The Cat Ate My Resume

Alan Grob, an instructor who inspires me.

Working on my resume brought back good memories. The photo shows Dr. Alan Grob the year he came to Rice. His classes were carefully prepared and memorable. He taught us to look for patterns and to notice details that disturb us.  When we read Bleak House, he quoted George Bernard Shaw, who said that Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit was more seditious than Das Kapital. That’s a useful idea. 

My experience from reading a novel and identifying with some of the characters changes the way I act and react. I was amazed by the courage of the men and women of Iran who dared to protest in the streets. I was shocked to see photos of protestors that will make it easy to identify them.

I never understood how women who had never worn a veil were made to accept it — until a novel made it clear. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, I  “experienced” the fear that overwhelmed women’s resistence.  The enforcers arrested women if a  little hair escaped their scarf, and took them away to suffer enough to intimidate others.  One young woman was eventually executed. The enforcers put her in a sack and shot her. That’s nightmare material for me.