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#Post#: 17474--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Aliph Date: July 5, 2019, 4:13 pm
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I read “The House of the Mosque” of Abdolah Kader a novel about
three generations of the same family. I enjoyed it while I was
visiting Iran. A big story of around 500 pages.
And do not forget the travel report of Pierre Loti “Vers
Isfahan” published in 1904
#Post#: 17475--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Evil Eye Date: July 5, 2019, 4:20 pm
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[quote author=Sofia link=topic=1159.msg17474#msg17474
date=1562361197]
I read “The House of the Mosque” of Abdolah Kader a novel about
three generations of the same family. I enjoyed it while I was
visiting Iran. A big story of around 500 pages.
And do not forget the travel report of Pierre Loti.
[/quote]
Thanks, now I have six books on order :D
I thought Pierre Loti wrote about Istanbul?
#Post#: 17476--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Aliph Date: July 5, 2019, 4:30 pm
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Pierre Loti traveled everywhere, he was one of those writer that
participated to the creation of Orientalism, the fascination of
the West for the Orient. This cultural phenomenon accompanied
the colonial movement of the French and the British in the
Middle East with the catastrophes created there after the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Another hint for all those who are interested in that region of
the world are the writings of Edward Said, an American
Palestinian scholar. But it’s political science not literature.
HTML https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book)
#Post#: 17477--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Aliph Date: July 5, 2019, 4:49 pm
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For a change, an excellent short video that explains Edward
Said’s theory on Orientalism. Concise, clear, simple yet not
simplistic.
HTML https://youtu.be/1aNwMpV6bVs
#Post#: 17478--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Aliph Date: July 5, 2019, 4:57 pm
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HTML https://youtu.be/ZST6qnRR1mY
#Post#: 17485--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Truman Overby Date: July 5, 2019, 9:03 pm
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Everyone considers themselves a victim of the 'evil' west.
#Post#: 17495--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Alharacas Date: July 6, 2019, 5:24 am
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Stayed up late to finish "Zahra's Paradise". Feeling shattered
as a result, far more because of reading the story than because
of the lack of sleep. It's graphic in more than one sense of the
word (or is it the same? Never mind).
Right until the end, I kept hoping against hope the boy might
have survived.
[member=40]Evil Eye[/member] - "Meh" - er, yes. :D
Interesting that you'd recommend "Lipstick Jihad". I'd seen it
mentioned, but had discounted it because of some really
off-putting reviews on goodreads.com (I think). "Privileged
brat, moaning about the terrible lack of domestic help", or
words to that effect, as far as I remember.
As it's quite cheap, though, I've now ordered it (and may be
back to complain ;) ), together with several others from your
list of recommendations, plus a translation of the
Gulestan/Golestan. Couldn't find out anything about the
translation, and am a bit wary, in view of the problematic
Shahnameh.
[member=7]Sofia[/member] - I've also ordered the "House of the
Mosque", thanks for the recommendation.
#Post#: 17950--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Evil Eye Date: July 13, 2019, 12:08 pm
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@Alharacas:
That characterization of Moaveni is ridiculous, as you will find
out, and was likely written by a troll. The dark underside of of
online commentary about Iran is that there are heavily-funded
troll farms that stalk the Internet trashing those they consider
ideologically impure.
There are two main groups of anti-regime trolls, the MEK and the
royalists. The Mojaheddin-e Khalq was originally an anti-Shah
resistance group whose ideology was a fusion of Marxism and
Islam. After the revolution they sided with Iraq in the war,
invaded Iran, and got mostly wiped out. Now, they are a bizarre
degenerate cult living in Albania, subsidized by Gulf Sunnis.
They attack anyone who isn't fanatically anti-regime. Anyone
showing nuance or complexity in their analysis is tarred as a
"regime apologist" or "mullah supporter". The royalists are
diaspora supporters of Reza Pahlavi, who aren't quite as insane,
but only by comparison. Their nostalgia for the Shah seems to
have completely forgotten SAVAK.
Moaveni, like most of the best Iran analysts, is attacked
relentlessly everywhere she posts. From the government side,
trolls accuse her of being part of a "New Orientalism" or part
of a plot by neocons to invade Iran.
Read her for yourself and decide. I found her to be a very
intelligent and perceptive reporter, with a nose for interesting
stories and enlightening details. I have seen her books analyzed
in academic studies of Iranian diaspora identity, so she is no
lightweight.
I'm glad someone liked Zahra's Paradise as much as I did :)
#Post#: 18138--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Alharacas Date: July 17, 2019, 6:11 pm
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[member=40]Evil Eye[/member] - What you say about the different
kinds of troll farms is interesting, and I'm sure you're right.
However, these particular reviews did not feel as if they'd been
written by paid trolls, and now I've started reading "Lipstick
Jihad", I'm quite sure they were genuine. Hopefully, it's just
the beginning, but I'm finding it very hard indeed to relate to
teenage Azadeh. (Don't want to digress, but I'm continually
being surprised by how much emphasis is placed on the concept of
"fitting in" by such an idividualist society as the US - or is
that where I've got hold of the wrong end of the stick?)
Maybe I should just skip to where she goes to Iran as a
journalist. :)
In the meantime, I've read "Funny in Farsi" (as per my language
partner's recommendation), and this book's (mostly) humorous
approach struck me as a rather more appropriate (and at times
also more poignant) way of recounting what are, after all, a
kind of 1st world (immigrant) problems: less money, having to
cook yourself instead of having it done by servants, mothers
insisting on Iranian snacks instead of providing cookies and
muffins, encountering both real and inverted racism (but of the
kind which doesn't stop you from finding work, friends or
accommodation in a desirable neighbourhood), etc.
But of course, this book doesn't really deal with life in Iran
at all (which is why I only read it because my language partner
seemed quite insistent).
#Post#: 18140--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cultural snobbery (mine!)
By: Evil Eye Date: July 17, 2019, 8:17 pm
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@Alharacas: Yes, American culture is very individualistic, but
children of immigrants, from every country, are a special case.
They have a pattern (at least as children) of rejecting their
home-country identity and wanting to be seen as "real"
Americans. In the case of Iranians, this was especially strong
at the time because of the backlash over the embassy hostage
situation after the revolution. Iranians here took a lot of heat
and that made life very difficult sometimes.
One pattern you see in this genre of memoirs is that the authors
eventually feel that part of their identity is missing, and they
go back to Iran to find it. However spoiled Moaveni may have
seemed as a teenager, she grows up quickly working under
difficult conditions on the ground in Tehran.
I liked Funny in Farsi ( and her next book (Laughing Without an
Accent), but found them a bit lightweight compared to Moaveni. I
think she exaggerated some of her family's eccentricities to go
for laughs sometimes. But both are worth reading. Your language
partner is right, you can learn a lot about Iranian culture from
reading exile memoirs, and there are a lot of good ones.
BTW, make flashcards of Persian vocabulary as you read, there
are a lot of useful terms in those books.
@Neal: Policy towards Iran is probably worth it's own thread.
Was that book you read by Steven Kinzer?
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