Arts
“ I came across the work of Dr. Azar Nafisi at exactly the same time I was undergoing a spiritual transformation regarding the value of the arts and letters. This was the time of the years 2001 and a few years after. At that time I gave no thought at all to the internet (though perhaps I should have!) and podcasts were not yet even an idea (as far as I know) on anybody's mind. But I was giving a lot of thought to the arts in its many forms and books as specific medium were a big part of that. You could say that of all of the episodes thus far this one is the most bookish one. Dr. Azar Nafisi's knowledge and wisdom on literature is unsurpassed. You might say that some of the themes I am pursuing now in this very podcast were present as something like an acorn in those years. I was already primed to enjoy her Reading Lolita In Tehran by the very nature of its subject matter and what I was undergoing personally: in a phrase the value of art and the defense of such value against all those who are insensitive (or worse) to its value. The very style and meaning of her book was what I needed to read the most then and it is a book I have returned to many times since. One of her strengths is her ability to weave politics and aesthetics in the truest way, and moreover, in a way that really communicates with a wide audience. Her decision to teach Nabokov and F Scott Fitzgerald in the Iran of the mid 1990s was, to my mind, one of the most valuable political acts anybody could have done at that time. (Similar in certain respects to Susan Sontag's producing Waiting For Godot in Sarajevo in 1993). As she makes clear in this episode she regards the medium of the novel itself as "democratic." Yet she is wise enough to know that not everything can or should be always so political. In Reading Lolita there is a most arresting passage in this regard: "It is said that the personal is political. That is not true, of course. At the core of the fight for political rights is the desire to protect ourselves, to prevent the political from intruding on our individual lives. Personal and political are interdependent but not one and the same thing." I really enjoyed discussing Henry James and Jane Austen and many others with her. I hope you enjoy hearing her discuss these as well. I hope at a future date she can return and discuss even more, so rich is her knowledge and erudition.” Dr. Azar Nafisi's Biography : Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students. Earning high acclaim and an enthusiastic readership. Read her full bio here: https://azarnafisi.com/about-azar/ Additional links to Dr. Nafisi's beautiful work here: https://azarnafisi.com/ Twitter @azarnafisi Facebook @azarnafisi --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mitch-hampton/message