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Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part A

Image of the cartoon (Disney) Aladdin: Source
       Like many, the majority of what I know about Arabian nights, or, 1001 Nights, is from the Disney cartoon Aladdin. These readings were quite wonderful, and I genuinely enjoyed my time reading the first half of the Arabian Nights stories. Being exposed to other cultures, specifically Middle Eastern counties literature, is very important to me. I took a World Literature course last semester where we read Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih (one of my favorite novels ever) and Kim by Rudyard Kipling. So I have been exposed to a fair amount of Eastern literature, but not nearly as much as I would like. Of course, I am looking forward to the second part of the readings where I get to read Aladdin, but these stories were still very intriguing. My favorite story of this bunch was "The Sultan and the Fish" because of the storytelling aspect. This story has Scheherazade telling a story about a genie and a fisherman. I think this story was the most useful one to me because it is the type of storytelling that I would personally like to participate in, I wish I could get better at this style of writing, and including dialogue. I truly loved the whimsical magical element of the story, the sheer amazement that is had by the sultan. It is a child-like wonder that is so deeply wholesome about this story, it reminds me of a lot of Aladdin, obviously, so it was easy to follow and to read. Overall, I was deeply interested in this story because of the correlation with one of my favorite childhood Disney films, as well as the Middle Eastern context. In closing, I am genuinely excited that I got to partake in reading these stories as a continuation of our Middle East / India unit, and I am pumped to read the remainder of the stories.

Bibliography: Arabian Nights
Bibliography: The Sultan and the Fish
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