As I was reading today’s Sunday edition of my Houston Chronicle, I was gobsmacked and happy to see that the lead editorial at the top of our “Outlook” (aka Editorial) page was one by Houston-based writer and the international editor of Publishers Weekly, Ed Nawotka, with the large headline as shown above with a smaller sub-head of “Let’s exchange books, instead of rockets, with the ancient literature-loving nation”. As a reader and lover of books, that was not an editorial I ever expected to see, much less lead, the editorial section of the Chron, but what a wonderful surprise and excellent editorial. Since it is behind the Houston Chronicle’s paywall, I’ll try to summarize this editorial as best I can with quotes while trying not to exceed fair usage (but certainly pushing the limit, it’s that good an editorial).
It starts with a reprise of the editorial headline, “Want to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and Iran? Send poets. … anyone who has ever worked in, visited or otherwise engaged with the Middle East know that there is a strong reverence for poetry.”
I love learning something new and the very next paragraph (which I’ll quote in full because it is so much fun) goes:
How revered? Well, one of the most popular television shows in the Middle East is called Million’s Poets. Launched in 2006, it’s a wildly glitzy reality-television competition modeled on American Idol that features poets from across the Gulf reciting Nabati poetry — a five-centuries-old form of Bedouin vernacular poetry — and competing for about $3.5 million in prize money each year. [Me: Had to look up Nabati poetry. Thank you Wikipedia.] The show, which takes place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, has drawn hundreds of millions of viewers and has spawned its own satellite channel to show reruns as well as its own literary magazine. I’ve attended a recording of the show. It is so over-the-top that it makes Dancing with the Stars look like something produced by a basement YouTuber.
Mr. Nawotka then lists some of Iran’s great poets like Ferdowsi (epic poet), Obeyd Zakani (satiric poet), and Rumi and Hafiz (love poets), and says Trump should send the world’s greatest Instapoet Rupi Kaur to Iran, with his satiric comment: “If you don’t know who she is or what that means, ask your 15-year-old daughter.” Well I’m 70 and don’t have a 15-year-old daughter, so off to Wikipedia again to find out who Rupi Kaur is, what Instapoet/Instapoetry is, and about Kaur’s bestselling book “milk and honey” (again learning something new, what fun).
He then mentions that one of the quirks of Iran is that it has never signed on to honor international copyright, and that the country’s publishers (or anyone with access to Google Translate, via VPN, this is still Iran!) can translate and privately publish English-language books into Farsi like Harry Potter, Ernest Hemingway, etc.
And now for something else I never knew:
So where do people buy these books? Well, the world’s largest bookstore, which has more than 12 miles of shelves — there are said to be some 400,000 books available for children alone — happens to be in Tehran. Its square footage is equivalent to seven average-size Walmarts. Don’t believe me? It’s right there in the Guinness Book of World records. The bookstore is called The Book Garden and it gets four-and-a-half star rating on TripAdvisor, where it is listed as the 33rd best thing to do in Tehran for tourists.
Cool. Mr Nawotka then mentions that due to state censorship sometimes you can also find unusual things bound into the middle of some of these books by some rebellious editors. Like copies of the U.S. Constitution bound into some copies of a romance novel, or the U.S. Declaration of Independence presented as a speech by one of the book’s characters. Or that it is sometimes easier to circumvent Iranian censorship by putting these “additions” into Iranian digital e-books. People can find a way.
Then Mr. Nawotka writes:
Speaking of translations, there are numerous books originally written in Farsi about contemporary or not-so-distant Iran that are wonderful reads. A classic is Iraj Pezeshkzad’s “My Uncle Napoleon,” a novel published in 1973 that is a picaresque, politically-incorrect romp about a shared garden and a family who spends as much time as possible bickering and “going to San Francisco” (a euphemism for having sex). Unsurprisingly, it was turned into what became the most popular television show ever in Iran. Also unsurprisingly, it was banned. For young adults, you have two great graphic novels: “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi, about a girl growing up after the overthrow of the Shah, and “Zahra’s Paradise” by Amir and Khalil, which is set in the aftermath of the 2009 elections that led to protests and several deaths. For fans of mysteries I would suggest “Tehran Noir” an anthology of crime stories set in the city edited by Salar Abdoh.
As an aside, the entire “[insert name of city] Noir” series published by Akashic Books out of Brooklyn is great (www.akashicbooks.com). I have here at home the recently published Houston Noir. So Tehran Noir might be quite an interesting read if you’re a fan of noir mysteries themed to a particular locale.
Mr. Nawotka then also mentions the famous book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, as well as other writers who have written books with an Iranian connection.
He closes with this:
Call me naive. I remember the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I also know conflict is often over control of resources not culture. But it would seem, based on what I’ve outlined above, that we all — Middle Easterners, Iranians, Americans — still have so much to learn from each other. Maybe we can do that best by exchanging books, instead of rockets.
So if you have paywall access to the Houston Chronicle I think this editorial would be an interesting read from a very different perspective. And to all you readers here, keep reading and expanding your horizons. Thank you.