Royal Status
- This is a bit long and involves two different books. I hope I will explain myself.
In the first "Persepolis" book, we learn that Marji's maternal grandfather was a prince, which she's thrilled to learn too. Marji's mother comments on the tortures her father was inflicted by the Shah forces, and says somethings in the lines of "he suffered pain everywhere during the rest of his life". This grandfather is never mentioned again, neither he is seen around with the family (i.e. saying goodbye to Marji at the airport). So I had always assumed that he was already dead by the time Marji is a child.However, there is a later book by the same author, "Broderies", which takes place when Marji is in her twenties, back in Iran after her first period of studies in Austria. And in this book, the former prince-grandfather has a brief appearance, and he is very much alive - and even bossed around by Marji's grandmother.So? If his grandfather was alive, and married to Marji's grandmother, when Marji was a child, why doesn't he appear at all in the "Persepolis" books? Why he is never seen around with the family? Why is Marji's parents, and not the grandfather himself, who tell Marji about his imprisonment, etc.? Am I missing something?
- He wasn't dead. Marji's grandmother mentions that he was in prison "for a third of his life". This started while her mother was still a little girl. He may have still been under house arrest or out of the country during Persepolis's events.
- That's what I thought, too, the very first time I read the books, but I found confusing the sudden fascination that little Marji felt about his uncle Anoush' story and imprisonment when she still, presumably, had her grandfather in prison. She even compares the years Anoush has been in prison to those of a friend's father, and she thinks that Anoush is sort of a "winner". The fact that they never mention the grandfather's being in prison as something that was still happening during Marji's childhood made me wonder if he was dead.
- Marjane's grandmother mentions near the end of the film that she had divorced her husband, "back when, no one got divorced". So perhaps because of that, they didn't talk much or the grandfather never developed a close relationship with his grandchildren?
The Plastic Keys
- Is there any truth to the Plastic Keys to Paradise? I'm aware that the Iranian government (and alot of other governments historically, to be fair) had teenage soldiers in their ranks due to a lack of manpower, but I've studied the war for a long time and there are virtually no pictures of these keys whatsoever. I'm not against the notion that she put that story in the book as embellishment (As it's a graphic novel), but has she ever commented on this? The only real sources of the keys seem to be from Iraqi newspapers and some American news outlets, which typically said false statements on Iran (due to sanctions), so I would rarely trust those sources anyways. There are a few veterans from the war who confirm child soldiers being a thing, but virtually no confirmation of the Keys to Heaven.
- The only way to truly know is to ask Marjane herself. That said, there probably is some truth to it, since she is from Iran and was staying there when a lot of this went down.
- I mean I am saying this as someone who has studied the war for a Research Paper and I genuinely can't find any proof for the keys, hence my confusion.
- Well, other than asking Marjane, it should be worth noting that, unless, you knew people, regimes tended to keep much of their plans and methods under wraps, so the secrecy might account for lack of mention in other sources.
