Their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time

In retrospect, when historical events are gathered up, analyzed and categorized into articles and books, their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time. For me, as for millions of ordinary Iranians, the war came out of nowhere one mild fall morning: unexpected, unwelcome and utterly senseless.

A. Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), 157