Two For Tuesday: Persepolis

I've been following the protests in Iran over the recent election with particular interest since I recently read Marjane' Satrapi's memoirs of her childhood and young adulthood in Iran under the Islamic Revolution. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, a highly-acclaimed graphic novel, covers her life from age 10 when the Shah was overthrown until age 14 when she was sent to Vienna. She followed it with Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return.

Here are two sentences from Persepolis about the mood of the country during the war with Iraq:

The walls were suddenly covered with belligerant slogans. The one that struck me by its gory imagery was: "To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society."

Later on, when one of her friends dies, she realizes how empty the slogan is.

I thought this sentence from a recent blog by Steve Clemons at The Washington Note summed up the current situation perfectly. The words are those of a "well-connected Iranian" he met in London.

A gaping hole has been ripped open in Iranian society, exposing the contradictions of the regime and everyone now sees that the democracy that they believed that they had in Iranian form is a "charade."

Perhaps we should send Katherine Harris to Tehran to explain to the mullahs how to steal an election without making it blatantly obvious you're stealing an election. ;)

Another quote I liked is from High Definition Democracy: "The revolution won't be televised, it will be Twittered." This is an interesting analysis of the effect of the internet and social networking sites on democracy.

My heart goes out to the people of Iran in these scary and turbulent times. Iran is an ancient land with a proud history. I hope this will be a turning point for the good of the people, but I'm sure the theocracy will not yield up power easily.

Now for two (or a few more) sentences I wrote. This bit of description is from my historical romance, Rogue's Hostage, set during the French and Indian War. It's in the point-of-view of my hero who was with a raiding party that took the heroine captive the day before.

He took a deep breath of cool, clean air and forced himself to look away. The early morning light slanted across the clearing, catching the sparkle of dewdrops on the grass. There was a special beauty to the dawn. The world seemed born anew, as if nature were trying to wipe clean the violence wrought by man in her peaceful domain. But he could not forget the events of the previous day.

I'm also blogging today at A Slice of Orange on mid-year's resolutions and staying focused.

Linda

Check out the wondrous Women of Mystery blog for more Two Sentence Tuesday posts.