(September 3, 2023 at 12:57 am)Rev. Rye Wrote: Apparently, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of the most popular novels in Iran. Evidently, it’s gone through 30 printings since its initial Farsi publication in 1986 (at least as of 2012).
That seems to be quite expected. When you look at the opportunities available to at least the educated parts of the society, both Iran now and communist society as it existed in Czechoslovakia of 1968 bear more than passing resemblance. Neither are not exactly the dystopian hellhole we like to cynically characterize them. But in both societies there is keen appreciation that there still exist artificially imposed gaps in opportunities when compared to the west, and the gaps are imposed to maintain the power of the ruling class.
In both societies, there are enough freedoms for people to explore what kind of freedoms are denied them.
