Persepolis RA

The story in the novel that I would like to discuss takes place on pages 132-134. This is when Satrapi goes out to buy tapes and is caught by the women's branch of the Guardians of the Revolution. The author explains that this group was created to arrest women for wearing the veil improperly. I think that the author assumes that her readers think that no one in Iran rebelled by listening to music that was banned. She shows that people did seek out popular music of the time period. However, she shows the reader that there is a exchange of pop music being made without denying that it is a dangerous thing to do. This is clearly and simply illustrated by the way in which the man who is selling her the tapes turns his head quickly back and forth. Satrapi then makes the same motion once she acquires the tapes. This particular story in the novel (as well as in many other instances throughout the book) is very humorous in its tone, since the author is equating the buying and selling of music tapes with that of the popularized image of how one would acquire illegal substances.

I think that the style of this novel is very contemporary and "hip" and that this event in the book illustrates this aspect the most clearly. It is very fortuitous that this story takes place in the late 70s and early 80s, a time in history that many people either feel nostalgia for or wish they were a part of. Even if a reader was not alive during this time they are still likely to know about Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album, or at least have some vague understanding of what "punk" is. I feel that since this graphic novel is most likely aimed at readers that enjoy some form of subversiveness, that it was important for the author to relate to the hypothetical reader on this level. The scene engages the reader by making the scene reminiscent of a popular story of a rebellious youth getting caught, but with a twist---she may actually get arrested instead of merely being punished by her parents. A popular image from the movie version of Persepolis depicts a fundamentalist woman looming over Satrapi who has a back patch which reads "punk is not dead". Surprisingly, this illustration is not directly from the novel. However, the fact that it's the most popular image that comes up when conducting a google image search on Persepolis shows how important the scene was in order to generate interest in the novel and in the film that precedes it.