Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

(Scheherazade by Alberto Vargas (1921))

For starters, Arabian Nights might be my favorite unit, so far, that I have read in this class. I love the idea of the story, within a story, within a story, and so on and so forth.

The first episode, Scheherazade, was the first of my favorites, mainly because it sets up the story so nicely. I found it so interesting that Scheherazade is confident that she will be able to convince the Sultan to save her life. The grand-vizir, like any very concerned parents, will not allow her to go. But, I couldn't believe that later on in the story when the Sultan tells the grand-vizir that it is he that will have to kill his own daughter, the vizir says, "whatever the cost, I will obey you. Though a father, I am also your subject." This, to me, is a true testament of the power that the Sultan must have had over him. Even though his daughter's life was truly on the line, he still feels extreme obligation to obey every command the Sultan throws at him. I loved Scheherazade's confident attitude throughout the whole entire situation, and her idea to trick the Sultan through her incredible storytelling.

Because of the way this story is told, it was really hard for me to choose just focus on a few stories that were my favorite. They all have some sort of link that ties them back to the previous story, as well as the story of Scheherazade and Arabian Nights. The Merchant and the Genius, The Story of the Old Man and the Hind, and The Story of the Second Old Man and the Two Black Dogs were three stories that fit together quite nicely that I really enjoyed reading. I loved the idea that the merchant in the first story is fighting to save his life, just as Scheherazade is fighting to save hers. The ideas are exact parallels between what is going on in the first layer of the story. This whole idea of parallels made me think if that was another reason, perhaps, that the Sultan decided to continue sparing Scheherazade's life. Besides pure curiosity of wanting the story to continue, it's interesting to think that the Sultan could have seen how the story was able to save the merchant's life, and in turn, he continued to spare hers, even if the decision was subconscious.