Honorary doctor Marjane Satrapi: “I do not believe in a culture clash”
“My great-uncle used to call me ‘Doctor Marjane’. Now that I have actually received the title of doctor, he will undoubtedly tell everybody that I have been elected president of France!” However, for the time being at least, Marjane Satrapi, who has dual Iranian-French nationality, will stay a successful illustrator and graphic novelist.
Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, on the Dead Sea, in 1969 and she grew up in Teheran. She settled in France permanently in 1994. The First volume of Persepolis was published there in 2000 by L’Association. In this graphic novel, Satrapi humorously tells the story of her youth in Iran, of the revolution in 1979 and the gradual introduction of the Islamic republic, of the war with Iraq and its consequences for the daily lives of Iranians and of her exile in Austria, her return to Iran and her final, definitive departure for France. After she had adapted Persepolisinto an animated film with Vincent Parronaud, the graphic novels were translated into approximately thirty languages and more than one million copies were sold worldwide.
No Castafiore
Perhaps surprisingly, Satrapi was not particularly fond of comic books initially: “I did occasionally read comic books in Iran, just like everyone did – translations of Asterix or Tintin – but they didn’t really interest me. There were no female characters I could identify with. As a young girl, I did not want to be like an old woman such as Bianca Castafiore. I did not consider comic books to be a form of expression. I only became acquainted with the work of Art Spiegelman and the authors of L’Association after I had moved to France.”
Persepolis is often described as being autobiographical, but Satrapi does not like this description: “It makes me think of people who write books about the problems they have with their environment, their friends and their sexuality. I wanted to talk about what had happened around me, in Iran and I could only do that from my own subjective point of view as a storyteller. Otherwise Persepoliswould have become a political, historical or sociological manifesto, while I wanted to recount the lives of ordinary people who were confronted with the political changes. There is a lot more to Iran than Scheherazade and religious fanatics. I wanted to show what was happening behind closed doors, in people’s houses.”
“If you forget that people listen to music and love eating ice creams, you dehumanise them. They become an abstract concept. If that happens, you can call them whatever you want – fundamentalists or fanatics – and drop bombs on their heads. What I want to demonstrate is that an individual stays an individual, regardless of where he or she is and that I can identify with him or her regardless of the context.”
Exotic Austria
Satrapi’s stylised drawings contribute to this identification: Persepolis does not look exotic. Satrapi: “I hate exoticism. Orientalism is a chimera that has nothing to do with reality. Teheran is a very modern, polluted city with skyscrapers and motorways, which looks more like Los Angeles than like a Souq. In the film we kept everything that seems Orientalising for the part about Vienna. We wanted the audience to experience the same culture shock as the leading lady experiences when she first arrives in Vienna, so a westerner would be able to empathise with an Iranian who thinks Austria is exotic.”
“During history lessons, attention should always be paid to the perspective of the other. To the West, Churchill was a great leader who saved Europe. To Iranians he is a man who, with the help of the Americans, orchestrated a coup in Iran.”
Would Persepolis ever have been written if Satrapi had not been exiled? “It was necessary for me to distance myself. When I left Iran, I was full of suppressed rage. I realised that I had become a violent person and that I should not start reacting the way the people I condemned did. I had to learn to be peaceful again first and only then could I start to write.”
“When you live in an environment of constant stress and you cannot do what you feel like doing, such as in Iran, where freedom of speech does not exist and everyone is gagged, it is like being lame. If you are lamed, you stop thinking. As the Americans say: the only thing you have to fear is fear itself. In France I was able to become acquainted with the luxury of civilisation and the feeling that I could do and say things without having to fear the consequences.”
Satrapi regularly visits the United States, where her books have been translated and are studied at several universities. Did she have any preconceived notions about Americans before she travelled to the US? “The first time I travelled to the United States, I thought that I would hate the people there. I thought of the imperialism and the capitalism. But I met people who were very open and likeable. During the American invasion of Iraq and the tensions with France, I defended the Americans to the French. People told me that I was a fool: ‘How can you defend the people who call you the axis of evil?’ I answered them: ‘Who are these people? They are only a fraction of the country. Another group of the population has had enough of all this.’ During that period, I visited Milwaukee, in the middle of the United States and I didn’t see anybody pouring French wine into the gutter, French fries were still called French fries and everything was completely normal.”
President of France
Does Satrapi consider her double identity to be a blessing? “I do not believe in a culture clash. When I was young, I thought things had to be either one way or the other. I do not think that anymore. I always say that I’m sitting on two chairs. It may not be very comfortable, but when I want to stretch out, I can. Those who only have one single identity, only have one single chair. They may be able to sit more comfortably, but they can’t lie down. I always say: ‘The more chairs you have, the better’.”
So undoubtedly Satrapi is attracted to the theme of the honorary doctorates: multiculturalism? “Absolutely. I am an Iranian who has adopted French nationality, spends a large portion of her time in the United States and is married to a Swede. In fact, I am tremendously honoured by the doctorate and my parents are immensely proud of me. Education is of immense importance in Iran. When my paternal grandmother died, my great-uncle gave all her grandchildren a nickname. He called me ‘Doctor Marjane’. My father told him: ‘You are exaggerating. My daughter is not a doctor!’ Now that I have actually received the title of doctor, my great-uncle will undoubtedly tell everybody that I have been elected president of France!”
New toy
The success of the film adaptation of Persepolis surprised Satrapi: “I was offered money to do something I had never done before. It is just like when you give a child a beautiful toy – it will certainly not refuse to play wit it. I thought that in the worst case scenario, I would make a bad film, but that at least I would have learned a new business. I was certain that it wouldn’t be good and perhaps that is exactly why it was so successful.”
“When I started writing comics I did not know anything about them either. I had to invent my own codes. I am interested by things I don’t know. That is how I keep my open-minded perspective. As soon as I become very good at something and as soon as I know exactly how it works, I lose interest.”
Does that mean we should not be expecting any more graphic novels from Satrapi? “It is a very lonely job. I hardly saw anybody for seven years. I would prefer to work on something with other people again. Working in a team releases a kind of energy that pushes you forward. I am currently working on a film related to Iran with Poulet aux prunes (another of Satrapi’s graphic novels, ed.), but it will not be an animated film this time. I’m interested to know what it is like to work with real actors.”
