A Night on the Town

A few months back a friend told me about this amazing lecture series that one of the local universities runs every school year. They do one a month and bring in some pretty impressive guest lectures. This year they have had Jim Lehrer and George Stephanopoulos with David Gergen. Also Michael Douglas, Bob Woodruff and his wife, and several other very notable people. The great thing about these lectures, is that they cover the gammit. There are political figures, scientists, literature professors, etc.. I was so sad to learn all of this 5 years after moving here, but better late than never. You can buy season tickets, but it is basically impossible. Most of the people have probably had these tickets for.. forever!! I added my name to the waiting list, but if I get tickets I'll only get general admission and not assigned seating. People have been on that waiting list for 10 years. The funny thing about it, is that as I was walking in several of the season ticket holders were talking about the fact that they didn't know anything about the speaker and had never read the book and the worst part- they were going to be sitting in the best seats of the house. Hello- if you are going to do this, wouldn't it benefit you to actually read up on the person you are giving 2 hours of your time. I guess I shouldn't be bitter, but I just thought it was such a funny notion- why even have the tickets? I'm sure in part because it is a major university and all your friends are going, but seriously. Although, the event wasn't sold out so we were upgraded to the good seats in the end.

The reason she was telling me about the series, is because one of the people scheduled to speak was Azar Nafisi. She is the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Okay- if you haven't read this book, it is a must. She tells the history of Iran and it's move to a Fundamentalist Islamic state. At the time she was a literature professor at the University of Tehran and was later expelled because she refused to wear the veil. The amazing thing about this story, is that she uses different Western authors as the focal point of different periods of her life (Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, etc. I'm not doing justice to the book with my description, so I apologize. I've raved about this book since I read it and have since reread the baby a number of times. I even splurged for a signed hardback copy.

I called a couple of girls from our now defunct book club that I knew loved the book and would enjoy hearing this amazing woman speak. We were not disappointed. Although the lecture is only 1 hour (which is by no means long enough) it was such a fascinating evening and really got me thinking about life outside of the US and why we insist on attaching stereotypes to religions (maybe this has become even more prevalent to me with the current media circus around Mitt Romney). I also think this has become even more prevalent after September 11. She spoke a lot about HER Islam, and why she is angry with those members of her religion that have chosen the paths that have led to such radical views. Also, she spoke about her Iran.. it was really beautiful and I'm sure very difficult, since her Iran no longer exists. I wish I could remember all the amazing things that came from that lecture, but I do remember what strong emotional feelings it brought. It was so fun to sit and talk afterwards about our thoughts of her lecture and especially about politics in general. Although I'm sure some of the other attendees were going crazy, because unless you read the book you might be distracted by her style of speaking. She writes the same way- a little jumpy, but everything comes full circle if you are willing to go along with the ride.

So- in honor of Dr. Nafisi I will send a copy of this most amazing book to the first 4 people that comment on my blog. Or if you already have a copy I will send you a copy of Interpreter of Maladies my other favorite. Both are books that everyone should have on their bookcase.