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October 20, 2005
Persepolis Review!
I thought that this "review" of Persepolis and Persepolis 2 was very interesting and innovative on the part of Jennifer Camper. What struck me the most was the way she was able to talk about so many different themes in so little space.
First off, she is able to explore the book's appeal to many different audiences. As mentioned by other bloggers, the book appeals to alot of people: Iranian woman, teenagers, children, modern day women, and many more. For each of these audiences it brings something different, whether it be entertainment, truth, historical information, or any number of possible interests.
She also describes the theme of feminism by highlighting the fact that this book is written by a woman and is also about a woman. The most interesting thing that I read in relation to this was when someone said "Ha! Just once I want a man's comic described as being 'from a male perspective'". This statement is very true because, even for our society, which I believe is rather attentive to feminism, a comic written by a man is the norm.
Another theme is that of the lack of graphic novels in the United States. This coincides with the belief of a couple of characters that comics are watered-down books, that they do not have the same intellectual capacity as Dickens or Shakespeare. For many people this is true (I even had some of these feelings if you read my blog from a few days ago). However, I think that the United States is slowly beginning to change. My library at home is building a graphic novel section which has grown relatively large and is very popular. Similiarily, the Simmons Library had a graphic novel display a month or so ago. So, I think that American society is slowly changing to allow us access to different kinds of literature.
A final theme in the comic is brought up by the two Iranian woman in the beginning of the comic who say that literature about certain cultures only appears when they are in the news, for example she alludes to the September 11th terrorist attacks. This is certainly true because an attack like this makes other cultures first on everyone's mind. However, it should not be so. We should be respectful, aware, and appreciative of other cultures no matter if they are in the news or not.
--Brenna DeCotis
Posted by lciscotis at October 20, 2005 09:54 AM