Persepolis: FYS 2011 Common Reading

Every incoming class at Coe is assigned a common book for the summer.  The goal is to read the book, which will be used in some way in each First Year Seminar (FYS) class and it's a way for students to connect during Orientation Week.  It's one thing every incoming student has in common and I think it's more fun to talk about the book then ask the same standard questions (such as where are you from or what's your major?).  Not only is the book used for conversation starters, most FYS classes write papers relating to the book and finally, about halfway through the semester, a speaker related to the book comes in to speak to the entire incoming class.  For me and my peers, we read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  My first paper for A Tempestuous Season was to compare Outliers to the Neoclassical Solution (which was a little more difficult than it might seem).  Our speaker was Marv Levy.

But back to the current incoming class.  They read the book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.  It's a comic book memoir telling about Satrapi's life in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution.  I read it as well since I'm a Writing Fellow.  It was a quick read, not only because it was a comic book but because the story was interesting.  I know very little about the Islamic Revolution since it started before I was born and it wasn't a topic heavily discussed in my previous history classes.  Satrapi did a nice job of showing the innocence she had when she was younger and how slowly that veil was removed so she could really see what was happening in her country.

After reading the book, I checked out the movie Satrapi made to compare the two.  The movie very closely followed the book although the timeline was a bit different in each.  For me, the movie was a way to reinforce the major points of the book and remember sections I might have forgotten since the drawings were the same in both the book and the movie.

I'm excited to talk to other students who read this book and hear their opinions on it.  I'm also not sure who their speaker will be but that too should be interesting.  And I wonder how the Islamic Revolution and Nature of Science will tie together.  This Writing Fellow better be on her toes!

Image from Barnes and Noble's website.