Here Is not There
In our poetry gathering on Saturday, September 9, in-person and via Zoom, Bruce showed Andrew Romanelli's book, Rotgut, and he started talking about its cover. Unfortunately, Bruce's computer didn't work correctly; other friends connected to us via Zoom couldn't hear his voice. I couldn’t hear him, either.
Bruce talked about Rotgut and said, “These poems differ from those he read in our meeting” Andrew wrote about his personal life. Bruce said, “Andrew has made himself naked,” or I thought that was what he said. He spoke about the cover, a photo of Andrew naked on the cover. I thought I had made a mistake, and I didn't understand or hear him. From where I was sitting, I couldn't see the cover clearly since it was black and white. So I asked Bruce if I could see the book, and he had another one and handed it to me. No, it was real. Andrew was naked on the cover of his first poetry collection. He was sitting far from me on the other side of the room. He was supposed to read his poetry from his first book.
When he went to the front and sat to read, there was no shame on his face. There were no smiles on any faces. No one humiliated him or was joking. No one shouted that this raffish should not read poetry.
No one came to arrest and take him away. No one stopped and beat us all.
My friends' behavior in the room and on Zoom was normal as if nothing had happened and life continued, and everything was like the last meeting.
Nobody showed any shame or behavior that I had expected. Nobody blamed Andrew; nobody left the room, and nobody was shocked except me. I could hardly control myself by not saying a word. I pretended that it was ok for me, too. But it was not. Absolutely not. I was comparing Here with There. Is it possible to publish this book in There with this cover and these poems?
Impossible.
But let's imagine something like this happens in Tehran- what would be next?
All those involved with publishing would be arrested.
They would arrest the poet, put him in jail, and rape him as torture. Because someone who decides to put his naked picture on the cover of his poetry book is an immodest and indecent person who is no different than a prostitute. So they have every right to rape him as his punishment.
They would close the publishing and the printing house and make a flag from his book to show their followers all the predicaments of the nation are caused by these sinful intellectuals.
Oh, no! Here is not like There.
Yes, Here is not There.
But, they want to change Here and turn it into There.
Scatter fear and uncertainty. Remember Salman Rushdie? Where is he? Do you have any news from him?
They want nobody to know what is going on There.
But how do they do it?
What do they do to confuse the world and destroy freedom, justice, and equality, to destroy modernism from the inside? How do they do it?
The budget for suppressing culture and literature in the Islamic Republic is staggering. In the annual report, it reports that the budget is for religious propaganda. But, it is a budget to keep the world ignorant of what is going on and to suppress writers, poets, and filmmakers.
They spend money on news agencies and educational institutions (universities and schools), and literature. They buy people, particularly those who have higher education. Their rhetoric is excellent and they can make everything look upside-down.
They pretend that everything in the country is OK and what happens is not important. Western countries need to know that each country has its own customs and traditions.
There are people with good knowledge of written and spoken English living here and getting paid to defend them and manipulate the Western media. They even write for famous magazines and major publications and work in the most important universities.
You wouldn’t recognize their appearance. They are never heavily bearded, wearing dirty clothes or hijab and chadors. Rather, they wear western clothes, sit in coffee shops and drink vodka.
We can see the result of the efforts of these unknown soldiers in Persian Middle Eastern Studies Departments. What do they focus on? Do they have any programs on or related to modern literature, short stories, and novels? Or, are they planning to destroy all courses?
Worse than this is their impact on the news agencies. We can often hear the words used by the officials inside the country in the top news media.
Castration of fiction and modern literature, infiltration of news networks, and giving false information means they have decided to make this place the same as there. Most of the time, the money given to universities does not seem to have any conditions; however, the ultimate goal is the domination of fundamentalism in the modern world. I come from a place where using words like ‘kiss’, ‘making love’ ‘hug’, etc. in a story are crimes and have punishments. I am talking to you, my American friends. If you want Here, remain Here and don’t go There, you must be careful. Otherwise, everything can change in the blink of an eye.
Source: Substack