Overview of the book “Risk of Avalanche”

Three war memories

Mohammad Ali Fatemi
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2018-2-27

“Risk of Avalanche: three war memories” is the fourth book of the Habil series about war. Arma publication in Isfahan has recently published this book authored by Hessam Mazaheri in February 2018.

The author has described in the introduction that: “Memoirs of war published outnumber any other content pertaining the Iran and Iraq published so far. A large number of new memoirs are published every year in various forms (self-authored, co-authored, oral history). The list of martyrs’ biography shall be added to this number.

The most important question is that what are the consequences of production and publication of this volume of memoirs? Including political aspects (such as formal narration of war and supporting the legitimacy of the governing political structure) and its cultural-literary function (such as advocating the culture and values of the Holy Defense and enrichment of resistance literature), might it have historical values and provide verifiable documents to certify these memories? And will they be effective in promoting historical knowledge about war?

The book contains three independent memories of war; the first article “Melancholy of watching elephants: comparison of memories with the facts (with examples from “Da”) might be effective in finding an answer to this important question. It has examined the complicated relationship of memories with facts and the fact that is it possible to find factual evidence through memories?

In the second article titled “Risk of Avalanche: why war memoirs grow fat?” Results of a survey conducted indicate that in time as we have parted from war the volume of war memories has grown and then the article has examined the reasons of such growth.

The third article, “Living with ghosts: the fantasy of living with the martyrs” has a critical and pathological approach to the revival of martyrs of war through their memories in the form of a phenomenon which is labelled as “Fantasy of living with martyrs”.”

Books authored by Mohssen Hessam Mazaheri including this 83 page book reveal that he employs two outlines and plans in writing; the first outline subjects the structure and general appearance of the book to serve the content and the plan in which the content avoids repetition and brings clarity in relevant subjects. This is also clear in the title of articles chosen for this book.

The other point is that the author has taken the status quo of the subject (war memories) as the starting point and has examined its past and predicted its future. Undoubtedly, studying the status quo is a challenging job both in researching the subject and in dealing with reactions but the end result is a way forward both for the author and for those awaiting an author or scholar to take the first step and leave a footprint to be followed. However, “Risk of Avalanche” is the most prominent book of the author in which he has paved the way of study and research in his intended topic.