On Fri, 21 Dec 2001, Brian Randall wrote:

Vincent Seifert wrote:

     "The jinniyah spoke again, her voice easily overcoming his.  
'I vowed that for the second thousand years I slept, whosomever 
would awaken me, him I would serve for all of his days!'

     "The king's eyes widened at this, and he said, 'That's even 
better than three wishes, isn't it?  But shouldn't it be 
"whomsoever"?'

	This went right over my head. I still don't get it...

'whosomever' vs. 'whomsoever'... I guess it's even lamer than I originally
thought.  :)
 

     The tale-teller laughed, not loud or long, but with such joy 
and love of life that the hearts of all who heard were lightened 
by it.  "Oh, yes, it all really happened," she said.

	I think you might want another clue there, but in general, it works 
quite well, I think.

I never know how big a stick to hit the reader over the head with, and I
usually guess small... thanks for the calibration.

     ~~~~~ end The Tale of the Jinniyah and the King ~~~~~

	I liked it. I liked it a lot.

	I've never read the story where you suggest the style elements are 
from,

I don't remember the title either -- there are so many of them -- but I
remember reading it in there somewhere in the 20 years I've had the Burton
translation...

but I'm a fan of Arabic lore, so this was quite the pleasant 
surprise. Kudos to you, sir, for a most excelently written tale, and 
thank you most kindly for deigning to share it with us.

I'm glad you liked it, and I'm particularly glad the Burton-pastiche and
oral-tradition styles worked for you; it was, um, challenging.  :)
 
Thanks for writing back!

Vince Seifert    Network Analyst     seifertv@csus.edu
http://webpages.csus.edu/~seifertv/  updated 1999Aug20
CSUS hired me to build their network, not to speak for the university.

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