October 29 Post

1a) "To prepare, we need to become aware of the shift, understand its causes, and think creatively and innovatively about new...strategies appropriate to the coming changes" (Hayles, 187).

1b) "After marching and throwing stones all day, by evening they had aches all over, even in their heads.
-Daughter: Hey mom, dad, let's play monopoly.
-Mom: Darling we are tired.
-Dad: Now is not the right time.
-Mom: Monopoly! I can't believe it. Ha! Ha!
-Daughter: It is never the right time!"
(Satrapi, 18).

2)  This strikes me as interesting because the young Marjane supports the Islamic Revolution, yet she does not understand its causes or reasoning.

3) In a one sentence summary, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is about a young girl (herself) growing up in a loving and politically active family during the Islamic Revolution and how it helped her form perceptions of the world and politics.  I found these two passages particularly interesting in regards to political ignorance and activism, which is still an applicable topic today, especially with the upcoming presidential elections.

I chose this particular quote from the supplemental theory reading, Hyper and Deep Attention by Katherine Hayles, because it calls to attention that in order to fully support something or even acknowledge its importance, we must first understand it and accept the consequences.  Whenever something major happens in a political sense, before one can jump on board with it or stand against it, it is important to have a good sense of knowledge about it.  This quote correlates to that of the primary reading, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi because the young Marjane wholeheartedly supports the revolutionary movement, even to the point where she is willing to die in protest for it, like her parents, yet she does not understand it.  The revolution is to push the capitalistic interests of Western nations out of Iran, yet she still wants to play monopoly, a very capitalistic oriented board game.  This contrast between these two things illustrates a lack of free thinking because it can be inferred that young Marjane only likes the revolution because her parents do.

It turns out that once the revolution succeeds, she does not like the consequences, as illustrated by her distaste for the veil in the beginning of the work.  Once again, this drives home the point that a full understanding of what you support/fight for is important.  To use a great cliche to summarize this idea, "Look before you leap."