Persepolis -- and Kim Wilde

In Persepolis, Marjane puts on her American clothes (Nike tennis shoes, a jean jacket with a Michael Jackson button, tight jeans) and goes out to Ghandi Avenue where she buys illegal cassette tapes of Kim Wilde and Camel.  Her parents visit Turkey and smuggle her a poster of Iron Maiden.

After nearly being arrested by the Guardians of the Revolution, she goes home and listens to her new tapes.  "We're the Kids in America" plays on her boom box.

"To each his own way of calming down," it says.

If you check out Kim Wilde's video, you'll notice in the comments section that someone asks why kids in Afghanistan are still listening to this song.  It would seem there's something "revolutionary" about this music.  Or maybe it's counter-revolutionary.

I share this informatino with you because you might want to borrow it as part of this week's grade 9 blog posts:  One option would be to do a "mashup" between the music and text from the book. Go through Persepolis and look for similarities -- or somehow otherwise-related words and images from the comic. It's just an option, but you might find it helpful. By the way, Satrapi mentions other bands that she liked, including Iron Maiden. They may have some lyrics that apply to her situation, too.

Here is a link to the lyrics of the song.  It's set up in a Google Document so that students can copy in lyrics and images in appropriate places.