{"id":2854,"date":"2011-08-18T00:29:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2011-08-18T00:29:07","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T21:29:07","slug":"marina-warner-on-the-arabian-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2011\/08\/18\/marina-warner-on-the-arabian-nights\/","title":{"rendered":"Marina Warner on The Arabian Nights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft was a big fan of the The Arabian Nights<\/a><\/em> in his youth, and he’d no doubt be pleased to hear the the foremost British writer on myth and fairytale has written a 500-page book about it. Independent scholar Marina Warner<\/a>‘s Stranger Magic: Charmed States in the Wake of the Arabian Nights<\/em> is due to be published by Chatto & Windus in the UK, and Random House in the USA. Seems they’re going to try and get it out for the New Year book token market.<\/p>\n

“A dazzling history of magical thinking, exploring the power of The Arabian Nights and its impact in the West, and retelling some of its wondrous tales. […] Translated into French and English in the early days of the Enlightenment, this became a best-seller among intellectuals, when it was still thought of in the Arab world as a mere collection of folk tales. For thinkers of the West the book’s strangeness opened visions of transformation: dreams of flight, speaking objects, virtual money, and the power of the word to bring about change. Its tales create a poetic image of the impossible, a parable of secret knowledge and power. Above all they have the fascination of the strange — the belief that true knowledge lies elsewhere, in a mysterious realm of wonder. […] With startling originality and impeccable research, this ground-breaking book shows how magic, in the deepest sense, helped to create the modern world, and how profoundly it is still inscribed in the way we think today.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Marina Warner can be heard discussing The Arabian Nights<\/em> on BBC Radio 4’s highly recommended In Our Time<\/a><\/em> programme (UK access only, those outside the UK try here<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft was a big fan of the The Arabian Nights in his youth, and he’d no doubt be pleased to …<\/p>\n

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