Great Works I: Remixing Memory

21 responses so far ↓

•   m.ruiz // Apr 19th 2015 at 2:02 pm

  “The Story of the Hunchback” is quite different from anything else that I have read in this translation of The Arabian Nights. Still, the story is convoluted like the rest of the stories I have read are. Also, the women in the story who happen to be wives, are unapologetically deceitful. The first ludicrous thing that happens is when the tailor deems it appropriate to cram a piece of fish down the drunk hunchback’s throat and then has the audacity to act surprised by his death. His wife, who not surprisingly lacks compassion because she’s naturally a deceitful woman, merely scolds him. She is the one who comes up with the plan to leave the hunchback’s fate to a Jewish doctor. The doctor’s wife also lacks compassion tells her husband, “You are naive and careless” (206). The story gets more complex as it continues and every action has its consequence.
  This story does not involve sex which makes it a rather refreshing read. While I realize the wives in this story are made to be perceived as heartless, it was nice not having to read about an extramarital affair. Also, this story has more humor than the other stories I have read in The Arabian Nights. I laughed out loud when the Muslim bachelor says, “Wasn’t it enough for you to be a hunchback, but you had to turn thief too?” (207). Religion is a prevalent theme in this tale overall but I had not read any story that emphasizes the division between Jews, Muslims and Christians as much as this story does.

•   r.beregovich // Apr 19th 2015 at 9:45 pm

  The Tale of the Second Lady, the Flogged One

  This tale, like the others, spans many nights, and contains in it elements that have spilled over from, and spill over to, the stories before and after it. The Second Lady is a spillover from the tale of the Porter, and this tale spills over into a new story centered on the caliph from both of these previous stories. Not only this, but the theme we see in this tale is one that is present in almost every other tale – a woman being depicted as unfaithful to her husband. This Second Lady is a woman in a position of wealth, if not power, and is still subject to the husband she marries. There’s an exchange of verses that is in line with the rest of the tales, between the husband and the second lady that is meant to show her pleading for her life (145). This has been done in other tales, with varying degrees of success.

  This is where it gets interesting though because this tale, though it depicts a woman being punished for unfaithfulness, presents her in a relatively sympathetic light; the old woman she is accompanied by “express(ed) anguish, grief, and sorrow” at the second lady’s cheek being bitten (143). Even her husband is convinced by some means not to kill her, only to punish her by flogging her severely. This is almost inconceivable in this collection, since every other woman we’ve encountered so far who has been unfaithful has been cut down swiftly without much negotiation. That said, it’s notable that once the caliph hears this story and finds out that the woman’s husband is his son, he marries her to him once again. Not sure what that was supposed to accomplish, even under a new contract (148). I mean, it’s great that they had a happy life before that incident, but he did seriously disfigure her body. It’s difficult to read these tales through our modern lens sometimes!

•   t.kathy // Apr 20th 2015 at 1:33 am

  I have chosen “The Tale of the Enchanted King”. It is an interesting story of a young king. Like other stories , also in this story, the king had a wife, and his wife cheated on him with another man. The wife did not love the king . She loved her boyfriend. The point here is , like the other stories in this story one women is faithful to one man and unfaithful to another man. The interesting thing here is that, one women she is faithful to one man but the same woman is cheating with another man. So, one woman has two faces. The man she is cheating with is her husband. The man she loves is her boyfriend. The point here is that , she does not love her husband but her husband is the person who takes care of her , gives her shelter , home and food. But though she does not love her husband. Her boyfriend who does not give her anything and even a poor person , she loves him a lot. The main thing here is , love, she loves one man and hates the other. She hates her husband and loves her boyfriend. This point is common in almost all of the stories of this book.

  Something different that happened in this story is that, the wife had punished her husband and the whole city . “After my wife turned me into this condition,she cast a spell on the city , with all its gardens, fields, and markets,the very place where your troops are camping now(page:61)”. So because of the king the people of the city got a punishment which is very unfair. Also the punishment that the king got that is unfair too because he loved her purely.

•   VALERIA KUBLIY // Apr 20th 2015 at 3:28 pm

  “The Third Dervish’s Tale”.
  The story of the Third Dervish is related to the other two and the story of the Porter, which prefaces them. Same as preceding tales this story has a form of a teaching story, which contains entertainment or moralistic values in it. This tale is another lesson about humanity and human nature with all its imperfections. Lesson about human curiosity, and where it might lead individual who disobeys warnings and signs. (“ We would be sitting pretty but for our curiosity”. P123.) This idea occurs almost in every Scheherazade’s narrative. For example, in “ The tale of Ox and the Donkey” (13) we could find similar moral, while mentioning the exact same proverb. Also, almost every character of the Scheherazade’s tale is becoming a victim of his/her own curiosity. Leitmotif of this story, besides moral lesson, is also religion, faith in the Almightily God and the inevitability of fate (no one could escape what is predestined or escape a punishment). When young prince was destined to die after 50 days from the settle date, he isolate himself under the ground until the conjunction of the stars is over but it could not save him from the disaster and despite his cautions and restrains death eventually found him in a same way as it was fated to him once. So this idea of the inevitability of fate is not unique to this particular tale, we could find it in many preceding stories of Scheherazade. Also as many other tales of the Arabian Nights this particular is filled with magical signs and events, within Scheherazade’s narrative are woven magical lands and mysterious creatures. As for example, the dervish experience of being shipwrecked on the Magnetic Mountain, an island of “black stone”, where “ Almighty God has endowed the magnetic stone with a mysterious virtue that makes the iron love it”.(p.114) Also, “by the shore there is a vaulted dome of brass set on ten columns and on top of this is a rider and his horse, both made of brass” (p 115) This rider kills all who comes his way. Later on in the Dervish’s Tale, there is also a boatman constructed of brass, who automatically rows silently across the sea, “with a lead tablet on his breast, inscribed with names and talismans”. (ibid) Later in a story, the dervish finds a strange “deep-black horse”, which he sits on, and when he strikes it, it issues a neigh like “roaring thunder” and flies off with him, carrying him up into the sky.(p.130) So all this mysterious creatures, lands, palaces, supernatural powers, are the part of the magical word created by Scheherazade , which contributing in a tale genre and appears to essential modules in the Arabian Nights tale collection.
  The one component that is missing in this particular story and what is makes the narrative of this story unique and distinctive from the conventions of other tales of the Arabian Nights. This is the first story I read where the element of female betrayal or trickery is absent. Women doesn’t portray in a negative light in this tale and all misfortunes of the men arise through the fault of his curiosity and the absence of patience, rather then female disloyalty and infidelity, while this is very common theme for the preceding stories.

•   d.lee4 // Apr 20th 2015 at 8:43 pm

  PG 113= The Third Dervish’s Tale
  The story I chose is the Third Dervish’s story where he tells of how he lost his right eye. In similarity to all the other stories in The Arabian Nights, the story tells of how the narrator encounters a conflict that tests him. It also tells of how he suffers because of a flaw of his and what he has decided to do in order to atone for what he has done. On page 119 when the dervish kills the young man as was predicted, he realizes that his curiosity for the young man is what causes his death. Later on page 130, his curiosity is what causes him to suffer again when he enters the last chamber after he is told not to and loses his right eye as a result. His tests and sufferings at the hands of these tests are the main components that match this story with all the others in the book.
  In separating itself from all the others, this story is unique in that the narrator instead of being put through suffering by people around them, it is their own character flaw that causes their downfall in the end. In the others, the main characters go through conflicts such as from a manipulative person or even from the whims of a demon.

•   mj160516 // Apr 21st 2015 at 12:23 pm

  The story I decided to read was “The Third Dervish’s” story. I picked this story randomly and found that this story was rather different then the ones we’ve read which was interesting. In most of the other stories the main character/narrator suffers due to the people around them but what makes this story unique out of them all is that the flaws in each character causes their suffering.
  With that being said the story is about how the character who runs into a conflict which is basically his test and gets punished for his own curiosity. For example on page 130, he is clearly told not to enter the last chamber but due to his curiosity he enters. Due to the fact that he entered after being told not to he lost his right eye. On page 123 it is said “ We would be sitting pretty but for our curiosity.” This quote above clearly states the moral of the story, it shows that your curiosity can put you in many different situations that could result in many different flaws.

•   dh141373 // Apr 21st 2015 at 12:33 pm

  “The Tale of the First Lady, the Mistress of the House” (Choosen randomly)

  Like the other tales, this tale is also told is the point of view of the main character of that story. Also, it maintains the same theme such as the importance of worshipping God. There is also some sort of betrayal going on. This time is was between the sisters. The two older ones were envious of the younger one when she fell in love with the young man from the city turned into stone. Another way that this tale is similar is because it is a flashback. The youngest sister is telling her story to the king in the story before this one. He wanted to understand why she always whips her two older sisters and then they all weep afterwards.
  Finally, we have a story told in the point of view of the female. It won’t be the last one but it is the first one I have encountered so far in this book. Most of the tales in the beginning of the book are told by men. The language is one component that sets this tale apart from the others. They started to use more offensive such as “bitch”.(134) I’m not sure of the meaning behind it at that day in age but it definitely is not positive.

•   m.gorman1 // Apr 21st 2015 at 6:10 pm

  I read the tale “The Tale of the Fifth Brother, the Cropped of Ears” about a man who came into good luck and then immediately turned it into bad luck by being too proud. This happened to this man multiple times in this story. The man came into some money after his father died and planned to use it to make even more money. He purchased glass to resell and while he was speaking of his plans for when he becomes rich he got excited and ended up breaking the glass. This seems like a common occurrence in the other tales. A person comes into some good luck, they get cocky about the good luck, and they end up being even more unlucky than before.
  However, “The Tale of the Fifth Brother, the Cropped of Ears” seems to be slightly different from the other tales. The man’s luck seemed to get worse and worse as the tale went on. He continued to get tricked by multiple people throughout the tale. It ended with, “But they refused and dragged my brother on his face to the chief of the police,” (260). The majority of the tales have ended well for the main character unlike this particular tale.

•   dg140454 // Apr 21st 2015 at 6:58 pm

  The Story Of The Three Apples has a practically identical theme as the other stories told in this book. There is a woman who is presumed to be unfaithful to her husband and the husband finds out about it. As soon as he finds out he is driven by fury and instantly kills her with no further evidence. In this story specifically the husband gets her very rare apples and later sees a slave with one of her apples. When he asks the slave where he got it the slave says “my mistress.” When he gets home and one of the three apples is missing he stabs his sick wife and cuts her head off. Later he sees his son crying and his son admits to borrowing one of the apples and having a slave steal it from him. The husband realizes that he has made a grave mistake and regrets murdering his wife, just like the other stories.

  Unlike the other stories in this story the wife isn’t really portrayed as this evil deceitful being, but rather a weak and helpless one. From the very beginning you feel bad for the woman and even when she is accused of adultery with what seems to be solid evidence you still don’t really believe it. She seemed to be described with favorable qualities rather than negative ones.

  Daiana Gorbach

•   ms158714 // Apr 21st 2015 at 8:16 pm

  The Christian Broker’s Tale: The Young Man with the Severed Hand and the Girl
  This tale, much like other tales in the novel, contains a moral lesson to be taught to the reader. The delivery of the tale is similar to early chapters of the novel, it starts with a person telling a story, in this case, a broker collecting money from another broker, which leads to another story. As the tale unfolds, similar outlines are used compared to previous tales, a man falls in love with a women, which leaves trouble brewing in the near future. The power of love causes the characters to condone activities that are deceitful, desperate and dangerous. Love leaves characters spellbound, which leads to their death, harm and punishment. So far the Arabian Nights seems like a handbook warning people about love, leaving me to feel extra cautious on the effects of love. (Then he summoned an executioner who cut off my right hand) 221. The character has gone to ends rope in order to satisfy his need to be with a women. It would have cost him his life if he not pleaded for dear life.
  From the title, I thought the tale would be similar to past tales, a deceitful women would cause pain to an “innocent” man. However this tale does not belittle any women, rather it teaches the reader what “true love” is. Instead of a woman causing pain to a man, a man has lead himself to have his hand removed for the crime of thievery, all to be with a woman. In past tales, it seemed as if the novel was against love, for women cannot be trusted, however in the following story, it is the opposite. The novel now highlights the strength of love, proving that a man will do whatever it takes to please a women, while not all women will cheat and be deceitful. “By God, even if I gave my life for you, it would be less than you deserve.” 223 In this situation, a women who he has met, fallen in love with, deems to be reasonable and loving, mirroring what her lover has showed her. While most tales point to the negatives of love, the following tale, shows the power love holds.

•   ms153581 // Apr 21st 2015 at 9:21 pm

  The story I have chosen was “The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot”, which had a similar concept like the other tales regarding how a man falls in love with a women, only to be later betrayed and cheated on. Within the tale, The husband discovers that his wife has been sleeping with another man while he was away in a foreign land. Similar to other tales, the husband retaliated against the wife after hearing about this, beating her for what she was accused of doing. This is similar to the tale of the King whom killed his own wife for cheating on him and continued his habit of marrying and killing women as a part of his ‘revenge’.

  However in this tale, the husband had discovered the news of his cheating wife through false information that he received through his companion parrot. Sensing that something was wrong, the Husband killed the parrot out of rage and did the same to his wife. What’s different about this tale is the fact that the husband displayed remorse for what he had done to the parrot after discovering that it had actually told the truth and that the parrot had been simply oblivious to the trickery of the wife.

•   p.moran // Apr 21st 2015 at 9:39 pm

  This book follows a specific structure were each tale combines different nights. At the beginning was the vizier the one telling the stories to her daughter to show her an example of what it will happen to her if she goes with the kind ( The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey) or what he will do if she goes to the kind ( The Tale of the Merchant and his Wife). But as the story goes on, once the daughter went to the king´s palace, all the tales are almost identical.

  The starting of the tale it is always a curious story, as the one in page 253 when a naked men running in the streets was trying to catch a women’’ that it is actually connected with the last part of the night before. It is usually an interesting introduction where the king wants to know more about it. It could be interesting and also as such this one a little out of place to create a sense of confusion and generate the feeling of having to know the explanation.

  Each night start with Sharazad flattering him to get his attention for tell the next story, such in page 18 or 252 when the first night or the one hundred and fifty-eight night start.

  All the stories are strange and therefore will awake the intrigue of the king. In this way Shahrazad, the vizier’s daughter, will be alive at least for one more day to be able to tell the next story that the king is waiting anxiously.

  All the tales has also a common element at the end that help Sharazad be alive as well as the story of the book. That Sharazad’s sister, Dinarzad. She will said at the end of each night something like ‘‘What a strange and wonderful story!’’ and Shahrazad will answer ‘‘Tomorrow night I shall tell you something even stranger and more wonderful than this’’(page 26). In this way she will cheer her sister in front of the king to make him think, I cannot kill her because if I will I will not know what will occur in the next part of Shahrazad’ story. Other tails she will ask for the permission of the king to tell another story such as in page 22 where the King answer that he would not put her to death until he heard of what happen with the demon, then he will.

  And that is the aim of the whole story telling throughout the book. Same objective at the beginning of tales, interesting story, throughout the tale the disproportioned, uncommon, lovely, strange story and an open ending to wake up the curiosity of the king and therefore do not be killed by him for be able to tell more stories

•   ht165037 // Apr 21st 2015 at 9:47 pm

  The tale that I chose to read is called The Tale of the Envious and the Envied. Some similarities I see within this tale and the rest of the tales that I’ve read up to this point are; there is always a protagonist and antagonist with every tale told and just like the rest of the tales this tale of Envious and the Envied, has a good guy and a bad guy. Another similarity is that the storyteller Shahrazad always seems to stop right at the most suspenseful part of the story (usually right when the protagonist is about die) just so that king Shahryar would be interested in what she has to say the next night, so he’ll end up sparing Shahrazad’s life for one more day. All the tales I’ve read so far including this one, all have this central theme of sparing someone’s life and forgiving one another.
  What sets The Tale of the Envious and the Envied apart from the rest is the moral of the story. What this story is ultimately trying to teach it’s listeners is that, whenever someone is envious towards you and does you harm, always be kind and good to them in return. This will show that you the more virtuous man and that you are not the same as the person that does you harm. Here’s a quote from the book, “Pardon my crime, for every mighty judge is used to mercy some offenders show. I stand before you guilty of all my sins, but you the ways of grace and mercy know. For he who seeks forgiveness from above, should pardon the offenders here below”. I believe that there is a heavy element of religion behind this tale, which teaches man to think in a virtuous manner when inflicted with haram that is not deserved.

•   ct154628 // Apr 21st 2015 at 10:12 pm

  The Tale of the First Brother, the Hunchbacked Tailor: This tale is similar to the beginning of the frame story. There were many instances of women making the lives of men worse and Shahzaman said “women are not to be trusted” after finding out his wife cheated on him. Furthermore, Shahrayar’s wife cheated on Shahrayar and lastly, both brothers found the women held captive by the demon who slept with 100 people without the demon finding out. Like the other tales this has a good transition from one story to another without sounding like the story is finished.

  The story is different from the other stories I’ve read because what I’ve read up to so far mainly included supernatural things and this story was realistic in that it could’ve happened. It is also interesting because it contrasts the wife in the story’s behavior with the king in the frame story. In the frame story the king (male) is the one who acts crude and unfair to the women of the town, but in this tale it is the wife (female) who uses the tailor. The tale can also reflect to the king on how it is improper to treat others so terribly.

•   pr158314 // Apr 21st 2015 at 10:13 pm

  “The Tale of the First Lady, the Mistress of the House” is very similar to a story from the beginning of the book. The story where the 3 men are sitting by the tree waiting for the demon to come back who was coming to kill the man who he promised to kill a year before. The story told in the beginning of the book was about 3 brothers who were each given 1000 dinars from their recently deceased father. Just like in, The Tale of the First Lady, the Mistress of the House, one of the three recipients spent the money well and was able to make fortune from it. The other two spend it poorly and wind up becoming beggars. Both of the ones who made the money in each story keep helping the siblings even though the siblings are not heeding the warning of reckless spending. They continue to marry husbands who take their wealth or as in the “The Second Old Man’s Tale” keep leaving to trade. The siblings come back every time saying how they should have listened and they will make it up by listening this time. Another similarity is when the siblings are turned into dogs by a being of some kind who sees the siblings as harming the wealthy one by taking the money and continuing to live recklessly.

  A way this story differs from most of the stories in this book is by having a female lead character. This story also differs the story of “The Second Old Man’s Tale” towards the end when the serpent turns into the mystical being. In the old man tale the merchant is kind to a women and agrees to marry her and she returns the kindness by turning the merchant’s brothers into dogs so they can’t leave with his money and lose it trying to trade. In the First lady tale, the woman attacks a serpent that is chasing another serpent. The serpent being chased then turns the siblings of the woman into dogs.

•   k.menzer // Apr 21st 2015 at 10:23 pm

  The Story of the Three Apples is similar with other stories in this book in quite a few ways. A woman is killed and kept in a chest, just like many other women are murdered in this book and a few trapped in objects. Another similarity is most women are murdered by their husbands because it is thought that their women are deceitful. In this particular passage, the man kills his wife because it is thought that she has cheated on him with a slave. This is the story the slave gives her which turns out to be a lie, another repeating theme throughout the book. When the husband finds out the slave was lying about his affair with his wife, it is too late. He is immediately regretful which is another common emotion that happens throughout the book. A person kills another person for a wrongful reason but only finds out after the murder and regrets it right away. This can be connected to the entire story because it could be a way Shahrazad is trying to tell the king that if he were to kill her, he would regret it afterwards. Another similarity in The Story of the Three Apples to the book as a whole is, women are thought to be deceitful and this story leads into another story.
  Although there are many similarities, there are also ways this story is different than the rest of the book. In the beginning, there is a fisherman who wishes for death when most of this book is about stories of people begging to be kept alive. Also, when Ja’far found the woman in a chest dead, he wanted to find the person who did this to her and have them killed. Most of this story, women are not protected or cared for as much as Ja’far showed for this stranger. Another difference is when the vizier is about to be killed, a young man confesses about his murder of the woman in the chest to protect the vizier rather than himself. After that an older man claims he was the murderer to protect the young man, who is a stranger to him. Most of the stories in this book are about people who tell stories to try to keep themselves alive rather than caring for anyone who isn’t themselves.

•   k.jackson // Apr 21st 2015 at 10:35 pm

  “The Third Dervish’s Tale”
  Chosen at random, my finger picked “The Third Dervish’s Tale”. This is a story about a man telling his tragedy of how he lost his eye from his fault of his own inquiring mind of having the desire to know. Comparing it to the rest of the book of Scheherazade’s tale each story has a least a character conduct a test and/or have a suffering. Looking a “The Third Dervish’s Tale” it states “lashing me on the face with his tad and gouged my left eyed, causing it roll along my check”. The point at issue of this tragedy that is narrate by the main character himself has a dilemma of curiosity is one of the major themes. The determination to know something.

  Besides my finger choosing “The Third Dervish’s Tale” for me and then reading the other tragedy tales, I do agree with my chose of being a little different from the others. You cannot blame someone all the time for our suffering, sometimes it’s the person themselves for the blame. And from reading “The Third Dervish’s Tale” you get this idea. He was the cause of his harm.

•   rh161368 // Apr 21st 2015 at 11:37 pm

  “The Story of Three Apples” is similar to the stories we have read so far because it includes a person in power overreacting to a tragedy in their kingdom. The caliph, the person in power, wants to execute his vizier and fifty of his kinsman for a murder of a woman if the murderer is not found. This is similar to how King Shahrayar overreacted to cases of unfaithfulness by creating a cycle of marrying and murdering a wife every day. “The Story if the Three Apples” fits in with the rest of the book because they all seem to have lessons that would deter King Shahrayar from murdering Shahrazad and more wives-to-be. This particular story is trying to show the King that people often overreact and do things that they’d regret. An example of this regret is when the young man in “The Story of the Three Apples” says “I realized that I had killed my wife wrongfully and that she had died unjustly”(153). The young man had killed his wife because of a misunderstanding and that caused him even more pain. The moral of this story is to not overreact to injustices you think you’ve faced because misunderstandings are common. This moral is important to Shahrazad’s attempts to survive because she is trying to convince the King not to kill her through these stories.

  The story is unique from the others that I have read so far because of the use of overreaction as a main focus. Instead of some great demon or supernatural powers, they use human reactions as a way to drive the story forward. By chance the caliph obtains a chest with a dismembered woman inside it and he is filled with rage. That rage causes him to threaten the lives of his vizier and fifty of his kinsmen. The caliph overreacts to a crime happening in his kingdom and threatens the lives of many innocent people. Similarly the young man who killed his wife, that the caliph found, did so because he thought that his wife cheated on him with a slave. This is unique because humans, fueled by anger, completely lose their sense of reasoning and cause irreparable damage which is a lesson Shahrazad tries to teach the King through this story.

•   VALERIA KUBLIY // Apr 22nd 2015 at 10:57 am

  @ rh161368The paradox of this story is overreaction of one character, while others react inadequately or underreacts. What totally resonates this story is the fact that the person charged with investigation the murder Ja’far does absolutely nothing to resolve the delinquency, but in both cases convenes home and expecting his fate, even though he was threatened with death. He doesn’t care to even try to find the murder, even though his life is at stake. This is absolute case of underreacting. On a contrast to this total inaction of one character, the illogical overreaction of king looks ridicules, absurd and tyrannous. I do agree with you that overreaction is a leitmotif of a whole book, but what is more interesting is this illogical contrast that we also see a lot in this book.

•   m.ruiz // Apr 23rd 2015 at 12:22 pm

  @ct154628 The story you read sounds interesting since you say it could have actually happened. Therefore I am guessing there isn’t any absurdity in which sounds rather refreshing considering the things we read in this class. However, you do not go into detail so I’m just left confused now. You really did not elaborate on anything.

•   dh141373 // Apr 23rd 2015 at 12:38 pm

  @ht165037
  I really liked your conclusion about not stooping down to the level of those who have done you wrong to take revenge. Also, the concept of people being envious of you and doing you harm is shown in the story of The Tale of King Yunan and The Sage Duban.