He read it all and lived to tell about it

The Arabian Nights : Acompanion

Robert Irwin
Nonfiction 342 pages
Tauris Parke Paperbacks. 2004

Henry Reeve discussed the translations of the Arabian Nights available during his time, saying, “Galland is for the nursery, Lane is for the library, Payne for the study and Burton for the sewers.” Burton’s version of the Arabian Nights is full of archaic language, gratuitous vulgarity, and racism. It is also the most readily available complete translation, and the one you may have to read if you want to become thoroughly acquainted with this story collection.

During the time Burton was translating it, a Middle Eastern superstition claimed that no one could read the entire Arabian Nights without dying. Author, Robert Irwin, writes that he read the entire Burton translation without dying, but not without pondering suicide as an alternative to slogging through it. Fortunately, if you wish to be better acquainted with the Arabian Nights, you can read Irwin’s Companion instead.

Irwin explores the Arabian Nights from a variety of perspectives as evident in his chapter titles, including, “Street Entertainments”, “Low Life”, and “Sexual Fictions”. Of particular interest is Irwin’s discussion of how stories mutate, merge, migrate, and reappear elsewhere. For example, a short story about partners plotting to kill each other is the plot of “The Pardoner’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales. Later it’s a movie plot in The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Other versions of a story from the Arabian Nights, “The Tale of the Woman who Wanted to Deceive her Husband” also appears in Sanskrit in the 11th century, Latin in the 12th, and in the 14th both Persian and Italian in Bocccaccio’s Decameron. In the 20th century, Thomas Mann reused the plot once again in his Dr. Faustus.     

Besides Mann, other modern authors have found inspiration in the Arabian Nights, including James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Jorge Luis Borges, John Barth and Salman Rushdie.

Irwin’s The Arabian Nights : A companion offers an expansive and thoroughgoing look at this great work. There is little that he doesn’t touch upon. If you don’t want to risk death by reading the entire Arabian Nights, then read Irwin instead.

Something to rave about

World Wide Rave : creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories
David Meerman Scott
Nonfiction 194 pages
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  2009

The main theme of this book is that older advertising methods have gone stale and that the best way to get people talking about your product is to provide them with information that’s useful to them. Simply telling people how good your product is won’t work — they don’t care about your product  —  they only care about their needs. If you satisfy their needs, with information that is useful, novel, or humorous, then they will respond to, and spread, your message. When enough people spread your message, you’ve started a “world wide rave.”

The author calls his style of marketing a “world wide rave” in part because he wants to avoid the “sleazy connotations” of the ubiquitous term “viral marketing.” He believes that communication should be genuine and not generated by anonymous paid promoters disguised as objective reviewers.

“Viral marketing” refers to making your message infectious so that it spreads far and rapidly. Your information stands a better chance of being raved about when it is useful, novel, or humorous. The message should have a short, catchy title to engage viewer attention.

Sharing is a major key to starting a rave. Scott contrasts old-school marketers who lose sales by over-defending their copyrights with those who generate buzz by passing out goodies. More than one band has built its audience by giving music away while asking nothing in return. Many companies who offer eBooks and other information packages ask viewers to provide their email addresses. Scott claims that the practice of asking viewers to fill out forms discourages them from continuing to the downloading stage. He believes that better results are gained from offers with no strings attached.

Scott claims that anyone can start a rave and cites several examples of non-professionals who have done so. However, most of his example rave starters are large corporations. Scott provides no instructions for starting raves. There is no sure-fire method for getting a rave going — it’s a matter of trial and error — perhaps not the sort of basket to put all your eggs in.  

The Arabian Nights – Gathered, Privately Printed, and Out of Print

While not all of us are familiar with the titles, “The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment” or “One Thousand and One Nights”, most of us have heard the story, “Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp”, and several others associated with the story collection informally known as the Arabian Nights.

Some of the collected stories are quite ancient and of Indian origin. Others relate the fictitious doings of actual historical figures from 9th century Baghdad. Still other stories contain historical fragments from 13th and 14th century Cairo.

Some of the most well-known Arabian Nights stories were not actually part of those stories collected in Arabic versions of the text. These additional Middle-Eastern stories included “Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “Prince Ahmed and his Two Sisters”, and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor”. They were added by French translator, Antoine Galland, and his successors.

After Galland released his 12 volume edition of the Arabian Nights, scholars began to seek the most authentic version of the text. The lengthy Egyptian version came to be considered the standard one. One of the earliest English translations by Edward Lane was heavily censored.

Although Richard Francis Burton’s translation is the most well-known uncensored version, it was preceded by John Payne’s version. Both Payne’s and Burton’s uncensored editions were printed for private subscribers, rather than the general public. Although Burton’s edition is the best known, it has been criticized for dwelling excessively on sexual matters and for its archaic language.

Most available printed editions of the Arabian Nights are abridged, intended for children, or both. A printed set of Burton’s volumes would cost you dearly, if you could find one. Luckily it is available for Kindle and other eReaders. One reviewer of the Halcyon Classics edition sold by Amazon faults it for not having working hyperlinks between the table of contents and the stories. For a broad selection of translators, this omnibus looks like a good choice. 

Demons Hide Their Faces

Demons Hide Their Faces

A. A. Attanasio

Fiction 183 pages (Kindle)

2011

This collection of short fiction for Kindle contains seven stories which appeared in print in “Twice Dead Things”. As a shorter collection, “Demon’s Hide their Faces” provides a good introduction to A. A. Attanasio for those not yet familiar with his writing.

In general, Attanasio writes science fiction and fantasy — but not always — and both can be found in this volume. Two of the stories, however, don’t strictly meet my criteria for either genre. I consider “Death’s Head Moon”, like Attanasio’s novel, “Kingdom of the Grail”, to be historical fiction, albeit tinged with the fantastic and mythical. Attanasio’s character, Richard Malone, is plunged into ancient Irish myth while fighting alongside Seamus Doyle during the First World War. When the war ends, he carries his ghosts and a volume of Nietzsche, through a rough and tumble life until a hobo translates a few words of the book he carries.

Malone’s life takes several more turns and he ends up in Hawaii. Here too, he encounters the mythical, only now it wears new masks. What begins as a war story ends as a detective story and in a surprise. There is no escaping the Death’s Head Moon.

My favorite story, “Ink from the New Moon,” takes place in an alternate history in which Chinese, rather than Europeans, were the first to settle the U.S.A. In this alternate history, Attanasio is able to bring a westerner’s interpretation to Buddhist concepts while preserving the story’s Chinese sensibility. This melancholy story of love and loss opens the collection and primes the reader for the stories that follow — stories that engage both emotionally and philosophically.

An eSolution for Book Sellers

I recently attended a writer’s summit where several authors predicted that physical bookstores would soon face extinction. Some also predicted that eBooks would soon replace printed books. I am more doubtful about the second prediction than I am about the first, however eBooks are gaining momentum, and unless brick and mortar book stores have an easy way to sell them, their business will surely suffer.

Why should it matter? If eBooks are quickly and cheaply obtainable online, then who cares if book stores go the way of the dinosaurs? Well, some people do care. People are already complaining about having to read some of their books on a Kindle and others on a Nook. Additionally, if several large vendors dominate the market, consumers will have less influence on prices, and possibly fewer choices of reading matter.

Book stores serve social purposes. They provide places for authors to meet their readers and autograph their books (eAutographs?). They also provide meeting places for book clubs, and their well-read personnel help readers make informed purchasing decisions.

But there is a simple solution. If eBook publishers agreed to adopt a standard file format, and if an eBook licensing clearinghouse were created, then readers would be able to buy eBooks published by Amazon for their Nooks. Independent book sellers would be able to provide eBooks for every variety of eReader. Libraries and individuals could easily lend their books, and free markets would thrive.

The alternative future, in which a few large corporations control access to books, is not an option. Taken to extremes, a literary dark age would result. An impartial clearinghouse would assure that information remain broadly accessible, and a standard eBook format, like feet and meters, miles and kilometers, would assure a level playing field.

The Drunk Diet - Change your life without losing your style

The Drunk Diet
Lüc Carl
Nonfiction/Memoir 272 pages
St. Martin's Press, 2012

Lüc Carl wanted to lose his spare tire without compromising on his lifestyle. And so The Drunk Diet was born. Since other diets advised cutting out booze Carl developed a plan of his own – he began exercising and eating healthier foods while continuing to drink.

If the premise seems too good to be true, take heed of the disclaimer in the front of the book. Carl says that his title is intentionally flippant and that he does not advise ignoring physician’s advice, exercising while drunk, or being alcoholic. About half-way through the book, the reader learns that Carl cut way back on his beer consumption. Toward the end it’s revealed that Carl is drinking a lot less now and sometimes abstains entirely. He also reveals that of his original group of friends, only he learned to control his drinking. The others either sobered up or sank down into addiction.

If Carl’s memoir sets an example to follow, its example is an unusual one. Many people lose the ability to drink responsibly after a long stretch of time spent drinking heavily. So if you’re a borderline alcoholic, Carl’s diet may help you lose weight, but leave you with other problems.

That said, losing weight, quitting smoking, and learning to exercise vigorously all require discipline to achieve. Carl describes how he went from contemplating weight loss to making an active, and creative, effort to achieve his goal. Along the way his attitudes and behavior changed as he neared his goal. And discipline isn’t something that can be applied for a while and then forgotten. Carl continues to use self-discipline to maintain his achievements.

The book is easy to read and some will find it inspirational, however it glorifies the inglorious. The flaw in Carl’s approach is that it fails to critically examine Carl’s former lifestyle. Although Carl drinks less now, his initial goal was to lose the extra weight caused by drinking too much and eating badly. He attacks the lifestyle’s results, but not the lifestyle itself. He comes down on the Man for pushing drugs and states that “doctors are street-level dealers,” while sparing fellow bartenders, omitting the fact that if the Man pushes pharmaceuticals, He also pushes liquor.

Bhishma's Vow

Bhishma was the eighth son born of the goddess Ganga. After his birth the goddess prepared to drown him, as she had his seven brothers. King Santanu saw this and pleaded that she stop. It was then she revealed her godhood to Santanu.

The eight, she explained, were immortals condemned to be born in the world of men.  She drowned the first seven sons in the river which bears her name. They had begged her for brief lives. But the eighth son was fated to endure a long life among mortals.

Holding her son in her arms, Ganga left Santanu. He’d been happy as Ganga’s husband, but now Santana renounced all sensual pleasures. One day he walked along the bank of the Ganges and saw a child firing arrows across its waters. Ganga appeared to him in human guise and told him that this was his son. Santanu joyfully pronounced him his heir.

As Santanu was walking along the banks of the Yamuna four years later, he inhaled a divine perfume. Following the breeze, he came to the source of the heavenly scent. There he stood before a woman of unsurpassed beauty. For many years, he’d suppressed his senses, but now he could do so no longer. Before he took his next breath, he asked her to be his wife. “Please ask my father, chief of fishermen, for his consent,” she replied. The chief set forth but one condition. The son of Devarata, his daughter, must become the next king. But Santanu could not agree because he’d already appointed his son to be his heir. He returned to his palace a troubled man, yet he told no one of his sorrow.

Bhishma was not the name originally bestowed upon the son of Ganga and Santanu. The title means one who undertakes and fulfills a difficult vow. As Bhishma took his vow, the gods cried out “Bhishma.”

Santanu spent his days in sorrow. And one day his son asked him its cause. He told his son that he worried lest his son fall in war and the family be no more. But Bhishma thought that there was more to his father’s sorrow. When Bhishma questioned the royal charioteer he learned of Devarata and her father. He approached the fisherman chief and offered to renounce the thrown. But the chief wasn’t satisfied. He then promised to never marry and to live a chaste life. The gods looked on and cried, “Bhishma.”

In later years, Bhishma defeated contending princes in order to win brides for his brother.  The princess, Amba, however, revealed that she had married Salva in her thoughts. Since she had already given away her heart, she was sent back to Salva. Salva, however refused to marry her since he was ashamed to marry one belonging to a man who had defeated him. He told her to marry Bhishma, but Bhishma refused in order to keep his vow of chastity. Amba vowed revenge against Bhishma and jumped into a burning pyre in order to be reborn a warrior. When Bhishma was slain on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, it may have been by the arrow of the reborn Amba. Before he died, Bhishma claimed that it was Arjuna’s arrow which slew him.

Not for Virgins

The Virgin Diaries

Kimberley A. Johnson (Author), Ann Werner (Contributor)
Nonfiction 228 pages
CreateSpace. 2010

Suppose you had never visited a place but wanted to go there? You’d probably look at a map before you set out on your journey. You might also try to learn about the landmarks you’ll see on the way. This book is like a map, except that it shows you a variety of routes and landmarks.

If you wonder what it’s like to lose your virginity, such a map can be useful. However, this map shows many routes and some won’t look anything like the route you end up taking. And just as you may recognize some of the landmarks, others may be completely unfamiliar.

People’s sexual education varies. Some people get good information. Some get misinformation. Others get too little information, and some people get way more than they wanted. The survey of experiences supplied in “The Virgin Diaries” is intended for people contemplating a first sexual experience and wanting to know what to expect. For some of the survey respondents, the experience was planned, while for others, it was spontaneous. Some had no regrets, while others wished they’d waited for the right partner.

The first time experiences described in this book are provided as-is and without moral judgments. Although the stories are intended for open-minded people, readers should be aware that some touch on the unusual, if not taboo.

While many of the stories express innocence, some involve alcohol or drugs, and others express callousness and sexual predation. One man’s first sexual experience was with his girlfriend’s mother, and in another story, the girl’s father urged the couple on while he captured the act on video. Suspending moral judgment can be a good thing, but filming one’s daughter having sex crosses the line into sexual abuse. Such stories do not belong in a book that’s intended to be instructive. I cannot recommend this title to the sexually innocent.

Search Engine Optimization — It can work

I got a call from Google today. I made the first page of search results for my keyword phrase. What happened? I was creating tags for my graphics handbook for small organizations and I hit upon a three word phrase that worked. Which one? You’ll have to find out for yourself by looking at my Amazon listing. The downside? Google doesn’t have any statistics on my phrase. Oh, well.