For this week, I choose to read Persian Tales translated by D.R.L. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts. I found that I had mixed feeling on the tales, some I really loved and other I was not impressed with the storyline. Three of the stories really stood out to me for potential rewrite. The first tale that I really enjoyed was the tale of The Boy Who Became a Bulbul. In this tale, a little boy had a mean step mother who gets him killed so he seeks revenge. While it may not be the same storyline as the known classic, Cinderella, it does show one of the first appearance of an evil stepmother. This character has been used in countless tales and has many directions her character to go. The second tale I enjoyed was The Wolf-Aunt. In this tale, a woman says she is a very poor man’s sister and would love to share her wealth with him and his family. The mother does not trust the women and one of the daughter sees that she is a werewolf. The mother and daughter flee while the husband stays behind and foolishly gets eaten by the werewolf. This story could be taken into modern times by having the werewolf Aunt use Facebook to catfish for potential families to eat. The last tale I saw potential was very humor and called, Muhammad Tirandaz, The Archer. In this tale, a man thinks that he is the best archer even though he has never shot his bow. Even to the end of the tale, the man never fires his bow but gets rewarded because everyone thinks he is the best archer. I think it would fun to make it where the archer’s skills are tested by a fellow archer. He could then learn how horrible he is and try to come up with wats to keep his title, and of course humor will follow.
The Palace of Darius I of Persia. Source: Wikimedia Commons
No comments:
Post a Comment