Week 5 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

This weeks reading is Arabian Nights, inspired by other student stories that I read last week.
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

One Thousand and One Nights

  Scheherazade

•  Wow, the whole premise of the story just seems really messed up.  "So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the following morning before the grand-vizier"
• The intro to this story definitely captures my interest right away.  Such a dramatic start makes me want to read on to see what happens next.  The story does not give the reader a chance to get bored before the action starts. 

The Story of the Merchant and the Genius

•  The girl is very clever.  This is not the first reading story I've read this semester with multiple tales, but this is definitely my favorite premise for a story within a story.  
• It's a story within a story within a story.  That almost seems like to many layers.

The Story of the First Old Man and of the Hind

•  I notice that none of these characters have names.  Instead they are referred to as "my son" or "my wife" or "the third old man."  I wonder why the author made this decision, especially since he named the characters in the first layer of his story.

The Story of the Second Old Man, and of the Two Black Dogs

•  Many of theses stories have a common theme of killing for revenge.  The Sultan kills his wives, the Genius wants to kill the Merchant for killing his son, and how the fairy wishes to kill the two brothers of her husband.

The Story of the Fisherman

• I assume Genies in lamps or pots or jars was a common theme in stories during this time.  Both the yellow pot, and the story of Aladdin both include a trapped Genie.  
•  I enjoyed this story, of how the Fisherman outsmarted the Genie.

The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban

•  I wonder what kind of power the physician possesses? It's clearly some form of magic that healed the king.

The Story of the Parrot; The Story of the Ogress

•  Why does the Grand Vizir distrust the great physician.  It is not made obvious in the story, so the reader if left to wonder.

The Story of the Physician's Revenge

•  It's getting hard to keep track of the stories.The stories themselves are interesting, but there are too many layers to them.

The Story of the Sultan and the Fish

• Why are the fish so valuable in the first place? I do not believe this part of the story explains this at all.

The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles

•  I enjoyed reading the mini stories.  This style of writing works very well.  Instead of having many disjointed tales, a story like 1001 nights can ties a bunch of little stories into one giant work.