Rhea and Shari continue their deep reading of the Arabian Nights tales. In this episode they look closely at “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” a tale that comes to the Arabian Nights through the French tradition. They talk about the differences between the stories they’ve been reading v. this, first of the French tales they’ve explored, all the questions they have about the characters and their development (or lack thereof), the continual motifs running through the story, the development of the plot, what “beauty” is venerated in this story, the role of the jinni’s magic v. Aladdin acting as an agent in his own destiny, story types and what happens when a story tries to be “all things to all people.”

Next week they will be discussing the short story, “A Madison Square Arabian Night,” by O. Henry. If you don’t have the Seale translation that Rhea and I have been reading from, you can read the story here.

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