Marina Warner on NPR

Here is a downloadable audio link to an interview between National Public Radio's Tom Ashbrook and Marina Warner, who recently published Stranger Magic, a retelling of the Nights with some academic additions.

The interview on the whole is interesting but a bit general, but then again, what is "correct" is certainly debatable vis-a-vis the Nights.

Show: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/03/30/the-arabian-nights

"The Arabian Nights

A new twist on the old magic in the tales of the Arabian Nights.

The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights – the Arabian Nights – start with a terrible premise. The great sultan has decided to marry a new virgin every night, and cut off her head in the morning. Candidates are running out.

Young Scheherazade volunteers for the job. And tells the sultan a story so compelling, every night, that when she leaves him hanging in the morning he can’t bear to kill her. Until finally, he falls in love. After a thousand and one stories of magic and genies, enchantment, pleasure and sin.

This hour, On Point: a new take, twist, on the old magic in the tales of the Arabian Nights.

-Tom Ashbrook"

Whitewashing Tales from The Arabian Nights: WPR Interview

Here is an interview from Wisconsin Public Radio on the Nights featuring a conversation between Andrei Codrescu and Reza Aslan on the story collection.

Here's the link, you can download the program:

http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_110614k.cfm

From the site:

"In the original telling, Scheherazade’s story was wild and wicked enough to keep the Sultan awake for a 1001 nights. Reza Aslan and Andrei Codrescu uncover the libidinous side of the Arabian Nights as we talk about the seductive power of storytelling.

Guest

• Andrei Codrescu, author of Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments
• Reza Aslan, founder of AslanMedia.com, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside"

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Arabian Nights

Here's a great audio interview/synopsis of the history of the Nights from the BBC with Interviewer Melvyn Bragg, Robert Irwin, author of The Arabian Nights: A Companion and Professors Marina Warner and Gerard van Gelder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0081kdb

Some text from the page:

"Melvyn Bragg discusses the myths, tales and legends of the Arabian Nights.

Once upon a time a wealthy merchant grew hot in the sun and sat down under a tree. Having eaten a date, he threw aside the stone, and immediately there appeared before him a Genie of enormous height who, holding a drawn sword in his hand, approached him, and said, “rise that I may kill thee”.

This is from The Arabian Nights, a collection of miraculous tales including Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Sinbad the Sailor. Forged in the medieval Arab world, it became so popular in Europe that the 18th century Gothic writer Horace Walpole declared “Read Sinbad the Sailor’s Voyages and you will grow sick of Aeneas”.

Its origins are Indian and Persian but it was championed initially by an 18th century Frenchman, Antoine Galland. Celebrated for its fabulous stories, it is a patchwork of sex, violence, magic, adventure, and cruelty – a far cry from the children’s book that it has become.

With Robert Irwin, Senior Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Marina Warner, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex; Gerard van Gelder, Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford."

1001 Nights Radio Show (in Arabic)

The blogger Zeinobia at her great blog Egyptian Chronicles has been posting radio clips of the 1001 Nights in Arabic.  During Ramadan in the Middle East it is common for family and friends to gather to watch special TV serials and radio shows and the 1001 Nights both on TV and the Radio has been a staple of the holy month for years, particularly in Egypt.

Here is the Barber of Bagdad, for more postings on her blog click the link '1001' below this post.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/08/ramadans-arabian-nights-barber-of_26.html

Banned in Egypt - Colombian National Radio

There has been a lot of press lately about the group of lawyers in Egypt who want to ban the recently published "Heritage Series" reissue of the 1001 Nights and a lot of backlash too within Egypt.

I was recently interviewed by Hernan Restrepo at the Colombian National Radio station in Colombia about the incident.

Here is the article in Spanish: http://www.radionacionaldecolombia.gov.co/index.php/ultimas-noticias/internacionales/quieren-vetar-las-mil-y-una-noches-en-egipto.html

And here is the link to the mp3 (in Spanish and English):
http://www.radionacionaldecolombia.gov.co/images/stories/audios/cafeynoticias/may 19 michael lundell candidato a phd en literatura inglesa experto en las mil y una noches web.mp3

Ultimately here are my thoughts on the matter:

- the 1001 Nights is a lot more "risque" than most people think
- it shouldn't be banned but I would understand the sudden outrage over it by conservative types of any religion or political or cultural backgrounds (most people don't even know what's in the 1001 Nights and are always surprised when they find out)

Maybe we need Scheherazade to step in at this point to soothe everyone's nerves?

Ira Glass from NPR

Ira Glass has a new one man stage show and is currently touring the US (next stop UCLA). (Check out wikipedia if you don't know who he is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_glass According to the review posted below he is ending his show with a nod to the Nights which I find interesting and which gets to some core element that I think is inherent in the Nights' everlasting ability to intrigue (its loose form and frame story).

I'm always skeptical but also amused to hear why people think Shahriar doesn't kill her and what he learns from the storytelling experience but, given the nebulous nature of the Nights, the answer is provocatively elusive.

link to review from his Kansas performance article: http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2010/02/ira_glass_at_the_lied_center_review.php

from the article:

"But Glass ended with a yarn that wasn't his own.

With the quintessential This American Life-style music swelling behind him, the radio host told a rendition of the Arabian Nights, the story of a woman who is spared by a murderous king for 1,001 nights because she keeps her captor wrapped up in the suspense of the stories she tells. "So remember what I'm telling you today, because these are tools that can save your life," Glass joked.

There was a serious lesson in Arabian Nights, too. Because of the woman's stories, Glass said, the king learned empathy. He ultimately spared the woman's life.

"Narrative is a back door to a really deep place in us," Glass said. "A place where reason doesn't necessarily hold sway. All of us in the room tonight live in a very unusual cultural moment where we're bombarded by stories like no other people who have ever lived. ... It's not just that we see actors everyday. Everything is a story. The NFL is a story and every story on the Internet is a story. Every ad is a story, every song is a story, and just, like, every little thing, all day long, is a story coming at us. I don't know about you, but it's rare for a story to feel like it's possible that that story could be me; that that's what it would be like to be that person. When that happens, you definitely notice because it's so unusual. And I don't know if it's important to make stories that have that power, but it's important to me. Like, when it happens, I feel more sane."

Ira Glass at the Lied Center review
By Carolyn Szczepanski in Entertainment, Media, Out & About
Mon., Feb. 22 2010 @ 11:00AM
The Pitch Kansas City

Sinbad Radio Show

Here is an old radio show archived online with Basil Rathbone as Sinbad. The Internet Archive is really amazing, I hope it turns people away from cable TV and this stuff becomes popular again.

Here is the recording:



Here is the website with the full playlist:

http://www.archive.org/details/otr_columbiamasterworksbasilrathbone

Alf Laila wa Laila Radio Shows Online

Moti passes this link to the Internet Archive which features scores of radio shows from Egypt centered around tales from the 1001 Nights.

Even if you don't speak Arabic they will be nice to listen to the rhythms and rhymes of the stories and the storytellers.

Link:

http://www.archive.org/details/ArabianNights_Radio_Of_Cairo