The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898)
Now the Asian setting for Arabian nights makes more sense. Did China have sultans as well, or was this a combination of cultures in the telling of this story?
Did Aladdin actually have any character growth? I suppose he made a life for himself and his mother, but he did it through magical wishes. He did save the princess multiple times. His life's work was centered around her it would seem. Perhaps it could be said Aladdin's idleness was broken by the beauty of the princess.
I like seeing all the inspirations for the Disney film. He wasn't as sympathetic a character in this version, but the tricks he used to win over the princess were clearly taken from this story. Jafar's character was an amalgamation of the uncle and the vizir in this story. It's really cool to see how the writers for the Disney movie simplified the story and made the characters more likable. I always thought the animated sequels to the movie were also taken from Arabian Nights, but it doesn't seem like that's the case. I also wish there was a conclusion to Scheherazade's story. Maybe that's in another section of the book.
There's a guy at the beginning of the Disney version who begins telling the story of Aladdin (it was secretly Genie), so I think what my story needs to be is someone telling a story. I'm not sure if there will be a story within that story yet. In Part A of this reading, I nearly got confused. Maybe I could intentionally make the story confusing by having two parties arguing, and their argument is made up of contradicting stories. That would be cool. I'm thinking about a husband and a wife telling a bedtime story to their child, and they keep disagreeing about what happened next. It could be funny. It could also be sad if the parents are actually caught up in a heated argument about a bedtime story.
Palaces come and go (Source)
No comments:
Post a Comment