reading lolita in tehran [azar nafisi]

i had first spotted this book at a little bookshop in pioneeer square when julie was visiting back around new years. it looked intriguing, but i had such a big pile of books-to-read that nothing ever really came of that...

until about two months ago when yaz sent me this book in the mail with a note... "you have to read this book. i loved it. please tell me you love it, too. is it ghetto that i sent you my dog-eared copy? whatever. just do it." now, yas is going to play a pretty notable role in this blog because we have been an informal "book club" for gee.. i guess it's been almost six years! ever since we first left for college, we have had hours of conversations about books we love, books we want to read, books we recommend (and even, quite frankly, those books that just aren't worth the time :)). but to receive this somewhat impassioned, scrawled note, it's still quite out of the ordinary. and having been sent her "dog-eared copy" (with the wonderful sense of *sharing* in an experience with one of my closest friends) was almost like.. what are you waiting for? your life is about to be changed; please, don't dawdle! :)

so i started.. and it's like one of those books that remind me of why and how much i love reading. it actually is what first inspired the thought of creating a reading log. haha or a reading b-log to be more exact i guess! just a place to write down thoughts that i gathered from my reading.. i guess it's more for me than for other people, so i'm not really writing for an audience, but then again, i don't reeeeally see it as something that needs to be *completely* private either. ah, the beauty of relative anonymity in the vastness of the innnnternet :)

but i digress...
i have to say again that i loved this book. i learned a lot about the history of iran (for example, did you know they were considered quite liberal in their thinking prior to the revolution when the islamic republic was formed?) and was introduced to a cast of ladies who became like friends, and whose experiences taught me to be able to empathize with a set of struggles and challenges that are so different from my own. (i also realized over and over again how a lot of the liberties and freedoms that i take for granted are actually denied to women *today* in other parts of the world! it's really the current-ness of this that surprises me the most i guess!) it was also interesting seeing how some desires and dreams are universal, and span all sorts of cultural divides... beauty, love, justice, peace, faith in something worth believing in, just to name a few...

it was also a very pointed reminder of how truly great literature can touch us so deeply that we are changed through the meeting. the book is broken up into four themes, through which the different parts of her story are told in conjunction with a work of fiction that serves both as a character in the action (usually as the book being studied by her students in class) and as an guide to understanding the implicit lessons to be learned through the events described.

from lolita, the women see that they can escape being completely possessed by ANY jailer (whether physical or symbolic), no matter how powerful or dominating. "the only way to leave the circle, to stop dancing with the jailer, is to find a way to preserve one's individuality, that unique quality which evades description but differentiates one human being from the other." they also examine why it is we find enjoyment in fiction... "in all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance.... every great work of art, i would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life." even in stories that break our hearts, "the perfection and beauty of form rebels against the ugliness and shabiness of the subject matter."

from gatsby, the character whose (on the surface) immorality incites strong criticisms from the more islamic radical of her students, they learn about the collision of dreams and a world that is far from ideal. they learn the importance of dreams but are also warned of the implicit danger within them. "dreams, mr. nyazi, are perfect ideals, complete in themselves. how can you impose them on a constantly changing, imperfect, incomplete reality? you would become a humbert, destroying the object of your dream; or a gatsby, destroying yourself."

from henry james, they learned how insensitivity or extreme practicality can be a means of survival, but how truly *courageous* it is to feel emotions deeply and to act on them.

from jane austen, they learned the importance of ignoring politics (to a certain extent) "not because she didn't know any better but because she didn't allow her work, her imagination, to be swallowed up by the society around her." and that in fact, creating a private space within themselves for their own thoughts and dreams was actually taking a stance in refusing to give up all of themselves to the control of the government.

i experienced a deep sense of catharsis after reading this book. as the author described the emotions surrounding a rare film screening in iran... "For a brief time we experienced collectively the kind of awful beauty that can only be grasped through extreme anguish and expressed through art."