Part 1: Chapter 6 Summary

Nabokov, and specifically his Invitation to a Beheading, is Nafisi's inspiration for forming the study group. Nafisi finds a strong connection between Nabokov's world and present day, post-revolutionary Iran. This is a world of empty rituals and arbitrariness. The reduction of reality to banality is what makes possible extreme brutality. This condition is fully expressed only with Nabakov's special term for it: poshlust. Poshlust "is not only the obviously trashy but mainly the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive."

Nafisi identifies with Nabokov's unrelenting atmosphere of dread. Nabokov's characters are unknowingly heroic in their refusal to conform. But Nabokov exposes the absurdity of totalitarian societies as well: the poshlust, the individual isolation in a sea of false utopian promises, the inability to trust everyday reality, and the true fragility of a seemingly powerful system.

Part 1: Chapter 6 Analysis