(no subject)
The accidental recurring theme of my recent reading material: women in Iran (Persepolis, Reading Lolita in Tehran).
The accidental recurring theme of my recent watching material: time travel (Dr. Who, Primer, Meet the Robinsons).
Reading Lolita in Tehran dominated my day. I am almost to the last part. It's a very good thing for me to be reading right now, because I am realizing I take a lot of things for granted. It's ironic how my very freedom has so often caused me to complain. I hate being uncertain, hate having to choose and being afraid I'll make the wrong choice. But I am so free: to worship how I want, to love whom I want, to dress how I want, to think how I want, to live my life in peace. I've had my share of existential angst, and it is hard to feel like you don't have a context and you have to make your own image. But at least no one is trying to force me into their own image of what I should be.
I also tend to devalue my schoolwork and my intellectual pursuits, to dismiss my liberal arts education as escapist and selfish. And then I read about these young Iranian women who risk their lives to be able to read dead white guy stuff, because they love it, because it helps them feel, and because it provides another world away from the oppressive one they live in. Escapism as a good thing. Selfishness as a good thing, in that these women are learning to value themselves. I can't believe I don't think more about how lucky I am to be able to take the world of books for granted, especially as a woman. How many times it provided a needed escape from my own life, and how lucky I am to feel secure enough not to need it so much anymore.
The accidental recurring theme of my recent watching material: time travel (Dr. Who, Primer, Meet the Robinsons).
Reading Lolita in Tehran dominated my day. I am almost to the last part. It's a very good thing for me to be reading right now, because I am realizing I take a lot of things for granted. It's ironic how my very freedom has so often caused me to complain. I hate being uncertain, hate having to choose and being afraid I'll make the wrong choice. But I am so free: to worship how I want, to love whom I want, to dress how I want, to think how I want, to live my life in peace. I've had my share of existential angst, and it is hard to feel like you don't have a context and you have to make your own image. But at least no one is trying to force me into their own image of what I should be.
I also tend to devalue my schoolwork and my intellectual pursuits, to dismiss my liberal arts education as escapist and selfish. And then I read about these young Iranian women who risk their lives to be able to read dead white guy stuff, because they love it, because it helps them feel, and because it provides another world away from the oppressive one they live in. Escapism as a good thing. Selfishness as a good thing, in that these women are learning to value themselves. I can't believe I don't think more about how lucky I am to be able to take the world of books for granted, especially as a woman. How many times it provided a needed escape from my own life, and how lucky I am to feel secure enough not to need it so much anymore.