The Arabian Nights: Reading 10

Tales Read:

The Story of Jullanar of the Sea

My reaction:

This king has issues. Jullananar refers to hims as a kind and pious man, however the moment he bought her, the king basically ripped her clothes off. At least Jullanar doesn’t have a unibrow like that one girl in the third dervish’s tale. While I understand why Jullanar doesn’t talk (from missing her family), I personally would never be able to be quiet that long. How does the king not realize she was pregnant? When she finally talked, she was at least 6 months pregnant. I feel like the story does not teach important values. What it teaches:

1.      It is okay to fall in love with someone, and then take their virginity an hour later

2.      You can’t buy love, but you can buy a slave to love you

3.      As a king, you can disregard the problems of the kingdom, so long as its is because you are in love with a woman

The readings just end up irritating me more and more. I just want the characters to grow up and solve problems for once, rather than having their fortune handed to them on a silver platter.

The Arabian Nights: Reading 9

Parts Read

• Finished Third Dervish's Tale

This third dervish irritates me. He makes the tale borderline unbearable. Learn some manners, follow your instructions and promises for once. Wait the 40 days. You were fine in waiting 40 days to kill a young boy. Now you can't wait one day to not go into the room. There are chambers of beaches and riches, and instead you have to ride your little pony for fun. Yeah, no wonder the dervish admitted he brought this upon himself. He needs to make better choices as a person. The blind men tell him not to ask, he still asks. Don't go into this room, and you get to be rich, and have a great time with 40 sisters. 40! What more could a guy want? So just wait the time. One thing I didn't understand was why the other blind men refused to let him stay, if all of them did the exact same thing. Where is the fairness in that?

The Arabian Nights: Reading 8

Tales Read:

• The Third Dervish's Tale

My reaction:

Wow. This guy is a real idiot. Reasons why I believe this to be true. 1) He can't follow instructions

2) He obviously does not know to be cautious when dealing with fate

He had one job. To not invoke god. Literally, that was the only thing he couldn't do. Of course he has to pray, and ends up on the little island. Also, after hearing the fate of the boy, why wouldn't he just leave for a day when he was scheduled to kill the boy. Instead of screwing around with knives and crap. Oh, and I almost forgot how stupid it is of him to not listen to instructions yet again. The young men tell him not to ask about their conditions, but as in all tales it seems, they have to be curious. So he decides at the end to figure out about their blindness. The third dervish as a person just irritates me. For a king, he does not have much sense. 

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.