Week 4 Essay

Magic in Arabian Nights

Though the frame story of Arabian Nights is set in an old but realistic world, it does not contain any magic. However, almost all of the stories that Scheherazade tells and even the ones that her characters’ characters tell contain magic and destiny. They also contain a main character that uses the magic for good or defeats someone who is trying to use magic for evil purposes.

In her first couple of stories, Scheherazade shows a genie that is angry and bitter from being trapped inside of a lamp for 400 years. He does not think about things, he just kind of tells everyone near him that he will kill them for being there. Eventually, his mind is changed and the magic changes from a source of fear for the main character to a source of joy. This change in the view of magic mirrors what Scheherazade hopes will be a change of heart in her murderous husband.

"He's Behind You" from the UK national archives. Aladdin.

In Aladdin, the source of magic is also coming from genies. These genies seem to not care (or are perhaps forced not to care) how bad or harmful a wish may be. Aladdin is not a special character or very admirable, but after years of use of magic wishes, he learned the responsibility of the power that comes with the genies. When he is effectively the sultan, the people love him because he takes care of them and is generous. When the African wizard has the genies, he kidnaps the princess and moves the palace, striking fear into the hearts of the people.

Overall, the theme of magic in Arabian Nights is used to reveal character. The person who is made to deal with magic reveals either that they are smart enough to use it for good and avoid death or that they are cowards and usually ends up dying. In the case of Aladdin, the magic actually builds character as he grows up with it and in the end he brings justice to the ones who misuse it. He kills not only the African wizard, but also his more evil little brother.

The stories discussed can be found in the Arabian Nights Section.

Storytelling Week 4: The Story of the Second Old Man and the Two Black Dogs

You see these two dogs that follow me around, they used to me my brothers. About ten years ago, after they had fallen into some bad luck with the wrong crowd up in Chicago, we decided to take a nice long trip on down to New Orleans. Once we got there, we bought a boat and became fishermen. The boat was old, but it worked well and even had enough for us all to be somewhat comfortable.

Our business was good enough and being out on the water all day made it easier to stay away from anyone who might happen to know our friends from the windy city.

One day, as we were bringing in our catch to the pier, a beautiful girl caught my eye. Her clothes were dirty and old, but something about the way she looked at me made me feel alive. Obviously, being the man that I am, I went up to her and offered to buy her dinner. She agreed of course, and we went to dinner and stayed talking in the restaurant until they kicked us out. I was in love.

The next day, she appeared again, but in nicer clothes and wearing strange jewelry I had never seen. She told me that she wanted to be my wife and that she wanted to go with me on my year-long fishing trip. I knew I was in love and I agreed immediately, however I did not even bother asking my brothers, they were just going to have to accept our new member of the family.

Over the next couple of months, we travelled from port to port, selling our catch. As time went on, I grew more in love and my brothers grew more in their jealousy of my wife and me. During a tropical storm one night, they came into our room, wrapped us in our sheets, and threw us overboard to drown.

I thought for sure we would die, but my wife muttered some strange words, and suddenly we were back on the pier in New Orleans. I was dumbstruck and asked what had happened. My wife was furious and said that she was going to use all the voodoo she knew to find and kill my brothers. Obviously, her being a voodoo queen had never crossed my mind, but at that moment I got over that shock and begged for my brother’s lives. I told her that she needed to punish them but not to take their lives.

In the end, she cast a spell that turned them into two useless, fat, black dogs that could never leave this small town. After ten years, they would be returned to their human forms but would still not be able to leave town. The ten years is almost up and soon my brothers will be able to take care of themselves. I will be reunited with my wife in New Orleans and never be bothered again by their stupid decisions. Now, isn’t that just the craziest story if you ever did hear one?

Author's Note: This story is actually still pretty much the same as the Arabian Nights version except I set it in the US. I figured that it would work the same in modern times if I used a voodoo queen instead of a fairy and got the brothers to have more troubles with the law rather than poor business decisions. Also, I decided to keep the first person storytelling since this belongs in a story within a story. 

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by H.J. Ford. 1898. http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/arabian-nights-two-black-dogs.html

Black Pug from ToyBreeds.com. Find more information here.

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.