Oh yeah!
I'm reading Arabian Nights. Not sure why, except that I feel like I should have done so by now.
In the The Fisherman and the Jinnee [sic], there are four varieties of magical fish that, if you attempt to cook them in combination, trigger an unusual series of events. First, the walls of whatever room you happen to be occupying suddenly split in half, revealing either 1) a large woman wearing excessive amounts of jewelry or 2) a large, burly black man. Said person proceeds to poke the fish with his/her cane, asking, "Have you been keeping your pledge?" The fish reply in the affirmative, after which they are removed from their pan and thrown into the cooking fire, where they are burnt to a crisp and rendered inedible. The strange personage then departs through the hole in the wall, which reforms itself into its previous, unbroken state. This happens no less than three times in this one story.
It's like some kind of demented precursor to the Kool-Aid man.
In the The Fisherman and the Jinnee [sic], there are four varieties of magical fish that, if you attempt to cook them in combination, trigger an unusual series of events. First, the walls of whatever room you happen to be occupying suddenly split in half, revealing either 1) a large woman wearing excessive amounts of jewelry or 2) a large, burly black man. Said person proceeds to poke the fish with his/her cane, asking, "Have you been keeping your pledge?" The fish reply in the affirmative, after which they are removed from their pan and thrown into the cooking fire, where they are burnt to a crisp and rendered inedible. The strange personage then departs through the hole in the wall, which reforms itself into its previous, unbroken state. This happens no less than three times in this one story.
It's like some kind of demented precursor to the Kool-Aid man.
Labels: narcissism
5 Comments:
I stand by my belief tha these stories are best when read to/by another person.
A good point. Oral storytelling has different requirements than written narrative, and therefore requires "translation" to go from one format to the other.
Shahrazad...
...Gesundheit!
"It's like some kind of demented precursor to the Kool-Aid man."
Or, the EKAT tests.
I don't recognize your name. Who are you?
Oral storytelling has different requirements than written narrative
You know... I had half-forgotten that this is the reason why.
Derek read me stories from 'Arabian Nights' over the phone every night while I was recovering from thyroid cancer treatment. Later, I read some of the stories to him.
I imagine one reason why it works so well with 'Arabian Nights' is because of its oral origins, but really any plot-driven story with relatively simple language will do for reading aloud. Like a bedtime story. Or Harry Potter.
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