Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Another graphic novel, my third of the year so far, and I have Habibi out of the library now. Persepolis has been on my list since the movie came out, so that I could read the book before seeing the movie. Took a few years but I can now move the movie up the Netflix list.

Marjane Satrapi was born in Tehran and was a small child when the Islamic revolution came about in 1979. This memoir tells of the changes for her family and the society through the lens of her own life.

While no one liked the shah, the revolution radically altered life in Iran, creating an oppressive environment and no real way of escape. Marji was sent to Vienna to live after Iraq began bombing Tehran, and living there in a variety of situations, you almost think that she will have a happy life there. She returns to Iran after the war and is struck by all the emphasis on the "martyrs" of the Iran-Iraq war, and by the oppressive environment.

The story is told straightforwardly and honestly. While there is no justice in the land, neither is she or her family portrayed as complete innocents. The futility of imposing Islamic law on those who are not true believers comes through loud and clear. The only fallback the morality police have is to kill the "sinners" who dare to wear makeup or to say the wrong thing.

The stark black and white of the art (lots of black thanks to all the veils) suits the situation, where the world is black and white and mostly dark. In Vienna we see more grays, but it's back to black and white in Tehran. The artist uses the medium well to let art tell part of the story.

Finished it on 2/26/12.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Ringworld portrays a future world where interplanetary travel is normal, and people move to other places in the world by using a "transfer booth" and dialing a location number they want to visit (I guess they don't have "cell transfers" yet). Louis Wu's 200th birthday celebration is interrupted when an alien commandeers his transfer and sends him on a mission to learn about the ring world, a mysterious, enormous, manufactured ring around a distant sun. How was the ring world built? Learning its secrets will mean they can replicate the process and save civilization in their area of space, where a stellar explosion will wipe them out in 20,000 years.

So it's kind of a "road" book, where a motley crew heads off to explore the ring world. Niven creates an interesting world and explains it well, unfolding its mysteries gradually. For example, the ring is offset on the sun's side by large squares that rotate around the ring slowly, creating day and night.  The engineers of the planet, they deduce, created day and night to mimic their home planets.

The development of the ring world happened long ago, however, and things have changed. The people are not advanced, but savages. They treat the visitors as gods at times, since they can fly (on a flycycle, which is going on my Amazon wish list).

The characters each have interesting quirks that come into play over the course of the book. The advanced alien, a two-headed "Pierson's puppeteer" with articulated lips that act as hands (go figure) comes from a race of utter cowards yet he acts in brave ways at times. In fact, he was chosen for the task because he was considered insane by his peers.

The contrast in the mindsets/worldviews (universeviews?) of the characters from different planets is another fun part of the world Niven creates. Man retains his "monkey curiosity" but not so the warriors of the kzin. Their attitudes toward war, discovery, life, etc. vary significantly, yet consistently with their history.

If the book has any downside, it's that it moves a little slowly. The explanations of the ring world and the character are foreshadowed and many can be determined as the book progresses. Ringworld is the first of a series, and perhaps all the setup is necessary to make the series flow better, but I can't help but compare it to the spare prose of Bradbury. It was published in the early 1970s and won a Nebula award, so I am surprised I have not come across it before. Savannah gave it to me for Christmas, having searched for something like "books like Terry Pratchett." and I finished it on 2/21/12. I'd like to read the remainder of the series.

refractions: a journey of faith, art, and culture by Makoto Fujimura

A book of essays written between 2004 and 2007 by NYC-based artist Fujimura, with a foreword by Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan, Refractions is a lovely book, both in content and appearance. It it richly illustrated with art and photographs, some by the author, mostly by others. Most were written for magazines like Christianity Today.

Fujimura explores the reasons we make art and where faith, art and culture collide. He lived near the World Trade Center buildings when they fell, and many of his essays reflect his reactions and evolving thinking on the events of 9/11/2001. (One of my favorites was his encounter with the architect of the new WTC complex, a chance meeting in a voting precinct.) In contrast to the hate-driven "art" of the attack on the WTC, Fujimura posits the peace-creating power of art.

Fujimura goes outside the boundaries of the fine arts and brings in conversation on urban design, and film, to name just two examples. His essay on Jane Jacobs' stand against the suburbanist Robert Moses is a great lesson in standing for an idea.

His own artistic output consists of abstracts using precious metals applied in ways that refract light. In one essay he visits the site of an installation several years later to see how it has matured. The title is interesting: it could be "reflections" on the topics at hand, but instead he calls them "refractions," which suggests not a rote replica but an interpretation of the  people, art, events, and aspects of culture in view.

A lot of the artistic commentary is challenging to me because it's not the way I normally think. Reading it reminded me of hearing songwriters describing their processes--it is so "wholly other" from my experience that I have a hard time getting in their heads.

I finished it on 2/11/12. Alyssa gave me this for Christmas (thanks again if you read this, Lyss!) and I'll be hanging onto it.