"The Persian MâR-Nâmeh Or, the Book for Taking Omens from Snakes" (1892) | Hacker News Reader

"The Persian MâR-Nâmeh Or, the Book for Taking Omens from Snakes" (1892)

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72 pointsThevet15 comments

> How, one should rightly ask, could a khrafstar like the snake possibly be associated with good fortune?

For a while a running joke in Persian Wikipedia community was to call software "bugs", _khrafstar_s.

The use of "bug" for engineering defect (a use that predates software by around a century) shares Middle English etymology with bugbear and bugaboo, both of which relate to evil spirits/creatures and annoyances. Khrafstar is not unreasonable as a translation.

I wish there were more games based on Persian lore.

Like how Al-Qadim was an Arabian-themed setting for D&D.

Or just more movies about the Persians, where they’re not evil etc..

Go straight to the source, Iranian cinema is awesome and widely available.

An easy starter is last year's "It Was Just an Accident", which was nominated for a couple of Oscars. It goes from being hilarious to offering a deep reflection on vengeance vs reparation.

Kiarostami and Farhadi are also two great directors to explore.

This is excellent advice - do you have any more recommendations? I'd really love to dig deeper into this branch of cinema, it seems an opportunity for quite some cultural enlightenment.

"A Separation" is good - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Separation

Also "A girl walks home alone at night" - (Farsi language but produced in the US) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_Walks_Home_Alone_at_Nig...

the doc "Taxi": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_(2015_film)

Putting it on my list - thanks for that, looks like a great watch.

wow i totally missed "It Was Just an Accident". Have to watch asap.

I kinda meant about ancient persia, like a Ben Gurion or other epic but about persia.

but yeah iranian cinema is good. surpringly self-aware sometimes, like the 2004 movie Marmulak (The Lizard)

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a very solid metroidvania that nails the cultural aspect. There's even a well produced farsi dub!

D&D is dead.

DD&D?

Luckily the local temple has a discount on resurrections

Just another reminder of the absolutely massive public benefit that the Internet Archive represents.

Just wish they'd make the metadata crowd-sourced, maybe a tie-up with Wikidata.

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