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It has been bothering me how people keep referencing the fact that Persepolis was drawn in black and white and implicitly saying the that the story was therefore (metaphorically) 'black and white'. I couldn't really figure out what bothered me until recently. I think it is the fact that 'black and white' is a metaphor for not seeing all sides of a situation or problem, only seeing two sides, a black side and a white side. I think the metaphor could have been 'blue and red' or 'desk and chair', the point is that only seeing two sides and also seeing them as opposites or mutually exclusive is usually not enough to understand a problem or situation or whatever it is you're talking about. I think the fact that Persepolis is drawn with ink on white paper has nothing to do with whether or not the story is 'black and white.' Most book are written with black ink on white paper.

In class today I felt uneasy with the class because it seemed that people implicitly felt 'safe' or 'comfortable' at home and also felt that there was no other way we could imagine a society. I think that Martin and Mohanty are saying that we need to balance our need to feel safe with our need to feel unsafe. Feeling safe comes with a price, you can't feel unsettled. Safety doesn't encourage you to change or examine critically your life and the lives of others. While I think that feeling safe is important, I think that feeling safe is over-valued.