While literature may seem irrelevant to our political battles, it provides (as Shelley points out) an invaluable human compass.
Tag Archives: Azar Nafisi
Read Lit, Then Fight for Freedom
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged abortion debates, Defence of Poetry, Percy Shelley, Reading Lolita in Tehran Comments closed
America Encourages the Vagabond Self
Looking at the United States from the vantage point of Iran, Nafisi writes that it was America’s vagrant nature that she connected to. She writes that America “somehow encourages this vagabond self.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Great Gatsby, Huckleberry Finn, Immigration, Invisible Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wizard of Oz Comments closed
Gatsby in Iran: A Dream Betrayed
The Iranian authorities allowed Nafisi to teach “The Great Gatsby” because they regarded it as an expose of American materialism and decadence. And certainly it has that dimension. But Nafisi focused more on how the work explores the betrayal of dreams. Both countries have experience with that betrayal.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, Reading Lolita in Tehran, tyranny Comments closed
Reviewing Lolita in Tehran
Yesterday’s mention of Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books gave me an excuse to go back and reread that marvelous book. The work embodies the central premise of this website: that literature can come to our aid when we need it most, helping us negotiate even the most difficult of […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged oppression, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Thousand and One Nights, tyranny Comments closed
Poetry Standing Firm in the Face of Fire
“But maybe stories and poetry can help open our minds to possibilities that are very real but extremely hard to see; and in that sense, they can be very practical.” – Rachel Kranz in a response to yesterday’s post I love the two responses to yesterday’s post (from the two major women in my life) […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herbert Marcuse, Martin Luther King, politics, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Simin Belbahani, Ulysses, Uncle Tom's Cabin Comments closed
