I wasn’t sure how to break the news, until here came the self-obituary of a fellow writer – so now you know.
“We” died 34 years ago; even though some of us will live for another thirty, forty years.
If it is any consolation, rest in peace that our enemies are dead too. Actually, the best part is that: it doesn’t matter anymore who our friends or our enemies were … because “we” are all dead.
I first noticed my death, when I revisited Iran after two decades. I went on a pilgrimage of all the familiar sites and souls: my college, my high school, the old house and some old friends. But everything had metamorphosed: university to Friday prayer grounds, high school to Basij center, nice house to ugly apartment, good friends to …
I had woken up to a complete metamorphosis! It wasn’t just that everything had changed beyond recognition; I too had been transformed beyond any existential ties to them. Like a ghost of a bygone era, I could pass through places and meet up people, without making any connections, without leaving any impressions.
Back again in the Americas, I knew for sure that my homeland had died, complete with a great deal of my culture and heritage. Sadly, I soon realized that I was dead too! I mean: What is a statement without context? What is a fish out of water? What is a bird in cage?
Well, in every good old ghost movie, the unhappy spirits come back from the dead, to haunt the living. Not surprisingly, they do it for a good reason. They often are trying to send an important message, warn the living of a danger, or teach them a lesson.
Soon, I found myself writing, for the first time. And that is what “we” the ghosts are all doing here. That is what all the writers have done before us: Preserving a moment past. Transferring a thought lost. Revisiting the labyrinths of life, now dead.
The funny side of our writing, like that of a jolly ghost story, is that we constantly have brutal and pointless fights with our fellow dead companions. Mosaddegh lovers attack Reza Shah. Shah followers curse the leftists. Mojahedin assault Khomeini …
It is very funny, because we try to hurt one another and stab each other with all we got; except that no one can sustain any injuries anymore … because “we” already are dead.
