Arabian Nights
1. Scheherazade
I enjoyed how this story unit begins, it introduces the characters in a much better fashion than the previous readings that I have done.
2. The Story of the Merchant and the Genius
I wasn't fond of the word choice of genius for genie because although they might have similarities in terms of word origin, I found it to be distracting since in modern sense they are not similar in meaning at all. Also why couldn't the Merchant just not return to the spot where the genie would kill him? It seems like the genie didn't intend on hunting him down.
3. The Story of the First Old Man and of the Hind
How there is a story inside a story reminds me of all of the Inception jokes that people made when they came out.
4. The Story of the Second Old Man, and of the Two Black Dogs
Scheherazade does do a good job of making you want to read the next story. I usually feel like I'm going through a checklist reading these stories but I haven't felt like that with this so far.
5. The Story of the Fisherman
If I was the fisherman, I would try wishing for death by extremely old age. On another note I like how Arabian Nights appears to be divided into 3 different stories told by Scheherazade, it adds different elements to the overall same theme.
6. The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban
Not much to say about this story other than it is neat how polo was around back then and how there is another layer to this Inception-like story.
7. The Story of the Parrot; The Story of the Ogress
While the story of the parrot made sense in how it compared to the king's situation with the physician, I found the story of the ogress to be confusing.
8. The Story of the Physician's Revenge
This was a good story, but I wished that it kept to its non-magical tone that it had for a majority of the second layer story. The dismembered head talking threw me off since it came out of nowhere. I did find the way the physician killed the king to be clever and I am surprised some sort of Sherlock Holmes or CSI show hasn't ripped it off.
9. The Story of the Sultan and the Fish
Its a little annoying how the stories are jumping around now, but it makes sense since Sheherazade is trying to buy time and is following tangents of stories and stall.
10. The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles
Definitely a good ending to this subunit of Arabian Nights, although it did stray pretty far from where it started.
11. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 1
I found the dad dying from Aladdin not working to be a somewhat amusing way for the father to die. Also I can see underlying similarities between the Disney and original versions.
12. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 2
I wish it explained why the Sultan decided to forgo his promise to Aladdin's mother, hopefully it explains itself in a later story.
13. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 3
I could see how the story ending here would have a good ending. I don't like Aladdin in this version though so I could see how things might change.
14. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 4
Aladdin isn't that bright if he left an all powerful genie's lamp out in the open, if it was me, I would have it locked up better than Fort Knox.
15. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 5
I guess I thought that something bad would happen since part 4 said if it ended there it would have been a happily ever after story.
16. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 6
I was a little confused by what the Roc's egg meant. Do genies serve Rocs? Either way I wish this unit had some conclusion on what happened to Scheherazade.
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