ABSTRACT
Our second chapter takes on the social challenge of life in a world of mediated metaphors. Interpretation is a personal process. How can it be communicated? How can the individual norm arising from the never-ending labor of the individual result in ethics that regulate and empower a community? We will begin to approach this question by reading another text from Dastan-e Rastan. This text describes a traditional disputation between a Shi’i Imam and a delegation of mystics who have come to him for advice and guidance. Their competing views paint for us an image of a normative blueprint, but also of a normative struggle.
