Week 5 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

This week I decided to write over Unit: Arabian Nights.  A long time ago, when VHS was still popular, I had a movie that was based off of this book.  It was very fascinating to learn the story of Scheherazade and how she ended the terror that the women of the kingdom were facing.  Below are my notes for this Unit's readings.

Scheherazade:
I admired the strength and courage that Scheherazade possessed, and how willing she was to sacrifice herself for the kingdom and the Sultan's sanity.  I felt bad for her father and could only imagine the grief he must have felt.  Scheherazade is very smart and cunning herself, and her plan in tricking the Sultan into having her tell her story was marvelous.

(Scheherazade telling her stories, Sacred Texts)

The Merchant and the Genius, The Story of the Fist Old Man and of the Hind, & The Story of the Second Old Man and the Two Black Dogs:This story was interesting where one incidentally turned into three, all by the cunning narrator, and all of them led into each other perfectly.  I like how magic is a definite theme throughout this Unit, and it excites the imagination (at least it did mine).  The fact that the Merchant used his free year as he promised, and didn't take advantage of the Geneius' mercy, was one of my favorite aspects of this story.  The story pertaining to the man and his black dogs was ultimately my favorite to read.  I likes how these stories, majority of the time, consisted of a moral then somewhat a happy ending.  No one had to necessarily die, and this definitely lightened the tone.

The Story of the Fisherman, The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban, The Story of the Parrot; The Story of the Ogress, & The Story of the Physician's Revenge:This series of stories was interesting as well.  If one did not know the background of what Scheherazade was doing, it was be very easy for her to just lump all of the stories into one.  I can tell jealousy or tragedy is another theme in this Unit, and it one of the main ideas that marks a transition into another tale.  My favorite of this series is the cunning revenge of the physician after.  I don't fully understand how a decapitated head can continue to talk, but I guess this just goes along with the magic theme.  

The Sultan and the Fish & The Story of the Young King of The Back Isles:My favorite part of this story was the second half.  I loved reading the description of the enchanted city, and how the young king met his fate. At this point all of the magic present in the story reminds me of my readings of the Ancient Egypt Unit from last week.  The description of the palace was amazing, but with the description of what made the fish unique being left out made it sort of confusing to what had intrigued the Sultan in the first place.

(The young King being turned into half marble, Sacred Texts)

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (Parts 1-6):This story was amazing as well, it was hard to just pick one, and I cannot decide if I enjoy Disney's version more over the original. The biggest aspect that surprised me was that Aladdin was of Chinese decent.  More than anything this surprised me in that Disney didn't keep him Chinese in their version's, but I guess that is besides the point. I cannot believe that no one caught on that Aladdin was using magic until the magician had come back for revenge.  This story was grand, but when one starts to infer on the details it is evident that it is just not what the story was meant for because come things just do not make sense.  Overall I enjoyed this tale and was delighted to learn details of the story that were left out in the children's movie.