1001 and 420 Tales

From the March 4, 1932 edition of the Eagle Valley Enterprise., comes this clip -

"'Inspired by Hasheesh?'

It is generally supposed that the 'Arabian Nights,' and others of these weird strange Eastern tales were written under the influence of hasheesh, which lends such a marvelous brilliancy to the imagination"

more at - http://www.westword.com/news/colorado-cannabis-time-capsule-1934-1001-stoned-arabian-nights-6591812

1001 Nights Soap Pulled After Complaints

Aldi soap in Germany pulls 1001 Nights soap after people complained about the image of the Hagia Sophia on its label. The complaints argued that the image was blasphemous.


"Aldi's troubles began in December of last year, when they stacked their shelves with a liquid soap called "Ombia - 1001 Nacht," or "1,001 Nights," named after the famous Arabian nights fables. The crucial detail: those who have complained say the soap's packaging allegedly shows a mosque.
Muslim customers viewed the item as offensive, saying a mosque did not belong even in the vicinity of a lavatory. Many contacted Aldi Süd on the supermarket's Facebook page.

"When I saw your liquid soap by Ombia on your shelves, I was a little shocked since it showed a mosque," one of Aldi Süd's Facebook friends posted on the social network in German. "The mosque with its dome and minarets is a symbol that stands for dignity and respect for Muslims. That's why I don't find it appropriate to depict this meaningful image on an item of daily use."

Resolution attempt backfired

Aldi reacted swiftly about the potentially blasphemous soap. It issued a statement on Facebook saying that it would remove the item from its stores. "We're sorry that you were irritated by the design of our soap," Aldi apologized. "Of course, we have forwarded your note to the appropriate contact person in this house so that they are informed and sensitized to the issue.""

Full article at DW - http://www.dw.de/soap-opera-erupts-over-aldi-packaging/a-18202778

Mushi Productions presents A Thousand and One Nights (1969) - 千夜一夜物語

A Thousand and One Nights (千夜一夜物語 Senya Ichiya Monogatari?) is a 1969 anime feature film directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, conceived by Osamu Tezuka. The film is part of Mushi Production's Animerama, a series of films aimed at an adult audience. More on wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_and_One_Nights_%281969_film%29

Someone has uploaded it to youtube with subtitles in English. It is an "adult" animated film with a decidedly psychedelic 60s feel to it.

A review by Fred Patten has more on its background - http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/tezukas-adult-features-a-thousand-and-one-nights-1969/

Here is the film -

Tales Within Tales - Sabrina Guerrieri (Pasolini, the Nights and Postmodernism)

Many thanks to Haitham Alsarraf (http://www.amazon.com/Mr.-Haitham-Alsarraf/e/B00OJ2UKSC) for passing this along -

"Tales within Tales" is a recent article on Pasolini, the Nights and postmodernism at Reorient, an online magazine. It is written by Masters student Sabrina Guerrieri and does a fine job at suggestively tying together notions of postmodernity with Pasolini's treatment of the Nights.

"Sometimes I ask myself (without the least anxiety) if by chance this trilogy [to] which I am giving myself body and soul is not a form of political disengagement and … indifference. But I know intimately that my recent works are political precisely because they do not want to be so … The interruption of meaning is not only more honest, it is more universal than the meaning itself.

Such a statement suggests that Il Fiore, through the interruption of meaning, is an attempt to bring Pasolini’s spectators to a politico-cultural alertness. Identifying himself with those on the margins of society, he sought stories that explored the non-normative — those of characters such as queers, prostitutes, immigrants, and peasants. Although the entire Trilogy of Life has been argued to be a celebration of pre-capitalist/non-industrialised societies, Il Fiore, in particular, with its emphasis on the ‘non-West’, provided Pasolini with a potential point of resistance to the cultural hegemony of the economic centre. ‘My polemic was against the culture of the dominant Eurocentric class’, Pasolini explicitly stated. He was well aware of the fabrication of Orientalist representations within the popular imaginary – that is, of the ‘East’ as a society still on the borders of consumer culture and not yet homologated by the forces of neo-capitalism."


You can read the entire article here - http://www.reorientmag.com/2014/12/thousand-and-one-nights/