasser is greeted by the angel of death. They have a conversation about why death hasn't taken him yet, to Nasser's disappointment. Nasser runs into a woman on the street with her granddaughter, who has a striking resemblance to his first love. He asks her name, and it's her, but she says she doesn't remember him. She walks away crying, knowing it was him. Nasser ends his life and the last page of the book is a picture of the angel of death.

I enjoyed Persepolis 1 & 2 very much, so I was excited to read this one. It did a great job of describing Nasser's thoughts and memories just before committing suicide. Though a great story, in the end it was quite sad.

Persepolis Trailer

Persepolis 2

With the cliff-hanging ending of Persepolis, I was pretty anxious to read Persepolis 2, the sequel. The first book ended with Marji at the airport, on her way to her new home in Austria, away from her parents for the first time. In the sequel, we see physical and emotional changes that all teenagers go through, but in this story at a greater extent. Marji spends time in various living arrangements, with one after the other not working out for her. For the first time in her life she becomes part of this circle of friends at school, who she spends a great amount of time with discussing political issues, etc. She has her fair share of boyfriends and breakups throughout the story, questioning her flaws in the aftermath of each one. The violence is still going on back home in Iran, which causes her to constantly worry about her parents. Marji really tries to find herself in the sequel, experimenting with various mind-altering drugs and at point point being the school's main dealer. Once back home, after four years of living on her own (including on the streets), she refuses to explain her real life there, because they've suffered enough already. Overall, I think Perseplois 2 sure bumped up the intensity level in the story; a great sequel to the first book.





Also, for anyone who's interested the Western Film Society is showing the movie "Rocket Science" this weekend at the little theater. Tickets are $5, $3 w/ student ID.

Trailer:

Persepolis

Persepolis is a graphic novel by author Marjane Satrapi. It's a story of her experiences as a young woman living in Iran after the Islamic Revolution(1979), in the early 80s. At the age of six, she announces that she will be a prophet, having nightly conversations with God and eventually writing her own holy book. Her religious beliefs begin to fade away as she becomes more politically involved with the revolution, eagerly begging her parents to attend a "demonstration," much like a protest. Throughout the story she meets different people and hears stories from relatives she had never met before, all who've suffered incarceration and torture--those that were still alive. She becomes furious with the war between Iraq and Iran and quickly transforms into the popular 80s punk stereotype; jean jacket, Iron Maiden poster, Michael Jackson pin, etc. The veil over her head as well. She gets threatened by some older women in the street about her appearance and told she would be arrested, but escaped the situation by screaming a false story at the women.
This is a great story of how certain events can change a person's perspective, and in this case to the point of getting expelled from school. The pictures fit perfectly with the story and emphasize every single word in the text. Sometimes there is just a picture, but the idea conveyed is just as disturbingly revealing as any text could put it.

The Kite Runner

The book I chose was The Kite Runner (Wiki) by Afghan American Khaled Hosseini. The story is told through the eyes of Amir, a young boy growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970's. Amir lives with his father in a fairly expensive mansion in the town of Kabul. Ali, a "servant" in their home, has a son named Hassan, with whom Amir spends every day with. Amir reads to Hassan and writes him stories, while Hassan helps cook and clean the house. In their free time they go out and act like normal ten-year-old kids, retreating to a large tree in which they'd sit under while Amir reads Hassan stories. In the mid 70's, Amir witnesses a tragic event involving Hassan and the town bully, during that winter's "Kite Fight." This causes Hassan and his father to leave their home forever. Meanwhile, Amir hasn't told anyone what has happened.

Russia invades Afghanistan, and Amir and his Father flee to Pakistan by way of truck and tank transport that was also brought up in Men In The Sun. They eventually end up in Fremont, California, in a small apartment within an Afghan-American neighborhood; a major shift in lifestyle.

Amir marries Soraya, who he meets at a local town market. His father becomes ill with lung cancer and passes away shortly after the wedding. Fifteen years later, Amir receives a phone call from a friend of his father's back in Afghanistan, with horrifying news of the death of Hassan. Even worse, the news of Hassan's son Sohrab, who is now a slave to the Taliban. Amir returns to Afghanistan to rescue Sohrab, barely escaping a fatal beating but succesfully returning to California with him and adopting him.

Though haunting at times, I thought this was a great story. It showed bravery, terror, sadness, and joy all together. It's amazing how no matter how terrible life can become while trying to survive, and how strong people like Amir stay throughout a lifetime of complication.

Arab Hip-Hop: Another Perspective

I took a music appreciation class a couple of years ago at a community college, where I was introduced to an Iraqi hip-hop group named Euphrates. I found an article on them, but unfortunately one of their members was killed recently and they've split up. The group recorded and performed songs expressing their political outlook from an Iraqi point of view. Euphrates frontman "The Narcicyst" is involved with another Arab hip-hop group called Arab Summit; a musical project formed by artists with roots throughout the Middle East.
Here's a music video for the song "We Need Order."


It's interesting to see this post-9/11 rise in Arab hip-hop in the United States as a way to eliminate marginalization. I became interested in the subgenre back when I took the class, but like many classes forgot about it after the final exam. Now I've become more and more interested than before considering our discussions in class and how to deal with everything that's going on in the world.

I also found an interview with "The Narcicyst" himself; Yassin Alsalman:

Vicious Circle?

I'm not sure what I think about the debate. Anyone can state anything but no matter how morally and factually "right" is is, some one will disagree. It's hard to determine right from wrong in a country that, after reading these articles, seems to withhold massive amounts of information from it's own people. Either that or nobody cares; a category I would instantly throw myself into.

The entire situation is an unnecessarily vicious circle. However I felt that the statement made about AIPAC being the cause of the war in Iraq was a bit of an exaggeration. Then again I'm getting the feeling that the big picture is being run by closed-minded extremists from all sides of the playing field. If that's the case than the arguing will never end. I'm really at a loss for what to say as I stand by my belief that nothing will ever seem "right" and we've only seen the outer edge of a giant mess. With that I'll end with this quote from The Israel Lobby that I found interesting, being that the U.S. is funding these bullets:

"Since then, for every Israeli lost, Israel has killed 3.4 Palestinians, the majority of whom have been innocent bystanders; the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli children killed is even higher (5.7:1)." - Mearsheimer & Walt