Reading Diary B: Turkish Fairy Tales

The story I most enjoyed from the second half of this unit was The Wizard and his Pupil.  It reminded me of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – the Nicolas Cage movie – except I don’t think the apprentice kills the sorcerer.

Throughout this unit, dervishes are mention.  I was surprised to hear that they were actually holy men – the first time I had heard about them was in the movie Meet Joe Black.  Sir Anthony Hopkins’s character is telling his daughter that he wants to see her happy, to see her “dancing like a dervish.”  From this context, and because of the premise of the movie, I had assumed that a dervish was a type of devil – though why he would want his daughter to be dancing like a devil, I don’t know, that’s just what I thought.

Starting at 1:01, William Parrish (Sir Anthony Hopkins) tells his daughter how happy he wants her to be in her relationship

So I thought a dervish was a devil because in this movie, Hopkins is playing William Parrish – a businessman on the verge of retirement when, after having a heart attack, makes a deal with Death: show Death around in order to buy himself just a little more time.  Death, portrayed by Brad Pitt, takes the name Joe Black as he accompanies Parrish to work, a media company Parrish has built from the ground up.  It was Parrish’s passion for life and his love for his family that had attracted Death to him in the first place – it was how he had lived his life so fully.

Through Parrish, Death learns more about life – and love.  Eventually falling for Parrish’s daughter.  He comes to care about Parrish himself, too, even helping him expose someone who was trying to steal Parrish’s company from under his feet.

 Best scene of the movie - Death is visiting Parrish's daughter, a doctor at a local hospital, when an older Jamaican woman sees him for what he is.

Reading Diary A: Turkish Fairy Tales

For my reading diary, I read the Turkish Fairy Tales unit and my favorite story by a mile was The Crow-Peri.  Maybe because I’ve always been partial to crows in mythology and folktales.  And while they normally get the short end of the stick by being portrayed as wicked or harbingers of death – I like that this story shows the crow-peri as a helper to the hero.  And when it’s revealed that the crow was making up for a past crime – I loved her even more.  Of course, it’s always nice when there’s a happy ending – she gets married to the bird catcher after proving herself changed to the fairy queen.

One of my favorite movies is The Crow, starring Brandon Lee – the son of Bruce Lee.  Lee’s character, Eric Draven, is brought back to life by a crow a year after he and his fiancé were brutally murdered on Devil’s Night.  The crow is a source of power for Eric, making him impervious to injury until he has gotten his revenge. 

After killing someone who was responsible for his and his fiancé's murder, Eric would leave behind a crow. [x]

Unfortunately, Brandon Lee was killed on set while filming a scene in which his character is shot with a .44 magnum.  The weapon had been used a few days prior with a dummy round that had a projectile and primer, but no gun powder – after a test fire the projectile stayed inside the barrel of the gun.  Later, the weapon was loaded with blanks – bullets that have primer and gunpowder, but no projectile – and when the gun was fired, the projectile was pushed out of the barrel as if it were a normal bullet. [x]