The Singular Power of 'Persepolis'

Teachable. The biggest compliment a college professor can give to a book or a movie is to say that it’s “teachable.” Over the years, somewhat to my dismay, this has become the main criterion I use to assess new texts, especially books. To be teachable, a book or a movie or whatever has to possess a certain set of qualities. It has to be something you can count on a roomful of students to make their way through without too much trouble; if it is difficult stylistically or theoretically, it has to be difficult in a way that there can be some pleasure or satisfaction in puzzling out; it has to have multiple angles of approach, multiple kinds of questions that can be asked of it; ideally, it’s something that could fit into a variety of different disciplinary or thematic frameworks; it has to speak on multiple different levels or in multiple different voices.