Week 4 - Essay: My Thoughts on Arabian Nights

So, as is obvious from my title, I read the unit on Arabian Nights.  I will admit that I had no idea of what to expect, but I really enjoyed it.  I've heard of Scheherazade before and I actually danced the ballet Scheherazade when I was dancing.  However, I had never read the story before.  I really enjoyed the fact that this was a complicated storyline.  It was not complicated in a way that would make it difficult to follow, not by any means, but it was complicated in the fact that everything was not just black and white and there were multiple layers to the story.  Scheherazade is a girl who is determined to stop the Sultan's killing of every new bride he takes, which he takes a new girl every night.  In her plot to do so, she begins to tell a story.  But within this story, there is another story.  And....within the second and third story there is another....The Sultan is so intrigued and wants to hear the end, that he stays her execution.  If I remember correctly from the ballet, Scheherazade tells 1000 tales and lives 1001 days to tell those stories.  However, in her telling of the tales, the Sultan had fallen in love with her and spared her life.  You know, in this current time and place in history we always think we have the best of everything; the best books, technology, etc.  However, I feel that this story really proves that great authors were working long before our time.  To be creative and complex enough to create this type of story with so many different facets to follow, but all anchored to the main character of Scheherazade, I mean, come on... THAT'S AMAZING!!! Again, anyone who happens to read this essay and has not yet chosen their week 3 or 4 reading unit, I would highly recommend this one! The reading went by so fast and it was interesting and entertaining to read; not boring at all.

Svetlana Zakharova - Scheherazade

Bibliography:
Svetlana Zakharova in Scheherazade.  Web Source: Dancer Scheherazade
Un-Textbook unit, Arabian Nights.  Web Source: Arabian Nights