Stanford Online Reading Groups
The 2009/10 Book Salon provides a year of faculty-hosted book discussions for our reading pleasure. Join the Stanford Book Salon community of almost 4,000 readers! Each book is introduced through a lively streaming audio conversation with the faculty host available online, along with supplemental web resources chosen to enhance your deeper consideration of the books and authors and a discussion group in which participants can post comments.
The first selection of this season is “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi.
Mark your calendars for the on-campus discussion, which will take place on October 25, from 1:00 – 2:30 pm at the Campbell Recital Hall on Stanford Campus. The discussion will be hosted by Andrea Lunsford, the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English, and Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.
The online discussion is as lively as you make it; be sure to post your thoughts and comments as you read! Comments focused on specific sections or passages in the book–particularly those that are most meaningful to you–are the most valuable to the discussion.
Past book discussions have included a rich mix of thought-provoking opinions, suggestions of supplemental resources, and sharing of personal experiences. New readers are always welcome! Get up to speed and start reading
HOT LOCAL NEWS: Persepolis was chosen for next year’s One Book/One Philadelphia program at the city’s libraries and schools. Marjane Satrapi gave a talk at the Free Library on September 23, 2009. Read the Comments to this posting for further info.
Hot local news:
Marjane Satrapi is speaking about her book Persepolis at the Free Library next Wednesday evening (9/23). Also, Persepolis has been chosen as the 2010 One Book, One Philadelphia selection.
Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran, and now lives in Paris, where she is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers across the globe, including the New Yorker and The New York Times. She is the author of Embroideries, Chicken with Plums, and several children’s books. Persepolis I and II, Satrapi’s autobiographical account of her childhood during and after the Islamic Revolution, was first published in France, where it was met with enormous critical acclaim, garnered comparisons to Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and won several prestigious comic book awards. She co-wrote and co-directed the animated feature film adaption of Persepolis.
Ms. Satrapi is the author of this year’s One Book, One Philadelphia featured reading selection, The Complete Persepolis. Don’t miss your only chance to see Ms. Satrapi live in Philadelphia!
I attended Marjane Satrapi’s presentation at the Philadelphia central library on September 23rd, where she was introduced by Mayor Michael Nutter. This spring, the library and other organizations in the city will be conducting a series of shows relating to various aspects of Persepolis.
When, after waiting in a long line, I got her to autograph my books and DVD, I mentioned that I was reading her stuff as part of the Stanford University alumni discussion group, she said she hadn’t heard that Persepolis was being so featured and expressed appreciation for the interest.
English is her fourth language (after Farsi, German and French) and she said that she had never formally studied it, just picked it up from watching American cinema. Yet when speaking English in person, she was as spontaneously articulate and funny as in her comics and film, originally produced in French.
I discovered that she had given a talk about her work five years ago at the Philadelphia library, available as streaming audio at: http://libwww.freelibrary.org/podcast/media/20040907-marjane.mp3
Stay tuned. I’ll let you know if the present talk also goes online.