Axis of Evil

So I've started dating this guy who seems pretty interesting so far.  My criteria are fairly simple for dating: I'm looking for someone cute, fun, and smart.  It is easy to find two out of the three, but all three in one package is harder.  We're in the preliminary stages right now so I'm satisfied on the cute front and am currently assessing fun and smarts.  But one of the interesting things about him is that he's Iranian.  On our first date I had to confess that everything I knew about his country had come from a comic book that I had just read.  He told me not to worry, he'd fill in the blanks.  After all, he said, most of what he knows about the United States came from Superman comics anyway.  Since then I've been learning a little more, in dribs and drabs.  Today we were talking about the government censorship of the media, and the industry of re-mixing films and dubbing them for broadcast on Iranian television.  He grew up watching many American made films, but with scenes cut out, and sometimes entirely different plot premises than the original film had.  And the Iranian actors doing the dubbing would ad lib a lot to the text.  Interesting.  He grew up a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin and other early silent film actors, because those silent films had little to offend the censors (but scenes of men and women kissing were cut) and were rebroadcast again and again.  Also lots of Japanese movies and soap operas were popular.   

Luckily for me the sequel to Persepolis is out and I'm reading that with interest.  I would recommend it even if you aren't dating an Iranian. 

Comments

[Hal O'Brien]

It's interesting... I was searching just yesterday on "GOOG", the stock ticker symbol for Google, and ended up running across web sites for Googoosh, the singer from Iran. I'd never heard of her before, but the TIME Europe web site describes her as: "(T)he woman who encompasses for Iranians the resistance of John Lennon, the sensuous tragedy of Marilyn Monroe and the fame of Elvis."

I'm still trying to find a site where I can hear her, but with a build-up like that, I'm not sure she can possibly meet the description.