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October 30, 2005
Halloween
Here are some pictures from the (early) Halloween Party I went to tonight. It was interesting, and I ended up going as a Berserker (often called Bezerker), the Viking warriors mentioned in Beowulf and various Icelandic Sagas. It was fun!
The fact that wherever the Celts have ended up this celebration has taken root is interesting. From the Galatia province of Turkey to Galacia or Spain, Halloween has been a sign of Celtic presence. Its similarities with Iranian "Chaharshanbe Souri" are also interesting. Both involve elements of Fear and escaping fear. Both include magical elements, and rituals of both (wearing customs and asking for food/candy/treats) are very similar. Someone should do a research about this!
Posted by Khodadad at 02:05 AM | Comments (3)
October 27, 2005
Short Attention Span
I am way too busy lately, with all the learning and teaching and reading and writing that is going on in my life. In the meantime, I am noticing that I am developing a serious case of short attention span! I used to read books from cover to cover and enjoy them too, whether fiction or not, but now, the things have changed and I usually end up skimming through books and then forgeting about them.
I think the fault might be of the fact that I have to read many academic articles. They have a limited scope and usually a single point to discuss, and are thus easier to follow than a book. But this is expanding to the area of fiction, so that I am mostly reading short stories these days and it has been a long time since I finished a book, particularly in English (I think my last book was in Persian).
It's a bad situation for someone whose first love is not history or languages or anything like that, but just a good piece of literature. Any suggestions (good books or advice)?
Posted by Khodadad at 11:56 PM | Comments (2)
October 23, 2005
Rudi Matthee
I went to see a talk by Prof. Rudi Matthee of the University of Delaware. He is a professor of Safavid history (ca. 15th-18th cent.) and a graduate of the UCLA himself.
He has written a book about the use of narcotics and drinking in Iran from 1500-1900. It is a magnificent work of scholarship. As I have mentioned before, the historiography of the Iranian history is miles behind that of Europe. Most of the time, what is written about the Iranian history is still concerned with political hisotry.
Prof. Matthee's, however, has done an excellent job of using a theme (the use of narcotics and drinks and the social institutions associated with them) to draw a very interesting picture of social, cultural, and economic history of the Iranian lands during the era. It talks about the role they played in people's social relations, how the institutions were developed, how various instruments (such as water-pipe) came to existence, and how the trade in things such as coffee, tea, and drugs was a way of connecting Iran to the rest of the world.
His talk was excellent, and his book is also. He spoke in Persian which was impressive. He is from the Netherlands and he has studied here, but he speaks very good Persian and uses a colloquial grammar, which makes it even more impressive.
I hope his book gets translated and published in Iran very soon, since other than its factual content, it can become a great methodological guide for the research and writing of history.
Posted by Khodadad at 10:07 PM | Comments (2)
October 16, 2005
Where have all the stupid people gone?
These days, kids who get bad grades all have ADD. Stupid adults, particularly those in charge, are either trying to get close to the "common man" or they just are free-thinkers going against the conventional wisdom.
As a historian and someone concerned about endangered species, I am getting worried about the weighning population of the Stupid People.
Where are they?
Unnecessary notice: this piece should be ignored as the utterances of a stupid person!
Posted by Khodadad at 09:18 PM | Comments (2)
October 12, 2005
Forgery
I am just putting this here for the record (or maybe so I can say "I told you so..." in the future). This new discovery is a fake, another in the series of forgeries relating to ancient Iran, and a rather sloppy one too.
Posted by Khodadad at 09:48 PM | Comments (2)
October 09, 2005
Mr. Boffo
Posted by Khodadad at 10:52 PM | Comments (1)
October 08, 2005
Drive
...
You can't go on
Thinking nothing's wrong
Who's gonna drive you home tonight
Posted by Khodadad at 10:37 AM | Comments (2)