A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread– and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!— Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
The fall of the Ottoman Empire merely increased Western romance of North Africa and the Far East. Suddenly North America found itself fascinated by Ottoman and Eastern Indian arts, their literature, poetry, music, dance, architecture, fabric art, and painting. Americans were shown the beauty of the Taj Mahal and the depth of poet philosophers Omar the Tentmaker and Rumi.
Actual knowledge was imperfect, and artists of the day happily filled in gaps relying more on imagination than edification. By way of example, the humorous 1877 poem ‘Abdul Abulbul Amir’ enjoyed renewed popularity in 1940 and remained a staple in grade school education as late as 1960 or so. The poem, songs, and cartoon films relied on Ottoman and Russian caricatures.
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| Shéhérazade and Dunyazade entertaining Sultan Shahryar |
Roc On
Artists of the day wove Middle Eastern cultural memes and motifs into art nouveau, themes with flowing robes and diaphanous gowns, harems and hijabs, heroin and hookahs. Classical composers, including Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Schumann, found the tales of Shéhérazade (Scheherazade) irresistible.
She and her often overlooked sister, Dunyazade, inspired other storytellers, playwrights, and filmmakers. With her stories within a story featuring Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba and his clever sister Morgiana, she’s my candidate for finest storyteller of all time. Certainly she was motivated… her life depended upon her storied skills.
SciAm
Scientific American, founded in 1845, is our Western Hemisphere’s longest, continually published magazine. Reading the June issue, I unexpectedly came across an article on writing, leading with a history of Shéhérazade.
The thrust of the piece, ‘The Power of Storytelling’ (pp.78-79) contends writers (a) live longer and (b) more readily find meaning in life, which they refer to as a ‘why’ mindset, why as opposed to how.
Reading between the lines suggest internalizing ((b), finding purpose in life), reduces stress and increases interest in the world around us, boosts ((a), longevity). Researchers further posit storytelling benefits introverts, building a platform to express themselves and expanding social ties.
Emphasizing why is more important than how, study author Ron Shachar indicates two skills necessary for writers.
- Linking events together in a cohesive, coherent manner, i.e, connecting the plot dots.
- Seeing the world through the eyes of others, understanding the ‘why’ motives of characters in a story.
That brings us back to Shéhérazade, a storyteller who not only understood her characters, she fathomed her Audience of One. After all, her life depended upon it.
Ah, someone else who loves the Rubaiyat!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Janice. I got that from my father. He had several editions featuing illustrators such as Beardsley. It's one volume I've read multiple times.
DeleteLeigh, since you didn't mention it, here's the url of my post that includes your brilliant cartoon illustrating my descent from a long line of storytellers since the days of the dinosaurs. https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2024/02/the-fine-art-of-collaboration.html
ReplyDeleteScheherazade...loved the Rimsky-Korsakov music as a teen, which led me to research the story of her...which led in part to my horror of misogyny! Left the music kind of bittersweet in my memory. I love your comment: Seeing the world through the eyes of others, understanding the ‘why’ motives of characters in a story. So well put!
ReplyDeleteYea for storytellers. The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf was oral-formulaic, meaning the scop (visiting poet) recited it from memory at banquets. You think learning lines for a play today is a challenge? Many literary experts believe that may be true of the Iliad and the Odyssey, too. I wonder if those guys were paid by the word.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in grad school, a professor at Wesleyan University (I can't remember his name) memorized the entire text of Milton's Paradise Lost, too, just to prove it could be done.
Steve! He memorized the whole text, and you couldn't even memorize the poor guy's name? Also, some experts believe that the Odyssey was written by a woman. There are many domestic images tucked into the text as extended similes. I remember one about bees from my freshman Humanities class. I used to think I didn't remember anything I learned at college, but as I get older, a lot comes back to me.
DeleteSteve, the key of memorization is starting early, and putting it to a beat / music. All the old epics - the Iliad, Odyssey, Gilgamesh, Beowulf - actually had a rhythm and recurrent tag lines which helped the bard remember where s/he was in the poem. (I used that trick to memorize a lot of stuff, including 5 pages of names and dates for a Chinese History class, and I was so glad I did, because I had to answer every single one of them.) Also, before TV and computers, and before books were easily available, people had amazing memories. There's a throw away line in one of Wilder's "Little House" books, where she writes, "Laura knew the Psalms by heart, of course..." and in another, "Laura knew the Declaration of Independence by heart, of course..." They knew how to memorize.
ReplyDelete