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eve_primeBoth movies R. watched today had to do with war in Baghdad. This quote, though, is from Princess Parisa, teasingly speaking to her fiancé, Sinbad, in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. It's the one with the tiny princess and the genie. Harryhausen monsters: cyclopes, dancing snake-woman, two-headed rocs, watch-dragon, fighting skeleton. (I love Harryhausen. Perfect weekend fare. My favorite is Jason and the Argonauts. Even Tom Hanks said, "Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane. I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made.")
Speaking of Sindbad, I'm way behind on my "sun books," i.e., summer reading. He's in the second Arabian Nights collection, as -- along with Aladdin -- he was an addition to the originally published tales of Scheherezade. Certainly authentically Arabian, though, despite the modern Dreamworks (?) notion of him as Greek or something, I assume for political reasons (can't have an Arab hero, now, can we?). I would love to be able to read untranslated Arabian literature; that's the main reason I want to learn Arabic. There's this book, Forgotten Queens of Islam, which tells about small Arabian kingdoms completely unknown to the west, exotic places that were at times actually ruled by women, and that's not even fiction!
Speaking of Sindbad, I'm way behind on my "sun books," i.e., summer reading. He's in the second Arabian Nights collection, as -- along with Aladdin -- he was an addition to the originally published tales of Scheherezade. Certainly authentically Arabian, though, despite the modern Dreamworks (?) notion of him as Greek or something, I assume for political reasons (can't have an Arab hero, now, can we?). I would love to be able to read untranslated Arabian literature; that's the main reason I want to learn Arabic. There's this book, Forgotten Queens of Islam, which tells about small Arabian kingdoms completely unknown to the west, exotic places that were at times actually ruled by women, and that's not even fiction!