This great little blog post, Smart Books vs Less Smart People, riffs on The Poetry Lesson and will make you feel better.

As the writer notes:

It’s undeniable that becoming brighter from reading is a glorious thing; a gift, a wonderful democratic alchemy that liberals go on and on about like it’s an elixir. However, in defense of the less-well-read everywhere, I can’t ignore the stage fright one gets when dealing with material that knows so much more than you do, stuff that’s so complex it’s hard to figure out where it begins let alone how to enter it.

But there is good news in the end and a cautionary note to be patient:

You’re already pretty smart if you’re brave enough to tackle interesting subject matter that stretches you further and asks you to navigate new terrain. Success at this can take time.

I couldn’t agree more. As a publicist at an academic press, I am called upon to represent books that are lightning years outside of my comfort level (Hypoelliptic Laplacian and Orbital Integrals, anyone?) and yet I frequently find myself reading and reading and reading on into books that are supposedly too difficult. Give it a try — start here or here or here.

This weekend, Scheherazade, a film by Yousry Nasrallah, will open at the Riverside Theater in New York. Though this film is set in modern Egypt, it relies on the very old art of storytelling and conjures the persona of the queen of this art form — Scheherazade. According to this review in Variety, the film uses the narrated stories of several women to probe larger questions about women’s oppression and sexuality in politically repressive states.

This film will be shown in limited release which means only a lucky few in NY and LA get to see it for now. So, for those of you interested in the culture of story-telling and Scheherazade, we recommend picking up a copy of Whatever Gets You through the Night by Andrei Codrescu. Hailed by critics as an imaginative re-telling of portions of the original Arabian Nights, it also probes the culture of story-telling in ancient and contemporary times. Read a sample chapter here.

Chronicle that is. In her San Francisco Chronicle review of Andrei Codrescu’s latest book, Jenny Hendrix writes, “Whatever Gets You Through the Night nominally includes only one of the 1,001 stories that, told over several nights by Sheherezade, keep the king curious enough to spare her. But Codrescu’s is not so much a retelling as a treatise on or demonstration of the Nights’ mechanics; in his hands, this story becomes almost infinite.”

She continues to praise Codrescu’s writing and story-telling, saying, “Like Borges before him, Codrescu shows the borders between fiction and truth to be ragged, if not nonexistent. A kind of linguistic alchemy occurs between word and flesh….Although much of the book is dedicated to, and may be read as, a serious investigation of storytelling and its place in our future (our own iSheherezade), Codrescu never loses sight of the fact that these stories are meant to be ‘entertainments’ above all.”

Read the complete review here.

The Arabian Nights stories may be far more controversial than you ever imagined.

In an interview on WPR, author Andrei Codrescu and Professor Reza Aslan talk about the interesting origins of the Arabian Nights stories. According to Aslan, the story of 1001 Nights were originally translated into the English language in the Victorian era to serve as sex manuals for repressed British men, much in the way that the Kama Sutra is considered by some today. His article of the Arabian Nights stories as “Islamic Erotica” appeared in Playboy Magazine. (Excerpts from that article can be found here.)

Codrescu notes that the Arabian Nights stories are interesting because their original author is unknown. As such they have been revised and rewritten by generations of authors and editors, changing the message (and degree of eroticism) of the tales. Codrescu also insists that the oral nature of the stories play an important role in their seductive effect. They are by definition never ending–Sheherezade depends on her skill as a story teller to stay alive–and thus are written (or spoken) to continually arouse curiosity and interest in the reader (or listener).

Both experts agree that the fantastic and exotic nature of the stories are what have drawn centuries of readers to the Arabian Nights stories. Even the Disney classic Aladdin was derived from one of Sheherezade’s many tales. The interview explores the stories’ connections to everything from historical figures who may have inspired the characters in 1001 Nights to the current “erotic” events that fascinate the public today (Congressman Weiner, for example). Take a listen to this educational and entertaining interview here, and check out Codrescu’s take on the famous story in Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments.

“The best stories are those told with the threat of death in the morning” –or so claims author Andrew Codrescu in his interview on Hawaii public radio last week.

The conversation was about his new interpretation of the Arabian Nights stories, Whatever Gets You through the Night. In it Codrescu reveals some of the personal and creative reasons why he was drawn to retelling these stories in particular. He also considers the importance of oral story telling and how it has changed yet remained the same in modern life. (For example, have you ever considered twitter or facebook as a medium for telling never ending stories?)

The interview is both an interesting look at what inspires an author to write on a subject, and a glimpse into Codrescu’s life. Check it out here and pick up a copy of Whatever Gets You through the Night for yourself!

From Our Man In Boston:

You can thank academic presses for many things including publishing books not necessarily academic. In this case, I am pleased to point out that Princeton University Press has done the world of literature a good turn, publishing poet, Road Scholar and Exquisite Corpse editor Andrei Codrescru’s Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments.

If you were lucky enough to be one of the 273 people in the audience last week at the Kansas City Public Library you heard Andrei Codrescu speak about his new book Whatever Gets You Through the Night (which just made the Los Angeles Times’s prestigious Summer Reading list!). I just ran across this fun article at the KC Library’s blog which describes Andrei’s book and also lists other popular re-tellings of famous stories. Head over there to see if your favorite makes their list and if not, leave a note in the comments section.

Author and National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu discussed his new book Whatever Gets You Through the Night at the Plaza Branch on June 2, 2011.

This interview was taped at The Getty in Los Angeles when Andrei gave a lecture on The Poetry Lesson.

For more “Art Lessons” click over to The Getty’s site to view more interview segments on lessons like “Learning requires a blind path toward a labyrinth of bones” and “Laughter and silence as subversive tools for creativity”.

Prepare for the publication of Whatever Gets You Through the Night in June by reading excerpts from Andrei’s earlier PUP books: The Posthuman Dada Guide and The Poetry Lesson.