The Reader and the Writer

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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This week Rhea and Shari continue their exploration of Yasmine Seale’s new translation of The Annotated Arabian Nights. Their discussion focuses on the Three Women of Baghdad story. They talk about the crazy (R rated) beginning to the tale, the power and allure of the women over the men and the wild way the tables turn right at the end.

Next week, they will be discussing the story: “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp."

Their last episode on the Arabian Nights will be a discussion of O. Henry’s short story, “A Madison Square Arabian Nights.”

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We’re spending the next several episodes exploring The Annotated Arabian Nights translated by Yasmine Seale, and edited by Paulo Lemos Horta. In this episode, we talk about the origin and history of the Arabian Nights, the tradition of Persian oral story telling, the merchant class, the difference between the Arabian Nights and European fairy tales, the frame tale of Shahrazad and her murdering husband, how relationships between men and women are expressed… and much, much more.

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This week on the R&W, Rhea and Shari bring their discussion of ESU to a close. They talk about the magic of Persian storytelling, shepherds, sheep, what the truest thing about a person is, and the one thing that is the truest thing of all.

Our next book will be selections from The Annotated Arabian Nights, translated by Yasmine Seale. We’ll be discussing the Intro. - p. 158 on Sept. 10th.

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It’s a bonus episode on the R&W! For this OAI, Rhea and Shari discuss Joel J. Miller’s article, “Protesting the Decline of Reading,” published May 25, 2024, on his Substack, Miller’s Book Review. The article is about the decline of reading amongst college students and how it is effecting their ability to do complex thinking and expression of subject matters in both the classroom, and the culture. But it isn’t just college students, says Miller. It’s all of us. What’s happening? What can we do?

This was a great article to discuss and think through. If you care at all about reading, literacy, education, and the future health of our public discourse, this is a great article to read. And Joel J. Miller’s Substack, Miller’s Book Review, is an excellent Substack to read.

Links to article and other discussion points:

* “Protesting the Decline of Reading,” Joel J. Miller

* Andrew Huberman podcast with guest, Jonathan Haidt

* The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt, and Greg Lukianoff

* The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt

In this episode, Rhea and Shari continue their discussion of Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri. They talk about food and poop, memories, hospitality, what makes us friends with Daniel now, whether or not writing poetry makes you brave, and whether we want a God who talks or a God who listens?

Links:

* Daniel and his mother baking

* Everything Sad is Untrue

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This week we begin a new book! Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri is astonishing, even from its opening pages. On this episode, Rhea and Shari talk about Daniel Nayeri the author and character in his own autobiographical novel that is also a memoir and also true… mostly. We talk about refugees, being good guests and good hosts, Schehrazade and her thousand tales, the coiling of stories, our slippery memories, time and storytelling, unreliable narrators, and more.

We are taking three weeks to discuss this story. Next week we’ll discuss through p. 231; and the following week we’ll discuss the end.

After Everything Sad is Untrue, we’ll be discussing tales from the Arabian Nights. We will be reading from the new translation by Yasmine Seale.

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This week’s episode begins a new experiment on the Reader & the Writer, where Rhea and Shari discuss articles we find interesting on the topics we love. These are one-off episodes that we will intersperse between our regular episodes where we do careful, slow-ish readings of stories well told.

For this first O.A.I (I can’t help it, I was a military wife for 14 years), we’re discussing a 2021 article written by James Wood for the New Yorker magazine, “Anthony Doerr’s Optimism Engine.” We’ll be discussing Wood’s critiques of Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, and weighing in on whether or not we agree with him, and why.

You can read the New Yorker article here: Anthony Doerr’s Optimism Engine

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Thanks for listening! We’ll see you next week (8/20) for our first of three discussions on: Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri

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This week on The Reader & the Writer, Rhea and Shari bring their discussion of Cloud Cuckoo Land to a close. It is a long, winding conversation on everything from being human and part of the problem, the beauty of our broken lives, understanding that what we already have is almost always better than what we think we need, and—finally—the eternal beauty of pursuing the best kind of fool’s errand.

Next week we will begin something new: occasional podcast episodes on articles we’re reading. These are one-off episodes where Rhea and I will be discussing recent articles we’ve found on Substack and other information outlets concerning topics near and dear to us both: education, literacy, literary trends, and some arts & culture… and anything else we find fascinating and want to share with you!

The next two books we are reading on the R&W:

* Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri

* The Annotated Arabian Nights, translated by Yasmine Seale (we will be reading portions of this book, not its entirety)

We’d love to hear from you!

* Email us at: [email protected]

* Follow us on Facebook: The Reader and the Writer

* Subscribe to the podcast on Substack and these major platforms: Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon

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This episode is all about captivity. Shari and Rhea discuss each of the characters’ movement into being held captive—in some cases literally, and always within themselves.

We’d love to hear from you!

* Email us at: [email protected]

* Follow us on Facebook: The Reader and the Writer

* Subscribe to the podcast on Substack and these major platforms: Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon

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