Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok - One Thousand and One Nights, vol. 02, 04 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

This series keeps enraging me, but I read on because the art was so gorgeous. Thankfully, I have been released, since the author's note in volume 4 annoyed me so much that I refuse to pick up more! Ha, freedom!

I still like the stories being told between the main story, but the main story is so frustrating, especially because it's taking a source famous for its heroine and making it something in which all the women are ineffectual and unimportant or evil.

GOOD: Acknowledgement that the sultan's plan to kill women after marrying shouldn't be blamed on his cheating wife/stepmother.

BAD: Instead, let's blame it on his cheating mother!

I keep liking the stories within the stories, which at least seem to comment a little on the patriarchy (the angel whose husband steals her clothes). And I cheer on having more Korean folktales, although I am vaguely bemused by the fact that the heaven in the story looks like Chinese heaven (i.e. Tang-style clothing).

And then, the author writes notes like: "I like the move toward equality for women, but I feel like the push for it goes too far. Men and women should not fight! We should focus on both genders, not just one, and that way they will understand each other."

I was like, "Yes, yes, that is the exact impression I get when I read about a husband imprisoning a wife by stealing her clothes and burning them, then trying to kill her because her son is not his... because he stole her the day before she was going to get married and she was already pregnant! If only the wife tried to understand her husband more and not tried to fight him off when he was hunting down her fiance and locking her in the house and trying to strangle her!"

ETA: I realized I must have accidentally skipped vol. 3 and shoujo!Caesar.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

... Wow, I am so glad my massive issues with turning Scheherazade into a boy made me give up at volume two. Despite the prettiness of the sultan and his vizier. (What? I'm weak for glasses and scruff.)

[oyceter]

I knoooow! I kept reading for more Korean folktales and scruffy, glasses-wearing vizier, and wow do I regret it now!

I was very tempted to throw v. 4 at a wall but did not as I was tachiyomi-ing in Borders...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm really sad that it makes you upset (such potential!) but kind of happy that making them both the same sex (what's the point of the framing story, then?) annoyed me enough that i didn't give into the lure of an Arabian Nights retelling, given your comments.

[oyceter]

Yeeeaaaaaah. It doesn't get much better than the premise...

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

especially because it's taking a source famous for its heroine and making it something in which all the women are ineffectual and unimportant or evil.

Wordpie!


"I like the move toward equality for women, but I feel like the push for it goes too far. Men and women should not fight! We should focus on both genders, not just one, and that way they will understand each other."

... WHAT.

I, too, had to give up the series despite lingering affection for scruffy viziers. *sigh* Sometimes it's hard, having standards. ;)

[oyceter]

I KNOW! I was all, "I would throw you at a wall right now except I did not buy you and I am still reading you at Borders. But in my mind, I throw you at a wall!"

[cicer.livejournal.com]

...Huh. You know, I'm not sure why these things don't bother me about this series but...they don't! I'm a total feminist, and frequently get pissed of with sexism and misogyny in various shows, movies, and books, but somehow this one just didn't push my buttons at all, and now I'm kind of curious why. I honestly have no idea. *scratches head*

I admit that blurb from the author is extremely awkwardly phrased, but I think what she meant was that she didn't like the whole idea of the battle between the sexes/emphasizing the difference between men and women/the struggle for power between genders/etc. As I said, uncomfortably phrased, but I truly think she meant it in a pretty innocuous way. YMMV, of course.

By the by, I actually didn't interpret vol. 4 as 'let's blame his issues on his cheating mom'. Instead, I interpreted it as 'let's blame them on his crazy dad who thought it would be a good idea to murder his cheating wife in front of their ten-year-old son'. It actually made me a lot more understanding of his character, because (much like some men abuse their wives because their dads abused their mom) he just had a really crappy and traumatic example of what relationships between husbands and wives were supposed to be.

But like I said, YMMV.

[oyceter]

I think I could have even kept reading the series had it not been for the author's note. I mean, I know it's not a feminist series, but sometimes there's enough leeway for me to put my own pretend spin on things.

It was just her note had every single argument against feminism in it that I see over and over and over, from "I don't call myself a feminist" to "But what about the men?" It drives me crazy. Also, though I think any sane human being would blame the sultan's issues on his insane father, the spin the manhwa seems to be giving is on the mother—the focus is all on his mother and her influence on him, not on his father, and as such, it shifts the focus of his Issues onto his mom in terms of narrative weight.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that. There does seem to be more narrative weight on the mom. I can't quite tell if that's because that's how the author wants it, or that's how the character perceives the situation, but I can see how it might feel very sexist to some.

And yeah, the author's note does make me vaguely uncomfy in the 'what about the men?' feelings it gives off, but I'm able to excuse it as just being poorly phrased. I don't blame you for being P.O.-ed, though. Like I said, this series somehow doesn't hit my feminist-rage buttons, but I can certainly see how it might hit someone else's. :/

Really, I'm mostly just in the thing for the pretty art. I admit it. XD

[seajules]

...I'm glad Rising Sun gives store credit for returned merchandise, and that I'd already decided to turn in the first three volumes of this series for Silver Diamond and more Minekura.

[oyceter]

Yeeeeeaaah. Those two have much better slashy UST without the horrible misogyny! (Not that Minekura is perfect, but at least her heroes aren't regularly killing women!)

[octopedingenue]

I am kinda glad now Borders only has volume 4 of this so I never picked it up! It sounds like the evil inbred baby of Pahanjip and Boy Princess, no offense to those series.

[oyceter]

Yeeeeah. Sigh.

[passivesoul.livejournal.com]

FYI, the writer of the One Thousand and One Nights manhwa is male.

[oyceter]

Thanks!

[meraehl.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. *rant with mild spoilers following*

I read the first volume (I think?) of this series a couple of weeks ago. Coming across this review now made me chuckle because the first sentence summed up my reaction back then.

I wanted to like it - pretty, pretty art! But yeah, the story enraged me so I reluctantly stopped.

3 things that were Too Much:

1) Despite liking yaoi, I was annoyed that they turned the heroine into a guy.
2) I could see the "It's the fault of those shallow, treacherous, manipulative wimmens!" vibe being developed.
3) The "Main Character Can Do No Wrong" motif. He's murdering innocent women every night, and this isn't seen as a huge problem. The brother gets rescued by his sister and childhood friend and he goes BACK to the prince, betraying his sister in the process. WHY!? Oh yes, because there's good in the prince "deep down". :P That's all right, then. Grrr.

The prince says he'll stop the murdering "for now" and this seems to give him a free pass with his adoring "bride" and even his advisor who previously condemned him. Where's the culpability for his past evil? Seemingly, he's a prince and he's hot, so all is forgiven. Bah.

Maybe at the end he'll pay for his evil - but I'm too irritated to hang around for it.

[oyceter]

Aiiiiieee yeah. Also, I'm guessing that the prince will end up being forgiven for his sins and end up with a happily ever after, grrr.

[xjophielx.livejournal.com]

This series was in Korean before; the author's true words were possibly 'lost in translation'.


It is very possible that Scheherazade was indeed a MAN instead of a woman:

If you read 1,001 Nights's original scripts in Arabic, Farsi, etc, you would notice Scheherazade speaking to Shahryar using male pronouns, honorifics, etc to refer to "herself".
Not to mention all the embellishments made and extra tales added over the centuries to "improve" the story.
Arabs (and people in general) are notorious for embellishing stories to make them more entertaining for the audience.
It could be that the sultan didn't murder over 300 women, but perhaps 50 or less (still pretty damn bad, but not as ghastly as 300 murders).
(Some of my closest friends are Arabs whose parents are teachers. I <3 them.)

The story also tells of Scheherazade returning home from "traveling".
It was and remains forbidden in the Middle East for a woman to travel without a male relative to "protect" her.
Muslim Sharia Law is the epitome of anti-feminist; this story doesn't even cut it close in comparison to how bad things are for Middle Eastern women.
While what Shahryar did centuries ago was indeed heinous, Sharia law remains the greater sin against women, treating them as chattel, only good for bearing sons to carry on their father's name.
In fact, the Koran has several tales from the Arabian Nights in it; whomever first told these tales influenced religion. D:

And another point for the "Arab embellishing":

If one remembers the "BEING GAY IS VERBOTEN, BAD, NOT ALLOWED" thing... the compilers of the tales might have changed Scheherazade to a woman to not anger the public.
Many of the tales are old folktales, most much older than Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. (Some tales are Hindi and Chinese. )
It's quite possible that in order to make the mostly homophobic public happy, the compilers changed "Sehara" (or whatever his name could have been), an intelligent, homoerotic man, into "Scheherazade", a wise and clever woman.

I'm a feminist, but I've never seen Scheherazade as a strong female character. She was crafty and intelligent, but learned women were uncommon and unwanted back then; the more learned a woman was, the less fertile she was deemed. A smart woman could outwit her husband and "shame" him. Considering these things, my doubts are supremely high that "Scheherazade" was really a "she".

[oyceter]

Well, I don't know enough about Arabian Nights to say if Scheherazade's historical basis was on a man or a woman, but I think it's fair enough to say that the fictional representation of her is definitely as a woman, so the manhwaga is still changing the sex of the fictional creation. Also, I'm not exactly sure what you're arguing with regards to Scheherazade being a strong female character, since you attribute all her strengths to being male.

[(Anonymous)]

I dunno. I consider myself a feminist and I did like the manhwa very much. The art is simply gorgeous and I saw much more in support of girls than against them.

At least I think that's the first time I heard somebody raise a voice in favour of Socrates's poor wife. As for the mother, I don't think any of the readers blame her. I mean who can really? With this kind of person for a husband... Neither is Fatima blamed - the mangaka followed up with a story on her involvement with the brother and you can pretty much understand her motives.

As for why Sehara sticks with the prince, I found that a bit weird too. But I guess it's not because the prince is good somewhere deep inside, but because he's the prince. The medieval attitude to the prince is not quite the same. Besides, ok , he goes. What if the prince goes on killing women? And if you kill the prince, who's to guarantee the next ruler would be better? I guess it's safer to stay close to this one and control him.