Keeping out the Ephraimites

[muckefuck]

A coupla weeks ago, Zompist lent me a copy of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, billed as "the first Iranian comic book" ever. Notwithstanding the dubiousness of the claim, it's a solid, worthwhile work. Perhaps mollpeartree, who owns the English translation, will review it in a future entry? In any case, Satrapi recently flew to NYC to promote it and, as reported in the New York Times, got a lesson in how our hired guns protect the security of our homeland:

Upon arrival at Kennedy International Airport last Wednesday, she said, she was fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated by an immigration official who questioned why she called her home country "EE-rahn" instead of the Americanized "EYE-ran," and insisted that Ms. Satrapi pronounce it the American way.

As someone who habitually says i-RAHN, I'd be tempted to put "American" in scare quotes, however little that does to minimise the embarrassment of seeming like the kind of country that hires rural deputy material to secure the airports of cosmopolitan metropoles.

Furriners, consider this fair warning: Practice saying "EYE-rack", "suh-DAN", and "KIN-yuh" if you don't want to be cavity searched. And god help you those who blurt out "FRAHNS"!

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

oh good grief!

[zerbie.livejournal.com]

I second that sentiment.

[alfaboy.livejournal.com]

"insisted that Ms. Satrapi pronounce it the American way"

Hey, they just wanted to make sure we're all talking about the same country here.

"yuh think she means EYE-ran?"

Or maybe he was hoping EE-rahn was some country nobody's ever heard of that's not on any watch list... which would save a hardworking immigration official just a whooooooole lotta paperwork.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Isn't EE-rahn the correct American newscaster pronunciation? Although it occurs to me that I never watch tv news so maybe I'm hallucinating. But I thought everybody but rednecks said EE-rahn, and EE-rahk. But yeah, that's an embarrassingly stupid reason to search anybody, and really fills me with confidence about the efficacy of our new airport security systems.

I'm afraid I've let book reviews go for so long that the pile is just a source of guilt and anxiety now, and I'm wondering why I ever started thinking I had to review every single book in my journal, and it's my journal goddammit, and I don't have to! The princeofcairo suggests doing no more than three sentences each, written as if for small children, and maybe I'll try that. But for the nonce, the English ed. of Persepolis is extremely excellent and highly recommended.