Literary Carpet Ride

KING SHAHYRAR AND HIS BROTHER

This story was very interesting, and it definately kept my attention throughout the entire thing. I read the Wikipedia "rundown" of The 1,001 Nights which I feel helped out alot when I began to read this story. I liked how Shahyrar's initial decision to go visit his little brother Shah Zaman was easily skewed by his "Wazir" (reminded me of a butler?). It showed the traditionality of brotherly relationships that we still see today. Think about it:

(2007, Anywhere)
Big Brother: "Hey man, I miss my litte bro, let's go see him."
Big Brother's friend: "No way dude, tell him to come over here instead."
Big Brother: "Little Bro! come over!"

Another thing that sort of tied together with Othello was this term "cuckold," which we talked about Monday. It comes up the first time when Zaman leaves, forgetting the gifts for Shahyrar, only to walk in on his wife partaking in post-intercourse "spooning."...with a lowly cook. However, that issue was easily solved with one fell swoop of his "scymitar." Point being she "cuckolded" him.
Later on, we see it again once Zaman is at Shahyrar's. Shahyrar's wife is in the garden (I think) accompanied by handfuls of other naked horny slaves. Eventually, Zaman witnesses the Queen having "relations" with a black guy that fell out of a tree.
This all relates to the wives' actions we discussed in Othello, who intentionally play the field to humiliate their husbands. A.k.a., "cuckolding" them.


OTHER "NIGHTS"


One of the other stories I read was "The Thief and His Monkey." Sound familiar? Now I'm not quite sure if it's actually the story of Aladdin (I know we were looking for it Monday), but it sounds pretty damn close. It describes a man (the thief) who never enters the market, but frequently makes subtle "visits" with his monkey to steal stuff. However, he resells these items. That was either forgotten in Disney's Aladdin, or left out so kids wouldn't go on a looting rampage at the mall with wild animals for sidekicks.

I read another titled "Woman's Trick Against Her Husband;" another fine display woman making man look like a complete idiot. The man comes home to his wife with a fish, and asks her to prepare it. The man goes out and finishes his business for the rest of the day, and she puts the fish in a jar of water then leaves for a week. When she comes back, he's furious. However, she's convinced the people of the village to play along with her little prank. The man sees a fish in a jar, doesn't believe it's the same fish and is imprisoned for going crazy. That sounds like the plotline for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith II."