Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran

by Jason Elliot

Book Overview

Filling a long-neglected gap in the travel writing of the region, Jason Elliot's Mirrors of the Unseen is a rare and timely portrait of the nation descended from the world's earliest superpower: Iran.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031230191X
• ISBN13: 9780312301910
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Now THIS is a travelogue!

No cosmopolitan musings about the relative merits of multiple swank laden hotels and resorts. No pointless stereotypical dwellings on the geo-politics of Saddam Hussein vs Khomeini. No histrionic rubbish about Thermopylae. Not a dull moment in the whole book. This book truly made me re-think the way I view my heritage as a kid of Iranian descent. All the dull crud my parents and grandparents mentioned suddenly emerged from the pages of Mr Elliot's book, burnished anew to a dazzling sheen. I cannot recommend this book more highly for its insight into Iranian culture and the Persian civilisation(s) on which it's built. Truly a timely and poetic read:)

Seeing clearly

Excellent, interesting hearing from someone who actually put their foot on the ground and reported the good & the bad. From our news publications we obviously hear only one side of the story. It's this type of book that draws humanity together rather than expanding on the differences.

A Deeper Understanding of Iran

When I picked up Mirrors of the Unseen, I was very excited since I had so enjoyed Jason Elliot's An Unexpected Light. At first, I was disappointed. In An Unexpected Light, Elliot concentrates on the people he met and the social structures he encountered. This was essential for understanding Afghanistan. Mirrors of Light is Elliot's impression of Iran. He sees the key to understanding Iran in the history of its people, as shown through the people themselves, the geography, and the art and architecture. Each of these provides important keys to understanding the Iranian psyche. In Elliot's view, these are much more important than the current fundamentalist regime. Once I grasped this emphasis, the book was much more interesting as well as enlightening. Elliot sees the ancient Persian history, dating back three millennia, as the key to modern Iran. The deep understanding of faith, the past glories of Persia, and the representations of these glories in art and architecture are all interrelated. In Elliot's view, the current hot button of fundamentalist faith has only minimal effect on the values and lives of average people, much as many Americans and v ery spiritual, faithful people even if they don't buy into the fundamentalism that is espoused by many in the government. Unfortunately the fundamentalism on both sides of the American - Iranian divide is what is reported in the press. Elliot gives us a view of Iran that can hopefully lead to peace rather than war. By the way, IMHO I highly recommend that you IGNORE Elliot's Caveat Lector on page 319 and continue reading. If you skip these pages, you may miss the key to the entire book.

Very Satisfying

Elliot does his research well and writes with an understanding of the local culture. It helps too that he can read persian. I was expecting to find accounts of encounters with oridinary iranians and conversations with them revealing their attitudes and opinions. Instead, I found a travelogue filled with descriptions of art in Iran. It was just as nice to read of the history of art in Persia. He appears to be a genuine and hardworking student of persian art and works hard to decipher the intentions of the persian artists and convey their subtlties and magnificence to us.There are descriptions of encounters with locals. Amusing anecdotes of encounters with taxi drivers who are trying to rip him off his dollars or pounds. All in all a very informative and interesting book.

An outsider's deep exploration of Iran

Mirrors of the Unseen offers an informed Englishman's perspective of Iran, pictured in the passages of experience of the author's seemingly random travels over three years, augmented by larger readings of history -- tempered by an apparent knowledge of the importance of mysticism in the Iranian worldview. Most media reviews of the book have been highly laudatory. One by an Iranian of dubious extraction, Amir Taheri, indicated some vitriolic distaste for the book's origin and message, raising my interest further. The latter review dwelt mainly on the missed opportunities of Elliot's visits, which merely confirms Elliot's own view that the culture of Iran is immense when viewed historically, and could not possibly be adequately seen in three years. Likewise, a cursory reading of Elliot's book would inevitably miss many of its deeper points, as did Taheri's. Elliot makes every effort to emphasize the importance of historical art as the purveyor of messages sent over the course of thousands of years -- messages not out of date, but bearing lasting practical value. As such, his book has worth both as a tale of travel by a modern Westerner looking, full of humor and humility, to understand another country, and as an entryway for journeys into philosophy and the meaning of art and science taken at a higher level.