The More You Know
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B.A.: And standing on a small hill overlooking the garden is a gazebo.
Three players together: A gazebo?!! ... Bowman: Is it running away? Is it attacking? ... Magic-user: I’m launching another volley of fireballs!! - Knights of the Dinner Table: Lair of the Gazebo In A Thousand Splendid Suns, another notable perspective on current events is the different viewpoints that the characters give of Ahmad Shah Massoud, “the Lion of Panjshir.” He is the Mujahideen leader whom I first read about in Sebastian Junger’s Fire. In the interviews of that book, Massoud seems old and tired and fighting rather hopelessly against the Taliban in 2000-2001. Junger revealingly titled that section The Lion in Winter, conjuring images of an old Peter O’Toole playing a way-past-his-prime Henry II, whereas in A Thousand Splendid Suns, Massoud is in the prime of his life -- like Peter O’Toole in the earlier movie, Becket (1964). However, Massoud still comes across as noble: someone who has dedicated his life -- to the detriment of his own comfort and his own family -- to fighting those who would occupy the country and institute their own ideals. When he is fighting against the Taliban, from our western perspective, Massoud indeed seems heroic. And earlier, at the end of the war with the Soviets, he does appear to be the best leader when the country begins its slide into chaos: It was dizzying how quickly everything unraveled. The leadership council was formed prematurely. It elected Rabbani president. The other factions cried nepotism. Massoud called for peace and patience... Accusations flew. Meetings were angrily called off and doors slammed. The city held its breath. In the mountains, loaded magazines snapped into Kalashnikovs. The Mujahideen, armed to the teeth but now lacking a common enemy, had found the enemy in each other. - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini But after getting a different perspective on the Soviet occupation, which I mentioned last blog, there are suddenly varied dimensions to his motives. And, as Margaret Atwood’s character states in The Handmaid’s Tale: Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.
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