Oceans of Stories
There were a number of strange and unnerving ideas placed forth by Irwin that I have never thought about before. For starters I have never contemplated the origins of stories until today. It shouldn’t be surprising that the original story, THE story, cannot be traced back to any particular, original idea. This reminds me very much of what T.S. Elliot would say about poetry and the lack of creativity a writer has to offer. It’s eye-opening to realize that the Arabs and Egyptians were the possibly some of the first to bring out stories that would later be picked up by the Europeans who would call them their own. Irwin’s attempt to connect all of these cultures got confusing since his explanations seemed to hop all over the historic timeline and cultural boundaries.
I knew that it is difficult to be able to trace many stories due to the fact that they were passed on orally across generations and cultures. But the racism and sexism of the time is incredibly frustrating, not because of the obvious inequalities its produces for those in the past but rather the skewed historical records and difficulties of understanding where a story originated from. But better yet is the fact that Arabian Nights was not considered literature due to its vulgarity yet the Europeans embraced such imagery and continued to look down at the Arabian lifestyle. And fiction in general was considered a low-status type of writing.
In my ignorance, I didn’t see the purpose of story-telling going beyond simple entertainment. But according to Irwin these stories were also ways to teach young princes morals and provide beggars with a means of earning some extra coins.
While nations were divided by war and power struggles it is amazing to think that there were still deep-rooted ties between the countries. On cannot escape the influence of other cultures, no matter how hard one tries.
It is amazing to hear about the resilience of these stories. We simply read them in our youth or watch them on the television with absolutely no idea on how they had come to be. The Middle East had a great impact on the European story and in turn
America’s concept of a story. It’s funny to think that much of their credit was taken away, not just because of the racism but also due to
Arabia’s dislike for stories. There was no fad for stories in the Middle East so
Europe embraced it and took most of the credit.
So wrote this yesterday but this stupid site decided not to publish it. here is my second attempt…