Sharon Orlopp's Blog - Posts Tagged "nobookbanning"
5++++ stars. READ DANGEROUSLY by Azar Nafisi
5+++stars. A MUST READ.
Azar Nafisi has written an incredible book that is composed of five chapters about critical authors. These chapters are written as letters to her deceased father who was jailed in Iran for standing up for his beliefs. Nafisi and her father shared a love of literature and freedom of expression and art.
The first chapter is about authors Rushdie, Plato and Bradbury. On August 13, 2022 after I had completed the first chapter, the news was announced that Salman Rushdie was stabbed and attacked onstage during a panel interview.
In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Rushdie's execution because he felt Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, was blasphemous.
Discussions about book banning at schools, libraries and bookstores has exploded across the country.....so reading Nafisi's book was incredibly timely and thought provoking.
Read Dangerously shares parallels between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States. Nafisi has lived in both countries and transparently shares historical and current context of both countries, particularly on topics of exclusion (race, gender, religion, politics, etc).
The quotes at the beginning and the end of the book highlight the role and intersectionality that writers and readers play in changing the world.
"Create dangerously for people who read dangerously. This is what I've always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them." Edwidge Danticat
"Readers are born free and they ought to remain free." Vladimir Nabokov
The authors that are highlighted and discussed in each letter (chapter) to her father are:
1. Rushdie, Plato, Bradbury
2. Hurston, Morrison
3. Grossman, Ackerman, Khoury
4. Atwood
5. Baldwin, Coates
Nafisi shares that the world knows a lot about America but America doesn't know much about the world. Americans wear our ignorance of the world casually and good naturedly. Author James Baldwin stated that indifference makes one blind.
America pays little attention to writers and we avoid reading dangerously. Reading fosters a mindset that questions and doubts. Fiction arouses our curiosity and our imaginations.
Reading dangerously teaches us how to deal with those viewed as enemies. Democracy depends on engagement with our adversaries.
Censorship is dangerous to the well-being of societies. When we stop reading, we pave the way for book banning. Different opinions and perspectives are critical for understanding and empathy.
I highly, highly recommend Reading Dangerously. It links writers and readers to the universality of the human experience.
Azar Nafisi has written an incredible book that is composed of five chapters about critical authors. These chapters are written as letters to her deceased father who was jailed in Iran for standing up for his beliefs. Nafisi and her father shared a love of literature and freedom of expression and art.
The first chapter is about authors Rushdie, Plato and Bradbury. On August 13, 2022 after I had completed the first chapter, the news was announced that Salman Rushdie was stabbed and attacked onstage during a panel interview.
In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Rushdie's execution because he felt Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, was blasphemous.
Discussions about book banning at schools, libraries and bookstores has exploded across the country.....so reading Nafisi's book was incredibly timely and thought provoking.
Read Dangerously shares parallels between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States. Nafisi has lived in both countries and transparently shares historical and current context of both countries, particularly on topics of exclusion (race, gender, religion, politics, etc).
The quotes at the beginning and the end of the book highlight the role and intersectionality that writers and readers play in changing the world.
"Create dangerously for people who read dangerously. This is what I've always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them." Edwidge Danticat
"Readers are born free and they ought to remain free." Vladimir Nabokov
The authors that are highlighted and discussed in each letter (chapter) to her father are:
1. Rushdie, Plato, Bradbury
2. Hurston, Morrison
3. Grossman, Ackerman, Khoury
4. Atwood
5. Baldwin, Coates
Nafisi shares that the world knows a lot about America but America doesn't know much about the world. Americans wear our ignorance of the world casually and good naturedly. Author James Baldwin stated that indifference makes one blind.
America pays little attention to writers and we avoid reading dangerously. Reading fosters a mindset that questions and doubts. Fiction arouses our curiosity and our imaginations.
Reading dangerously teaches us how to deal with those viewed as enemies. Democracy depends on engagement with our adversaries.
Censorship is dangerous to the well-being of societies. When we stop reading, we pave the way for book banning. Different opinions and perspectives are critical for understanding and empathy.
I highly, highly recommend Reading Dangerously. It links writers and readers to the universality of the human experience.
