Upilamba
In Azar Nafisi's piece Uplimba she writes "the most central [question] was how these great works of imagination could help us in our present trapped situation as women. In this selection she is writing about a small group of women who meet to discuss literary works that have been banned for study in public university by the Iranian government. The trapped situation she speaks of does not only relate to the works of art being banned but that of being a woman in Iran. As many you may know the Iranian government favors men. Women are actually looked at as half of a man. For example, if a man testifies in court it would take the testimony of 2 women to equal that. Another example can be seen in inheritances; A man's sone inherits twice as much as his daughter.(1) So these women are using these literary pieces to escape that situation if even only for a hour.
I will not claim to be a regular active reader. I do enjoy readying when I finally take time to let myself get lost in a book. I have used literary works to escape hard situations in the past, and present. Last semester I had a huge test coming up that would determine my grade in the class. I strive for A's and am very disappointed when I miss that mark. This test was becoming a a source of stress for me, every time I tried to study I would feel overwhelmed. At the same time in a different class we had a optional reading of the book Hot Zone. This text had a lot of medical vocabulary and references to Human Anatomy (which is what the test was in). What I ended up doing was studying for an hour or a two at a time and then escaping into the Ebola type outbreak that was described in Hot Zone. This was an escape it helped me to not stress and still keep me somewhat on track with the use of words I was actually studying.
When it comes to how strategies of escaping into a book or literary art could be helpful when you are in a scary situation if feel like that is evident. You escape, you are in another persons that toughts, you become emotionally attached to the lead character, His/her problems/successes become your problems
or successes, you forget. Sometimes being able to forget that you are in a scary situation is all that you need to be able to make it through it.
Reference
(1) http://www.today.com/news/beyond-veil-lives-women-iran-2D80555320
I must agree that reading and getting lost in a book is a great way to escape from the horrors of certain situations. I find it interesting that you used the Hot Zone as you source of material to escape the stresses of the test. Also it must have been beneficial to read something that contained similar vocabulary and concepts to the material that would appear on the exam. I am currently reading the Hot Zone and I find it absolutely amazing and terrifying at the same time. This book is also what has inspired me to become a medical researcher. Lastly, I am glad you included information on the Iranian government because I was completely oblivious to how unfair their women are treated and I must say it is awful to have to live a life like that, making this reading session a great way to be free.
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