tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post112509495904060914..comments2024-03-18T16:55:31.971+00:00Comments on This Space: Reading Nafisi in the WestStephen Mitchelmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1125669566833658892005-09-02T14:59:00.000+01:002005-09-02T14:59:00.000+01:00'Care' about Iran? Don't you mean Iran's oil? And ...'Care' about Iran? Don't you mean Iran's <I>oil</I>? <BR/><BR/>And though it's clear you've read John Pistelli's post, you clearly haven't understood. He doesn't call her a fascist but 'objectively pro-fascist'. There is a difference. I shall be posting on this later, when I've got time.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1125667251925669742005-09-02T14:20:00.000+01:002005-09-02T14:20:00.000+01:00I remember attending a lecture she gave at the nat...I remember attending a lecture she gave at the national endowment for democracy before her book came out. even at that location there was nothing explicitly political about her ideas, although she did note that most of the Iranian leadership has kids that are enamored of western culture. her own daughter was apparently a big fan of the x-files. so to call her fascist without reading the book is ridiculous. I tend to think she associates with the neocons like Wolfowitz because nobody else seems to care about Iran.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1125524507816746992005-08-31T22:41:00.000+01:002005-08-31T22:41:00.000+01:00I think we agree on the quality of Nafisi's book, ...I think we agree on the quality of Nafisi's book, do we not? It is a nice memoir, which has as one of its chief strengths the author's insights on literature (not surprising, considering she is a literature professor).<BR/><BR/>That is mainly what I was trying to draw attention to in my post. <BR/><BR/>As for whether Nafisi's work is a work of "literary resistance," I'm not sure, but then, that isn't the question I was asking. <BR/><BR/>I tend to agree with you that she isn't doing particularly much to challenge what the Bush administration is doing or has done. But I would also say that her not marking herself as an opponent of the administration doesn't change the fact that Iran is a repressive place, especially bad for women. Her subject is her experience of Iran, not America's foreign policy. It's unfair to her to require that her memoir take a strong position on American politics. <BR/><BR/>It's possible to question the Bush administration's policies (as I do) while also recognizing that some of what they say about places like Iran is actually true. That doesn't justify <EM>invading</EM> Iran, of course (and God help us if they start talking about that again).<BR/><BR/>I would be wary of quoting John Pistelli -- he's calling her a fascist, though he freely admits he hasn't read the book. Seems pretty egregious to me. The use of the word "fascist" in this case also strikes me as the opposite of "objective."Amardeep Singhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11408720639556886665noreply@blogger.com