Readings Notes: Persian Fairytales, Part B

Hi there!

I decided to continue reading the Persian Fairytales unit for the second reading of this week because I enjoyed the first half so much. Interestingly, the second half contained stories that seemed to make more sense to me, or at least connect more. Some of the stories that I liked the most were "The Shah Abbas and the Poor Mother," "Fayiz and the Peri Wife," and "The Merchant and the Saffron."

I think what I liked the best about "The Shah Abbas and the Poor Mother," and the "The Merchant and the Saffron" was the kindness of certain characters. In the first it was the Shah and the second, the Saffron Seller. In many of the stories I have read for this class there is a lot of injustice or unkindness and sometimes just really bad luck that the stories are centered around, and while both of these stories have those traits they also have characters that try to improve the situation. These stories seem to be lessons in the goodness of humans, which is something that I really enjoy.

Looking forward to the story writing for this week I think that it would be nice to take one of the more tragic stories I have read thus far and add in a character or change and existing character so that the story speaks more to the good in humans than the bad. "Nim Tanak" may be a good story for this or "The Boy Who Became a Bulbul" which are both stories that I talked about using for my writing earlier this week.

I think the most surprising thing for me in the stories I have read so far is the similarities between stories of different cultures. I saw this highlighted really well in "Fayiz and the Peri Wife." This story is similar in many ways to the story of "Cupid and Psyche." However, in this story, once Fayiz betrays the Peri, she does not return to take him back and somehow I find that more realistic, although less happy and romantic. In the future, it may be an interesting writing exercise to take two stories that are similar from different cultures and somehow weave them together.

Bibliography

"The Shah Abbas and the Poor Mother," "Fayiz and the Peri Wife," "The Merchant and the Saffron." all from Persian Tales translated by D. L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer

Photo Credits

"Bottled Saffron" by ulleo via Pixabay

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