Monthly Archives: November 2010

“The Thousands and One Nights.”

The article that I picked is about U.S. shutting down all the websites that involves in piracy. The websites made illegal copies of movies, music and different other programs that were available to users using Internet all over the world. But U.S. seems to be very considered about this topic matter, first because piracy is a crime and second that they cannot control what people download from the Internet, which is a very vast. So, it would be easier and safer if the hosting sites were closed or banned. The Immigration and Customs enforcement division of the Homeland security took such action because they saw high risk and threat that U.S. could have. They take down the site put a notice of their own so that users are aware. They are still in the action of closing down many more other sites and they have been searching for them everyday.
I find this article to be very related to the story of Shahrayar who finds his wife cheating on him over a slave. The women wore veils, which was used to cover their body, so it was difficult to identify them. The sites also disguises themselves to look like a decent website but instead they give off data that users can share. In the story Shahrayar’s wife took advantage of this by getting the slaves dress up in veils and come to the palace. When he comes to know about his wife’s act, he makes to plan to catch her red-handed. “It became King Shahrayar’s custom…death the next morning.” (B, 414) It is similar to the test that the government officials are doing; they check the sites and then turn them down.

 In The One Thousand and One Nights, the story discusses how woman are betraying their husbands. In one instance Shahrayar’s wife is caught cheating with a slave. She is able to get away with this by using the veil that woman are told to wear in their society. Woman are told to wear the veils to cover up their beauty in public, however women realized to use this belief in their favor. In The One Thousand and One Nights the woman are shown as using their veils to cover up their identity and provide them with freedom. It is very hard to tell woman apart when they are completely covered up and this makes it very easy to secure their identity. Shahrayar’s wife uses her veil to make herself blend in with the slave girls and the men they are sleeping with wear the veils to make them appear to be slave girls as well. The Thousand and One Nights says, “…[A]nd there emerged, strutting like a dark-eyes deer, the lady, his brother’s wife, with twenty slave-girls, ten white and ten black. … Then they sat down, took off their clothes, and suddenly there were ten slave-girls and ten black slaves dressed in the same clothes as the girls” (B,410). After Shahrayar sees what is going on he decides to never trust a woman again. He comes up with a plan to sleep with a new girl every night and then put them to death. That way they will not be able to sleep with anyone else. This is Shahrayar’s attempt to control woman.
 In the New York Time’s, recently there was an article, Google Sees Rules Violations in Limits on Internet Access. This article discusses how China, and other countries, are attempting to control the internet by blocking what people are allowed to access. The internet, since it was created, always provided freedom. Users are able to access any site and are able to obtain any information they are looking for. Some people used the internet to cover up their identity because anybody can be whoever they would like to be online. Also there are many websites now with information that users are allowed to put up, like Wikipedia. The freedom on the internet is endless, or so it was. Now Google is saying that government is attempting to control the internet by blocking what users are allowed to do. The article states, “The Google policy paper said that more than 40 governments around the world now to some extent restrict freedom of information on the Internet — which it said was more than a tenfold increase in the last decade of governments with such restrictions.” Most of the governments that want to go about this are from the East. Google is arguing that blocking the free flow of information on the internet is against human rights and will block economic growth. This article is similar to the story, The One Thousand and One Nights because as woman are using the veils to allow themselves freedom, the internet has provided users with freedom. Now the government, similar to Shahrayar, is attempting to control the rights given to people, or these women. The government is attempting to use censorship to control internet uses, and Shahrayar is killing women, so that they will have absolutely no freedom after him.

The reading of Thousand and One Nights is one that can be very closely related to the NY Times article Diana’s Ring Seals Prince William’s Marriage Plans. For example, Shahrazad and Kate Middleton are both very well educated.  “The oldest daughter, Shahrazad had read books of literature, philosophy, and medicine. (414) Kate also went to a very prestigious school and is also very well educated.   “Should Miss Middleton become Queen Catherine, she would be the first queen in British history to have a college degree, or indeed, to have any college education at all.”
It can also be inferred that both men in these instance fell in love because of the intelligence that these woman have.   Kate and Prince William met at the same university and so they exchanged ideas, and opinions, which could have led to the initial attraction. Sometimes this type of attraction is just as powerful as sexual and so we must give some credit to Kate’s intelligence as something that Prince William fell in love with.  In comparison, Shahryar fell in love with Shahrazad because of her ability to tell many tales and keep him interested in keeping her alive to tell these stories.  There may have been sexual tension but the main source of stimulation was Shahrazad’s intelligence.

Another comparison that can be made is that both Shahrazad and Miss. Middleton entered dangerous situations. Shahrazad entered a more life-threatening situation where every night she would have to persuade the king to keep her alive for another day.  In Miss. Middleton’s case it is more superstitious but the previous Princess, Lady Diana met a tragic demise and so Kate is entering the situation knowing what happened to the last princess.  This however is highly superstitious but it is a fact nonetheless.