The life of a genie is a boring yet hectic one. Every day, I
sit in my prison or lamp as you mortals like to call it, and slowly rot. Hour
after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year, I sit and wait
for my lamp to be discovered only to then become a slave to the one who finds
me; my master. Just as I was about to give up on being found, the lesser of the
two evils, I feel the magic of the lamp alerting me that my new master is
summoning me. My first task was to deliver my new master, Aladdin, from the
cave that held both of us captive.
As I spent
my first days with Aladdin, I quickly found out that he was quite a foolish
boy. While idle in my prison, I overheard him telling his mother that he has fallen
in love with the princess. Silly boy! Did he not know that the princess was
promised to the grand-vizir’s son? There is no way he would allow Aladdin to
marry his daughter! But alas, for almost three months I listened to Aladdin
prepare for the moment when he would earn the princess’ hand in marriage. Once
he heard the news of the Sultan’s betrayal, he once again summoned me to do his
bidding. My newest task was to bring the bride and bridegroom to him and throw
the young man out into the cold. As crazy as this stunt was, it did
successfully lured the grand-vizir’s son away from the princess’ hand and made
her fall in love with my master. After the three months were up, I was summoned
again to provide Aladdin with a scented bath, a horse that was grander than the
sultan’s, twenty slaves for him, six slaves for his mother, and ten thousand
pieces of gold.
Once
promised by the sultan to be married to the princess, he summoned me yet again to
build a grand palace for the princess. Although I have only been with Aladdin
for a short time, I am beginning to grow tired of his constant demands. Genie
build me this, Genie give me that! All of this fuss over a woman who already
possesses more riches than all of the people of China! Humans constantly long
for more riches, more possessions while I only long for freedom.
I have
noticed that it has been days since Aladdin has last summoned me and I am
beginning to become weary. I know that he has the genie of the ring at his beck
and call but, it is not like him to not rub my lamp at all. After a few more
days of waiting, I feel myself being summoned. Once I am out of the lamp, I see
that it is not Aladdin who has summoned me but the magician from the far west.
Somehow I have ended up in his hands and I do not know how. I know that I have
spoken ill of Aladdin before but, I much rather him to be my master than this
magician. Another day passes and I am summoned again. This time, it is by
Aladdin. He has told me that he and the princess have poisoned and killed the
magician and he wishes me to carry his palace that the magician had stolen back
to China. Days pass and Aladdin once again calls upon my name and requested
that I bring him a roc’s egg for his wife. How could he ask me this!? I have
done everything for him and yet he still wants more. Aladdin and his precious
wife get everything while I, a creature more powerful than him, sit alone in a
lamp wishing for freedom that will never come.
Author's Note: I chose to reimagine the story of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). I was not sure about how to retell this story so I tried to retell the story of Aladdin from the Genie in the lamp's point of view. The story ends very abruptly because the tale of Aladdin is a long one and I was not sure about how to condense the story without leaving out important aspects of the story.
Terrica: I enjoyed the way you decided to tell this story from the genie's perspective; it gave a new voice to the narrative that I hadn't considered before. I also read Arabian Nights this week, and hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
ReplyDeleteAs far as your post goes, I think it starts out strong but becomes slightly jumbled as it goes on. You seemed to hint at your confusion in your Author's Note, explaining that you weren't sure how to retell the story and were also flustered about how to end the soliloquy.
To solve this problem, I think it would be cool if you focused on only one or two of the stories about Aladdin, and then honed in on adding dialogue and sensory detail to the writing. As the reader, I would have liked a bit more dialogue to drive the action; it's funny how conversations among characters can really transport you into the story itself!
I also enjoyed your retelling of the story from the genie's perspective. I thought that was clever. I also liked how you made Aladdin a more dark character than the Aladdin character in the Disney movie. That seems to give your story a different edge to it. Even though I didn't read your particular story selection, I could definitely tell it was about Aladdin and his adventures. I can understand how it might be difficult to end the story without losing important part of the storyline.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe sticking with the storyline between Aladdin and the genie would have made the story easier to follow in the middle and probably easier to end too. I would have liked a little more detail and interaction between the two main characters.
I love it when stories are re-told from a different character's point of view! This story was especially fun to read, because it's unlike the genie in the 'Aladdin' I grew up with from Disney. You did a great job describing the confined quarters of the lamp and the ever-present contempt the genie had for Aladdin whenever he would ask for something ridiculous. Interestingly, the egg of the roc is mentioned in the 'Voyages of Sindbad' as well!
ReplyDeleteAs far as the story overall goes, I think Cole offers the best creative criticism. Adding some dialogue between the genie and Aladdin would have filled in the story better rather than just describing it as it went along. Regardless, I enjoyed reading it! You have a knack for description.