Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok - One Thousand and One Nights, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

This is a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights, only this time, Scheherazade is the boy Sehara. I was excited about the gender bending until I learned that the sultan was still played by a man.

So far, the story is following the frame fairly well. The sultan (I forgot his name in this version) marries his father's old wife, who then goes on to betray him. In return, he decides to marry a woman every day and execute her the next morning. To stop the carnage, Sehara steps in and begins to tell stories.

Well, actually, I can't remember if the sultan's wife was originally his stepmother in the original. Also, instead of doing it for the sake of the murdered women, Sehara steps in because the sultan rescued him (or he rescued the sultan) a while ago, and he fell in love with the sultan. We also get the stubbly, glasses-wearing, extremely hot vizier, now imprisoned, and not Sehara's father, and a near-incestuous relationship between Sehara and his sister.

Honestly, I found the frame story to be rather boring, which is sad because I like the original so much. But they removed the women! So instead of getting a contrast to the sultan's evil wife in Scheherazade, you get the sultan's misogyny having him accept a male wife instead, which I feel reflects poorly both on a feminist and on a glbt level.

On the other hand, I may read the next one because the art is so gorgeous. Also, instead of staying with the tales from Arabian Nights, the manhwaga is adapting tales from all over. I really loved the story within this volume, which stars a cold, icy princess. I would read an entire series about her if there were one!

On a side note, when I was reading this at rachelmanija's, I noticed that the manhwaga had a thing for Chinese culture. The younger sister notes that Chinese people eat "dirty" things like pork -- I bristled at that, until another character refuted it or said it wasn't forbidden for them. There were other random mentions of Chinese culture worked in, like a Romance of the Three Kingdoms reference, along with the Chinese influences (sideways, given that it's Turandot) in the story. I was very amused by this, given that the manhwa is still set somewhere in Baghdad (I think).

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

This is a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights, only this time, Scheherazade is the boy Sehara. I was excited about the gender bending until I learned that the sultan was still played by a man.

This was my reaction.... "OOO! Gender switch Arabian Nights! Cool! Oh, just made it yaoi. Uhm...wouldn't that ruin the point?"

I never bothered looking after that because...well...as you pointed out, the whole point of the frame story is that he punished the entire gender for the crimes of one, and then learned he was wrong...making them both men is more "yeah, you're right, women suck...here's a guy instead."

[oyceter]

Yeah, that was the uncomfortable subtext I was getting, which is not helped by the fact that the only (living) woman in the frame story so far is Sehara's sister, who wants to marry him!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, I think you just successfully killed what little interest I still had. A full on genderswitch retelling would have been cool, though.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I found the frame story to be rather boring, which is sad because I like the original so much. But they removed the women! So instead of getting a contrast to the sultan's evil wife in Scheherazade, you get the sultan's misogyny having him accept a male wife instead, which I feel reflects poorly both on a feminist and on a glbt level.

*scowly face*

I was htinking "whee queer 1001 Nights!" but no. Boo.

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

Actually, it kind of is, although the sultan initially just keeps Sehara on as his court storyteller or something, instead of officially adding him to his harem. Up through volume three (which is as far as I've read), the sultan doesn't strike me as having any intention of simply avoiding his perceived "women are evil cuckolding bitches" problem by merely switching to a male "wife." However, this doesn't mean he's above taking sexual advantage of the situation when he loses his temper over Sehara's well-meaning efforts to persuade him to stop executing women. Definitely not the fluffy kind of yaoi, although Sehara manages to persist in thinking that the sultan is redeemable even when the tables are turned and the sultan expects him to exact revenge.

Random OT Book Recc

[the-willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Does My Head Look Big In This? (http://www.amazon.com/Does-Head-Look-Big-This/dp/0439919479/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-2765455-6134849?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194555390&sr=8-1)by Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Read it last night. Very good. Not scifi. But as a young adult book dealing with a non-Christian religion, very very good. Also they are Australian, so even more multicultural.

-- Sorry about the OT, but it's not like I can post a heads up in my journal :)

Re: Random OT Book Recc

[oyceter]

Hee, thanks! I've seen reviews of that around and have been meaning to pick it up.

[oyceter]

Hrm, I'm sort of confused...

I don't think him switching to a male "wife" means that he's cured of his "women are evil cuckolding bitches" problem; I think it's a symptom. Basically, even if it's intentional or not, the sultan still ends up treating a man much better than he treats women, even though said man tricked and deceived him into marrying him.

[oyceter]

At least so far it's rather sketchy on the politics level.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

"stubbly, glasses-wearing, extremely hot vizier", no truer words have ever been spoken. I really like this series (I read up till volume four...and am waiting for five to appear although thus far Amazon has not obliged me). You'll have to post what you think of the rest.

[oyceter]

I suspect I'll continue to enjoy the stories-in-the-story and be annoyed at the frame story, but we'll see!

[(Anonymous)]

Err, i read vol 1 last nite and was desperate to find the next one, and here u r saying u have up to vol.4 *teary eyes*...Where did u get them?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

SHOUJO CAESAR! SHOUJO CAESAR!

[oyceter]

Is he in volume two? I must see him!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Um, I don't remember. But I posted a picture of him last year here (http://telophase.livejournal.com/792512.html)!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And another here (http://telophase.livejournal.com/792614.html)! But don't read the comments to the post if you don't want to know the CRACKED-OUT version of Cleopatra's story!

[oyceter]

Mmmm, pretty! I will have to read just for cracked-out versions of Greek history.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I would fling it. Um, would I fling it before or after this vizier? And does said vizier have a ponytail? I need accurate cost/benefit infoz here.

[oyceter]

Accurate cost/benefit info: http://telophase.livejournal.com/793072.html

[seajules]

I nabbed the first three volumes of this many moons ago, and the art is gorgeous. But the framing story is definitely problematic, and I admit I continue to bristle at the appropriation of clever, courageous Scheherezade into the person of lovestruck Sehara.

"Turandot" actually is from the original 1001 Nights, it was just nabbed separately for the opera. But in volume 2 or 3 (whichever doesn't feature the cracked-out re-imagining of Cleopatra), Sehara tells a Korean folktale, which I liked a very great deal.

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

Sehara actually winds up in Scheherezade's situation not because he's already in love with the sultan (although he does soon develop more positive feelings for him than the immediate situation justifies, apparently partly based on the fact that the sultan was supposedly a benevolent ruler and a really great guy until his dead wife's duplicity warped his mind), but because Sehara's younger sister is next on the list of wives/murder victims and he's desperately trying to save her. Of course, since the sister, who really is incestuously in love with Sehara (or at least thinks she is, in a "first crush" kind of way--Sehara seems to have more standard brotherly feelings toward her), sticks around instead of having the sense to flee, logically this plan should have wound up with both of them getting killed as soon as the sultan found out that Sehara was actually a guy disguised as a girl.

[seajules]

It's all in the reading. For myself, the flashbacks to his previous meeting with the sultan make his sacrifice of himself for his sister look like a convenient excuse to get closer to the object of his crush. The fact that he doesn't leave with Dunya when he has the chance, to make sure she gets out of the kingdom, but rather stays to free the sultan, only reinforces the idea that he's in it for the sultan.

[oyceter]

Yeah, that's how I read it too.

[oyceter]

Well, I think like seajules says, the flashback in the manhwa is meant to make the reader think that Sehara is doing a lot of it out of love for the sultan.

[oyceter]

Yeah, the art is so pretty! And... Sehara so does not impress me. He seems less clever and more lovestruck, and much more willing to forgive the sultan than I would be.

I am hoping that they keep Morgiana in the Ali Baba story, if it shows up, because she was one of my heroes as a kid (she boils the robbers in hot oil! How is that not cool?).

[seajules]

I was willing to give Sehara a chance, right up until he was willing to let the sultan beat him in the vizier's stead (if I'm remembering right), rather than, you know, attempting to talk the sultan out of beating anybody. And I realize the wounding of the sultan's bodyguard was maybe meant us to think, "Oh! The rebels are not above letting someone suffer, either!" Except there's a difference between a warrior taking injury in the course of duty, and then being denied medical attention by his captors (which, yes, was not very compassionate), and a series of young women being raped and then murdered for no other reason than that they're women.

Probably this is the part where I should mention I've never found the sultan a particularly sympathetic character.

I adore Morgiana! I just worry that if they keep her, how will they change her? Women don't do so well in this series, I've noticed.

[oyceter]

O_o. I so don't remember the beating!

Sigh. I've always wanted to whap the sultan, because he is mean! And evil! And I have zero sympathy for someone who kills a woman a day because he was so wounded by his wife's infidelity.

Yeah... Ha. They'll probably end up making Morgiana a bishounen as well.

[seajules]

Possibly the sultan didn't carry through on it, but I remember Shehar volunteered to be beaten in the vizier's place, and it was a parallel to the slave girl in "Turandot," and...yeah. It was one of the things that made me want to smack Shehar. I think he's less interested in "curing" the sultan than providing himself as the sultan's favored target. And I'm like, "...It doesn't work that way, kid. He'll just hurt you and keep killing women."

[oyceter]

Also, ooo, I didn't realize "Turandot" was from the original!

And Korean folktale yay!

[nojojojo.livejournal.com]

I picked it up awhile ago; I liked the art. But I had to shunt my brain into yaoi/BL mode (tm) to read it, which probably helped me like it more than you. In BL mode (tm), logic and meaning do not exist. All that matters is teh pretty. If two boys are pretty together, even if it guts the theme of the original Arabian Nights story -- nothing else matters! If incest looks pretty -- nothing else matters! And so on.

Yeah, it's compartmentalizing, but... it's BL. Why are you expecting it to make sense? =)

[oyceter]

Hee, yeah. Sometimes I can turn my brain off for BL/yaoi and sometimes I can't. Usually there's only so much skanky gender stuff I can take, and oh man am I sick of the alpha male characters! (ditto for romances!)

Sigh. It really is so pretty. And yet!