The Tavern

The piano played softly. Or the soft piano played a melody to smooth out the edges of another rough week. It had an empathetic touch. She never raised her drink to her lips due to the intoxication of song. Cradled by the booth in the back corner she exhaled a deep sigh, as she tried to avoid Monday. A single glass of a local red was a Friday night ritual. But for now, contentment was beyond the grape as a crescendo built up by masterful fingers on keys of black and white. 
The beast crouched outside in the dank and dark alley. Its claws grasped fear of tomorrow.

The candles brightened smiles. Or bright smiles reflected off the twenty-one candles. But the wax dripped into the cake like the tears of the birthday girl soaked into her heart. A private party of only two in the reserved back room was spotted with a mix of joy and sorrow as was painted on the face of her eldest sister. The pendulum on the clock down the hall stirred the present moment, and at the same time the grief of yesterday. They forced smiles and fought to celebrate the momentous occasion.

The beast ogled through the frosted window with eyes of red. Raised above its scarred head was anger against loss.

The bent ear heard all. Or the ear of his long-time friend was bent around the corner of the bar -- and listened. Buddies since high school. They were parked on adjacent stools for hours over a couple of pints. One soaked it all in, while the other's blood boiled. One glass was half full, while the other was half empty as he voiced his displeasure of being a useless tool. The spirit of the latter was filled by the dedication of the former. Yet, something lurked in the recesses of his mind. 

The beast cracked the heavy wood door open as one foot hovered over the threshold. Hidden behind its back was hatred toward another.

While others danced their troubles into the hardwood floor, the beast charged in as it splintered the door frame. Shards of indifference pierced the ceiling and walls as a dark veil cast shadows of doubt into the minds of the patrons. Under attack, their route of escape was blocked. It smacked fear at anyone who would succumb to it. It hammered down a steady rage of anger. And from its hidden place, it swung hatred in a berserk frenzy. It preyed on their happiness.

The patrons gazed at one another, stunned by the evasion. Or it was an invasion into their refuge. A few begun to shiver and shrink into the shadow. But courage thrived in certain pockets of the tavern. Their strength came not from the spirits displayed behind the bar. Something greater than a strong proof proved a finer flavour. Out from the walls of social exclusion, there arose quality in character. Enough suffered! The fearful woman came to the aide of the birthday girl challenged with anger, while the man tempted by hate turned toward love. In turn, he offered to lighten the burden of anyone who faltered. And they all faced the beast together. For three are stronger than one, or two.


“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:12

War Diary of Yeugenia Belorusets, Ukraine 2022

The Beginning
Air Raids
Tense Silence
Bomb Shelter
An Extinguished City
Time to Be Brave
“It’s 3:30 p.m. and we’re still alive”
A Way of Life that Swallows Everything
“The night is still young”
A Blemish on the Landscape
Illusions
Too Tired for the Shelter
An Unexpected Gift
Rockets Over Kyiv
In War, One Thinks Only of War
Tactical Retreat
The Picture of the Man and the Cat
Deceptive Illusion
The Houses That Disappeared
“Kyiv will be as clean as Berlin”
“Risk of injury”
The Smell of Burning Forests
Here in Kyiv
Endless Cannonades
Islands of Temporary Calm
In the Nerve Center of Catastrophy
A Changed City
Laughter Returns to Kyiv
A City Drowns in Blood
“This diary cannot be completed; it can only be interrupted”

 
An Ya’s Ghost Music

I was certain this was a dream
Everything besides the mushroom was buried in darkness
“It’s normal that you don’t understand.” the mushroom said.
I had no choice but to trust the mushroom
It was not until later, after the sonata had ended and I was
	stepping into the shower, that I noticed the musky
	smell on my fingers.”

“Can you tell Bowen our town has turned orange?”
“I can send you a picture if you like.”
“It happened the night the dust landed on the river.”
“He fell in and nobody was there to help.”

Apparently, Julia hung herself in the middle of the night
She must have taken a shower beforehand because when they
	found her, her hair was frozen through
“From afar she looked like a giant icicle.”
“I didn’t think she was real.”

I wasn’t sleeping at all at night
I unfolded the instructions that came with one of the mushroom kits
Watch the mushrooms grow
	



 
Random Entries From R. Crumb’s Dream Journal

Dream of Burning Insects
Dream of Right-Wing Christians: I am murdered
Recurring Travel Anxiety Dream
Dream I Will Myself to Shrink in Size
Erotic Dream of Patty and Aline
Dream of Throwing Snowballs
Recurring Dream of Underground Caves
Dream of Being Captured by Government Agency
Dream of Cruel, Sarcastic Brazilian Man
Dream of Double Sex with Aline
Same Day: Dream of Zaro’s Death Ray Machine
Deam of Playing Old-Time Music with Some Young Men 
	and Boys
Dream of Runaway Camel
Dream of Assertive Girl at a Party
Dream of Miniature Gothic Sculpture
Dream of Fucking a Woman
Dream of Finding Old Records and Talking to My Mother
 	on the Telephone
Dream of Scorpion and Shit
Dream of Family of Giants
Dream of Advancing Flood Waters
Nightmare of Hovering Presence
Dream of Flying Saucers and Talking to Aliens

 

Marianne Faithfull

You can’t always get what you want
As tears go by
This little bird
Sister morphine
Just like a woman
First person to say fuck in a mainstream movie
The Girl on the Motorcycle
Naked Under Leather
The Seven Deadly Sins
Pirate Jenny
Ophelia
Florence Nightingale
Maria Theresa
Alice in Wonderland
Irina Palm
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Three Penny Opera
I Got You Babe Duet with David Bowie
Broken English
20 the Century Blues
A Secret Life
Dangerous Acquaintance(s)
Vagabond Ways
Easy Come, Easy Go
Kissin’ Time: Parental Warning Explicit Content
Blazing Away: Explicit Content with no Parental Warning

 
Myths to Live By: Official U.S. Government Booklet 1950

Your chances of surviving an atomic attack are better than
	you thought
Close to an explosion, your chances are one out of ten
Beyond a half mile, your chances of survival increase rapidly
Injury by radioactivity does not necessarily mean you are 
	doomed to die or be crippled
Don’t be misled by wild talk of “super super bombs”
Doubling a bomb’s power doesn’t mean doubling the damage it
	will do
Blast and heat are the biggest dangers
To protect yourself from blast, lie down in a shielded spot
In your house lie down against a wall
Outdoors: get next to a solid building
To escape temporary blindness, bury your face in your arms
Flash burns are a serious cause of injury: shield yourself from
	the flash
Even a little material gives protection from flash burns so be 
	sure to dress properly
Radioactivity is the only way besides size in which atomic bombs
	differ from ordinary ones
We know more about radioactivity than we do about colds
Injury from radioactivity depends upon the power of the rays and
	particles, how long you were exposed and much of your
	body was hit
Explosive radioactivity is the most important kind, but it is only
	for a moment
Even canned and bottled foods may be irradiated, but will be
	safe to sue them
Vomiting and diarrhea are the first signs of radioactivity sickness
Even if you should get severe radiation sickness you would have 
	a better than even chance of recovery
There is little you can do to protect your house from the blast
It is better to figure on collapse of the upper floors and to take
	cover in the basement
YOU CAN SURVIVE

 
Aspects of Barthes' Mourning 

First wedding night. But first mourning night?
She would say with relief: the night is finally over
In the sentence, “She is no longer suffering.” To what,
	to whom does she refer? What does the present
	tense mean?
Don’t say mourning. It’s too psychoanalytic: I’m not mourning.
	I am suffering.
How am I going to manage to live here all alone? And, at
	the same time, it’s clear there is no other place.
Sometimes, very briefly, a blank moment-a kind of numbness-
	which is not a moment of forgetfulness. That terries me.
…henceforth and forever, I am my mother
I was not like her, since I did not die (at the same time) as her.
The measurement of mourning. Eighteen months for mourning
 	a father, a mother.

For the face of Love

I gain the power to fly in the sky
The charm that always knits me
The glow of sunrise
 Of threads in a space so sweet
Unconsciously where I go and come back
No hindrance or bar to cross the Red
Only its your face of love
Make me so powerful to win the race
You stand by me and I like a phoenix
revive
For a love bird I fight from my birth
I die and survive till the last sigh
The green always smiles over
On the seedlings of the paddy
I ride on the cart and reach my home
Sing out the song
‘Bohu diner pirit go bondhu
Ekey dine vengo na’.

Chapainawabganj,  Bangladesh
18 June, 2024.


Md. Mahbubul Alam is from Bangladesh. His writer name is Mahbub John in Bangladesh. He is a Senior Teacher (English) of Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh. Chapainawabganj is a district town of Bangladesh. He is an MA in English Literature from Rajshahi College under National University. He has published three books of poems in Bangla. He writes mainly poems but other branches of literature such as prose, article, essay etc. also have been published in national and local newspapers, magazines, little magazines. He has achieved three times Best Teacher Certificate and Crest in National Education Week in the District Wise Competition in Chapainawabganj District. He has gained many literary awards from home and abroad. His English writings have been published in Synchronized Chaos for seven years. 

At the request of many contributors, we are continuing to share ways writers and artists can lend a hand to different places in the world.

Literary Ways to Help Sudan

Donate books to Books for Africa (mail to Georgia, USA)

Donate to or offer professional expertise to the South Sudan Library Project

Literary Ways to Help The Democratic Republic of Congo

Congo Library – people and organizations have donated books to a shipping center in California to build a library in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Books for Congo – sets up and contributes to libraries and a bookmobile, takes donations of books and cash and buys books by local and African authors.

Freelancers In Gaza Seeks Mentors To Virtually Coach Freelance Professionals

From Freelancers in Gaza:

We are looking for all forms of support in mentorship, like teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, computer skills, writing and editing, journalistic skills, etc.  So all types of support will be helpful. Those who are interested in being mentors will need to send us short bios, their best way of communication (email), and a headshot. This will then be added to our pool of mentors here: https://www.freelancersingaza.com/mentors.

This month’s issue celebrates effusions of life: human art and creativity, human love and compassion, and the flowering of the natural world.

Sayani Mukherjee depicts the elegant fragility of a rose as Brian Barbeito’s photography and prose evokes summertime in a strange, wild, and mysterious natural place in the summer. Wazed Abdullah revels in the vast expanse of the sky, during both daylight and nighttime.

Mark Young explores the power of details: parts of speech, flower petals, and thoughts.

Echezonachi Daniel speculates on nature and deconstructs some of what we as humans project onto other species.

Brian Barbeito, in his prose piece, takes a starling bird as a starting point to reflect on native vs introduced species, philosophy and faith, fair-weather versus dedicated believers, and what it means to be committed to something.

Isabella Mori writes of a trip through Canada when she encountered nature and simple human kindness. Christopher Bernard illustrates the caring, nurture, and steadiness of loving fathers. Azimjon Toshpulatov highlights her love for her mother by apologizing for having hurt her, and Rizwan Islam honors his through an essay on her dedicated service to so many people. Lazizakhan Khalilova shares a story where a young child discovers that noticing and helping others is part of growing up.

Mohichehra Qurbonova shares a story of the perseverance of a disabled girl to achieve her goals and build a life with meaning. David Sapp recollects memories of a friendship he developed with a developmentally disabled person whom he came to regard with respect.

Mesfakus Salahin conveys the experience of losing himself in romantic love. Eva Petropoulou Lianou’s poetry celebrates the joy of love and romance. Sushant Thapa describes getting to know a lover as a form of art and a journey.

Dimitris Passas shares a story of drug addiction and the sufferings of forced withdrawal and the quest for family love. John Grochalski speaks to the awkwardness of negotiating and crossing boundaries within parasocial relationships: people we see in media or with whom we have a business relationship.

Lewis LaCook shares pieces about travel, lost love, and finding and creating the world around us. Jesse Emmanuella writes of the human experience: death, grief, and new love. Tareq Samin depicts nature and romantic love in his piece, drawing on trees and stars for analogies to his feelings.

Elmaya Jabbarova reminisces about time with someone she loved in a beautiful garden she can no longer visit. Maja Milojkovic’s narrator speaks of her dual love for India and for a man she married there. Abdul Razzaq Al-Amiri evokes a romance that is also a deep spiritual quest. Amina Sahi conveys the pure spiritual joy of a lovers’ meeting off of a woman’s outdoor balcony in fragrant, sunny spring as Mahbub presents an exuberant couple scampering through fields and blooming rosebushes.

Dr. Jernail Anand reminds us that caring for others and self-respect is more important than money. Marjona Jorayeva highlights how the national value placed on human compassion is integral to the cultural and natural wealth of Uzbekistan. Sarvinoz Tuliyeva explicates the humane spirit of O’tkir Hashimov’s short story “Yanga.”

Bill Tope’s short story comments on two problems of America’s school system: gun violence and bullying, and the lack of compassion, cruelty, and injustice at the roots of both. Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa laments the knowledge she has of life’s suffering and how she cannot save her loved ones. Faleeha Hassan conveys the worry and loneliness of a soldier’s mother who cannot share ordinary daily news with her son while Nosirova Gavhar shares a tale of love that waits even after death.

Dr. Prasannakumar Dalai explores lost love, pain, and despair in his poetry as Graciela Noemi Villaverde expresses her visceral grief for her departed husband. Poet Sandy Rochelle, on her birthday, chooses love over fear and pain.

John Martino relates pieces of moments, thoughts, and encounters told with humor and humanity. J.D. Nelson’s haikus capture moments of surprise, when something changes in the world. Duane Vorhees invites us as humans to consider how we’ll act and love each other in the light of a world implacably changing all around us. Easa Hossain urges us to remember the past yet adapt to and welcome the present.

Lidia Popa expresses what she would do if she were in charge of time and destiny. Maid Corbic expresses his loneliness around people who are stuck in the past. Amanbayeva Dinora offers the advice of centuries for career builders and job seekers as Saparbayeva Aziza outlines what she likes, and what she doesn’t, in books from her Uzbek cultural tradition.

Zulkhumor Fosilbekova highlights the value of education for people and society. Gulsevar Xojamova suggests a positive role for technology in elementary and high school education in Uzbekistan. Sushama Kasbekar celebrates the technology of her new fridge, but acknowledges her confusion at its complexity.

Bruce Roberts laments humans and human art’s replacement by robots who feel themselves to be an improvement. Rezauddin Stalin celebrates human knowledge and the joy we find in discovering human wisdom from ages past.

Chris Butler speaks to the limitations of human knowledge and perception in light of the near-eternal nature of some parts of the natural and physical world. Isabel Gomez de Diego’s photography highlights the smallness of humanity in the light of natural and cultural history.

Gregorz Wroblewski pokes at the nature of a poem, at memorializing imperfect humans, and at our reasons for creating high literature. Tuyet Van Do seeks out underlying truths beneath cultural narratives.

Many humans create in this issue, for reasons of their own. Texas Fontanella sends us energetic rap music and Vernon Frazer brings us on a long tour de force of jazzlike symphonic crescendos of words. Grzegorz Wroblewski’s artwork shows poetry as a physical object, focusing on the looks of words on the page rather than what the words say. Diana Magallon’s visual art combines squares and cubes into shapes that seem 3-D on a two-dimensional space.

Alan Catlin contributes an artistically edited tour-de-force of global sociology, Western psychology, infrastructure and logistics, and criminal forensics. Patrick Sweeney explores themes of worry, complexity, and communication in his series of short pieces.

Noah Berlatsky reminds us that all dedicated writers, even hobbyists, can be considered authors and poets. Fadwa Attia highlights how an artist’s identity and background can inspire or inform their work. Z.I. Mahmud illustrates how a graphic novel was an ideal and useful form for Marianne Satrapi to tell her story in Persepolis of surviving Iran’s 1970s Islamic revolution.

Kylian Cubilla Gomez’ photography is at once playful and introspective, examining small portions of nature and human life.

Sadiya Abdulaziz looks to her own body and life for wisdom, examining the scars on her body to relate her history. Zeboxon Akmalova explores the very common and human feeling of loss.

Jason Ryberg’s poetry is a mixture of humor and commentary on human perception. Jim Meirose’s “reformed solemniac” piece offers up a funny take on insomnia. J.J. Campbell shares poetry about lasting beyond one’s prime and anyway, or just realizing that you’re older and still around.

Daniel De Culla contributes an earthy poem of dissatisfaction with the world’s proffered enjoyments. Michael Robinson recollects a lifetime of comfort and peace found through his Christian faith. Hillol Ray points to his sources of poetic inspiration and how he finds meaning in life through creating work in partnership with nature. Maheshwar Das encourages us to get beyond short-sightedness and materialism and focus on love for one another and care for creation.

Sheila Murphy sends us poetry of self-assertion and boundary-setting. Kristy Raines interviews Burmese Rohingya refugee Faisal Justin, who shares his journey of escaping oppression in Myanmar. Mykyta Ryzhykh explores how to capture the threatened Ukrainian civilization in poetry, probing their beauty, joy, and hardship.

Jacques Fleury highlights how the allostatic stress of being discriminated against and “othered” even at smaller levels contributes to bad health effects for minority populations.

Adiba Pardabayeva celebrates the lasting power of her basic Uzbek cultural values, including respect, dignity, and modesty.

We hope the many high-minded and intriguing sentiments of this issue will linger in your minds and hearts. Thank you for reading our first July issue!

Education Unleashed: Unlocking Potential and Creating Opportunities

Introduction:

Education is a powerful force that has the ability to unlock the potential within individuals and create a world of opportunities. It is a transformative journey that empowers individuals to grow, learn, and contribute to society. In this article, we will explore how education, when unleashed, becomes a catalyst for personal and societal growth, enabling individuals to overcome barriers, pursue their passions, and shape a brighter future.

1. Breaking Barriers: Education has the remarkable ability to break down barriers that hinder personal and societal progress. It provides access to knowledge, skills, and opportunities that can bridge the gap between social and economic disparities. By leveling the playing field, education enables individuals from all walks of life to pursue their dreams and aspirations, regardless of their backgrounds or circumstances.

2. Empowering Individuals: When education is unleashed, it empowers individuals to take control of their lives and shape their own destinies. It equips them with the necessary knowledge, critical thinking skills, and confidence to make informed decisions, solve complex problems, and adapt to an ever-changing world. Education nurtures curiosity, creativity, and a thirst for lifelong learning, empowering individuals to explore new horizons and seize opportunities.

3. Fostering Innovation: Education is the breeding ground for innovation and progress. When individuals are equipped with knowledge and skills, they become agents of change, capable of driving innovation in various fields. By encouraging critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, education unleashes the creative potential within individuals, fostering a culture of innovation that leads to breakthrough discoveries, technological advancements, and societal development.

4. Cultivating Global Citizenship: Education goes beyond academic learning; it cultivates global citizenship and nurtures empathy, compassion, and respect for diverse cultures and perspectives. When education is unleashed, it fosters an understanding of global issues, promotes tolerance, and encourages individuals to actively participate in creating a more just and sustainable world. It instills values of social responsibility and equips individuals with the skills to address pressing global challenges.

5. Driving Economic Growth: Education is a key driver of economic growth and prosperity. When individuals are educated, they are better prepared to enter the workforce, contribute to the economy, and drive innovation and productivity. Education unleashes human capital, creating a skilled workforce that fuels economic development, attracts investments, and fosters entrepreneurship. It paves the way for economic mobility, reducing poverty, and creating a more equitable society.

Conclusion:

Education unleashed has the power to transform lives, societies, and the world at large. It breaks barriers, empowers individuals, fosters innovation, cultivates global citizenship, and drives economic growth. As we recognize the immense potential of education, it becomes our collective responsibility to ensure equitable access to quality education for all. By investing in education, we unlock the true potential of individuals and create a future filled with endless possibilities and opportunities for everyone.

Remember, education is not just about acquiring knowledge, but about the journey of self-discovery and personal growth. Embrace education, unleash your potential, and let it be the guiding light in your pursuit of a better tomorrow. 

Image of a light skinned young woman with a knit sweater and short blonde hair up in a bun holding a copy of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, which has black and white cartoon images of a family up against a black background and green and white text.

Critically examine Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” as a graphic novel. Or 

Discuss the significance of the veil in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Or 

How are the Islamic fundamentalists represented in the book Persepolis? What suggestions does Satrapi make about the relationship between faith and fanaticism?

Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” is the woven into the new found literary form positing the new found respectability of book length graphic novels—-accessible, vernacular and with mass popular appeal—-historicized memorabilia corresponding to mass murder, massacre, genocide, holocaust, brutality, harassment, execution and bombing amidst Iran-Iraq war. Fragmented, disembodied, and divided between frames suggestive of psychological trauma as connoted in the epiphany of “The Veil”. A visual chronicle of childhood rooted and articulated through momentous, and traumatic and historic events about the verbal and visual practice of never forgetting.

An unsmiling veiled girl sitting with her arms crossed in the center of the frame. She situates the exposition to the reader “This is me when I was 10 years old […] This was in 1980.” A hand, a bent elbow, and chest length veil separates herself from the class photography as spacings within pictorial frame purports disruption of her own characterological presence. An icon of single eye, directly engaging the reader, dangling over the book’s very first gutter, reminding readers at the outset that we are aligned with Satrapi’s penetrating vision and enabling retracing of that vision: “I give myself this duty of witnessing.” A crowd of masses throwing their fists in the air in front of a stark black background represents Islamic Revolution and then the veiling mandate of 1980. 

Persepolis narrates the trials and tribulations of precocious Marji and her upperclass leftist parents exasperation with the Iranian political regime; and Marji’s pricked consciousness ; holocausts, homicides and suicides of friend circle and family relations; havoc wreaked by Iraq-Iran geopolitical crises and Marji;s fierce and dangerous outspokenness eventually inspires her parents to deport her abroad at a safer sheltered asylum away from the trepidation and perturbance; her mother becomes comatose state of being as Marji departs Iran.

Satrapi’s text is framed diegetically and externally to the introductory injunctions of “never forgetting” as Uncle Anoosh, the naxalite prisoner advises her niece during executionary wish-fulfillment: “Our family memory must not be lost. Even if it isn’t easy for you, even if you don’t understand it at all.” Satrapi’s multiple autobiographical voices illustrative of the vignettes of selves——-Satrapi’s older and recollective voice registering of overarching narrative text while the younger and directly experiencing voice registering of dialogue and throughout pictorial space——the visual voice.

States of being of memory and matter of factness reinforce Satrapi’s renegotiations between versions of herself showing us the visual and discursive process of never forgetting. Satrapi unfolds the procedure of memory through spatializing form of comics, which visualizes and enmeshes overlapping of selves and their locations. Persepolis’s presentation of pictorial space is discursive. Satrapi displays the political horror of producing and marking ordinary childhood by offering what seems to the reader to be the visual disjuncture in her child’s eye rendition of trauma.

This expressionism weaves the process of memory into the book’s technique of visualization. Satrapi’s stark style is monochromatic—–there is no evident shading technique; she offers black and white. However the visual emptiness of simple, ungraded blackness in frames showcase the depthness of the condition of remembrance as pointed out by Kate Flint’s words: “maybe elicited by the deliberate empty spaces, inviting the projection of that which can be seen only in the mind’s eye to an inviting vacancy.” 

Persian miniatures, murals and friezes of public skirmishes appear as stylized and symmetrical bodies, surfeiting mere mimetic representations interlaced with the Persianness of historical avant-garde. “I was born in a country in a certain time, and I was witness to many things. I was a witness to a revolution. I was a witness to war. I was a witness to a huge emigration”——collective ethos of harrowing sense of death casts her imaginative selfhood to a culture pervaded by violence and retribution. Penultimate panel of “The Letter” suggests the Iranian landscapes and the grimly grotesque configuration of horizontally stretched out and abstractly stacked corpses/ mass dead bodies. “We had demons demonstrated on that very day we shouldn’t have: on Black Friday. That day there was so many killed in one neighbourhoods that a rumour spread that Israeli soldiers were responsible for the slaughter.” 

“The Cigarette” in “The Persepolis” demonstrates three-tiers of imbrications of the historical routine [execution] and the personal routine [sneaking cigar] depicting blindfolded prisoners about to be executed against a wall, directly above and below frames in which we view Marji in that prosaic, timeless rite of initiation: smoking her first cigar. This retrospective mode of narratorial address to the audience from within the pictorial space of the frame and the body politic of tender hearted Marjai is unusual in the text; blurring of voices and register here works with the blurrings of the historical and the everyday registers that is also part of the narrative suggestion of the page.

Ethical, verbal and visual practice of not forgetting is not merely about exposing and challenging the virulent machinations of historicization but is more specifically about examining and bearing witness to the intertwining of the everyday and the historical. Its polemical resonance lies in the fact that visually virtuosic is required to represent the political trauma that plagues Marji’s childhood. Persepolis is thus the reimagination and reconstruction that retraces the literal growing child body in space, reinscribing that body to generate a framework in which versions of selfsome stripped of agency, in which some are possessed by it——-in productive conversation. Persepolis’ feminist graphic narrative harnesses visibility politics magnified by the lenses of visual ethics aesthetics showcasing the censured and censored through representation and resymbolization. 

McCloud pointed out that segmented pictorial illustrations in the form of comic book or graphic novel transforms the temporal relationships into the spatial matrix. Pictorial framing can be related to ideological framing——-the filtering of information, of news, of times, of identities, of nationalities and gender——through templates and through structures of feelings that produce predetermined judgements of values narrativized translations of experience. “We the kids in America” become the epitome of the youth generation’s voice as an ideological frame narrative symbolic of Western cultural imperialism intruding as a lurking anthem in the Marjane Satrapi frame-within-frame fantasy of Western counter cultural identity in the image of Kim Wilde.

Satrapi’s bricolage and appropriation, borrowing, mixture of heterogeneous culture resonates both state societal interpellation as pedagogical and civil societal interpellation as performativity that both function as frames and mirrors of self. Both constructs of fictions of the self. Marjane Satrapi’s grandmother advices the granddaughter: “But there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance […] Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself”, while the latter embracing folding cuddling of the former. “I smelled my grandmother’s bosom. It smelled good. I cannot forget that smell” resonates Proustian motif with the advice bestowed upon by the family matriarch about the jerks she is destined to meet throughout her life.

Lacanian terms of prelinguistic and extralinguistic formation of subjectivity—-the contrast in Persepolis is not only between a prelinguistic visual reflection of the self and an adult linguistic reflection, but the non visual bodily and sensory reflection of the self in the matriarch other and the visual and the exilic reflection of the self outside home and nation. The mirrored frames of the panels function in Persepolis as subjective fragmentation, unstability and uncertainty. Satrapi’s exodus life is as diasporic selfhood re establishes the cultural icon of hijab as the symbolic icon of familiarity of national and familial belonging casting off claustrophobic marginalization: “so much for my individual and social liberties […] I need so badly to go home.” 

Marjane Satrapi’s contrasting frame of panels demarcating bachelorette virginity and consummated maidenhood by her reflections of brightly smiling long hair, makeup and short wear with trimmed laces, and sitting in front of a window overlooking a garden of birds; and Marjane’s reflection of a girl smoking cigar, wearing black pants and shirts, sitting in front of a dark night. Adulthood and independent agency reciprocate her mother’s amity with the tenderly hugging in the event and divorce of the daughter with the fiance Reza. Iran’s borders/cultures/geopolitics were clandestinely breached by the import of Westernization though the imposition of hegemonic tradition and culture such as Nike Shoes and Michael Jackson Badge smuggled by Satrapi’s parents from Turkey. Shallow consumerism by emulation of Western fashion overthrown to indictment that ultimately enforced diasporic exodus. Marjane’s expedition in pursuance of cassettes entails her knowledgeable and feisty dealings with the male black marketeers. Verily the confession of her affirmative tone justifies her duality of personae looming with the void of claustrophobia and xenophobia : “I was nothing. I was a Westerner in the Iran and an Iranian in the West. I had no identity.” 

Patricia Storace critiques the transcendental transformation and brings to light the transmogrified narrative technique to the effect of transvaluation that uses style “which offers a benevolent, trustworthy world, like a fresco in a nursery and the matter of fact breaks our hearts with it, creating confrontation between what is drawn as adorable with the world that does not require its claims to protection, hope or love.” Satrapi is intuitive, inquisitive and precocious and her quest for identity causes a self questioning of gender, class and social status as cultural markers——self-reflection as the narrator of her illustrated past greatly contributes to the value of her memoir. “In a cartoon world she [Marjane Satrapi] creates, the photographs function less as illustrations than as records of actions, a kind of visual journalism. On the other hand, dialogues and descriptions are changing unpredictably in visual style and placement on the page within its balloons, advancing frame by frame like the verbal equivalent of a movie. Each element would be quite useless without the other; like a pair of dancing partners, Satrapi’s text and images comment on each other, enhance each other, challenges, questions and reveal each other.” 

Further Reading 

Hilary Chute’s The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s ‘Persepolis’, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Spring-Summer 2008, Vol. 36, No. 1 /2, Witness (Spring-Summer 2008), pp. 92-110, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York

Babak Elahi’s [Rochester Institute of Technology] Frames and Mirrors in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, symmboke, 2007, Vol. 15, No. 1 / 2, Cinema Without Borders, 2007, pp. 312-325, University of Nebraska Press. 

Ann Miller’s [University of Leicester] Marjane Satrapi’s: Eluding the Frames, L’Esprit Createur, Spring 2011, Volume 51, No. 1, Watch This Space: Women’s Conceptualizations of Space in Contemporary French Film and Visual Art [Spring 2011], pp. 38-52.