Internet: Azar Nafisi Big Think Porochista Khakpour Reza Aslan Vali Nasr
by Pars Arts
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Iranians on Video Site Big Think
I’ve made no secret of my fandom of Iranian novelist Porochista Khakpour, whom I liked before I even read her book. She’s one of very few people so far that has managed to be Iranian and write a really great book of fiction in the English language, and she also talks honestly about not really feeling the whole “Iranian woman” genre of recent times. That takes balls.
After seeing her in these Big Think videos (27 of them!! Confession: I did not watch them all), I think my fascination with her as an author is slowing being overcome by a fascination with her hair. See bangs, above, and then see previous jaunty blonde streak in an artful, Veronica Lake swoop. PK, how do you do that?!
Big Think, for the Internet-erati that haven’t heard yet, is a video interview site that only talks to important people (er, big thinkers?). They don’t allow embedding, which is dumb from a content-distribution standpoint [Correction: They totally allow embedding. There's a tiny "Share" button that I missed. Whoops.] And it’s clear they’re going for a very TED-like vibe, calling their videos “ideas.”
Khakpour’s not the only Iranian on the Big Think site, though she is the only person discussing mostly literature. Here are Reza Aslan (still pontificating about rich LA Persians), Vali Nasr (surprisingly handsome! charming accent!), and Azar Nafisi (is allegedly neo-con fabulous the Iranian version of ghetto fabulous?), mostly talking politics and the Middle East.
The common thread, though, is that Big Think serves up Iranian-themed videos with an unintended side of irony: all of these videos have really funny blanks in their transcripts. Basically, nearly all the names of Iranian poets and writers that are discussed by the speakers have been omitted from the transcripts that appear alongside the videos (i.e., Ferdowsi? That’s _______ to you, mister!). That’s probably because their transcriber or transcription software just isn’t up on the Iranian literary canon, but it’s still amusing to see it on a site with this level of intellectual chops.
Which Iranians would you like to see on Big Think, and what “ideas” do you want to hear addressed by them?
Abbas Kiarostami: Persian Rug Film and an Old-School Interview
photo credit: fimoculousWhen discussing Iranian film, which you will have to do at some point in your life if you are an Iranian living abroad, there are really only a handful of names you need to know to sound fancy. For instance, to prove you’re up on film history, the classic Dariush Mehrjui is important to know. If you are in a crowd of non-Iranians, you don’t even need to have seen his seminal (use that word) film The Cow because it is so freaking hard to track down a copy that a lot of self-professed film buffs haven’t seen it, either. [Correction: Mariam notes The Cow is on Netflix, and so are other Mehrjui films. Thanks, Mariam!] And when it comes to feminist Iranian films, the most popular director is probably Tahmineh Milani, so you’ll want to pull a fast one with a mention of Rakhshan Bani-Etemad instead.
But the name at the top of the list for proving your Iranian film literacy is definitely Abbas Kiarostami. With his dark glasses and reputation for smart, moody movies, Kiarostami is one of those people who is so prolific that it is almost annoying: He writes! He makes films! He’s a photographer! He paints! And he’s a poet! It is exhausting and intimidating even to think about how much he has accomplished. But it’s also pretty awesome to share a cultural heritage with him.
Word is, AK is now filming his first picture outside of Iran, Roonevesht Barabar Asl Ast (or, “Certified Copy”) with French actress Juliette Binoche. But he also recently made a short film about Persian rugs that’s very pretty (hat-tip: Iranian.com):
But if you are more about interviews and less into poetry or Persian rugs (and I don’t blame you), definitely check out this interview that looks like it was made in the 1980s. Kiarostami is sporting a mini-afro and awesome brown-tinted aviator shades, which makes it a worthwhile video in and of itself, but he also talks at some length about how he hates movies that are manipulative or upset their audiences – and says that films that make you fall asleep are the best:
For more on Mr. K, check out this interview by the blog Subtitles of Cinema, and this Q&A with Deborah Solomon in the New York Times, in which Kiarostami says he loves driving so much that he would have become a truck driver if he hadn’t become a filmmaker.
Noroozetan Pirooz! (And some notes on this site)
Ah, Norooz! Tonight, as Iranians ’round the globe celebrate Chaharshanbeh Soori by jumping over fire (or candles, in my case) for good luck in the new year (1387, in case you’re keeping count), I’m taking a little time to reflect on everyone’s recent time off from the site. You probably noticed that we stopped updating for around six weeks, and the reason for that is not lack of content. It’s lack of time.
I am sitting on a lot of content right now, cool interviews both lined up and completed, and have been for some time. Unfortunately, there’s scant time to do very consuming things like transcribe interviews, write questions for new interviews, properly research and post new stuff, and etc.
Then there are bigger questions, like “What tone should this site have?” and “Who are the people reading it and what do they want to read and see hear?” and “Will there ever be advertising here, or should we just be non-profit?” Also, there’s the question: “Is it okay to use ‘I’ or should I keep it up with the royal (and royally pretentious) ‘we’?” (I think you can tell the answer to that last one by this post.)
These are things I didn’t really think about when I started this experiment, and they are more prominent to me now. Feel free to chime in on any of those questions.
But at the end of the day, everything above? That’s all an excuse. And like any worthwhile endeavor that’s actually pretty fun and rewarding, like those rare things that are actually an end and not just a means to one, it’s time to start up the site again, in earnest.
For starters, I created an Iranian Events Calendar using Google Calendar, to which you can subscribe. It will be curated with the most awesome Iranian events around the globe (and by that I mean there probably won’t be listings for “DJ Gher’s LADIES NIGHT at Club Throb.” No offense to DJ Gher, who I just made up but probably exists). The calendar’s open for submissions now, so please send in your events.
Also, Javod fired things up with his post on ancient animation, and a couple of emails this week reminded me that there is a lot that Pars Arts can still do when it comes to community-building and promoting awesome Iranian things and people. A lot of that may actually be behind the scenes, connecting people and organizations we write about with other Iranians and even non-Iranians that want to engage with them in meaningful ways. And that’s really cool.
So what better time for a fresh start on Pars Arts than Norooz? Consider this post our khooneh-tekooni, and now everything is nice and shiny for the new year.
Take some time to smell the sombol, don’t confuse the samanoo with chocolate sauce (you know you wish it was chocolate sauce), and here’s hoping your goldfish peek at themselves in the mirror when the year changes. Thanks for being patient, thanks for reading and commenting, thanks for your encouragement and all of your feedback. Thanks for passing the site along to your friends.
Here’s to 1387, and to a better Pars Arts moving forward. Have a beautiful Persian New Year.
Good Norooz stuff online:
- Haft Seen
- Norooz from Canada
- Najmieh Batmanglij’s new cookbook for kids: Nowruz Cooking
Art & Photography: ancient Iran animation Burnt City history
by Javod Khalaj
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World’s Oldest Animation
In the 1970s, a team of Italian archaeologists discovered a goblet in Iran’s “Burnt City.” Only recently, however, was it discovered that the goblet’s visuals create an animation.
According to an article from “The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies”:
The artefact [sic] bears five images depicting a wild goat jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree, which the members of the team at that time had not recognised [sic] the relationship between the pictures.
It goes on to discuss certain levels of controversy this goblet has brought up:
CHTHO’s cultural authorities claimed the image is a depiction of ‘Assyrian Tree of Life’: the earthenware bowl, which is wrongly known as ‘The Burnt City’s goat’, depicts the myth of ‘The Assyrian Tree of Life’ and a goat.
Depiction of ‘The Assyrian Tree of Life’ on this bowl which was made at least 1000 years before the Assyrian civilisation [sic] even appear in historical records is one of the most preposterous claims by the new breed of experts in post-revolutionary Iran.
