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One Thousand And One Nights Worth Of Stories
The power of storytelling can save your life too
After two years away, I’ve come home for the winter break. The longer you have been away from home, the more exotic it becomes upon your return, and I will soon have lived abroad for longer than I ever did here.
Whenever I am back, it is inevitable to check books and films, CDs and VHS, ancient video games and the odd typewriter (these were already ancient when I was child, but now they seem have aged better than my first computer, of which there seems to be no trace).
My eyes were set on a beautiful boxset of The One Thousand And One Nights, sometimes better known as the Arabian Nights in English. It is a splendid, three-volume edition an ex girlfriend gave me before we parted ways.
Many of us are somewhat familiar with the framework for the stories: king Shahryār is so obsessed with female infidelity after discovering his wife’s affair that he marries a virgin every day and executes her the next morning, before she has a chance to be unfaithful. (For more details on male insecurity and its devastating effects on women, the Bible is chockfull of nasty examples.)
In any case, the story truly begins when the next bride, Scheherazade, comes up with a plan to survive the murdering…