The Arabian Nights: Reading 7

Stories Read:

• (The end of) The Second Dervish's Tale
• The Tale of the Envious and the Envied

My reaction:

What. the. crap. The reading begins with the demon cutting off the woman's arms. First off...wow that is a huge punishment for one night of being faithless...to a demon...who kidnapped her. How does she deserve that? And of course the dervish has to beg for his life to be saved, because he is the guy who left his love to be tortured. So then there is this story that he tells, in the hope of being spared. However, it was a waste of breath, since he was turned into an ape. Of course, his seemingly random talent for chess and calligraphy comes in handy, and the king wishes to appoint this ape vizier. And so of course every influential woman has to be either kidnapped or a witch, which the princess is. She recognizes the prince, turns him back, fights the demon and kills it etc. End result: dead princess, one eye on the dervish, a pissed king. And the dervish goes, shaves his beard, and meets his bros. The end. Wow. Okay. That escalated quickly. It got really confusing with all the shapeshifting in the battle. Especially since they changed the gender whenever the princess took on a male animal form.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 6

Tales Read:

• First Dervish's Tale
• Second dervish's tale

My reaction:

Wow. The First Dervish's Tale was a prime example of things escalating quickly. One day all is fine and dandy and then the next, there is betrayal, incest, and he loses an eye. How can a vizier so easily reach into someones eye, just to gouge it out? Ugh...i'm gagging just thinking about it. Control yourself. Next, onto the incest. That is just weird. I love how the prince's uncle is just explaining how the brother and sister were madly in love. Of course, he is one of the more sane characters in this tale. He actually tried to stop it by keeping the sister away from the brother. But they still ended up sleeping together. Ew. Just no. Who comes up with this sort of thing? And just to improve the story, somehow the vizier managed to take over the city. And of course everyone had died except for the prince. Death toll: 4+? Father, uncle, cousin (male), and cousin's sister...I think that is it.

So far, the Second dervish's tale is not nearly as bad. It of course has a demon stealing a woman way from her marriage. Stereotypical much? This happened to the woman who king Shahrayar ran into. Seriously, these demons must not be very attractive, if they can't even marry once in a while. And for having someone who is technically "stolen goods", demons are really protective of the women. Besides calling them whore and slut of course. My final reflection; i have no idea what is going on with this whole striking her head off thing....so I will analyze that one once I actually understand the situation.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 5

Stories Read:

• Tale of the Enchanted King

My reaction:

I am really starting to question Shahrazad. A lot of the tales include unfaithful  women, who in one case, enchant the king by turning him into stone. That will not teach King Shahrayar to trust women, and spare their lives. The story of the Enchanted King was odd, since a man could survive for so long with such a bad wound. Also, the enchanted king went to kill the black man, yet spared his wife. Which is different than what king Shahazman and Shahrayar did, since they killed the wife. Of course she has to be amazing at magic, and turn a man into stone. Which would get awkward if he needs to poop...since it's only his lower half. Just because her lover was injured, this woman has to transform a whole city into hills and a lake and the people into fish. So it would have been borderline cannibalism if the king had eaten the fish, which the cooks had made.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 4

Stories Read:

• The Tale of King Yunan and the Sage Duban
• The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot
• The Tale of the King's Son and the She-Ghoul
• Continuation of the Tale of the Fisherman and the Demon

My reaction:

It got really confusing. Shahrazad is telling a story about the Merchant (and the Demon), which led into the story of the Fisherman and the Demon, which led to the Fisherman telling the Demon the story of King Yunan. In which King Yunan and his vizier swap the stories about the She-Ghoul and the other one about the Parrot. How does she keep all this straight?

I found the repetition of certain ideas to be really interesting. The line about "I did a good deed but was rewarded with an evil line" Also that "Spare me, and God will spare you; destroy me, and God will destroy me." There is a lot of stuff having to do whether or not someone deserves their reward or punishment.

King Yunan irritated me. First of all, how did the story of the Son and the She-Ghoul help make up his mind about Duban? And how was he so easily persuaded to kill someone who helped him and he wanted to befriend? The whole gross thing with the talking chopped off head, and poisoning the king through a book was gross and odd. Was it necessary for that to happen? Couldn't God have punished the king directly by striking him with lightning? Also, the Fisherman story with the woman coming out of nowhere while the fish were being cooked was very confusing. Hopefully the reading for tomorrow will help clarify everything.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 3

Parts read

• Second Old Man's Tale
• The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon

My reaction:

What is with people and being so jealous that they want to kill people in this book? First the old man's wife wants to kill the mistress. Now the second old man's brothers want to kill him because of his wealth. These are people, and murder is not a legitimate reason to take away their lives. People also have some odd ways of getting revenge. Changing people into animals is apparently a bad fate. Sure its not ideal, but couldn't they just go to jail or something instead of making them into a deer or dog. Third of all, what are demons exactly? There was the nice she-demon of god but then there are demons so bad that they are in a jar for 800 years. Alot of levels into the story happened by the end of the Fisherman and the Demon. Shahrazad, the old man telling the Demon, the  Fisherman, who is going to start telling a story. Wow. That is very confusing.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 2

Stories Read:

• Merchant and His Wife
• Merchant and the Demon
• First Old Man's Tale

My reaction:

In the Merchant and His Wife, the merchant puts his wife in her place by beating her, and the people celebrate afterwards. What sort of lesson does this teach? Gender inequality and domestic abuse, that is what it is. 

The Merchant and the Demon was only interesting in the fact that it set up another frame story, with the old man within the story telling their life tales, in perhaps the hope of saving the merchant's life.

The old man tells us his odd tale with his mistress and son becoming cows, and his wife being slaughtered. However, his wife ends up becoming a deer. Like its an everyday sort of occurence. And of course the woman is to blame, by being jealous. No wonder, because she was happily married and the old man decides to have a mistress, who manages to have a child. I understand where she is coming from, especially when childbearing was basically really important in that culture.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 1

Sections read:

• Foreword
• Prologue
• The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey

Major Plot points

• Shahzaman finds wife cheating, and kills her
• Shahzaman sees Shahrayar's wife cheating with Mas'ud
• Shahzaman and Shahrayar plot to catch the wife
• the brothers decide to roam the world in the hopes of finding someone with worse luck
• Black demon
• woman sleeps with 100 men despite being locked in a box in an ocean
• Shahayar marries a new girl every night, and kills her in the morning
• Shahrazad wants to end the killing by having her father (the vizier) let her marry Shaharyar
• ox beaten down
• donkey tells the ox to pretend to be ill
• the merchant understood, and has the donkey used instead of the ox
• the donkey wishes to be back the way it was

My reaction

These characters are crazy. Finding your wife to be cheating on you does not mean you can kill her. Yes, it is not a positive thing. However, this is all a very gender biased way of looking at women. Just because some women choose not to be faithful, does not mean that all women are cunning and cheating. Men in the story can just go and have concubines, screw around a bit, and they are not killed. And just because you are angry at your one wife does not give you the right to marry a new girl every night, and then kill them in the morning. First of all, that is wasteful. Of your resources, your subjects, your future generations will suffer. No body even bothers to tell the king to chill, instead they just let him kill every girl in the area. What about women's rights and not wanting to be married off to their death, just because they might not stay faithful to their husband of one night. The characters in the story just really are irritating. They only think of themselves, not of the common people and how they are destroying their kingdom. Also, the king must really be a sex addict if he needs to sleep with a new woman each night. I realize that all of the girls are supposed to be virgins, but there has to be a serious risk of getting STDs, especially that one woman who slept with 100 men. She needs to control herself. 

A Separate Peace: Chapter 13

If I were the author, I would have perhaps left out this chapter. I personally did not find it necessary to the plot, although it provides some reflection on how Finny's death changed Gene, and the war changed his friends. The whole part with Brinker's father wanting to be young to be in the war was just pitiful. I felt bad for that man who felt that someone's whole worth and existence depended on their role in such slaughter. The whole line where Gene said he never killed anyone in the war, and he never hated the enemy was because he killed his enemy at school. He never points out exactly who his enemy was, whether it was the darkness in him or Finny. Gene talks about how Finny was the best because the worst never game out in him because he never had an enemy, but Gene's enemy was not brought on by the war but rather Gene conquered it before. I was not a fan of this part, because while it makes the reader think, I felt that it really detracted from the plot.

A Separate Peace: Chapter 12

Important Plot Points:

• Finny has re-broken leg
• Gene tries to sneak in and talk to him
• Finny goes to have leg set
• Finny dies

My reaction:

NO!!!!!! Why? Why is this necessary to the plot. We were one chapter away from finding happiness. It really made me sad. Finny admitted he applied to a bunch of military branches, but they all rejected him. Which is why he refused to believe there was a war. And even though Finny knows the truth about Gene, he still forgives him. It would have been a happy and nice resolution. But no. Finny has to die while having his leg set, and the doctor completely did not seem to carry about Finny as a person. Instead he just referred to the war, and the coming of more deaths. The worst passage of all to read was about how Gene felt like attending Finny's funeral was like attending his own. Gene was literally crazy in love for Finny, wanting to be him and thinking about Finny all the time, and his one true love dies through his fault. No. It's not okay for this to be the second to last chapter of the book. 

A Separate Peace: Chapter 11

Important plot points:

• Finny stops believing in his conspiracy
• Gene is put "on trial"
• Finny falls down the stairs

My reactions

1) What is wrong with Brinker?

Honestly, why does he constantly have to push Gene? First he hints to Gene that Gene is to blame. And then for some reason he finds it necessary to hold that trial. What sort of friend does that? Why didn't he just let it be? Brinker gains nothing by holding the trial. All it does is hurt people who he is friendly with.

2) Leper's return left me confused

How would he be allowed to return, if he is so crazy. First off, he deserted the army, so it would be unacceptable for Devon to accept Leper to return. Also, why would his mother allow him to leave? 

3) Irritation at the author

Why did he have to make Finny fall? Why can't Gene have been the one? Honestly, Finny's life already sucks enough. It is not necessary for him to fall again.

4) Anger at Gene

This kid seriously has some problems with telling the truth. He lied so many times during the "trial" and then there was that whole thing about him being from the South, which he had just said he had grown up from. But then only hours later, he goes around lying.

A Separate Peace: Chapter 10

I found the reading to be confusing, and very dark considering the light attitude of the past chapter. While there weren't any particularly important moments for the plot in this chapter, the development of Leper as a character was very interesting. It was revealed that Leper ran away/ deserted the army, as they were going to give him a Section Eight. Section Eights are worse than dishonorable discharges, mean that the person can never get a job, and are only given to those who are "psycho". Leper's lack of sanity is exhibited by his hallucinations, and complete personality change. Leper accuses Gene of knocking Finny out of the tree.
Gene is not exactly the best under pressure and first knocks Leper over, and later leaves Leper alone while the two were on a walk.