Now it is time to read probably the most famous of the tales from the Arabian Nights. Woooo! Aladdin here we comeeeeeee!!!!!
11-16. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp- It's weird to think of Aladdin as being idle and having a family, what with the whole Disney, street-rat, Robin Hood-ish appeal. Awwwwwww! Where's the giant talking tiger head? Just a trap door with a brass ring? For shame, Sheherazade! Though the magic ring was a nice addition, haha--my precioussss. . .
There's a lot of fainting in this story; it reminds me of Dante in The Inferno (an odd comparison, but true). Also, Aladdin is kind of just a lucky bastard in this story. No skill or talent, just a propensity for genies and eventual good luck. Disney definitely took some major liberties with this tale. Additionally, Aladdin is a peeping Tom, something I never would have guessed. And he totally stole another man's wife and bed on their wedding night, which is just-just-. . .so odd. . .
Ahh, the changes that greed and lust can breed in a man. And wealth, the greatest of all aphrodisiacs! Yet, somehow, through all of this, Aladdin remains modest and courteous? Psssshht. What Aladdin is this? Haha. (Also, anybody else surprised by the lengthy time scale for this story? Something like a decade or more has passed by here. . .)
To think that it is an evil magician and not the evil sorcerer-vizir Jafar that will take Aladdin down. . . *sigh* Disney totally ruined this story for me. (P.S. Can you tell I love Disney movies?) The whole China-Africa thing is also really weirding me out. . .
Go girl power! Even hostile, unable-to-bear-her-company, harsh girl power! Woo! And you've gotta love a good poisoning--only in stories, of course. . .
An even eviler brother magician? Whatttt?! And such a callous murder just placed there so matter-of-factly. Goodness, this tale just gets better and better. Though the ending is definitely more abrupt than expected, what with the genie just giving all the deceptions away like that and Aladdin murdering another sorcerer.
Well, that's it folks, another week of reading diaries come and gone! I bid you adieu!
Image Information. Magic-Lamp, photomontage by Rachidbenour. DeviantArt.
Jessica, your reading diaries are hilarious! I love that you seem to do it in a stream-of-conscious, as you are reading style. It makes these diaries so interesting, and I can completely understand where you are coming with in regards to Disney. I absolutely love Disney movies, but they are so much different than the stories they are based off of. But I love Aladdin; it is one of my favorite Disney movies. So reading this diary was really interesting for me to see the comparison you found between the story we are familiar with and this one.
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