Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English literature and North American Studies at the University of Tehran known for his pro-government views, was subjected to a bruising interview July 26 by Fareed Zakaria on CNN's GPS. Professor Marandi did an admirable job of maintaining his composure as Zakaria hammered him with questions and counterpoints on the respective roles of the regime, the opposition, and the international community in the current Iranian crisis, warmly smiling throughout the interview as pictured here and addressing Zakaria amicably by his first name. At the conclusion of the interview, Zakaria asked Marandi how he felt about the possibility that history might one day regard him as the smooth-talking "mouthpiece" of a doomed dictatorship. In his response, Marandi said he believed this would not be the case despite efforts by Americans including Zakaria to portray him as "the mouth of Sauron."

With this statement J.R.R. Tolkien's tales of Middle-Earth entered the contemporary debate on U.S.-Iranian relations, suggesting that to American eyes Iran appears as something like the land of Mordor ("where the shadows lie"), that Iranian rulers such as Khamenei or Ahmadinejad appear to us as something like the dark lord Sauron, and that we appear to ourselves as some cross between the Coalition of the Willing and the Fellowship of the Ring. Our president would thus be cast as Frodobama, attempting to destroy the Ring of [Iranian nuclear and theocratic] Power in the very fires of Mordor from which it was forged. Wow!

From an Iranian professor of English literature who studied in England and wrote his PhD dissertation on Lord Byron - poet of the Romantic era by which Tolkien's own work was influenced - such is at least a mildly thought-provoking suggestion, especially for those of us with similar interests in English literature. While I disagree with his support for the recent actions of the Iranian regime, I obviously found his cultural reference to Tolkien as a metaphor for the American view on contemporary U.S-Iranian relations compelling enough to spend half an hour blogging on it. I must confess I'm especially intrigued by the thought of a hobbit-hero named Frodobama Hussein Baggins. Perhaps I just don't have enough to do.

(As for characters in addition to Frodobama, I'm thinking Ted Kennedy as Gandalf the Grey; Joe Biden as Frodobama's loyal but gaffe-prone companion Samwise Gamgee; Hillary Clinton as a female version of the nimble elf Legolas; and the unwillingly self-cast Professor Marandi as Saruman, "the mouth of Sauron." American neocon Daniel Pipes, who rooted for Ahmadinejad in the recent Iranian election for the sake of further conflict, would in my opinion be very well cast as the creature Gollum. Any further or different suggestions are most welcome. Little if any attempt at serious political analysis here - just a bit of silly fun on a lazy Sunday afternoon.)

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com