Week 4 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights
-Scheherazade is basically a boss storytelling and possibly the smartest character I have come across in this class.
-It is odd to see a female character from the middle east be so cunning, smart, brave, and even independent.
-Second layer of story telling is fairly easy to follow and is entertaining enough for her to keep her life.
-Eventually there is a second set of second layer which in turn has a third layer.
-Very confusing way of telling a story, but it is necessary for Scheherazade to make the story linger as long as possible.
-Third layer of the story is getting confusing with its two fourth layer stories of defeat and betrayal.
-The end of this fourth layer goes back to the main third layer and will eventually go back to two, all the while checking in on level one (Scheherazade) to show that her elaborate storytelling is actually saving her life and another woman's life every night she delays.
-Every story and layer has had either a king or a genie (person in authority) that is threatening death of an innocent person. I assume that this will tie in to the attempt to make her king see the error of his ways and stop killing his wives every day.
-The fisherman actually did convince the genie not to kill him and actually to make him very rich.
-Now instead of being close to death, he is on an adventurous journey with his king.
-Scheherazade is showing that both the authority and the subjects can live in peace and even find adventures together.
-They now find another interesting man with a statue for a bottom half and he will take them to a different room on level 3.
-This story not only has the king releasing people from death but actively fighting for them and showing love for his neighborly kingdom.
-Also, that he shows his blessing to the young kind and pronounces him heir shows that he still has hope though he did not produce an heir himself.
-These attributes of a good king show what Scheherazade wants her king to do.

Aladdin
-Actually Aladdin is kind of Chinese and a sorcerer tricks him into going into a magic cave to get the magic lamp and he is trapped.
-Somewhat similar to Disney there.
-Aladdin finds a genie in a ring and he brings him home.
-No talk of only three wishes yet.
-Genie 2 was found in the lamp
-Genie 2 feeds them on silver plates and they sell the plates for several years (much longer than I thought)
-Aladdin's love at first sight leads to kidnapping the princess and her husband on their wedding night to make sure they do not consummate the marriage and she scares the princess perhaps too much for her to ever forgive him.
-No explanation as to why he does not just wish that the wedding was called off.
-After a couple of nights, the groom asked to be separated and technically the marriage was never complete
-This story shows the main character literally buying love and marriage by way of magic. His wishes seem to have no limit at this point, but he is still only using them to get to what he believes is his true love.
-Aladdin is a good man, leader, and fighter. And the princess is happy with him and the sultan is happy with him. Everyone likes him but the vizir.
-Power did not go to his head. This is perhaps another hint to the Scheherazade's husband of how a real man rules his people.
-Another bit that is probably for Scheherazade's benefit, Aladdin loses the lamp because he did not tell his wife what it was.
-I do like that they actually kill the bad guy and that the bad guy has an even more evil  little brother who is now out for revenge.
-Bonus points for faking a headache and stabbing the bad guy right in the heart. This Aladdin knows how to protect his wife.


Arabian Nights can be read here.