Notes from a Lecture with Nafisi
So, I ghost write the Seattle Public Library Friends’ Blog and shared some notes from a lecture I attended some years ago.
The themes she discussed still resonate with me. There was some self indulgence in the beginning, but it was one of the more powerful lectures I have attended.
In particular, this passage from my notes -
People understand the importance of individual rights and individual integrity. If they quote literature it’s bc they tried to preserve the best humanity had to offer in a time when humanity was lacking. When people were deprived of everything and they were on the way to the gas chambers, they quoted Flaubert. The mind is the last frontier and cannot be conquered. Even when the oppressors have taken everything away, you have the choice of what attitude you adopt. It is a constant “no” to the banality of the totalitarian regime.
People see activism as separate from the experience of the mind. In the west, what threatens us is our sleeping consciousness. In order to have the ability to empathize, we need to produce works of imagination. She was critical for a moment, and it was most powerful when she went on to state that
“American values used to mean something real and concrete. Huck Finn ponders the question: should I give Jim up? He had been taught that to harbor a slave meant that you would go to hell. But he thought about Jim in the morning and Jim in the evening and Jim was his friend. Huck made a decision to help Jim – he was “going to hell.” American values meant the ability to make a tough decision by way of self analysis. Now….we sleep. Imagination (innovation, alertness) is the key to development (into maturity) and we risk losing it.”
Hmmm.
My rebuttle to Nancy’s question on the strength of book sales with respect to Soldier’s v Lolita.
Related Links:
2 Responses
Subscribe to comments with RSS.
Very good comment. My Favorit Blog Autoversicherung
[...] The theme I’m picking up on here after seeing Ehrenreich, Florida, Friedman another others speak comes back to a lecture I went to years ago: Azar Nafisi [...]