My review of Paul Nurse's Eastern Dreams: How the Arabian Nights Came to the World (2010) published by Penguin/Viking Canada is now online at the Journal of Folklore Research.
You can read the review here: http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=545
Paul Nurse's book has been out for several months now but is limited in its release to primarily Canada, which, given the book's scope and applicability, is too bad. Perhaps future editions will be given a wider distribution. You can, however, buy it from Amazon Canada with your Amazon user ID from the US or anywhere (http://www.amazon.ca/Eastern-Dreams-Paul-Nurse/dp/0670063606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288216198&sr=8-1).
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Arabian Adventure
You can witness his genie in the cursorily Nights related 1979 film Arabian Adventure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Adventure), which, like most Nights films has little to do with the Nights but features flying carpets, a genie, an evil wazir and other assorted Hollywood Orientalismos.
The movie, by the way, features a big name cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Mickey Rooney and John Ratzenberger (Cliff!), among many others, and is directed by Kevin Connor, director of one of my favorite 80s horror flicks Motel Hell.
Here's the genie clip from youtube:
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Pasolini's Il Fiore Online
For those of you with access to Netflix (http://www.netflix.com) the online dvd rental company now has a streaming version of Pasolini's 1974 movie Il Fiore Delle Mille e Una Notte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Nights_%281974_film%29).
The film on netflix is in Italian with English subtitles. It is a fairly rare, out of print film and rated NC-17 though the sexuality is not over the top. The movie does, however, have lots of naked people!
I'm not sure how netflix works with non-USA users (can you buy a subscription only to watch their extensive online collection?) or if it's even possible. I know there are several "torrent" versions available but many of the torrent sites are unreliable. Google videos removed a free version I had posted a link to a long while ago.
The film on netflix is in Italian with English subtitles. It is a fairly rare, out of print film and rated NC-17 though the sexuality is not over the top. The movie does, however, have lots of naked people!
I'm not sure how netflix works with non-USA users (can you buy a subscription only to watch their extensive online collection?) or if it's even possible. I know there are several "torrent" versions available but many of the torrent sites are unreliable. Google videos removed a free version I had posted a link to a long while ago.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
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."
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."
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