Persepolis Blog #1

"Every situation has an opportunity for laughs." (p. 97) Give some examples of how the ordinary citizens of Iran enjoyed life despite the oppressive regime. What made you laugh? How does Satrapi add comic relief? How are these scenes relevant to the story as a whole?


How did the Iranians "enjoy life despite the oppressive regime"? They did what any sensible person/group would do; they partied! They drank, they played games, and music, and they laughed and joked, and had the time of their lives -duh. Cause when the shit hits the fan, you kind of have to cope with it somehow. And sometimes (most of the time) it's not always legal. But that's okay. You know why? Because, no matter what country you're in, there's always going to be some dumb laws to try and prevent you from having that fun, despite the fact that everyone does it anyways. (-Some people just do it because it's illegal. So that obviously works real well -setting up stupid laws that will somehow "prevent" the people from doing it. Good thinking, guys.)

Sure, they're afraid, they're cautious. Who wouldn't be? When it's your life/freedom/well-being at stake, it only makes sense to be afraid. But you can't let that fear prevent you from doing what it is that you really want to do -which makes the Iranians seem strong, and a bit courageous, which I'm sure was part of Satrapi's intent when she wrote this book. To show that the people of Iran did not give into the regime, and stood by what they believed in, and guarded their pleasures to the death (-quite literally).

In some parts of the story, Satrapi offers a bit of comic relief, partially to keep the reader engaged, but to also help the story not seem as horrible as it really was. Like she said in the quote above, laughter can be found in almost any situation. -Contradict me if you want, but it's true. Even in the most horrible situations -such as Satrapi talked about in her memoir- humor can be found, and can be appreciated. ...And sometimes -okay, a lot of the time- that humor includes making fun of someone (or something) else.

-So, to put it bluntly, if someone is offended by something --about 90% of the time it's funny.

Sure, there are the occasionally 'bad' jokes, if you will. Like, one of those 'jokes' that were supposed to be funny, but came out as just plain mean. Or, there are those really random (rare) moments where someone has a much different reaction than intended. -Like breaking out into fights, throwing shit, cussing someone out, or, perhaps, starts crying. All that good stuff. That happens, it's stupid, because whoever responded that way obviously just ruined a potentially good joke, and succeeded in making the other person (and possibly themselves) look like a total asshole. (-I know, I'm a jerk for saying that.) --If anyone took this in a "that's not always true/that's mean" kind of way, on my part, in my defense, I've been on both sides of that situation (above), and I think it's fair to say that a lot of people have been on both sides as well.

Moving on.

Why I bring this up though, is because Satrapi partook in this kind of humor as well. Like when she included what her dad (actually) said to the teacher about her mustache. -It's moments like those where if you had been there, you'd be biting lip -hard- to try and prevent a laugh, and if you hear about it/read it you can't help but to laugh. (And possibly wish you'd been there just so you could have heard it yourself.)

But, also, when I think of the "comic relief" in her memoir, I can't help but think about the comic relief in everyone's lives. -Honestly, the funniest stuff you will ever hear will come from just a regular person bitching about their life. (It's funnier than any comedian you'll ever meet, no matter how funny they may be.) It's how we as people, in a way, cope with our own lives -by making it humorous (even if it wasn't intentional). Because then when you hear other people laugh, and what they have to say about it, you can start to look at it in a different, lighter, way, that makes it not seem as bad.

-Think about it. If we weren't able to find humor in such -really, actually, horrible- situations, life would suck. I mean, of course life already sucks, but imagine having the crippling, hard, cold, reality always staring you in the eye. It's bad enough that it happened, let alone having to be reminded that it happened in such a painful, and incredibly depressing, way.

Take me and my (not-so-interesting) life, for example. (-Bet you're really interested in what I have to say now, huh?) I can honestly say that I could bitch about how much I think my life sucks until, well, ever. -Cause even if my voice crapped out on me, or I got tired, it'd just add to the list of reasons why I think my life sucks, and I'd therefore have to continue through writing (-which isn't so bad). But I suppose the main reason I'd vouch for the fact that my life "sucks", would probably just go back to the fact that I have bad luck.

-Yes, that sounds really lame and superstitious. But it's obviously only the people who generally have good luck that don't believe in 'luck' (-cause it's never really been an issue for them). Sure, shit happens to everyone, but you know the recently famous saying, 'shit happens -but mostly just to me'? That's me --in a nutshell.

Examples? Here's just a couple things: In 7th grade, I was biking home from school and I randomly hit one of those water pipe things that camoflauge themselves in the grass, so you can never fucking see them. And so I went flying off of my bike, scraped up some shit, bled -quite a bit, and got laughed at by a bunch of 6th graders who were walking home. A week later, I got hit by a car while I was biking home -again. The sadly funny part? The person that hit me was one of the teachers that worked at my school. She ended up following me home in her car, going 5 mph, while I limped myself and my bike the rest of the way home, just to tell my mom that she hit me with her car.

During the summer, before 5th grade, it was one of those (rare) days where it's gets over 100-degrees, so me, my sister, and my mom were going to go to Jim Lupient waterpark (which of course was packed with people). -It was so hot that the tar was melting and the little jagged rocks were all pointing up. Guess what happened? Me and my sister decided to race each other across the parking lot to the waterpark, and my sister didn't want to lose, so she shoved me as hard as she could so that she could get ahead. The tar literally moved underneath my foot as slid across the pavement. I shit you not when I say that I was bleeding head to toe. -It took about a month and a half for things to finally scar up, which resulted in my getting this huge, hideously deformed scar on my back (on the shoulder blade) that, of course, everyone who saw it asked what happened. Including Maggie Roman (-#1 preppy bitch at Waite Park elementary), who so kindly pointed it out to everyone on the 5th grade trip to Lurentian (sp?) encampment, and all the girls thought it was gross so they didn't want to get near me. Thank you Maggie Roman. (-Luckily the scar faded away after a couple years.)

In 3rd grade, me, my family, and another family, went and stayed at a cabin up north. And up north there are a lot of hiking trails. -In a nutshell, I tripped, fell off of the trail, and quite literally tumbled down the mountain we were hiking on, hit a couple rocks, and landed on my head. (-Maybe that's why I'm so messed up.) I didn't break anything (-my parents say it's cause I landed on my head, ha ha.. They're not as funny as they think they are), miraculously, but I was pretty bruised up for a while. Plus, I still had 3 more miles to hike before we got to the bottom.

--Okay, so those weren't that bad. I really could have gone on and on, though, but some are a little explicit, and others I'd rather not display on the internet. Those were just the first couple that came to mind.

And, sure, those stories don't come very close to people dying, and houses getting blown up, like in Iran. But it's the same sort of concept. Dumb/unfortunate stuff happens, and what do you do? You laugh. You have to laugh, because otherwise you're going to hate your life (more than you already do). And what kind of life is that?