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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Book by Azar Nafisi · 50 quotes · Tehran, Empathy, Reality

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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Quotes

“We speak of facts, yet facts exist only partially to us if they are not repeated and re-created through emotions, thoughts and feelings. To me it seemed as if we had not really existed, or only half existed, because we could not imaginatively realize ourselves and communicate to the world, because we had used works of imagination to serve as handmaidens to some political ploy.”

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“You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.”

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“A novel is not an allegory.... It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing.”

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“A good novel is one that shows the complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all these characters to have a voice; in this way a novel is called democratic - not that it advocates democracy but that by nature it is so. Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels - the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.”

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“Imagine you are walking down a leafy path...The sun is receding, and you are walking alone, caressed by the breezy light of the late afternoon. Then suddenly, you feel a large drop on your right arm. Is it raining? You look up. The sky is still deceptively sunny...seconds later another drop. Then, with the sun still perched in the sky, you are drenched in a shower of rain. This is how memories invade me, abruptly and unexpectedly.”

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“«[...] frequentare me, sentirmi raccontare delle mie esperienze passate, rafforza quell'idea tutta positiva e assolutamente acritica dell'altro mondo, dell'Occidente... Non so... A volte ho paura di aver...» «Di averle aiutate a crearsi una fantasia parallela», intervenne lui «che si contrappone alla sovrastruttura inventata dalla Repubblica islamica?» «Sì, sì» annuii con foga. «Be', allora, in primo luogo non è solo colpa tua. Nessuno riuscirebbe a sopravvivere nel mondo che vogliono imporci loro: dobbiamo tutti inventarci un paradiso personale verso cui evadere. Nondimeno», concluse «qualcosa che puoi fare ci sarebbe». «Davvero?» domandai ansiosa, ancora un po' avvilita, e morendo dalla voglia di ricevere istruzioni, per una volta, anziché darne. «Sì, davvero, e anzi lo stai già facendo con questo tuo seminario, se non rovini tutto. Fa' ciò che i poeti fanno con i loro re filosofi. Non c'è bisogno di creare una fantasia parallela dell'Occidente: da' alle tue ragazze il meglio di quanto l'altro mondo può offrire: la finzione letteraria - restituisci loro l'immaginazione!» concluse trionfante [...]”

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“Un romanzo non è un'allegoria” dissi verso la fine della lezione “È l'esperienza sensoriale di un altro mondo. Se non entrate in quel mondo, se non trattenete il respiro insieme ai personaggi, se non vi lasciate coinvolgere nel loro destino, non arriverete mai a indentificarvi con loro, non arriverete mai al cuore del libro. È così che si legge un romanzo: come se fosse qualcosa da inalare, da tenere nei polmoni. Dunque, cominciate a respirare. Ricordate solo questo. È tutto; potete andare.”

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“. . . none of us are as sophisticated in these matters as you think. You know I always feel, with every new person, as if I am starting anew. These things are instinctive. What you need to learn is to lay aside your inhibitions, to go back to your childhood when you played marbles or whatever with boys and never thought anything of it.”

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“One of the most wonderful things about Pride and Prejudice is the variety of voices it embodies. There are so many different forms of dialogue: between several people, between two people, internal dialogue and dialogue through letters. All tensions are created and resolved through dialogue. Austen's ability to create such multivocality, such diverse voices and intonations in relation and in confrontation within a cohesive structure, is one of the best examples of the democratic aspect of the novel. In Austen's novels, there are spaces for oppositions that do not need to eliminate each other in order to exist. There is also space - not just space but a necessity - for self-reflection and self-criticism. Such reflection is the cause of change. We needed no message, no outright call for plurality, to prove our point. All we needed was to reach and appreciate the cacophony of voices to understand its democratic imperative. There was where Austen's danger lay.”

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“L'insensibilità è tipica anche dei personaggi negativi di Jane Austen: Lady Catherine, Mrs Norris, Mr Collins o i Crawford. Il tema ricorre inoltre nell'opera di Henry James e negli eroi-mostro di Nabokov, Humbert, Kinbote, Van e Ada Veen. In questi romanzi l'immaginazione è equiparata all'empatia, alla capacità di immedesimazione: non possiamo vivere ciò che hanno vissuto gli altri, però in letteratura siamo in grado di comprendere anche i personaggi più mostruosi. Un bel romanzo è quello che riesce a mostrarci la complessità degli individui, e fa sì che tutti i personaggi abbiano una voce; è allora che un romanzo si può definire democratico - non perché sostiene la democrazia, ma per la sua stessa natura. L'empatia è il cuore di Gatsby, come di molti altri grandi romanzi - non c'è niente di più riprovevole che restare ciechi di fronte ai problemi e ai dolori altrui. Non vederli significa negare la loro esistenza.”

ReadingEmpathy
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“Imagination in these works is equated with empathy; we can't experience all that others have gone through, but we can understand even the most monstrous individuals in works of fiction. A good novel is one that shows the complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all these characters to have a voice; in this way a novel is called democratic—not that it advocates democracy but that by nature it is so. Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels—the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.”

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“Those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into account. It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else's shoes and understand the other's different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them…”

LiteratureEmpathy
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“I opened it the way we used to open Hafez, closing our eyes, asking our question and letting our finger rest somewhere at random. It opened to the page in the middle of "Burt Norton,' beginning with the lines "At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor/fleshless./ Neither from not toward; at the still point,there the dance/is.”

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