“If I turned towards books, it was because they were the only sanctuary I knew, one I needed in order to survive, to protect some aspect of myself that was now in constant retreat.” –Azar Nafisi
Reading has always been my sanctuary of sorts. When I read, I escape. Such was the life of Azar Nafisi. Going into reading this novel, I honestly didn’t think I’d be all that interested in it. I’m not a big non-fiction girl, so I thought the novel would be dry and uninteresting. How wrong I was. My favorite thing about this book is her ability to romanticize Tehran and the struggles the city goes through in the novel. I know that sounds weird and slightly inappropriate to say and, trust me, I’ve struggled with accepting it, too. But, think about it. Nafisi works through fiction to bring us this picture of Tehran and her world she lived in with her girls. It was frightening, but it was so beautiful at the same time.
She showed us that literature can free you. Literature can literally help you to survive. If we think about her group of girls, they were kept together emotionally and mentally through the novels they read through; the novels they lived. They went to trial with Gatsby and sympathized with Lolita. Throughout the bombings and the discrimination, the deaths and decay, they lived through it. They lived through it because they had words to keep them alive; to keep going. If I took anything away from Reading Lolita in Tehran, it was this. It’s this drive to live through anything the world throws at you simply because words motivate you to do so.
There’s a part in the novel that I will never forget; where the quote I chose comes from. Tehran is going through her share of bombings and every night it happens. Nafisi shares her fear of the bombs reaching her and her family. And, her way of dealing with it was to sit in front of her children’s bedroom every night with a book in her hand. She would read as bombs went off, sitting guard to protect her children. What I remember most from that passage was the impression I got of her truly protecting herself in that moment as well. She did what she needed to protect her kids, but her books truly protected her. How much we as a civilization that doesn’t have to worry about such things take this for granted.
Some, like me, take refuge in books. So many heroes and heroines to relate to; to cheer on. We can submerse ourselves in literature and fight the fight with them. We can fall for the boy in the novel who screams out the word “underdog”. We can conquer evil, but really, we’re living through our own struggles by escaping. Nafisi shows such a great example of just this. She showed her girls not only the wonderful world of literature, but what you could take away from it. Her girls got her message and so did I.
Well, well, well, I am glad to say I accomplished much from last week until this week, I actually seen an entire episode of Supernatural, well like ninety percent of it, point is I got the main idea...(I flipped back to Sportsnation when there was a commercial) It wasn't extremely vulgar but Dean did have his smart ass remarks to quip in at every possible opportunity. It was about immortal magicians? In case you were wondering... it was actually pretty good. And as for Monty's fate, my girlfriend's mom left the back door open when I lived with them, and Monty probably smelled good food cooking somewhere else it was difficult to stop looking, but I am sure he's fine wherever he is at.
ReplyDeleteSo anyway back to this weeks blog, I completely agree, good literature not only transports us from the rational prisons we are in but it also protects us in many ways. It allows us to escape for hours, days to locations beyond or wildest dreams, and best of all there is no time limit to our vacation from life's injustices, evils, and fears. That is what the women faced in RLiT, they all found there escape in the pages of great literature, each piece of literature had a unique effect on the women. I haven't felt like that in a long time, literature had become a chore, one more thing to do, on life's to do list.
But recently I have come to appreciated time spend reading and I am starting to feel like I once did when I cracked open a good read. Many of us take this for granted, I myself used to but once I lost it in the fray of life's hectic schedule I am glad I got it back. We all need to escape the harsh reality of this physical world every once in a while, and I have found that nothing compares to the imagination created by amazing literature.