I have been incredibly behind on this reading but today I am pretty sure I am up to snuff with the days four, six and seven. Hopefully that’s right. If not… well, dang.
To begin, the seventh day just screams out “The Canterbury Tales.” Each work was about how a woman tricked her husband in some way to stay with her lover. The most shocking one I found was the story with the bath, in which the stupid husband cleans it while the lover has his way with the wife. I honestly couldn’t picture this situation in my head. It was too odd. one huge difference I noticed between this chapter and the general vibe of Arabian Nights was that sex and love making was a natural part of a woman’s crazy gene. But for the Decameron, sex is either a very grave subject or an incredibly funny subject. It’s like listening to a nervous fifth grader telling PG-13 rated sex jokes to his friends. Everyone huddled around laughing in an uncertain manner.
The sixth day made me feel kind of dumb. With each quirky one liner I simply sat there scratching my head. I am sure they were brilliant at the time but if I said any of those things today I would probably get my butt kicked. I had no idea that there was such a reverence for cleverness. I thought that it was much less celebrated than that of Islamic culture. I didn’t realize how wrong I was.
Finally, on the fourth day, which I had already read a bit of, was even more interesting in the second half. I really like the story about the sage and the lover who dies from rubbing it up against his teeth. I liked that they actually had a reasonable explanation. If it was in the Arabian Nights, they would have simply stated that it was a genie.