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May 13, 2005
UCLA Marathon Reading
The title might sound like what every graduate student is doing: marathon reading. We are all fast readers who are always trying to finish up some reading so we can get to the next one.
However, the specific matter is a programme set-up by the UCLA Dept. of English and it happens every year. This year's programme was a marathon reading of One Thousand and One Nights. It started at 12:00 PM Thursday, May 12, 2005 and ended just today, Friday, May 13th, 2005 at 1:00 PM! Twenty five hours of reading. Different readers read stories and chapters out of the book, and people camped out on the lawn the whole night. It was a fun event, and although I did not stay the whole 25 hours, I still liked the whole thing!
One Thousand and One Nights contains some of my favourite stories. Stories of Haroun Al Rashid wandering in the streets of Baghdad and solving people's problems, fantastic stories of Sindbad, and ginies who pop-up every where.
It was a good day, and the reading was also appropriate. I will certainly participate in the next years event, which, I am hoping to convinve the organisers, should be from Icelandic Sagas (Heimskringla?)!
Posted by Khodadad at May 13, 2005 01:31 PM
Comments
I have heard of "One Thousand and One Nights", but I am unfamiliar with its content. I did not know that it contained stories of Sinbad. I have seen all the Sinbad movies numerous times. They were really fun to watch when I was young. I still enjoy seeing those old special effects of the monsters!
Do the Icelandic Sagas include stories of Norse mythology, with Oden, Thor, and other related characters?
Posted by: David at May 13, 2005 11:20 PM
David, One Thousand and One Nights include most of the stories you have heard of the "exotic" east: Sindbad, Aladin and the Magic Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, ...
It is a collection of interwoven and multi-layered stories composed from Indian, Iranian, and Arabic stories sometimes in the 11th or 12th century AD. It is very much like Giovanni Boccaccio's "Decameron" or Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".
Icelandic Sagas are various stories from Norse Mythology, Scandinavian History, and Icelandic family feuds. The one particular collection that includes the stories of Odin, Thor, and the Valkyries (as well as the Ring cycle, the inspiration for the Lorsd of the Ring), is called "The Prose Edda". A new translation of it, made by my professor, Jesse Byock, is soon to be published by Pinguin.
Posted by: khodadad at May 14, 2005 02:45 AM
The stories of The One Thousand and One Nights are, indeed, beautiful, they have a unique atmosphere, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the people at UCLA organized such an event :) I think it's a wonderful idea and I wish I could have attended; lucky that you did, Khodadad :)
Posted by: Manuela at May 17, 2005 06:37 PM