Part 1: Chapter 14 Summary

Nafisi tells a story about her father, who in pre-revolutionary Iran was the youngest mayor of Tehran. The man was something of a cultural snob and routinely ignored direction from hire levels of government. He was arrested for insubordination. Nafisi learned of her father's arrest after she was pulled from her sophomore class at a high school in Switzerland. The shock and terror of that moment live on within her.

One of the students asked a troubling question about Lolita - why do readers find pleasure in consuming such a horrible tale? Nafisi wrestled with this question until the insubordination of her father provided an insight.

As Nabokov once noted, every great novel is a fairy tale. Every fairy tale is filled with grotesque demons. But the power of good ultimately triumphs. Great art is an act of insubordination against limitation...