Blog for Persepolis

Without looking it up, the title Persepolis, I thought, had something to do with perception or perspective, which is still fitting to the story.  I had to look it up, both admitting my ignorance on the word, and reveled with the idea that I can find out something so quickly.

I learned it “was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire,” also known as the Old Persia, or the Old Persian Empire.  The titles historic value is important.  It’s meaning is of a time before...and I see Marjane Satrapi’s story, Percepolis, depicting a time different from how Iran is viewed now. From the videos I’ve seen of her speaking, this seems to be her goal in writing the book: “I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrong doings of a few extremists,” she wrote in the introduction to the book.

I find it admirable and enticing how she was able to write about such a serious subject, and revisit her childhood memories while staying true to a child’s innocent perspective.  Although I may not have though I’d be a prophet one day, this innocent belief of hers translated to me because I knew I’d be a rock star one day, or save the world from the evils that reign, or visit countries and teach every kid how to read and write and feed the hungry.

I had never been interested in comics, however, reading The Vocabulary of Comics by Scott McCloud was really fun.  His use of pictures, and explanations on how we view them through an abstract mindset, was interesting, and I it to be true. The fact that we see images like we see ourselves blew my mind.  This was a perfect pre-read to Percepolis. Although I would have still enjoyed Percepolis, understanding the use of images in story telling for comics gave me an almost panoramic view in my experience.