Resemblance!

Shaban Jafari (bimokh!)in Tehran on 19 August 1953.

“The truth is not the truth”

by Helena Parente Cunha
Translated By Fred P. Ellison (Author), Naomi Lindstrom (Author)
Reviewed By Ezzat Goushegir

Woman Between Mirrors by Helena Parente Cunha the Brazilian novelist, feels as close and intimate to me as if I were the author of this book, virtually writing it in my own rhythm and style, with my own words, voice and breath.

Although it derives from feminist schools of thought of the 80s and 90s, I believe this is a novel for all times. Like Clarice Lispector, the prominent Brazilian writer, Cunha is in search of identity. Cunha not only emphasizes Brazilian national identity and its historical and mythological relation to Africa, but also in the discovery of “self”, the physical space of the body and the exploration of womanhood.
The novel consists of a long first person monologue narrated by a house wife from the upper middle class family. Using a psychoanalytical perspective, she explores how the process of sexual and intellectual awakening, transforms her into an independent, liberated woman and an author.

One of the devices of this novel is the protagonist’s relationship to the author who is separated from herself. She constantly scrutinizes this “woman who writes me” often in a critical dynamic way including analyzing her as “a slave to liberation”. This labyrinthine relationship goes beyond the conventional relationship between the author and her character. In fact the narrator tries to convince us that the protagonist is more perceptive than the author, and she revolts the author’s one dimensionality. “She’s as much a prisoner as I am. Being free by needing to undermine standards is the same as being a slave. She is a slave to liberation. My submission liberates me.” (p. 9)
The narrator then explains that “Each thing has many sides, each person has many voices…and that way we know the truth is not the truth.” (p. 15)

At the end of the this multi-layered, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary novel, a thunderstorm shatters the mirror into a thousand pieces and the narrator sees her entire face in a shard of glass. Her face is as complex and blurred as the Jorge Luis Borges’ character in “The Aleph” and Fernando Pessoa’s multiple personalities.
This enigmatic novel succeeds at revealing the complexity and ambiguity of the human mind.

An Indelible Picture of Human tragedy

by Adelbert Von Chamisso (Author), Peter Wortsman (Translator)

Reviewed By Ezzat Goushegir

It began with my exploration of the word "Schlemiel"! For its personification of human identity and for its designation of those who are unfortunate and succeed nothing in life. That's how I came across to read Peter Schlemiel. But the book gave me a broader perspective of the place of a human being in this world.

Dreaming of self improvement Peter Schemiel sells his shadow to a mysterious stranger in a gray coat in exchange for a purse that contains boundless wealth. Lacking a shadow he has no place in society. Helplessly he wanders around the world in search of knowledge and spiritual sanctuary to give meaning to his life.

Adelbert Von Chamisso has profoundly experienced dualism in his life as a displaced person and had a tireless wrestling identifying himself within two countries, two cultures and two languages. Peter Schlemiel is the creative result of his deep understanding of fractured lives.

Peter Schlemiel can be equivalent to Georg Buchner's Woyzeck, Kafka's Gregor in Metamorphosis and Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. This is a timeless book for its illustration of a society in which wealth, power and torture governs. The mysterious man in gray coat symbolizes Evil which suggests those decadent forces who for the sake of power, use their greedy cynicism to terrorize people and ultimately conquer their souls and ruin them for the rest of their lives.
Chamisso portrays the quality of elite society of his time from one of his character's point of view:
"Frankly," he maintained, "anyone who isn't worth at least a million is nothing but- if you forgive the term- a sniveling worm." (P2)

The theme of this book is immensely relevant to today's world politics. The interpersonal structure that Chamisso explains, illuminates a wide range of human interaction from social relation to Geo-politics in which new colonialism degrades developing nation. The result is isolation, marginalization, exile and misery.

Although it is a novel, it has certain qualities of dark allegory similar to Brothers Grimm's folktales. It presents an unforgettable picture of displacement, estrangement, incongruity and human misery.

"The Tyrant and the Parrot"

By Kaveh Ahangar Adel
"I have been reading the book The Rich Merchant and the Parrot(based on a poem by Rumi, the Persian Poet) And at the end of the book I always ask my son: " So, what mattered the most to the parrot? " and He responds ...every time: " To be Free" ....at age 4... There is wisdom in those three words uttered by a 4 year old...that even he can understand the most basic human need. I am proud of him..... and more so I am proud of anyone(especially the brave Iranian brothers and sisters) demonstrating for that basic right. I call this one "The Tyrant and the Parrot""

Health Care Program on Public TV

Last Friday Bill Moyers Journal produced a program on Health Care in The U.S. It was not aired on the Public Television in Chicago. Instead the station showed a rerun of one of Bill Moyers' previous programs.
Why?
Read, watch and listen to this interview:
......
WENDELL POTTER: The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you're heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years, to keep that from happening. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.

BILL MOYERS: And there was a political strategy. "Position Sicko as a threat to Democrats' larger agenda." What does that mean?

WENDELL POTTER: That means that part of the effort to discredit this film was to use lobbyists and their own staff to go onto Capitol Hill and say, "Look, you don't want to believe this movie. You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to endorse it. And if you do, we can make things tough for you."

BILL MOYERS: How?

WENDELL POTTER: By running ads, commercials in your home district when you're running for reelection, not contributing to your campaigns again, or contributing to your competitor.

BILL MOYERS: This is fascinating. You know, "Build awareness among centrist Democratic policy organizations--"
WENDELL POTTER: Right.
BILL MOYERS: "--including the Democratic Leadership Council."
WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely.
BILL MOYERS: Then it says, "Message to Democratic insiders. Embracing Moore is one-way ticket back to minority party status."
WENDELL POTTER: Yeah.
BILL MOYERS: Now, that's exactly what they did, didn't they? They--
WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely.
BILL MOYERS: --radicalized Moore, so that his message was discredited because the messenger was seen to be radical.
WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely. In memos that would go back within the industry — he was never, by the way, mentioned by name in any memos, because we didn't want to inadvertently write something that would wind up in his hands. So the memos would usually-- the subject line would be-- the emails would be, "Hollywood." And as we would do the media training, we would always have someone refer to him as Hollywood entertainer or Hollywood moviemaker Michael Moore.
BILL MOYERS: Why?
WENDELL POTTER: Well, just to--
Read More...

An Enemy of the People

In the course of my conversation and debates over Iran with my long time great friend "A", I remembered Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People. I respect her political knowledge and humanitarian tendencies and believe in most of her facts and reasons. But our views about the reality of the situation is different. Is she another Dr. Stockmann?
An Enemy of the People addresses the irrational tendencies of the masses, and the hypocritical and corrupt nature of the political system that they support. It is the story of one man's brave struggle to do the right thing and speak the truth in the face of extreme social intolerance. The play's protagonist, Dr Stockmann, represents the playwright's own voice.

Dezful

The Tomb of Daniel

Shavadoon
A website about "Dezful" one of the oldest city in Iran.