The Debate Of Whether Persepolis Needs To Be Censored
“The problem with the history of censorship is that it looks so simple.” Censorship is government or some other leader(s) controlling what we as society see, hear, and/or talk about. Persepolis is a great example about a book that some say needs to be censored. In 2000, a book called Persepolis was published. This book by Marjane Satrapi goes in depth about her childhood and adulthood in Iran, during the 1980 Islamic war. In her childhood, Marjane was very close to her uncle Anoosh, until he was executed. The execution was one of the catalysts that pushed her to become a social activist. Marjane goes to Vienna to attend a boarding school that was ran by nuns. Boarding school is not a good fit for someone who wants to make their own rules, so she gets depression. She goes back home to Iran, and lives a rebellious good life, but ultimately learns Iran is not for her, so she moves back to Europe. This book has been challenged for years because it is a very visually graphic book.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) wrote about a Chicago school district, who completely removed the book from the curriculum and library. Due to lots of backlash, the ban was removed for grade eight and above. In Texas, parents were not thrilled that kids were learning about Muslim culture. Smithville High School studied Persepolis, along with hosted a Muslim program for students to learn about Muslim culture. Parents challenged this curriculum, but in a vote by the school board, the book is not banned The CBDF also reported college student Tara Shultz said Persepolis and four other books are “garbage”. An interview with Walla Walla Community College librarian Jackson Vance gave me some more insight to Persepolis. Jackson told me “Some people just don’t like graphic novels… It may be a challenged book because it’s anti-Iran culture.” Robert Darnton wrote for the Huffington Post “[France] As they understood it, censorship was positive.”
Darnton studied French literature censorship in the eighteenth-century. But to more interest and relevance, in Berlin there were censors that controlled what their society could read. These censors were a part of the German government, and they thought banning books was the right thing to do. This project is very interesting. It was easy to get information on what the book was about, but harder to find credible sources about why it is challenged and banned. I spent a total of three hours searching databases for an article pertaining to this book. I found one written by the CBLDF relatively quickly, but it took much longer to find my second source. I had to ask the wonderful instructor Tolson for some tips on how to search for specific articles. Using keywords really helped me filter out all the sources that did not help my paper. This project is very educational. I had no idea how many books are being banned and challenged by the public. I have also only thought about censorship briefly.
This project had me realize censorship is huge and all around me. This essay took about 3 and a half days to complete. It took me a long time to get research on Persepolis. The quickest and easiest part was typing it. Is censorship of literature a good idea? Some want censorship to protect certain groups, others because of prejudice. Persepolis is challenged because it is a shocking story about real life events that are not a part of our everyday lives.
