Should we be reading A Thousand Nights? I think yes. Now, we tend to shy away from things that are offensive. I don’t think that’s productive or helpful to addressing the problem. Ignoring things that are hard or controversial doesn’t make them go away. It just allows them to fester and grow until it becomes something uncontrollable. After reading The Dark Side of Arabian Nights, I became aware that there are multiple instances of anti-sematic events, however that doesn’t change my opinion. I have a somewhat complicated relationship with being Jewish. The community where I grew up was predominately Jewish and there were orthodox jews who in my opinion took the religion too far and tended to force it upon others who didn’t. there were also people who were obnoxious and privileged, which has nothing to do with being Jewish except that they were and emanated the term JAP ( Jewish American princess) and I strive to distance myself from that aspect of the culture as much as possible. Putting all of this aside, I am proud of being Jewish and have been lucky to have grown up in a locale that didn’t force me to hide that. All of this to say, I don’t think that the instances of anti-sematism should prevent me from reading this otherwise important piece of literature. I think that this should apply to all instances of racism and misogyny that a present. I understand that some of it is harder to bear than others but it was the period in which it took place. That doesn’t make it ok, I’m not saying that it does. I think people should be appreciated for who they are regardless of anything else. And that just like that, this piece of literature should be examined for what it is, a look into the time period in which it was written. And that we should acknowledge the things that are present that should no longer be tolerated.
