How Can an Ordinary Building Become an Extraordinary Story?

The author of the collection 'Nearly Ordinary Building No. 9' says: After almost 20 years of observation and cultural media work, the characters in my stories come from an accumulation of observations and, of course, my own lived experience.

Fatemeh Rasouli, the author of the three-volume collection for teenagers "Almost Normal Building No. 9", in an interview with Mehr reporter, said about the idea of ​​this story: I was looking for a modern world; A place that is familiar to everyone. One house, several neighbors and normal life issues. Many of us live in apartments now. What's better than this?

Regarding the continuity of this series, he added: I like the book to continue and the story of the almost normal building number nine is not over yet; Whatever the audience wants.

In response to this question, this writer said, "In this story, you have used everyday life and connected it to unusual and strange events. How did you recognize the thin line between "boring everyday life" and "everyday attractive for fantasy" and use it in this story? He said: Completely sensual. I tried to remove my older self from the narrative. I tried hard not to study. I tried because I knew subconsciously messages were being transmitted. This was told to us by my teacher, Ahmad Akbarpour. I no longer needed to use my consciousness for this issue.

Rasouli explained about the use of fantasy in stories and whether they are supposed to help escape from reality or be a mirror for a better understanding of reality: In my opinion, fantasy is not usually for escaping from reality. From ancient Iranian and foreign myths to the most modern fantasy works of Iran and the world, which of them were written to escape understanding reality? Perhaps one of the first fantasy is the novel "Frankenstein" written by Mary Shelley. Do you escape from reality after reading that novel? Or "Peter Rabbit" or "The Wizard of Oz", "Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", "Dracula" and..., these are among the first in the history of fantasy writing. I will not give examples from our own literature. If we go back a little, none of the works that distance ourselves from the reality that is familiar to us were narrated to escape from reality.

He added: But I will demarcate one point here. Escaping from reality is different from being cut off from reality. The characters of my novel, a boy and a girl, each face difficulties in their personal lives in some way, the main of which is the issues of adolescence. What does a teenager want in this era? I myself wanted to get away from the world around me. To sink a little in a world that is not for me. The realities of my world do not exist in it. Fantasy is such an escape. I used my own experience to create a story for readers to enjoy reading and take a little distance from their own world; But every world has its own logic and in human history, there is no world that is all good or all evil. Therefore, after reading the novel, the reader will slowly identify himself in his subconscious. This is what reading a novel does in general.

The author of "Almost Normal Building No. 9" series said about his efforts to avoid giving direct advice and shouting slogans in his stories for teenagers: the narrator of this novel is an all-knowing narrator. He is one of the characters of the novel. If I were to give you an illustration, I would imagine that an adult is sitting, telling a story, and the children are listening to him. He does not read the story from the book, he tells it himself; With all his personality traits like Iranian narratives. You can also see in Naqali that the narration of Naqali is not the same. My narrator, too, is telling a story, a story that he knows about. Pay attention, sometimes he guesses the children's reaction, sometimes he accompanies them, sometimes he interprets words and phrases for them, etc., while I have tried to make my narrator a bit humorous and humorous. Just like a storyteller, we enjoy hearing his story. I look forward to reading and hearing readers' comments to see if I have been successful in this regard.

He said about the process of forming the characters in the book and using his lived experience in making and paying them: I want to say that the characters come by themselves, but this is very cliché. To answer this question, I may have to tell a little about my history. I have studied Journalism in Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences and Cultural Studies and Media in Master's Degree. I did journalism. I have written and produced programs on radio and television for many years. I write serials and have a media art institute. The first pillar of all these things that I have done since the age of 19 until now is observation: observing people, characters, adventures and lives. We were taught to observe both in journalism classes and in writing courses. So it is natural that after almost 20 years of observation and media cultural work, the characters of my stories come from the accumulation of observations and of course my lived experience.

In the end, Fatemeh Rasouli said about writing in the field of children's and adolescent literature and why she chose this age group for the audience of her stories: This collection of novels is my first work in the field of children's and adolescent literature. One of the reasons I started writing for teenagers was because I am not separated from this era. I have spent the last 22 years working closely with children and adolescents. In my opinion, eight to 10-year-old children can no longer be called children; Of course, he is not a teenager yet. I think it is a stage from childhood to adolescence. At this stage, abstract thinking, reasoning, social skills, etc. begin to develop, but they are not yet complete. For this reason, it is more difficult for them to write stories; Because you have to write so simply that they understand well, and not write so simply that they don't think that you have underestimated their imagination and level of understanding and they get discouraged from reading the story. Of course, I do not know the psychology of children and adolescents at all, and I will not comment on this matter. This opinion is the result of my life. So, considering that I have not fared from adolescence, I live with children and teenagers and my concern is to create content for them, I chose this age group to write.

It should be noted that the three-volume collection "Almost Normal Building No. 9" written by Fatemeh Rasouli is the story of three girls on the verge of adolescence who experience a new friendship by becoming neighbors in the same apartment. But this building, contrary to its ordinary appearance, has hidden adventures in its heart. Dena, Taranj and Roshana gradually face secrets that change their daily lives and put them in new and unexpected situations. This fantasy series is a readable story of friendship, courage, choice and discovery of individual abilities. This series with the titles "A Strange Grandmother", "A Strange Heart" and "A Strange School" was recently published by Mehrak Publications for teenagers.