Leggere pericolosamente

by Azar Nafisi, Anna Rusconi (Translator)

«Finché possiamo immaginare, siamo liberi» ha detto David Grossman. Ma – si potrebbe obiettare – non sarà un lusso riservato agli scrittori? In altre la letteratura esercita un effettivo potere sulla nostra vita quotidiana? Le cinque lettere che fra il 2019 e il 2020 Azar Nafisi ha indirizzato al padre, proseguendo un dialogo che la morte di lui non ha interrotto, sono la più persuasiva risposta a questo cruciale interrogativo. Mentre intorno a lei, anche negli Stati Uniti, la realtà si fa sempre più allarmante – dall’affermarsi di tendenze totalitarie alla pandemia di Covid-19 – e indignazione e angoscia paiono sopraffarla, Azar Nafisi torna a immergersi nei libri che più ha amato, e ci mostra, intrecciando racconto autobiografico e riflessione sulla letteratura, come Salman Rushdie e Zora Neale Hurston, David Grossman e Margaret Atwood, e altri ancora, l’abbiano accompagnata nei momenti più difficili, come veri e propri talismani. E le abbiano dischiuso, con la loro multivocalità, inattese insegnandole per esempio a dubitare della soffocante dicotomia tra aggressore e vittima; a vedere nell’odio e nella rabbia, in apparenza capaci di conferire identità, una fuga dal dolore – a comprendere che le grandi opere letterarie sono davvero pericolose, giacché smascherano ogni impulso tirannico, fuori e dentro di noi. Sicché «leggerle pericolosamente» significa accogliere l’irrequietezza e il desiderio di conoscenza di cui ci fanno dono.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Essays, Politics, Memoir, Audiobook, History

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 8, 2022

About the author

Azar Nafisi (Persian: آذر نفیسی) is an Iranian American writer and scholar of English literature whose work explores the political and imaginative power of books. Born in Tehran, she grew up in a family deeply engaged in public life. Her father served as mayor of the city in the early 1960s, while her mother was among the first women elected to the National Consultative Assembly. As a teenager, she left Iran to study in England and later Switzerland, eventually completing her university education in the United States. She earned a doctorate in English and American literature from the University of Oklahoma before returning to Iran shortly before the 1979 Revolution.
Nafisi began teaching at the University of Tehran, but her refusal to comply with mandatory veiling laws led to her expulsion in 1981. After a period of political and cultural uncertainty, she resumed teaching at Allameh Tabataba’i University. Her relationship with the institution remained fraught, and by the mid 1990s she had distanced herself from formal academic life. From 1995 to 1997, she held weekly literary discussions in her home for a group of female students, creating an intimate space where they read and interpreted novels considered unwelcome by the authorities. These meetings became the foundation for her most influential book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, a memoir that intertwines literature, personal reflection, and the lived realities of women in post-revolutionary Iran.
Nafisi moved to the United States in 1997 and later became a citizen. Her subsequent work continued to explore the role of books in shaping identity, imagination, and civic life. She has written widely for major newspapers and literary outlets and has held academic and public-intellectual roles at Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, and Oxford. Her books include Things I’ve Been Silent About, The Republic of Imagination, That Other World: Nabokov and the Puzzle of Exile, and Read Dangerously, each extending her conviction that literature offers a unique form of moral and imaginative resistance.
Her writing has received significant critical acclaim, earning awards for both literary merit and intellectual courage. In 2024, Reading Lolita in Tehran was adapted for film with Golshifteh Farahani portraying Nafisi. Throughout her career, she has spoken and written about the intersections of culture, authoritarianism, and personal freedom, insisting on the enduring relevance of literature in societies confronting political pressure. Her work continues to spark debate, admiration, and reflection across a wide international readership.

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

5+++stars. A MUST READ.

Azar Nafisi has written an incredible book that is composed of five chapters about critical authors. These chapters are written as letters to her deceased father who was jailed in Iran for standing up for his beliefs. Nafisi and her father shared a love of literature and freedom of expression and art.

The first chapter is about authors Rushdie, Plato and Bradbury. Last night on August 13, 2022 after I had completed the first chapter, the news was announced that Salman Rushdie was stabbed and attacked onstage during a panel interview. He is currently in the hospital and may lose one eye and an arm and his liver have been damaged.

In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Rushdie's execution because he felt Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, was blasphemous.

In addition to the evening news about Rushdie, there was conflicting news about whether Donald Trump would have turned over highly classified information that he took to his Mar-Lago residence if he had "just been asked" or if he was asked and received a subpoena several days in advance.

The newscasters also indicated that there is concern/talk about whether the US is headed to a civil war in the future. There was discussion about the "election deniers" who are making progress in current election campaigns in several states. Election deniers are those who feel Trump won the election but it was stolen from him.

Yesterday, Ricky Walter Shiffer, an armed man, tried to enter the Cincinnati FBI office and was killed after a standoff with police.

Book banning at schools, libraries and bookstores has exploded across the country.....so reading Nafisi's book was incredibly timely and thought provoking.

Read Dangerously shares parallels between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States. Nafisi has lived in both countries and transparently shares historical and current context of both countries, particularly on topics of exclusion (race, gender, religion, politics, etc).

The quotes at the beginning and the end of the book highlight the role and intersectionality that writers and readers play in changing the world.

"Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. This is what I've always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them." Edwidge Danticat

"Readers are born free and they ought to remain free." Vladimir Nabokov

The authors that are highlighted and discussed in each letter (chapter) to her father are:
1. Rushdie, Plato, Bradbury
2. Hurston, Morrison
3. Grossman, Ackerman, Khoury
4. Atwood
5. Baldwin, Coates

Nafisi shares that the world knows a lot about America but America doesn't know much about the world. Americans wear our ignorance of the world casually and good naturedly. Author James Baldwin stated that indifference makes one blind.

America pays little attention to writers and we avoid reading dangerously. Reading fosters a mindset that questions and doubts. Fiction arouses our curiosity and our imaginations.

Reading dangerously teaches us how to deal with those viewed as enemies. Democracy depends on engagement with our adversaries.

Censorship is dangerous to the well-being of societies. When we stop reading, we pave the way for book banning. Different opinions and perspectives are critical for understanding and empathy.

I highly, highly recommend Reading Dangerously. It links writers and readers to the universality of the human experience.

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Readers, of course, have no formal organization to promote truth, to bring about change. But they number in the billions. They range across the spectrums of profession, background, gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation. Collectively, their power would be immense. Every writer who is censored, jailed, or tortured and murdered; every reader who is deprived of reading the books she wants; every bookstore, library, museum, or theater that closes; every book that is censored or removed from schools and libraries; every art, music, or literature program canceled in our schools and other institutions—these should all remind us of our responsibility.'

Review to follow.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ARC for free via a Goodreads giveaway.

When I read the title and description of this book, I was expecting a book that would add gasoline to the angry ember I’ve been carrying around for a long time. I was hoping this book would be a weapon to add to my arsenal. It did not take long for me to realize I was not going to get what I wanted. To be honest, I was a little disappointed and even told a friend that I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy reading it.

I can’t get The Rolling Stones out of my head because “You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find You get what you need.” By the end of the first letter/chapter, I realized this book was going to be what I needed, not what I wanted.

I’m sure there are many other lessons that could be pulled from this but I needed to be reminded to humanize those with whom I disagree fiercely lest I become just another version of what I consider to be the “enemy” of Justice and progress. I’ve read most of the books Azar Nafisi mentions throughout her book and I really enjoyed seeing them through her perspective.

I believe there is something for nearly everyone within these pages.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook….read by Azar Nafisi
….8 hours and 28 minutes

Incredibly powerful!!!

Azar’s outrage for freedom of expression is not only emotionally felt — from ‘her’ —but her outrage-passion is contagious….
Readers will feel a desire to stand up - rise up - and be an advocate for real change and justice in the world.


The intensity in Azar’s voice - is quite animated….
At times I felt I was a fly on the wall listening to Azar having a private conversation with her Father … through letters they exchanged. The stories were personal - the politics is vital….. drawing on Azar’s experience from living in Iran and the United States.
The difference he made in her life is remarkable.
Having read three other books by the author years ago — I didn’t expect THIS.,,,, a whole new ballgame from her past work.

“Reading and writing, has protected me through the worst times of my life”.
Through loneliness, doubt, and anxiety….reading, and writing, has been my savior”.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book nearly a week ago but I haven't had time to review it since then. With work and travel for work, and recovering from travel for work, I just have not really felt like sitting down to write even my laziest of reviews. And this book doesn't really warrant a lazy review.

So, despite the fact that I feel like hot butt today (so far have tested negative for the covid, but we shall see what news today's test brings) I'm gonna write something about this book. Because I did really enjoy listening to it - even if she did spoil some of the books she talked about. Again.

This is structured as an epistolary-style book, written as letters to Nafisi's dead father, talking about the state of the world right now and the giant clusterfuck that is existence, and how reading is important at times like these. From helping to clearly see the real world through the lens of the fictional, to some of the most brilliant minds outlining their thoughts so as to help us clarify our own, books are critically important in "troubled times" - aka this whole shit *waves vaguely around*.

I really enjoyed Nafisi's insights on the world and definitely appreciated her drawing the parallels between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US (especially right now), and how she framed these insights relative to the books she was reading, or had read, or which came to mind as she pondered this whole shit *waves vaguely around again*. Her letters to her father felt both deeply personal and also academic in a way that I definitely do not relate to my own father. I was envious of that kind of relationship, honestly, because it seems to be so much more open to ideas. I would really love that.

Some aspects of this are repetitive, but that seems to be more due to the nature of the structure of the book and the content having overlapping themes than any poor editing. Writing as letters, each one will necessarily be an independent thing, filled with the thoughts of the day, the ideas to be discussed, etc, and due to the theme of these letters, there will of course be overlaps. I don't hold that against Nafisi or this book, because it helps to show how all of these ideas are interchangeable and interconnected, whether the topic is abortion or marriage equality or voting rights, etc. They all come back to freedom.

Some parts of this were really hard for me to listen to. This was written around the time of George Floyd's murder, and talked about how brutal that was and how the BLM and social justice movements and rallies and protests felt different this time, and powerful.

She also talks about the Covid pandemic and how this has impacted the world and society. Her comments regarding her daughter and daughter in law both being pregnant during this time were moving because you could tell how much she wanted to be there for them, but couldn't.

I loved her related commentary of her discussions with Shireen (sorry if I misspell this, I only have audio!) and the way living in Iran contrasts with and their similarities to the US.

Overall, I really liked this a lot, more than Reading Lolita in Tehran. I don't know if it was the style, or the fact that I listened to the author reading it in her own voice, or what, but this just worked better for me. I highly recommend it.

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read some of Nafisi's other writings, I expected to like this book but I wasn't expecting to love it like I did.

Her epistolary writing style in here works beautifully for me, although if you are unused to epistolary writing it might feel repetitive or trite on occasion. It is obvious that Nafisi's conversations regarding literature with her friends and father shape her thoughts and life to this day, and I found how deeply she thought on reading humbling.

I love reading books, and stories have played a large role in my life, but Nafisi's thoughts on reading and what it means to consume and produce stories outpaces me by leagues. Highly recommend reading!

[Madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Great fiction is based on a democracy of different perspectives, where even the villain has a voice, while bad fiction reduces all voices to one voice: that of the writer who, like a dictator, stifles all of the characters in order to impose his message or agenda. Great works of literature, works that are truly dangerous, question and expose that dictatorial impulse.”


Alright, brief standing ovation for Nafisi... put your phone down, get up, and clap because this book was outstanding. The deeply intelligent writing, universal sentiments of human experience, and the deconstruction of modern and historical events through literature made for a truly enlightening reading experience. Nafisi is fearless in combatting popular political narratives, taking fear, totalitarianism, populism, dehumanization, sexism, and binary thinking and placing them under a microscope for examination.

Through a series of letters to her father (who was a badass politician in Iran, jailed for opposing the Islamic regime by providing support to protestors), Nafisi utilizes various works of literature to make sense of the rise of totalitarianism, drawing frightening parallels between the rise of the Islamic regime in Iran and the anti-truth Trump Era that continues to grip the United States. She also builds one of the strongest cases for intersectional feminism I’ve ever read, methodically demonstrating the deep sexism that exists within nearly all political movements and the exclusion of women, especially women of color.

She discusses the Israel-Palestine conflict in a way that rejects political stance, instead using the conflict to analyze the dehumanization of war time, our drive for revenge, the pain we inflict on others when we are in pain... Given my own understanding of the issue, I was a little wary when she started talking about the beauties of Israeli literature on war, but she quickly turned the mirror onto me, forcing me to reflect on my own impulses when thinking about war and violence. Honestly, superb.

This entire book is such a beautiful meditation on why we should ultimately seek peace and forgiveness, resist binary thought processes, protect the writers and creatives of society, and READ.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (6 stars for Nafisi)

Other quotes I liked, but honestly just check my reading activity, this book is a jewel box:

“The most seductive aspect of a totalitarian society is the security it offers. The truth is uncomfortable and a dictator promises an abdication of responsibility from it.”

“What choice does the king have but to kick the poets and storytellers out of his republic? And what choice does the poet have but to destabilize the philosopher king’s power by speaking the truth?”

[Malgorzata (szczodrość ryb) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zaokrąglam w górę do 5, bo to pewnie byłoby 5, gdybym ja była bardziej oczytana i znała te wszystkie wspomniane książki :)
Coś tutaj jeszcze skrobnę :)

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
I was delighted to see a new book by Azar Nafisi, and one that sounded right up my alley. I did love the stories of her reading the books included and how it intersected with her life. So I recommend it! I have one small quibble, and that is the letter-to-her-father format. I don't mind it being in a letter format, but the continual addressing of him in sometimes nearly every paragraph became distracting to me as a reader. But I did enjoy this look at how reading can get us through tough times.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come after HC Strike ends.

[Vic Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Azar Nafisi, author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" makes an impassioned statement on behalf of reading subversive literature. Of course, what qualifies as "subversive" is usually left in the hands of the powerful and therefore, anything that challenges the status quo will be deemed "subversive."

Drawing on parallels between the mindsets of the ayatollahs of Iran and the American Right she raises the specter of the U.S. falling into the deadly trap of theocracy. Or, indeed, any ideology that demonizes the pursuit of knowledge or the demand for personal freedom.

Nafisi recalls some great subversive lit from the West as examples. Bradbury, Atwood, Baldwin, Morrison, and Coates as well as figures from Plato to Rushdie. She links the reading of such authors to a mindset that can imagine and create change. To Nafisi to be angry and rage is not enough. One must be prepared to create and construct what comes after. And what come after is largely a matter of human imagination. And few things in this world inspire imagination like books.

Highly recommended for any who see the growing attacks on writers, journalists, and authors, particularly in the West, as a disturbing sign of current times.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Azar Nafisi writes letters to her father, with whom she often discussed literature when he was alive, about the power of controversial reading and its benefits for the individual and society. Nafisi writes during a time of great turbulence in her adopted country, America, and draws upon her struggles during a time of great turbulence in her home country, Iran.

[Anna Wilczyńska · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umęczyłam się przy tej książce i paradoksalnie odebrała mi chęć do czytania. Stawiane tezy są prawdziwe. Ale to wybrane do analizy pozycje i ich fragmenty robią całą robotę, bo rozważania nad nimi są napisane szkolnie, sztywno, nudno. Książka zdradza najważniejsze momenty i zakończenia książek, którymi się posługuje, co jest mocno rozczarowujące.

[Deborah Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough subject, I often wanted to just move on to something fun but, glad I did not. Loved the coverage of the many controversial works on topics most prefer not to acknowledge, however I now have a new list of authors to explore. It's a reality check on how the rest of us have benefitted from other eye opening works. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I now better understand my parents activism on behalf of the civil rights movement and anti-war protests.

[Shaimaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

عن القراءة بصفتها إعادة انتاج للواقع، إلغاء تحيّزاتنا، وهدم الثنائيّات الجاهزة. عن القارئ بصفتِه مُقاوم لعالمٍ يحجم الخيال، ويلجم حريّة التأويل. كتابٌ يدافِعُ عن حقّنا في مسح الحدود بين عالم القراءة والعالم الواقعي؛ عن حقّنا في المشاغبة.

كُتِبَ بغضب، وقُرِأَ بغضب.

٣.٥/٥

[Alessandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5.

[Rowizyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sono in solluchero per questo libro ma devo mettere insieme i pensieri.

[Karuseliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5
Volumul semnat de Azar Nafisi este compus din cinci scrisori imaginare către Baba Jan, tatăl său, pornește de la protestele din Iran și se încheie cu cele din America. Trece rând pe rând prin texte ale unor scriitori și gânditori pe care Nafisi îi apreciază pentru forța, frumusețea și mesajele textelor: Salman Rushdie, Platon, Ray Bradbury, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, David Grossman, Elliot Ackerman, Raymon Khouri, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin și Joyce Carol Oates.

Cărţile sunt înainte de toate paznicii memoriei noastre, dar încă primele pagini ale cărții, Azar Nafisi ține să sublinieze faptul că scriitori nu sunt infailibili, ci, de cele mai multe ori, produse ale epocii în care scriu. Și chiar dacă literatura nu duce la acțiune directă în plan politic, social, educațional, ea are cu siguranță puterea de a stârni curiozitatea, de a încuraja mentalitatea în care punem la îndoială lucrurile, ne întrebăm, ceea ce face din citit și scris acțiuni periculoase uneori, dar ne și protejează de singurătate sau neliniști.

Analizând o serie de cărți care au reușit să modifice fie mentalități, fie să ducă la acțiune efectivă în lumea reală, se oprește într-unul dintre capitole la binecunoscutul Fahrenheit 451, prilej cu care își exprimă opinia asupra rolului major al cărților. ”Ele reprezintă lumea neînregimentată, plină de contradicții și complicații, o lume care amenință mentalitatea totalitaristă prin faptul că de află dincolo de controlul ei. (pg. 53)

Misiunea ficțiunii nu e să producă mesaje sau manifeste, s-ar transforma în ideologie, ci să-i pună pe cititori față în față cu experiențe individuale, care să le dea posibilitatea de a dezvolta empatie și înțelegere. Are marele dar de a ne reda individualitatea atunci când lipește sau ne-a fost anihilată, ne a se stimula imaginația și chiar de a deveni mijloc de protest atunci când trăim perioade tulburi. ”Marea literatură se inspiră din umanitatea noastră împărtășită și pune în evidență diferențele dintre noi.” Scriitorii nu doar spun povești, ci fac să luăm parte la ele. Și deși nu pot salva pe nimeni, magia relațiilor dintre cititori și cuvinte poate transforma cititorii în salvatori cărților.

[Hestia Istiviani · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Well-read women are dangerous creatures" -- Pernah baca kutipan itu?

Meski sebenarnya saat ini, "well-read HUMANS are dangerous creatures" adalah yg lebih cocok.

Meet Azar Nafisi, seorang profesor perempuan dari Iran yg kini menetap di AS. Sejak SMP, dia sudah keluar dari Iran buat sekolah. Selama itu pula, dia kerap berkirim surat dengan ayahnya--yg saat itu menjabat sebagai Walikota Teheran. Kebanyakan dari suratnya bercerita tentang perbedaan yg ia temui di Barat sana.

Kebiasaan berkirim surat itu terus berlanjut hingga ayahnya meninggal dunia. Bagi Nafisi, ayahnya adalah sosok dg pikiran terbuka. Yg membebaskan ia untuk membaca apapun--meski rezim Ayatollah menyensor sebagian besar buku di Iran. Hanya dengan ayahnya, Nafisi merasa dimengerti jalan pikirannya.

Read Dangerously merupakan "surat" yg Nafisi tulis untuk ayahnya setelah beliau meninggal. Membayangkan bahwa ayahnya akan membacanya membantunya untuk sit down with her own mind.

Dalam setiap surat, Nafisi bercerita tentang seorang penulis fiksi. Baginya, fiksi membawa kebebasan berimajinasi yg nggak bisa disensor oleh rezim mana pun. Berkat fiksi, manusia bisa membayangkan bagaimana rasanya bebas & hidup normal (tanpa rasisme, tanpa diskriminasi). Lewat fiksi, manusia merefleksikan hidupnya.

Salah satu bagian yg kusuka adalah ketika Nafisi bercerita tentang Margaret Atwood & dwilogi The Handmaid's Tale. Apa yg Nafisi rasakan bisa aku amini: bagaimana laki-laki begitu takut dengan perempuan sehingga membatasi geraknya. Gara-gara pemaparan Nafisi pulalah aku jadi tertarik membaca The Testament (lanjutan The Handmaid's Tale).

Read Dangerously merupakan sebuah bacaan yang bagus tentang bagaimana kegiatan membaca bisa memunculkan kepedulian, memantik aksi. Menjawab pertanyaan kenapa di sebagian besar negara-negara (termasuk Indonesia) selalu ada penyensoran (banned books). Apa yang Nafisi tulis dalam buku itu kurang lebih bersinggungan dg esai yg pernah kutulis untuk @anotasidotcom sesaat ketika Omnibus Law diketok palu.

Go read dangerously karena membaca itu sendiri adalah sebuah aksi 🔥

[Sarah Bland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a bit like a college essay but made some good points, particularly about imagining ourselves, our friends, and our enemies as complex and flawed humans instead of flat caricatures.

Really frustrated me that the whole book seemed to be about that yet Nafisi seemed to do exactly what she was preaching against by blanket demonizing Trump and any of his supporters? Would have packed more of an ideological punch in my opinion if she had made an attempt to understand and humanize them (even while maintaining vehement disagreement with their views and actions, which certainly deserve thoughtful criticism).

[Bianca Sandale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wie
Literaturbetrachtung und hoffnungsvolle Regimekritik, sowie berührende Vater-Tochter-Beziehung in einem!!!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times
Author: Azar Nafisi
Publisher: Dey St. - William Morrow
Publishing Date: 2022
Pgs: 223
Dewey: 809-n146r
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
What is the role of literature in an era when one political party wages continual war on writers and the press? What is the connection between political strife in our daily lives, and the way we meet our enemies on the page in fiction? How can literature, through its free exchange, affect politics?
In this galvanizing guide to literature as resistance, Nafisi seeks to answer these questions. Drawing on her experiences as a woman and voracious reader living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, her life as an immigrant in the United States, and her role as literature professor in both countries, she crafts an argument for why, in a genuine democracy, we must engage with the enemy, and how literature can be a vehicle for doing so.
Structured as a series of letters to her father, who taught her as a child about how literature can rescue us in times of trauma, Nafisi explores the most probing questions of our time through the works of Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, James Baldwin, Margaret Atwood, and more.
_________________________________________
Genre:
Politics
Political Literature
Criticism
Society
Culture
History
Iran
America
The World
Censorship
Thought
Political Thought
Liberal Political Thought
Forgiveness
War


Why this book:
In the current straits, thought keeps you off the rocks and shoals. Read…because they don’t want you to.
_________________________________________
The Page 100 Test:
√ ◄ - good to go.
🧠◄ - makes you think
$ ◄ - this is money.

The Feel:
This touches on the works of other authors and brings their most “dangerous” qualities to life in these pages. I’m invested in Nafisi’s story, but I’m curious about some of these others that are brought up as well.

Favorite Character:
James Baldwin when his work is discussed here rapidly became a favorite.

Least Favorite Character:
College friend from Oklahoma University, Dan, whose favorite author is Ayn Rand. I already don’t like this guy. Wonder if he’s in Congress today? :/

Favorite Quote:
This era is overwhelmed by violence both in rhetoric and reality communicating not through inclusion but elimination. Adversaries and opponents are now reduced to and defined as enemies.

We enter dangerous territory when we blur the lines between fiction and reality, or weaponize fiction to further an agenda–be it political, religious, or personal. The totalitarian mindset breaks the borders between fiction and reality, and, in the same manner, it imposes its own fictions and mythologies on the realities of its people, speaking and acting on their behalf. You see this mindset not only in authoritarian countries but also in democracies–the most obvious in America being Trump’s replacing reality with his lies and illusions.

[There is] “a heavy price to pay for mischief.”

“Rather sad that the world knows so much about America, while America knows so little about the world.”

“Race is the child of racism, not the father” - James Baldwin

“[they both believed] the writer should be free to demolish the barrier of color, to cross the forbidden line and write from the point of view of someone with a different skin.” - William Styron in remembrance of James Baldwin from the New York Times. The mutual respect of the two men aborning in Baldwin’s coming to Styron’s defense after the latter wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner. Baldwin said of Styron that “[he] had a right to a confrontation with his history. No one has a right to tell a writer what to write.” I would just add that if you don't like it, don't read it. The writer is the one bleeding on the page. It’s their blood, their soul. Sit in judgment if you must, but karma is a bitch. This is the essence of freedom of speech to me. Yes, you have the freedom to speak it, but I have the freedom not to listen or to turn the volume down and let you scream into the abyss.

Baldwin believed “we are all adnrogynous, not only because we are all born of a woman impregnated by the seed of man but because each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other–male in female, female in male, white in black, and black in white. We are a part of each other.” Powerful stuff.

Favorite Concept:
Dignity, self-revelation, and the virtue of being mulish.

The exploration of race, race relations, and the juxtaposition of Iran and America embodied here is fascinating.

Book makes me consider the protests in America. The outraged soul takes to the streets demanding justice. The outrage fades. It’s still there, but everyday life is beating us. The media fans the flame until they have something to move on to. The exhausted soul just tries to get through the next day. “Normality” returns. The next outrage occurs, but nothing was done to truly address the previous outrage. Maybe if we had votes of no confidence in this country that gave more power to the people. Imagine Presidents trying to form new governments less they fall out of power in the offseason. The stagnant system robs people of their power. A power that can only be expressed during election season. This is why The Powers That Be fear making it easier to vote.

Talking about Baldwin and Coates belief that there is no biological basis to race, and that white and Black are political constructs, a ploy created to ensure the subjugation of one group of people by another. …I take that along into the same headspace with Lyndon Johnson’s quote - “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” Those ideas living together in my psyche make me thoughtful about all those aspects. And horrified as I look out my window at the America we have now.

When Baldwin refers to white people as “our striken kinfolk”, I feel that. His commentary when he said that racism harms both the victim and the perpetrator.

Hmm Moments:
“Don't you think that there is a moment in most political upheavals when people lose their individual voices and become one when a sort of blindness takes over their faculties, and that is the decisive moment that can allow a tyrannical mindset to take over.” … …well that’s horrifying.

As she talks about Ora from “To The End Of The Land” and her obsession with not being home when the military notifiers come to tell her that her son has perished in war because if she's not then he can't be dead. This percolates thru my brain as a Schrodinger.

Calling the Ball:
Finding it difficult to read A Handmaid's Take seems a universal experience. Not because it’s bad. More because of the fear…or sobering reality that it’s not as far fetched as we’d all like to believe.

Wisdom:
“Each is responsible for the atrocities but is not equated with them.” We forget this. We blame. We vilify. We stereotype.

Juxtaposition:
The author on living in Iran - “...religion was a kind of victim, used and manipulated as a political ideology to maintain the power of the state.” While in the current American political climate, religion is being used as a weapon against everyone who isn’t white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and in lockstep with their agenda.

“You and I were stunned that so many chose to ignore the ominous signs: the murder and executions, the mistreatment of women and minorities, the replacement of progressive laws with regressive and brutal ones. When the new regime executed the old government officials–or innocent people accused falsely of collaborating with that government–many remained silent, and the majority of political organizations and groups, both inside and outside Iran, including some on the Left, supported the Islamic regime’s actions.” Sounds like Paul Gosar’s America.

Plato’s Noble Lie and The Cave are metaphors for modern America.

Saul Bellow asked “Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus, The Proust of the Papuans?” Ralph Wiley’s response, “Tolstoy was the Tolstoy of the Zulus. Unless you find profit in fencing off universal properties of mankind into exclusive tribal ownership.” Wiley reminds us of hte universality of ideas and imagination. Like scientific advances, they might originate at a specific place and tim, but once theta trout there in the world, they belong to the world–or, rather, belong to whoever cares about them, nurtures them, uses them. We need that imagination in order to survive as human beings. Where els but through imagination and ideas do we connect even with those we have never met in our lives?

Erstwhile:
The reminder that One Thousand and One Arabian Nights are told to save Scheherazade’s life from the virgin killer king who marries a new wife every night and kills them at dawn to keep her from ever betraying him. And after telling him 2 ¾ years worth of stories, he chose to let her live and be his queen. ⸮…what a prize⸮ The lead is buried whenever one of us gets nostalgic about any of this story. Course same could be said about many of our fairy tales when we look too closely at them and passed their Disneyfication.

The Unexpected:
Through this Iranian woman’s literature criticism, review, and love affair, I confronted myself, my past, our shared past, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and America. Good stuff.

The Poker Game/DND Table:
Imagining a poker game with Baldwin, Plato, and her father. The discussion around the table would lead to forgotten cards and introspection.

She could sit at my poker or DND table. It’d be fun.

Movies and Television:
I’ve gotta track down that mentioned biography of James Baldwin.
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Pacing:
For Non -Fiction, there was real flow to this. Page to page, sometimes in a blur, having to stop to think and consider the nuggets throughout.

Last Page Sound:
Thought-provoking. When I said that about the book, I failed to realize how thought-provoking it would actually be. Totally caught off guard by this book. I expected political criticism and talk, but the chapters on Baldwin and Coates are so enlightening.

Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
Based on Nafisi, I believe I would enjoy being challenged by…I mean reading James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Their work is going on my TBR list.

Reread Pile:
Doubt I’d re-read this. But I may get a copy to keep on my bookshelf to reference from time to time. It was damned good. And who knows, another political season is coming.
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[Narges · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Could we remain morally intact in a place where immorality was not just the norm but the rule?"

دفعه دیگه کسی توی تیک تاک گفت کتابا سیاسی نیستن با همین کتاب بزنید تودهنش
آذر نفیسی داخل این کتاب از خیلی چیزا صحبت میکنه.
از اوایل انقلاب، کتاب ایات شیطانی سلمان رشدی، تاثیرش و اتفاقاتی که افتاد.
از کتاب های گروسمن. و جنگ فلسطین واسرائیل. از این میگه که چجئری توی بدترین شرایط بتونیم انسانیت خودمونو حفظ کنیم. به ادمایی تبدیل نشیم که داریم باهاشون میجنگیم.
از کتابایی مثل the bluest eyes. و رفتاری که با سیاهپوستا هنوزم داره میشه.
از مارگارت اتوود و سرگذشت ندیمه میگه. چیزی که امریکای ترامپ ممکنه بهش دچار بشه و ایرانی که سالهاست داره تجربش میکنه
و کتاب رو با بالدوین و داستانهاش تموم میکنه.

...She’s providing conclusive evidence that such things have happened, and she and many other victims have been witness to them, lived through them, lived in spite of them.

کتاب شبیه دنیای سوفی نوشته شده. یه نان فیکشن در قالب داستانی که توی نامه تعریف میشه.
ایا با همه چیزایی که توکتاب گفت موافقم؟ نه. اصلا
ولی پیشنهادش میکنم؟ صد در صد

این کتاب توضیح دقیقیه که چرا داستان ها، نویسنده ها و تواناییشون تو به تصویر کشیدن جامعه در قالب داستانی انقدر اهمیت داره.

[Martyna Olasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Króciutko: uprzywilejowana, naiwna libka z klasy wyższej napisała książkę o tym, że ratunek jest w lekturze. Napisała to z perspektywy laski urodzonej w inteligenckiej irańskiej rodzinie, mieszkającej od lat w Stanach, zajmującej się na co dzień literaturą i skwapliwie ignorującej informacje chociażby o tym, jaki jest procent alfabetyzacji w jej pierwszej ojczyźnie.

Jak to powiedział klasyk: najważniejsze to dobrze się urodzić i zająć dobre miejsca.

[Oana Ungureanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Azar Nafisi e admirabilă, precum e și tatăl ei, omul care a făcut închisoare în Iran pentru propria demnitate şi propriile convingeri. Nu e de mirare, deci, că pentru Nafisi, cititul devine un act etic și periculos, o ancoră într-o lume care te vrea obedient.

Carte asta rămâne aproape de mine pentru că mi i-a apropiat pe Rushdie și Grossman și pentru că, deși e scrisă în pandemie, rămâne tulburător de actuală.

[Mihaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 *

[Angé · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and timely book. She writes passionately, intelligently and compassionately. I especially enjoyed the Atwood and Baldwin chapters. Lots of food for thought in these pages and I feel all the empowered for having read it.

[Carol Surges · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will stay with you long after you're done. Nafisi wrote this during the Trump presidency and drew parallels between the governments in Iran and the United States. She had powerful things to say. I chose to read just the chapters that dealt with authors I was familiar with. I finished with deeper insights and appreciation for the books and the authors. Nafisi's comments on Salman Rushdie and The Satanic Verses is particularly relevant right now due to its resurgence in the headlines after the recent attempt on Rushdie's life. I don't usually keep books, preferring to donate them to a fundraiser but this one I'm keeping - at least for now.

[Somebody · Rating 4 out of 5]

عن ادب الخيال والجمال ونظرة اشمل للحياة والمجتمعات في عالم مظطرب وخطير تأخذنا هذه الكاتبة الايرانية في رحلة جميلة على شكل رسائل لابيها الراحل والذي أخذ حقه من القمع والسجن.
‏كتاب جميل وترجمة رائعة ووافية من الاخ الاستاذ متعب الشمري.

[ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

everyone needs to read this