2013-05-07

Scheherazade: If you want to be loved - talk!


The heart of a man was broken by his wife so badly that he feared to fall in love again. He was a rich man - a Persian king and to avoid to be hurt again, he decided to have each night another virgin and to have them killed after only one night before they had a chance to hurt him. But then it was the turn of Scheherazade. She was not only beautiful  - she was smart. And she made it to find his interest. He wanted to listen her, night after night. And not only to listen. She gave birth to 3 children. After 1001 nights he had forgotten that he did not want to fall in love again.


Isn't that a wonderful story? Everyone knows how much a broken heart is hurting and how hard it is to learn reliance again. The patience of Scheherazade helped to open up his heart again. I don't see her as a victim or prisoner. I see the frame story of "One Thousand and One Nights" as an allegory.


And it is the frame of a more than 2.000 years old compilation of many stories from the Arabian and Indian world. As with the Bible the texts has been collected over the centuries. I was fascinated by the richness of the old Oriental culture as it represents in the many stories: Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, Harun-Al-Rashid, The Barber of Baghdad and so many more.


Mimesis Monday, the RL storyteller Heidi Dahlsveen, gave 4 artists the opportunity to visualize their idea of" One Thousand and One Nights". Cherry Manga, Capcat Ragu, Meilo Minotaur created the ground floorin combination with beautiful sounds by Takio Ra. Capcat and Meilo of course also created 3 avatars, Scheherazade, the king and a cute Birds avatar, consisting of 5 birds. The title of this post is my variation of the installation title "Sheherazade: If you want to survive - tell a story."

Scheherazade Avatar

Take the TP here (hard to find otherwise) to the work of Giovanna Cerise in the sky.

I must admit, the works are not "my" 1001 Nights, but that shows the endless richness of 1001 Nights, which influenced art in the Occident a lot over the centuries.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Companion/102/117/22



2 comments:

Catarina Carneiro de Sousa said...

She is a resistant, she is the one who sets everybody free, including the king.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/capcatragu/8700866909/in/photostream/

CapCat ragu

Lucy said...

...and she invented the first daily soap ;)