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I read this about twenty years ago, when it was new and I was more interested in comics. I probably read it around the same time as I read Art Spiegelman's Maus (which I should also reread, and which I know was an inspiration for Persepolis). I bought it in a second hand shop a couple of years ago meaning to reread it, but did never get to it. When it was reported that Marjane Satrapi had died a couple of weeks ago I felt that now it is time. With the current protests and war, getting a better grasp of Iranian history and society also felt more urgent.

The book tells the tale of the author from childhood until she leaves permanently for art studies in France in her mid-twenties. A large part of the book plays out in Austria where Satrapi was sent during the Iran-Iraq war at the age of fourteen.

I mostly remembered the book's first part which is centered around the Iranian revolution and how it impacted Satrapi's family. Satrapi's parents was leftists, and the other relatives was active in the struggle against the Shah in different capacities, but was largely powerless when the islamists captured the revolution. A relative who was very dear to Satrapi was executed by the islamic republic in the aftermath of the revolution.

What I had largely forgotten was the other themes of the book. Satrapi's exile in Austria as a very young teenager and her return to an Iran that had changed a lot while she was away with the Islamic republic getting a firmer grasp of Iranian society during the Iran-Iraq war. These two parts is each about a third of the full book (I think the original french was released in three parts). How Persepolis largely is a story of never really fitting in, about growing up and about the difficulty of becoming who you are when society tries to constrain you.

The strength of the book to me as a westerner, as someone who doesn't know much about Iran is that it makes the characters relatable. Not only the main character, but most of the people around her. Even under a dramatic situation (revolution, war, exile) they have many of the same problems that we do, or at least problems that we can understand. During my reading I felt that I got to know the characters. I really like the drawing style and think it contributes to this. The drawings are exactly as detailed as they need to be, but not more.

I haven't seen the animated movie, but should see if it can be viewed somewhere.

Ei science fiction novellesamling skriven av ein 19 år gammal Åsmund Forfang, men alderen kjem ikkje tydeleg fram. Eg vil tru boka er inspirert av Bradbury si samling "The illustrated man", med ei interessant rammeforteljing som eigentleg ikkje er så vesentelg for for dei ulike novellene.

Når eg les norsk science fiction, er eg eigentleg ute etter noko som forankrar dei som norske, sjølv om det ikkje er heilt rettferdig. I denne samlinga er det ikkje mykje av det, men ein kan kjenne att naturen i fleire av dei (og nokre referanser til folketru). I "Tømmerhuggere" ser ein også den samtidige miljøkampen spele ei rolle, og i likskap med "En godværsdag i juli" så er barne/ungdomsperspektivet eit poeng i seg sjølv. Dette likte eg godt. Elles er novellene stort sett interessante, sjølv om eg ikkje veit kor lenge eg kjem til å hugse noko frå dei.

@httpster@indieweb.social Jo, jag läste den för några år sedan och minns den som väldigt bra. Jag har helt missat Daidalos-ljudboken. Det låter som en utmärkt idé, sånn generellt, men särskilt för denna.

Jag läste just "Things become other things" av Craig Mod, som jag råkade på, där han utgår från en vandring på Kii-halvön i Japan, men där boken egentligen handlar om hans uppväxt och vem han blivit. Tänkte denna var en bra fortsättning. Funderar på om detta skall vara ett av sommarens teman, inte bara bokmässigt, men också genom att hitta tillbaka till den faktiska rörelsen.

Det här är en fascinerande bok om hur läsning och skrivande (de ursprungliga informationsteknologierna) förändrades i slutet av 1100-talet från ett monastiskt sätt att läsa som bestod av att man läste samma böcker om och om igen högt för att till slut helt internalisera dem (att "idissla" dem var en av metaforerna som användes) till ett skolastiskt sätt att läsa där man läste tyst och snabbt för att utvinna kunskap ur texter.

Det skolastiska läsningen gjordes möjlig av ett antal tekniska uppfinningar som t.ex papper som till skillnad från pergament var tillräckligt lätt för att göra böcker man kunde hålla i handen utan stöd, nya bläck som gjorde man kunde skriva mindre bokstäver, index och innehållsförteckningar som gjorde att man kunde hitta i boken utan att behöva läsa den från början till slut och mellanslaget som gjorde det möjligt att skumläsa.

Det skolastiska läsesättet har sedan varit totalt dominant i "över tjugo generationer" och har gjort "texten" till något som är separat och mer grundläggande än själva boken. Denna objektifiering av texten har gjort det möjligt att formulera långt mer komplicerade resonemang än den muntligt baserade tidigare skriftspråkligheten.

De senaste decennierna har dock detta sätt att läsa, skriva och tänka gjorts omodernt av "a new kind of text [...]. Like signals from a phantom schooner, its digital strings form arbitrary font-shapes on the screen, ghosts which appear and then vanish. Even fewer people come the the book as a harbor of meaning."

Boken skrevs innan sociala medier, podcasts och TikTok men jag misstänker att författaren skulle tycka att hans tes att vi lever i den bortre parantesen av den text-iga skolastiska tankevärlden har stärkts och att "[scholastic] readers have a historical beginning and their survival can now be recognized as a moral task that is intellectually based on understanding the historical fragility of the [scholastic] text."

I think I really like walking memoirs.

I often find myself longing for long walks, probably as an escape.

I don't know how I stumbled into Craig Mods webpage, probably a link in the fediverse. I read a couple of the updates on his blog and liked what I read. Short insights from a guy my age living in Japan and very much into long walks. He had recently published a walking memoir and I took note to order it the next time I went to the book shop. An expected I will order it, then read it when I get it a couple of months later-situation. To my surprise they had it already. It is a very good bookshop!

As all good walking memoirs Things become other things isn't only about the walk. It is also a book about the places and the people that the author meets during the walk. Mod does this very well. He is an immigrant to Japan, an outside observer; relaying the particularities of the Kii peninsula of Japan; but also has lived in Japan for almost half his life, speaking the language and being very much familiar with the culture.

The book is based an a three-week walk that Craig Mod did in 2021 on the Kii peninsula; a rural part of Japan, where the population is largely older people as young people has moved away and unemployment and poverty is common. That the walk happened during the covid pandemic is mentioned some places, but isn't very important to the book. The Kii peninsula has been important to both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, and the peninsula has several shrines, temples and holy places, and also pilgrim routes, along which the walk is largely conducted.

Things become other things is a book that is very much a book about the place where the author grew up. The whole book is written to a childhood friend: stories and memories are retold as things on the walk reminds the author of things from his past. In this way the book becomes a book about more than just walking and the people that he runs into, but also a vehicle for reflection. As the author reflects on his origin, we as readers can also reflect on where we come from.

Reflecting on the title of the book: Things become other things. It is referenced only once in the book when an elderly inn keeper admits that his daughter really isn't his daughter, but a young woman that needed a place to stay and new connections. What was becomes something different. In many ways this is the theme of the book. Mod largely tells about how he has changed during the years since his childhood in the US midwest, the changes that his home town has gone throgh since then and the changes that his surroundings on the walk has experienced (this isn't his first time walking in this area).

I can imagine myself rereading this book in a couple of years, and guess I will see new things then. Also I should really reread Rebecca Solnits Wanderlust.

And get out walking.