Though the 1001 nights holds a large range of stories and tales, the story that I wanted to focus my discussion on was “The story of Aladdin, or the Magic Lamp”. Admittedly, I had previously thought that the 1001 Nights had little to no influence in not just literature but everyday expressions as well, given that I had never heard of this book before. But I realised that I was sincerely mistaken after reading an excerpt from Martin Puchner’s book, “1001 nights with Scheherazade”. In the beginning of chapter 6, he says that he “feels as if [he has] always known some of the stories”. If he had stopped there I would not have understood what he meant but it was after he listed examples, such as Sinbad appearing in “Popeye” or “someone saying ‘open sesame’”, that I started to understand just how much that the tales from 1001 nights had truly assimilated itself into not only western literature but also just common occurrences in our everyday lives.
The critical reading that I already used in one of the discussions was chapter 17 of Marina Warner’s book, “Stranger Magic, Charmed States and the Arabian Nights”, which talked a lot in depth about the different reasons as to why Aladdin was so appealing to a western audience, along with a lot of the history behind the stories as well. In the book, Warner emphasises how the tale was catered more towards a western audience than most of the other stories, with tropes more appealing tropes such as a shift in “mobility” through “phantasmagorical wealth creation”, a personal favourite quote of mine. Through this, it would be easy to identify a correlation as to why so many themes in the story of Aladdin, such as the lamp, the genie that grants wishes, etc., are present in a lot of entertainment, literature and phrases that those brought up in a westernised society would be familiar with, such as myself. Furthermore, Wagner finds a lot of different ways that Aladdin is retold in order to fit some form of purpose. These purposes could have been purely for entertainment, such as using the story to provide a “spectacle on a lavish scale”. Or, it could have been for a moral purpose, such as through conveying slavery and malintent as repugnant. This is seen in one of the examples that Wagner brings up, namely John O’Keeffe’s retelling of Aladdin in 1788, which coincided with the year that the abolition of slavery was brought to the British parliament. And during the struggles that the British had with the slave trade, the theatre, where many re-enactments of Aladdin took place, were used to “explore the trade’s iniquities” by depicting the “abuses of other societies” such as “their treatment of women” and “their tormenting of slaves”. Thus, it comes to reason that the story of Aladdin had some impact on the society and some of the expectations or stigma placed on certain subjects that remain today.
The first of the selected works that I chose was “Aladdin and the Ghost at the Guilty Door” by David Rowbotham. Though this poem focused mainly on the effects of war and expressing a deep condemnation towards it, the presence and influence of Aladdin can be found within the last two stanzas. Now, I would like to preface this by saying that I am most likely interpreting poem completely wrong but if I were to give an explanation, it would be that Rowbotham is trying to say that the deep wounds that those who go to war inflict are all for “their want of the wonderful lamp of some Aladdin”. I would think that this implies that most of the outcomes that transpire from war are done in vain, for the image of some illusionary reality, with the lamp serving as a metaphor for that unrealistic notion. What’s more is that Rowbowtham includes that “even the most residual gift of a genie, should have been theirs like logic”. Through the fantastical and wondrous feats that a genie can produce, all thanks to the 1001 nights’ portrayal of genies, I think that this is Rowbotham’s way of saying that what people imagine that they fight for in wars deserves to/should already be in their possession. In short, the influence of the original tale of Aladdin and all of the unique characteristics, such as the genie and the lamp, help to make poems like Rowbotham’s a lot more vivid and give a lot more connotation to the words on the page.
The final part of my rigmarole will be mainly about the Disney adaptation of Aladdin. In all honesty, I quite enjoyed the film as a form of entertainment, especially some of the music. It was interesting how the story’s “fantastical stage effects” such as the “genies exploding out of the lamp”, as told by Wagner, seemed to suit the purpose that Sonia Naddaff suggested that the book had, which was to really invoke a sense of magic through storytelling. And that’s exactly what I felt when I watched the movie. I really felt the magical tropes of instantaneous wealth, justice, a strong feminist portrayal, all the things that I could enjoy both as a child and a teen, and even an admiration that I may be able to carry into adulthood. Now, it would be strange to say that the original tale of Aladdin didn’t have an influence on a film literally based on aforementioned tale, so there’s no denying the correlation between the two. Though I found that the Disney version of Aladdin had a few ways of painting different expectations of Arabian culture that the story may have had. This was mainly through very subtle ques, such as the merchant at the start or the evil African magician. Notwithstanding, the Disney version did hold true to portraying the story in some cultural sense, with the crowded marketplaces reminiscent of the one in the Porter and the Three Ladies, this was an observation by someone else in the class but I forgot who so apologies. In addition, Aladdin is one of the tales that Galland seemed to cater towards a more western audience, and Disney did mean to cater the film more towards a younger demographic, so that would have definitely impacted just how much of the societal atmosphere that they put into the film. Although, I personally have been affected more by the film that the original story, with my main association with genies being three wishes, as the original tale has a genie that gives as many wishes as desired.
So, to summate this terribly loquacious and jejune rant, “The story of Aladdin, or the Magic Lamp” has definitely had an impact on a lot of things we are exposed to or talk about today. Through having it provide an imaginative experience on stage whilst concurrently acting as an outlet for many moral ideals, along with helping people create messages through acting as points of reference, and through just changing a lot of perspectives and assimilating a lot of common terminology, Aladdin clearly acts as a story worthy of the title: World Literature.
