Reading Notes
Arabian Nights Part B
During the second half of this reading, there wasn't much of a focus on multiple stories tellers as there was in the previous sections. This half has a primary focus on the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp. As a child whose name was Jasmine, I always loved when I was given the chance to watch the Disney film, Aladdin, because I felt like everything that was happening was happening to me. Having a movie I loved so much being retold to me from its original adaptation was hard to digest at first. The story was focused on retelling the counts of what was being done over dialogue and structure in character development. I know that this story was being told from a storyteller that the original Arabian Nights tale was following, but since this was a longer story than the previous ones it was probably intentional to be told this way. The style of these stories was to just recount a situation that had happened, which means it makes sense for there to not be much dialogue going back and forth between characters unless it was important to the story. There also may not seem to be much character development over time because the focus is on a recount of a story, not a made-up tale that you create the structure for. The cool thing about storytelling in this way is that the actual story may shape out to be something slightly different than the newer versions, however; most of the time this approach leaves you to be captivated as a whole rather than "I want this person to have love and justice and ..." you get the picture. You want to know about how the end of the story affects all the people and if it's good or bad regardless of the main characters' fates. This style is good for an approach at a hero tale you'd tell a child before bed, or maybe to help lift the spirits of someone who isn't doing too well.
Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford (Un-Textbook)
Image: Aladdin in Arabian Nights (Wikimedia Commons)
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