Warring Souls
Youth, Media, and Martyrdom in Post-Revolution Iran
With the first Fulbright grant for research in Iran to be awarded since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Roxanne Varzi returned to the country her family left before the Iran-Iraq war. Drawing on ethnographic research she conducted in Tehran between 1991 and 2000, she provides an eloquent account of the beliefs and experiences of young, middle-class, urban Iranians. As the first generation to have come of age entirely in the period since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran, twenty-something Iranians comprise a vital index of the success of the nation’s Islamic Revolution. Varzi describes how, since 1979, the Iranian state has attempted to produce and enforce an Islamic public sphere by governing behavior and by manipulating images—particularly images related to religious martyrdom and the bloody war with Iraq during the 1980s—through films, murals, and television shows. Yet many of the young Iranians Varzi studied quietly resist the government’s conflation of religious faith and political identity. Highlighting trends that belie the government’s claim that Islamic values have taken hold—including rising rates of suicide, drug use, and sex outside of marriage—Varzi argues that by concentrating on images and the performance of proper behavior, the government’s campaign to produce model Islamic citizens has affected only the appearance of religious orthodoxy, and that the strictly religious public sphere is partly a mirage masking a profound crisis of faith among many Iranians. Warring Souls is a powerful account of contemporary Iran made more vivid by Varzi’s inclusion of excerpts from the diaries she maintained during her research and from journal entries written by Iranian university students with whom she formed a study group.
Inside and outside the pulse of war in Iran, close up and far away, Roxanne Varzi weaves her spell; two parts anthropology, one part poetry and film theory, three parts a soaring imagination and a big heart. How could you not reach out for a book which situates itself at the intersection of religion, vision, and power, asking whether the individual ultimately has the power to turn the image off? A tour de force.
— Michael Taussig, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
How to study culture on a national scale, and present the results effectively, have long bedeviled anthropologists. Hence, to have done this so well is no small achievement.
— Patricia J. Higgins, American Anthropologist
[Warring Souls] is an excellent ethnographic study and worth recommending for academics as well as laymen interested in post-revolutionary Iranian society, in general, and Iranian youth, in particular.
— Razi Ahmad, Iranian Studies
A multi-dimensional picture of Iranian youth. In playing the role of observer, participant and academic, Varzi reveals the psychological, philosophical and political facets of the crisis, thereby setting the stage for comprehensive reform.
— Rose Carmen Goldberg, Journal of International Affairs
[A]n extraordinary book written on many levels by an anthropologist who acts sometimes as a psychologist and sometimes as a sociologist. And when the described reality sounds too harsh for the reader, she balances it with a poetic prose narration.
— Peter Chelkowski, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East
This painstaking study of an emergent Islamic secularism struggling to grow in the space between wars has a terrible poignancy at the present time.
— Vron Ware, Signs
Warring Souls is the most interesting book analyzing youth cultures in post-revolution Iran that I have read. . . . [It] is a tour de force that presents novel theoretical perspectives regarding the influence of the Islamic revolution, the Iran–Iraq War and the media (especially visual media) on today’s urban middle-class youth’s culture, lifestyle and future prospects. . . . Warring Souls is an outstanding addition to the anthropological literature on Iranian youth in a schizophrenic age with lost hopes and paradoxical signals from the leaders of society.
— Firouz Gaini, Social Anthropology
Varzi’s analysis of Iranian culture and creative application of Western theories bring to the fore mystical, mythological, historical, and sociological characters of Iranian culture and psyche. Her engaging language weaves the dispersed narratives of her subjects with diverse Persian cultural designs, psycho-historical elements, and literary traits into a sophisticated cultural portrait.
— Ali Akbar Mahdi, Middle East Journal
A lovely piece of writing, Warring Souls is one of the first credible accounts of secular Iranians in their twenties, the post-Revolution generation.
— Michael M. J. Fischer, author of Mute Dreams, Blind Owls, and Dispersed Knowledges: Persian Poesis in the Transnational Circuitry
Warring Souls is an outstanding and nuanced addition to the literature on contemporary Iranian culture, media, and society.
— Hamid Naficy, author of An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking
Last Scene Underground
An Ethnographic Novel of Iran
Leili could not have imagined that arriving late to Islamic morals class would change the course of her life. But her arrival catches the eye of a young man, and a chance meeting soon draws Leili into a new circle of friends and artists. Gathering in the cafes of Tehran, these young college students come together to create an underground play that will wake up their generation. They play with fire, literally and figuratively, igniting a drama both personal and political to perform their play—just once.
From the wealthy suburbs and chic coffee shops of Tehran to subterranean spaces teeming with drugs and prostitution to spiritual lodges and saints’ tombs in the mountains high above the city, Last Scene Undergroundpresents an Iran rarely seen. Young Tehranis navigate their way through politics, art, and the meaning of home and in the process learn hard lessons about censorship, creativity, and love. Their dangerous discoveries ultimately lead to finding themselves. Written in the hopeful wake of Iran’s Green Movement and against the long shadow of the Iran-Iraq war, this unique novel deepens our understanding of an elusive country that is full of misunderstood contradictions and wonder.
Literary romance and ethnography are joined in perfect dialogue in Last Scene Underground. Roxanne Varzi has written a rare, powerful book that is both a whirlwind story of how it feels to be young and idealistic during the time of the Green Movement, and a pointed reckoning with the state of censorship in Iran today.
— Nahid Rachlin, author of Persian Girls
This beautifully written book captures the predicament of every Iranian artist who is conflicted between one’s own creative imagination, personal and social responsibilities, and political reality.
— Shirin Neshat
Amazing and wonderful! Roxanne Varzi brings together her own Iranian heritage, excellent ethnographic research, and deep insights—all in a gripping read. In opening a new genre, the ethnographic novel, Varzi conveys the emotions, desires, creativity, and frustrations of so many young people in Iran.
— Mary Elaine Hegland, author of Days of Revolution: Political Unrest in an Iranian Village
Last Scene Underground offers a thought-provoking and powerful story about our collective attempts to re-imagine the world. Writing with an inspiring combination of creativity and criticality, Roxanne Varzi has crafted an exceptionally memorable portrait of Iran, bringing both Tehran and its young people to life.
— John L. Jackson, Jr., University of Pennsylvania
Varzi plays the role of what the anthropologist Renato Rosaldo has called a positioned observer, trying to make sense of life long after the ethnographer’s duty of detailed description has been completed. Clifford Geertz has described creative ethnographers such as Varzi as novelists manqué, and she captures what I elsewhere have theorized as ethnographic surfeit. This surfeit is what remains after an ethnographer has paid dues to the science of empirical social knowledge. What is left is not quite hard data, but nonetheless an invaluable remainder of insight, affect, conversation, and emotion; an entire sensorium, which even if the ethnographer wants to, will not let her go.
— Ather Zia, 3:AM Magazine
In an era of fake news and science denial, a little anthropology goes a long way.
Alex is on the verge of dismissal from her anthropology doctoral program when her luck turns, and she lands a fellowship with a dioramist at the Museum of the Rockies. Only problem is, Alex hasn’t a clue about dioramas or dinosaurs, and, as she will soon find out, she’s not the only one faking it in this frozen landscape.From New York City to Yellowstone National Park, we follow Alex, a whip-smart dyslexic-ADHD Margaret Meade cum Ms. Marple, and her friends—a Nature photographer, a Ranger, a Polish guest worker, paleontologists, poets and Iranian elite dot-commers—as they explore friendship, identity, climate change, globalization and a murder against the stunning backdrop of the Rockies in winter. An engaging read for adventurous mystery lovers.
A very unique story. This is a first for me …. while you are reading a story about a murder, the author is also educating the reader in between chapters with her Field Notes…Readers will enjoy reading Death in a Nutshell and you may even come away having learned something also.
Cozy Mystery Book Reviews