Poem in relationship to Persepolis[FION]

I have chosen the poem called "Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson and relate this to Persepolis.

Much Madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning Eye-
Much Sense-the starkest Madness-
‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail-
Assent- and you are sane-
Demur- you’re straightway dangerous-
And handled with a Chain-

To begin this, I will talk about the poem itself first.

To understand this poem better, we need to know the reason for Emily Dickinson to write this poem. Dickinson spent most of her life time in her birth place, Amherst, Massachusetts. It was known that she had "a dictatorial husband and a tyrannical father." Since she didn't make contact with the outside world, much of her knowledge of the outside world comes from the books she read. For a year, Dickinson was sent to a school called South Hadley Female Academy; however, because she didnt' adapt to the new environment and the strictly religious atmosphere, she returned home, and gradually step away from social activities. After a few more years, she started to confine herself in her father's house and didnt' leave that house even until her death in 1886.

No one exactly know when this poem was written, but it was guess that "Much Madness is divinest Sense"was written in 1862. This was during the nineteenth century which woman had many limitations. Many believed that this poem "demonstrates an anger and battle against the limits imposed by the authoritarian male upon the nineteenth century intellectual female."

Relationships.
“Much Madness is Divinest Sense- / To a discerning Eye-." From these two lines, I think, Dickinson is not only rebelling against the men who make the rules which lessens the status of women in the society, but also against the women who blindly accepted them. Just like in Persepolis where every woman needs to wear a veil, although obviously, it is an unfair rule to women, most of them obeyed to it. Like what Dickinson was referring to, society was "madness" however some women sees it as "divines sense" because they dont' have "discerning eyes."

‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail-

Notice that Emily Dickinson capitalized "Majority" and "All," maybe she is trying to put it as a remider that "majority" and "all" didn't truely had the power. Therefore "Majority" and "All" in this case, only applies to men "as All, prevail." This was the society Marjane was in, where men had all the power.

Assent- and you are sane-(1
Demur- you’re straightway dangerous-(2
And handled with a Chain-(3

1) If you agreed with the "Marjority" you'll be fine.
2)If you disagreed with the "Marjority" then you'll be dangerous even if you are right.
3)When you disagreed, you have to face the consequences.

This was Iran.

One day at school, the teacher said that since Islamic republic was found, they no longer have political prisoners. Marjane corrected her teacher by saying that islamic regime does ordered execution and she gave the example of Anoosh which infuriated the teacher. At last she got kicked out of the school: reason being is that she told the truth.

Class act Week 6[FION]

This panel was brought up by Mr.McGuigan.
This the first time that Marjane speaks up to the readers telling exactly what is in her mind unlike the panels from the previous pages where she only makes eye contacts. With only eye contacts the readers can only infer what is Marjane is trying to bring out through the panel.

In this panel, Marjane said "we confronted the regime as best we could," meaning she is not satisfied with the rules and laws by the government in her country; this surely shows her rebellious attitude as if she is saying "this book is mine, I can do what ever I want."


In class Kelvin also brought up a very interesting idea of the cover where the main characters in Persepolis are looking at a person beside them, which forms a cycle. I think this cycle starts with Marjane's dad--> then Marjane's mom--> Marjane's Grandma--> LIttle Marjane--> Anoosh--> Big Marjane. The ending point of this cycle is big Marjane since this cover shows the important people in her life who affected or influenced her to become who she is(the end point to the circle!). These people in the cover therefore reflect to the growing process and experiences of Marjane Satropi.

Week Six: Literary Feature Hunt (Alice)

Literary Features Hunt
panel transitions

Today, I thought I had spent too little time trying out the literary features exclusive for graphic novels, so I tried to find the different types of panel transitions that Ms.Brownrigg taught us. I only had to skim through the end of the book to realize that it was literally everywhere. They were used in wide ranges to describe and emphasize unique moments in her life.

The first one I found was "moment-to-moment transition":

Pg. 304

These three consecutive panels (and gutters in between) show the growing number of students who wanted the freedom to draw people without veils or without having to "draw [a] man while looking at the door" (300). The gutters naturally weave the panels together to actually visualize the increasing crowd. Since it shows a subject's passage of time, I believe it is a moment to moment trannsition.

The next one is "action-to-action transition".

Pg. 307~309

The two pages have no narration or speech bubble, which is unique throughout the entire Persepolis. Since it only shows moving figures, it is an action-to-action transition, no doubt.

Following it is the"subject-to-subject transition".

Pg. 320

Again, the three consecutive panels. They each show a person's opinion on the Iraq attacking Kuwait. The passage of time is minute, or the panels might be depicting the same moment.

Finally, the "scene-to-scent transition".

Pg. 154

I immidiately found the blank page that Fion mentioned in one of her posts. If it is assumed as a gigantic gutter, then the last panel on page 153 and the first panel on page 155 can be seen as a scene-to-scene transition, because on the former panel, Marjane is in Iran; then suddenly she is living in Austria. Ms.Brownrigg described this transition as "transporting the reader across "significant distances of time and space." (16th slide of Comics-Vocab ppt.) I think the panels and the blank page fits into that definition nicely.

Week Six: Snippet (Alice)

Snippet

Page 316

This page describes the process of Marjane and Reza's wedding. Although it should be a joyous event, Marjane does not look happy at all, except for the first panel. When she and Reza got crumbs of sugar loaves sprinkled on their heads to bring joy and prosperity, Marjane is pouting. Also, she is looking away from Reza in the fourth panel, which suggests that she is doubting if the marriage will indeed start out on a sweet note like the ritual bids them. Furthermore, as Marjane is following her mother and answering various people's questions, she puts on a mask (psst! a motif!), a fake smile on her lips. Finally, the last panel on this page--showing her walking down a dark corridor--seems to pmply that her marriage will turn out to be a dark passage, and a lonely one, too. This turns out to be true in the end of the book, because Marjane accuses Reza of being a hermit: "you never want to go out! If I have to go everywhere alone, what's the point of living together?" (Satrapi, 319) What's more, they never look at each other during the their wedding! This observation led me to believe that this entire page is full of carefully-disguised forshadowing details.

Week Six: comment on Harroop's blog ---(Alice)

Harroop brought out an interesting question worth keeping in mind while reading through Persepolis: "Where does our identities come from?" She thought that they derive from our heritage, our peers and some from the media. I definitely agree with this, because Satrapi spends most of her time in Vienna struggling to find out who she is. When the question is applied on her, Satrapi's "identity" has an Iranian ancestry and European friends and abundance of books; but her source of information of current events are weak because News was censored in Iran and she didn't want to hear the news of her mother country when she was abroad.

While pondering about this question, I was naturally led to the motif of her being an outsider. Then it became a sort of a chain reaction--questions following questions. If indeed our identities have roots, then do people with the same background have the same identitiy? That being the case, in a world of 6 billion people, can a true "outsider" exist?

I found these questions very complex. There are other factors to consider, like genetics and environment, and also statistics. My knee-jerk reaction to this question was to say yes to both of these questions, though they are not completely true. I think as long as we are humans that share many similar characteristics (physical and mental), our identities can be identical to an extent. The variation might depend on individual's experience; I do nto believe anyoneone can do the same thing and feel exactly the same about it; riding a rollercoaster, for example. Some people like it, some are scared of it. If the hypothesis, "our backgrounds make up our identities" was true, and people knew about it, then we would have had tons of einsteins and live in a super-developed world.

Week SIX! [snippit] FION

In page 304, Satropi tries to tell the reality that was happening in Iran: although people are are under strict laws which restrict them to do many things, for example partying and putting on make up, people still do it on their own time. "Are the laws effective?" this may be a question that Satropi wants to ask us.

As you can see, the majority of this panel depicts the real life of the people while only a portion of it shows the official representation of Iran. This signifies the majority of these people actually enjoys freedom, as a matter of fact, only the minority obeys to the strict freedom-less rules under theocracy. Also the photo of the official representation of Iran is in front of the partying atmosphere background, seems like it's telling us that these laws are very superficial just like the photo is(in the surface). Underneath the photo, there are many people who enjoys themselves and to do what is against to the laws. So, are the laws effective? Seems like a no. The more extreme the laws get, the more the people go against it.

Week Five--comments (Alice)

Comments

Manny mentions an interesting panel on page 257. In the last panel of the page, Satrapi is lonely and seems to melt into the background. We talked about a similar panel on page 169, where she is again, lonely and blends in with the background. If drawings can have a motif, I think this might be it.

Week Five--Snippets (Alice)

Recurring style of drawing

When Satrapi wishes to show an inner conflict or another side of a person, she shades in half of the character's face. This can be found in few places throughout the graphic autobiography.

For example, these panels on page 25...

This page talks about Satrapi's grandfather, who was victim of a political war. Satrapi's mother is reflecting on her family's agonizing past. I think this panel shows her that she was impacted indirectly--seeing her father suffer must have hurt her also.

The young Satrapi on the right side, just realized the two sides of her nation's history. Children her age are optimistic and are taught only the good side of things; however, the moment the panel is dipicting, her utopia shattered. Her conflict reflects the bipolar view of Iran.

Page 146

"All night long, I thought of that phrase: "to die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society." Niloufar was a real martyr, and her blood certainly did not feed our society's veins."

Again, Satrapi's face is partially covered in black. Conflict here can be the meaning of the phrase. The propaganda doesn't match reality. She is confused as to which one is right.

page 328

Here, their conflict is their unstable relationship. Prior to their mythology project, they fought daily; during the project, they never fought, not once. Even though they seem to be working, I think they are really thinking about where this relationship is headed. The white side represents all the happy memories--what brought them together and the time they spent working together--and the black side, are all the fierce skirmishes they had.

This pattern in drawing makes the readers understand Satrapi's feelings, even if they are not described as words. Its recurrence helps it become clearer, because readers can find other panels that imply the same thing.

Week Five--Literary Feature Hunt (Alice)

literary feature hunt

Pg. 41

I was just flipping through the book... and found this panel, which I have mentioned already as ironic, to be a satire as well.

The definition of a satire in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary is described as such:

satire
satire /ˈsæt.aɪəʳ/ US /-aɪr/
noun [C or U]
a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, or a piece of writing or play which uses this style.

I now believe this panel is not only ironic, but also satirical. It implies that the Shah was only pretending to be "trying out democracy"; he really didn't try at all. Surely, he didn't judge the prime ministers by their physique--but they were chosen by his standards.

I believe that there are many other political and non-political satires, as Satrapi, the author and the protagonist, was a rebel since she was ten years old.

Week Five [COMMENTS] ---[Fi]

In Kelvin's blog, he compared the bottom panels of page 153 and 341: he said, they"are very similar but the atmosphere is different." I agrees with with him; although both bottom panels are about Marjane saying good byes to her family in the airport, the expressions show on her parents face are different. In page 153, the atmosphere was downhearted while the atmosphere in page 341 was filled with content: although her grandma cried, it was "tears of joy."

Surely after Marjane came back from Austria, her personality changeD because she is now an adult who has more experiences compared to 7 or 8 years ago when she was still a child. Therefore the second time she left for France she was content or at least less panic since she was no longer the young Marjane who have never been exposed to the European world, now that she has,she becomes a more determined and strong women who can lead her own life.

Week Five [LITERARY FEATURE HUNT] ---[Fi]

PAGE 268

Marjane changes her expression from the first panel through the fourth panel. Noticeably, it changes from non-chalant to sad to depressed. As her expression changes from panel to panel, the amount of blackness in the back ground becomes more and more: black representing depression.

This is juxtaposition because these four panels are placet side by side creating the change in expression of the protagonist and change in the background colour at the same time.

MORE TMR.

Week Five [Snippets] ---[Fi]

Looking at this panel, it immediately reminds me of 1984. Marjane just got back to her country. She wonders around the streets and was astounded when she sees a big image of a sixty-Fie-foot high Murals presenting Martyrs along with slogans like: "The Martyr is the heart of history." For more than four years of living in Austria, the images that she sees goes on the buildings are advertisements for food or clothing with slogans like "the Best sausages for 20 shillings," rarely any images related to any religion

Comparing this to 1984, this huge image hanging on the building is like the images of big brother: one is a dominant religion in Iran, the other is a and the only party in Oceania which everyone seems to believe. The purpose for both the religion and the party hanging posters everywhere is to constently reminds people to believe that they are, and the only ones who could run the society.
Going back to the characters, obviously Marjane and Winston are both situated in the same position where they are rebellious toward the dominant religion/party and being different from everyone else around them.

MORE TMR

Week Four (Class Act)- Alice

Since my citations needed improvements, I will write the proper way here so I won't make another mistake in the future.

After quotations, the page number has to appear in parenthesis--it can incude the last name of the author also.

Ex. The very first panel that appears in the Persepolis says "[T]his is me when I was 10 years old. This was in 1980" (3) or (Satrapi, 3).

Also, the semi-colons are used to connect sentences that oppose each other, and colons are used to connect the first clause with its explanation.

Week Four (snippet)-Alice

Snippet

Pg 228

This panel is one that illustrates the Viennese students demonstrating against the government.

As you can observe, everyone in this panel has light-coloured hair; except for our protagonist, Marjane Satrapi. Her unique hair colour makes her stand out, while others look similar to each other. This ties in with the important motif of her being an outsider.

Pg 18

The two panels--this one and the one above--are almost identical to each other, with a few minor exceptions. The hair style of the people, the position of their body, and the background of this panel are the exact same with the one above. I think the author is trying to point out that rebellions are the same, regardless of ethnicity, religion and cause.

week three [literary feature hunt] FION

[HELP=)]page 187: second panel where Marjane is reading a book and is printed the sound she heard earlier, how is it a metaphor?

Page 140
Marjane walk helplessly on a street because she though her parents were dead. There are windows with shattered glass on the street. The shattered glass symbolized the mood in which Marjane was in, the broken-ness of her heart unsure of rather her parents are still alive.

140 same page
2 and 3 panel- In the second panel Marjane is depressed because she couldn't find her mom: Satropi used black as the back ground colour to depict the mood of the character. In the right panel Marjane is happy because she finally found her mom: therefore Satropi used white as the back colour to demostrate the happiness of Marjane. This is jexaposition.

Week three [class act] FION

page 181
This was initially brought up by Geneva, Geneva said that this panel is interesting because it is a picture of Marjane's family sitting around a table on a beach, a d water is coming towards them. She also suggeste4d that Marjane may be day dreaming in the previous panel which leads her to the beach. (juxtaposition) Mr.M thinks that the style of painting and the lack of detail of this panel presents a Iranian culture atmosphere.

page 185
(forgot who brought this up) Marjane is directly looking at the reader as if she is trying to communicate with us through her eye contact. She seems different from everybody in the room: some people are kissing eachother, some are laughing for no apparent reason, and some are smoking but Marjane is sitting all by herself in the corner looking inocent. The wall she is leading on is a Iranian art work (Bhanisha's idea) which Marjane is using it for support. The painting of the wall contrast with the actions of the people in the room with the exception of Marjane. This panel shows how Marjane is situated in, seems like she does not belong to neither of the culture.

Week Three-Snippet (Alice)

Snippet

Pg 238

The top of the panel reads:
"For about a month, I lived at this rhythm, the night prostrate and the day letting myself be carried across Vienna by sleep and the tramway."

This panel appealed to me with its double-meaning. The picture itself seems to be a direct presentation of the text, showing the tramway--it can be assumed that our protagonist, Marjane Satrapi, is riding on it--going everywhere--up and down, side to side--but not particularly heading for a destination. Thi picture also implies that the nomadic way Marjane lived during this period applied to her life as well; her life, like the tramway in the picture, was wandering in every direction, but couldn't find a solid place (or person) to rest upon.

Furthermore, this drawing made me think of the song, "Life Is A Highway" by Tom Cochrane, aka a cliche: "life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long." The background, which is painted a solid black, fits into the song perfectly, but also suggests that Marjane only remembered the restless wandering, but the details of the lonely journey remained very vague in her mind.

Week Three-

Week Three [Snippets] ---[Fi]

This is similar to what Geneva wrote in her blog about the dove pattern on Marjane's dress. Dove symbolizes peace and love.
In this page we could easily see that the pattern of shapes on Marjane's grandma's dress is Jasmine flowers (look at the second panel). This was the last memory she has with her grandmother before she left for Austria. They spent a night together before Marjane's departure. The reason I think Satropi uses jasmine flower as the pattern of grandma's dress is because her grandma routinely used to put jasmine flowers in her bra: to Marjane, jasmine flower has become a symbol of her grandma. From this, we could see that Satropic really pay attention to details when she draw the panels.

P154
This page is completely blank, representing the separation between childhood and teen-hood of the protagonist, Marjane. We can also interpret as a life switch. Life switch because she is no longer confine in a freedom-less country , Iran, but exposed to the outside world and experienced the taste of freedom. The blankness of this page does not only represents a new beginning for Marjane, but also to reader because I think the arthur wants the readers to take a pause and rethink what had happen so far in the book before they move on. Instead of the gutter between panels, this blank page is like a gutter of the book.

Week Two-Feedback (Alice)

I was raking my brains for an idea for the feedback... and I saw Fion's feedback, so I am doing a review on the conference, too.

The Cypress Students Summit conference at Mulgrave had a tremendous impact on me. The first workshop I attended was called "Peace-It-Together", conducted by Omar. (I have his business card! If you are interested in this, just ask me for it.) This workshop introduced the program, "Peace-It-Together", which brings ten Palestinians, ten Israeli, and ten Canadians to Bowen Island, where they interact with each other and make films about the conflict in the Middle East. Omar, one of the participants in Peace-It-Together 2008, showed the produced films and shared his experiences. It was quite interesting; I saw the much-hated seperation wall (a wall that divides Palestinians from Israelis; a tremendous nuisance for the former) and got to hear stories of average, yet extraordinary young men and women, who are no different from us. It truely touched my heart.

When they all went shopping during the camp, one Palestinian guy bought a pair of shoes. It cost around $60, and he was so happy to get them. He treated them in a manner that we would treat a 60 carat diamond, shining it and doing everything in his power to keep it clean. When other people asked him why those shoes were so precious to him, his answer was that it was because he had to run away fast when the bombs were dropped nearby. He needed strong, decent pair of sneakers, not because it matched his cool jeans, but because his life depended on it.

It was like a punch right on my face. Staring at the screen in awe, the fact that I took EVERYTHING for granted sunk in. These people bought shoes in order to survive. I bought shoes because my runners were too "old". They waited for three hours to get into another city 30 minutes away--the Palestinians had to pass stations called "check points", guarded by Israeli soldiers, to get out of or into a village. Many of them never left their tiny community. I had the freedom to travel across the country and back if I wanted to. They had to carry blue or green cards--which Israeli soldiers checked at every check point-- to pass through their country. I had a passport that could take me virtually everywhere in the world. I realized that I was truely spoiled. I didn't have to worry about soldiers barging into my house in the middle of the night, or bombs and missiles falling from the sky. What shocked me the most was that this person, who worries about these things everyday, was around my age.

Yet, it seemed too fantastic to believe. These stories felt like they came from a land far far away, perhaps not even from Earth. That was the definite proof that I was an utterly pampered child. I wasn't the only one who felt disconnected from the Middle East, though. The guest speaker of the last workshop, Haiti, told the group that she wished that Canadians, as well as the rest of the world, would pay more attention and care about the conflicts in the Middle East. Because we have been cuddled by peace that cushioned the impact of the harsh world, we became superficial. This conference really opened my eyes. I was left thinking: what am I doing--sitting here and doing nothing, when people in the Middle East were struggling to live through one more day?