Week 5 Reading: Arabian Nights

This week I am reading The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford. This post will cover part A.

• The context that the short stories are being presented in is a very interesting element to me. Usually there is nothing really on the line for the narrator, they are just telling stories to their grand kid or something along those lines. 
• I have never considered how "genie" and "genius" are connected as words. Maybe it would be a good place to start my Wikipedia trail this week. 
• I'm looking forward to finding out how Scheherazade (she really needs a nickname) will convince the Sultan of the error of his ways and save her own life. 

Scheherazade, from Wikipedia

• The layers of meta storytelling are starting to confuse me. It's like on onion, although I'm not quite ready to cry. 
• Scheherazade is really playing a risky game here. I find her overarching story to be much more interesting than the ones she is telling to her sister and the Sultan. 
• I like that Scheherazade is seemingly trying to make the Sultan believe that he is the Genie in all these stories - smart and all powerful, but generous to those who are good to him. Flattery is always a good choice. However, she may be telegraphing too hard when the Fisherman catches the Genie in an enchanted bottle, perhaps the bottle is a metaphor for the Sultan's desire to see the end of the story? 
• I think the third level of storytelling, involving King Sindbad (possibly a promotion from lucky sailor) and his Vizir is getting to be too much for me. Perhaps Scheherazade simply means to confuse the Sultan, but hopefully it all comes together in the end. 
• I think the King meeting his death at the hands of the physician, who originally meant him no harm, is the clearest warning that the Sultan has had that something bad might happen to him. 
• I take it back, the journey the fisherman and the sultan go on seems to be the metaphor about what storytelling and curiosity can do to a person. Maybe this and the Genie trapped in the bottle both are. 

Thanks for reading with me, look for part B soon.