Banned Books Week - Persepolis

I don't think I had heard of Persepolis until a couple of years ago. Braden owns a copy of the book and the movie, so last year he finally convinced me to read it.

And it was fantastic.

Persepolis is a graphic memoir by Marjane Satrapi, who tells her story of growing up in Iran in the 80's, which is a very difficult time to be anything in Iran, especially a spunky young girl with an ear for American punk rock. 

The artwork in the book is so great. You feel as though you are part of Marji's world. Some of my favorite parts of the book are when she has her private conversations with God. 

Persepolis has been banned across the country (most notably in Chicago, where school officials ordered a "book recall" when a school official was sent copies of 2 pages of the book.) According to the ALA, it has been banned for gambling, offensive language, and political viewpoint. 

I don't really remember the gambling in the book... I'm sure if I reread it I would be like, "Oh yeah, gambling!" But all I can remember right now is that toward the beginning of the book they play a game of Monopoly. So there you go. 

There is some offensive language in the book, but much of it is used to show the mistreatment of women during the Revolution. Satrapi uses shocking language to help the reader understand how dangerous it was for Marji and her mom in Tehran during that time. I'm not condoning the use of foul language, but... it's reality. I would rather read some swears than read a watered-down version of history. 

And as far as political viewpoints go, I'm a firm believer in live and let live. Marji gets some pretty radical ideas in her late teenage and early twenties, but then she turns her life around, becomes an aerobics instructor, and gets married to a nice guy (sorry, spoilers!) Some radical political viewpoints are represented, but again... it's a memoir! You really can't write a memoir about living in Iran in the 80's and 90's without mentioning some radical political views. 

I really didn't know anything about the Iranian Revolution until I read this book. I still don't know much. However, I think it's important for people to get a unique perspective like this on a major world event. It's a funny, poignant memoir. You should read it! (Or at least watch the movie, which is pretty great as well.)

Banned Books Week - The Things They Carried

As a young man, I read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Excerpts from the book were required reading for a high school literature class. Some time after the assigned reading, my older brother and I were in the bookstore and I convinced him to buy it (mostly so that I could read it! Thanks Tony).

I had to read the rest of the book, because I knew that reading it would make me a better person and a better citizen. Yes, there is language in the book that I would not use in front of my mother, and yes, the book deals with violence and tragedy, but the book gave me a sense of the difficulty of dealing with trauma and helped me see what it meant to be at war. At the time, I was about to become a voting citizen in a country that was engaged in two costly and tragic wars. The book is written with (hold on for the English major cliché of the year) a level of verisimilitude that allows real empathy for the characters, while forcing the reader to acknowledge the true impossibility to know war without experiencing it. The book also deals directly with the difficulties surrounding returning from war and narrating trauma.

The challenges against The Things They Carried center mainly around its language, but for me it was that very language that made the book reliable and true and good.

This book is on my list of books that every young person should read. It will change your life.



P.S. Incidentally, I lived for about nine months in Worthington, Minnesota, where Tim O'Brien grew up . I frequently drove around lake Okabena and thought about the story "Speaking of Courage" almost every time. Driving around town became for me a mediation on death and life and pride and loss.

It's BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!!

It's that time of the year again: Banned Books Week! This is the time of the year were we celebrate those books that were audacious enough to exist! Abby and I will be posting videos and blogs all week dealing with the banned and/or challenged books that have been important to us over the years. We'll also post some links to our friends' blogs/vlogs that are also celebrating Banned Books this week.

Here's a link to The American Library Association's page about Banned Books Week. Check out their lists to see the (often surprising) books that have been banned.

The most important way to participate is to exercise and protect your right to read!

Please let us know if you would like to participate with us!

Meet the Clingers

Team Blogging: n. When two people, sometimes spouses, sometimes lovers, sometimes enemies, mostly writers (or fellows that fancy themselves writers) engage in a dual voiced online web log. See also: crappy introduction using the largely clichéd conceit of fake dictionary entries.

So here's a video of ourselves talking about ourselves. Because we are a couple of narcissists. Wok on!