Persepolis 1 & 2 - Marjane Satrapi

I first came across Persepolis in a friend's apartment. It was a tiny place and one wall had a huge poster with a scene on it that looked to me like it was right out of a graphic novel.  When I asked my friend what the poster was from, she said it was her roomie's and she thought it had something to do with a movie. 

I later read Nylon Road (loved it) when I was getting into graphics, which was just after I first started university (I don't know why I wasn't into them earlier...just never knew anyone who read them, I guess. I went out and just bought Sin City after I saw the movie because I loved it, and I've been hooked ever since).  The author of Nylon Road mentioned being inspired by Persepolis (which rang a bell because of that poster), and I made a mental note to read it somewhere down the line. 

Well, whatever, years passed....then I'm working at a bookstore and come September 20 parents a day are coming in looking for Persepolis because it's on some of the grade nine reading lists. It's hard for the customers to find because a. most parents shopping at the Yorkdale mall would have no clue where to find the Graphic Novels section even if they thought to read the signs and b. Persepolis is a memoir so it's shelved under Biography anyway. 

I had a few interesting conversations with parents about the book. Many were dubious about the idea of a 'comic book' being part of their kids' curriculum. I tried to tell them that a graphic novel is just a different way of telling a story.  Like a movie, it captures aspects of a story that words alone cannot. It forces the writer to use every once of skill in order to get the point across in fewer words, with fewer scenes. It is a tale condensed, distilled. At the same time an excellent graphic novel never feels like there is something missing. I love that they are becoming part of our kids' curriculum: what a great way to appeal to different kinds of learners, and to teach that there are many outlets for the human voice.  

I finally ended up reading the books after seeing them (both) in Starlight books not long ago and just buying them on the hunch they'd be worth the space on my bookshelf. My bookshelf that is still non-existent. But that's a whole other issue. I know that Persepolis comes in a mass-market type paperback that combines the two volumes, but I saw these at the used bookstore - cheap, beautiful, great condition and thought who cares. 

Graphic novels are great because they're so quick to read. I read this whole story in one afternoon and felt a little lost after because I got so into her (the author/illustrator's) life.  She describes her girlhood growing up in Iran on the eve of revolution, being sent to France by her parents for her safety, returning to Iran a lost and confused young woman.....Her story is unique because of her experiences in such a country and the people who surrounded her who allowed her own uniqueness to thrive. These books never would have happened without her parents being who they were. What remains is an often chilling, sometimes hilarious account of one woman's life (so far). I love when I read things like this and find it so utterly relateable. It seems no matter where, or when you are growing up or what happens to you there are just some things we can all understand. 

The only downside was the ending. I wanted to know more about her adult life, how she ended up being a writer, an artist, how she came to write her own story. As this was a few months ago now that I read these, I've since discovered Goodreads, the best website ever. I found out that Ms Satrapi has published another book titled Embroideries that I plan on reading at some point as well. 

(I can't get the photo to rotate, driving me nuts)

Thoughts on Nutrition

This should probably be titled Thoughts on Procrastination, or something better able to reflect the fact that I took these books out from the library probably February/March and am only writing about them now. I'm going to be super brief about it because there are a ton of other books I've read and want to write about to catch up to myself.

I was reading these books at about the same time in the late winter because I was feeling frustrated about food....feeling like every time I turned around there was something else saying this is bad for you, or that is an essential vitamin....and of course that is something we hear a lot.  I wanted to know more for myself, so I started reading various things about nutrition and whatnot. The End of Overeating I had noticed constantly while working at the bookstore and it had also been recommended by a coworker there, which is how I ended up deciding to take that out.  The Everything Nutrition Book I took out because I knew it would be the most efficient way to get the information I was looking for - the Everything and For Dummies series are really great - like starting with Wikipedia to get the basics of something, but with further depth and authority.

The End of Overeating was an interesting look at the rise of obesity, the inner workings of the food corporations, and the actual science of our thoughts about food. I was astonished to learn that consuming excessive amounts of sugar, salt and fat literally changes the pathways in your brain and thus the way that you even think about food. As our bodies don't need very much sugar, salt or fat (and the man-made types of all three are the major culprits in this) it doesn't take very much at all to be 'excessive.'  I had also never thought of the food industry before in the same way I think of most corporations. But they still do all get together at big corporate conferences and discuss all they've learned and better ways to keep people buying. Or eating, as the case may be.

After reading that book I tried a test: the authour talks a lot about sugar addiction and compulsive eating - I wanted to just kind of casually see how long I could go without eating extra sugar.  I have had some kind of extra sugary treat almost every single day since I first had that thought. I generally eat very well as a rule, but I just couldn't seem to not eat that cookie or donut or whatever. It amazed me. Still does, really, since I'm still saying 'let's not eat any sugar today' and still eating it. It really brought home a lot of the points made in the book, and has doubled my certainty that it is essential to let your mind control what you eat, rather than the other way around.

The Everything Nutrition Book was like a Human Diet 101. If you were from another planet and wanted to know what the dominant life form on Earth needs to eat to survive, this book would serve your purpose. I did end up skipping the chapter on minerals because I'm not planning on getting that crazy about my nutrition. I was more interested in what a proper serving of this or that should be (size-wise), how your body uses vitamins and whatnot. It was exactly what I needed and I also used the Canada Food Guide to get an idea of how many servings of fruit and veg, etc. I should be eating each day.  It's amazing how much less of everything we really actually need.

I was doing great for a while, during and after the reading of these books. They were (are?) part of my plan to get in overall better health. I started running again and significantly improved my cardio; I was working out at home and discovered yoga (omg I love it) and had lost five pounds......but then I started this new job and have gained back those pounds by eating cookies at work all the time. The whole thing is not about losing weight but it was a really nice way to show that everything I was doing was working....and probably a really good lesson about how easy it is to drop the ball.

Phase II will commence shortly, with a renewed effort to eat better and a return to running/regular exercise/quitting smoking. Now that I've gone back to write about these books it's refreshed my memory a bit, even though it still feels like I read them forever ago.