IBNA has announced that 380 works shortlisted for Martyr Avini Literary Award.
That's the Iranian 'Resistance Book of the Year', awarded in six categories, with this 'shortlist' selected from 18,000 (!) works, of which "1720 works were selected to be scrutinized".
I do like the six categories -- especially the 'Soft War' one, which covers: "cultural invasions and threats, national security, propaganda, psychological war and operations". And there's also 'documentary literature', which includes: "memories, reports, biographies, wills"
As I have often noted, I think the focus on 'Sacred Defense' literature -- writings about the Iran-Iraq conflict of the 1980s (!) -- is an artistic dead end that has been beaten to death, and that everyone would be much better if they moved on. Sure, there's still stuff to be written about it -- but 18,000 works published in 2009 and 2010 alone ? Sounds like an unhealthy and unproductive preoccupation -- especially considering all the rich material of recent years they could be writing about ..... But obviously the regime prefers everyone to concentrate on those martyr'iffic times, rather than the present .....
(For those who might be wondering who this Martyr Avini is: check out the official site. Ayatollah Khamenei apparently "commemorated his memory as 'the lord of martyr authors'", while the martyr himself is reported to have: "considered the Western countries as a historic manifestation of Satan". So he maybe wasn't exactly the most open-minded of creative types .....)
I do like the six categories -- especially the 'Soft War' one, which covers: "cultural invasions and threats, national security, propaganda, psychological war and operations". And there's also 'documentary literature', which includes: "memories, reports, biographies, wills"
As I have often noted, I think the focus on 'Sacred Defense' literature -- writings about the Iran-Iraq conflict of the 1980s (!) -- is an artistic dead end that has been beaten to death, and that everyone would be much better if they moved on. Sure, there's still stuff to be written about it -- but 18,000 works published in 2009 and 2010 alone ? Sounds like an unhealthy and unproductive preoccupation -- especially considering all the rich material of recent years they could be writing about ..... But obviously the regime prefers everyone to concentrate on those martyr'iffic times, rather than the present .....
(For those who might be wondering who this Martyr Avini is: check out the official site. Ayatollah Khamenei apparently "commemorated his memory as 'the lord of martyr authors'", while the martyr himself is reported to have: "considered the Western countries as a historic manifestation of Satan". So he maybe wasn't exactly the most open-minded of creative types .....)