Bismarck State Reads Persepolis: Interview

"The Complete Persepolis will challenge readers to become aware of what is happening in the world and better understand how what happens to one human, happens to all humans."

-- Kitty Netzer, Assistant Professor of English, BSC

The August 2009 issue of The Prairie Independent features an interview about BSC's Campus Read with Kitty Netzer, Assistant Professor of English and a member of the Campus Read Committee.

Check it out!

Iran Timeline

Iran has a long and interesting past. Stop by the library to see a timeline of major events and key players in Iran's history. Check it out!

Special thanks to Carolyn Twingley and Johanna Bjork, BSC Librarians, for putting the timeline together.

Read Iran

For the past 10 years, the BSC Library has hosted "BookTalk at BSC," a book discussion series. We will do so again in 2010, starting in January.

This year BookTalk will dovetail with the Campus Read; that is, we will read three books about Iran, its people, history, culture, and politics. Choosing what to read is both fun and challenging. I am working my way through a pile of books and wanted to share them with you. So far, I've read:

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. New York: Ecco/Harper Collins, 2008.

The author's own family escaped from Iran in 1982 when she was ten. That experience is reflected in The Septembers of Shiraz. The main character of the novel is Isaac Amin, a Jewish gem trader who is arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in Teheran and imprisoned. His only real crime is being Jewish in a country where Muslim fanatacism is taking over, but his wealth and family connections to the Shah's regime are also marks against him.

The Bathhouse by Farnoosh Moshiri. Seattle: Black Heron Press, 2001.

Winner of the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction in 2001, this book is a powerful and compelling read. It tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who is arrested and imprisoned in a former bathhouse. Hers is a crime of association -- she is not political, but her brother and sister-in-law are. Moshiri's novel is based on interviews with several Iranian women who were imprisoned in such a bathhouse in the early years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Bathhouse documents the torment endured by the prisoners and that makes it a tough book to read.

Others that await me are:

• The Age of Orphans by Laleh Kadivi
• Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai
• Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour
• Missing Soluch by Mahmud Dawlatābādī
• The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther

I will keep you posted about what we decide for BookTalk and hope you will be part of our discussions. -- Marlene Anderson, Director of Library Services

About Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, was born in 1969, in Rasht, Iran, and immigrated to France in 1994. She now lives in Paris.

Satrapi attended Lycée Français (Tehran) and studied illustration in Strasbourg, France.

She is also the author of Embroideries (2005), Ajdar (2006, children's book), Chicken with Plums (2006), and Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon (2007, children's book).

Satrapi's family supported the removal of the Shah in 1979, but Iran was even more repressive under the ayatollahs and religious fundamentalism. School children were separated by gender, girls were required to wear veils, the legal age at which girls could marry was lowered to nine, and when the Iran-Iraq war began, they were forced to mourn the dead twice a day. Satrapi opposed these restrictions and was expelled for hitting a principal who told her she could not wear jewelry. Fearing for their rebellious daughter, her family sent Marjane to Vienna at the age of fourteen.

Marjane Satrapi has done several interviews about her book and her life:

• Powells.com Interview (2004)
• Sean Axmaker (2008)
• Bookslut (2004)
• Bookslut (2006)
• NPR (2003)
• Pantheon Graphic Novels, Random House (date unknown)
• MoviesOnline (2007)

What's in a Name?

Why does Marjane Satrapi call her book Persepolis instead of something like Growing Up in Iran?

Perhaps knowing a little about Persepolis will help. Persepolis was the ancient capitol of the kings of the Achaemenian Dynasty of Persia (Iran), located about 30 miles northeast of Shiraz in the Fars region of southwestern Iran. It lies near the confluence of the Pulvar (Sivand) and Kor rivers. The ruins of Persepolis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid) and Parseh. The earliest remains date from around 515 BC. To the ancient Persians, the city was known as Pārsa, which means "The City of Persians." Persepolis is the Greek interpretation of the name.

And now, why did Marjane Satrapi entitle her book Persepolis?

Comments welcome!