And speaking of anachronisms, “philistinism” wasn’t really a word or a thing in the way he’s using it here, not until the 17th or 18th century, and it’s a pretty white, Anglo-centric turn of phrase. Not to be mistaken for the Philistine people (or the Pleshets as they were known), philistines in philosophical terms are anti-intellectuals who place no value in “art, beauty, spirituality, or intellect.” (x) While I can’t find much in the way of how the phrase originated in this way, I’m not going to rule out white colonialist views of ancient cultures, but anybody better versed on this that’d like to give me a shout to set the record straight is most welcome.
I feel the need to give Iago a pass on the more modern references because this is still probably the least blatant of the anachronisms he can dish out, considering his one ambition in life is to have a vibrating recliner.
Fun fact: I’ve actually tried to determine when and where Aladdin is set, mainly for somebody who was actually writing a thesis on the subject. I eventually came up with the Safavid Empire, but your liveblogs have made me reevaluate my theory.
The Disney series itself has elements of several existing cities tied into it, and I’ll admit I’m not the most well-read on all of the possibilities, but I’m going to take a look around and see what I can learn about the Safavid Empire, just because some inspiration could have been taken from there as well.
Finally, Aladdin can’t handle Jasmine talking to this other guy for so long – and being complimented for how merchants such as himself contribute to Agrabah’s prosperity. He announces that just last week, he fought a giant, dancing rhino. (Which…no you didn’t. Genie danced with Samir. The enemies were the imps. Guess that means either Never Say Nefir happens a week before this [despite it taking place nine episodes before in the production order] or Aladdin’s making shit up.)
Everyone’s impressed, as you can see.
Aladdin feels the need to demonstrate his entirely fictional battle with Samir the Destroyer despite how obviously uncomfortable it makes everybody, and he winds up setting the room on fire.
And ruining lunch. And than Daru calls him a douchebag in smartypants talk, and Aladdin’s face literally turns red.
Because otherwise, how would you know he was embarrassed?
This is one of the first episodes where I can very clearly see the message here that’s intended for the kids. Aladdin is arguably the youngest in the room next to Jasmine, and he doesn’t have the same education or experience as anyone there. He didn’t live a privileged lifestyle. This is obviously meant, however, to chime with children and a very common experience many children go through:
While adults can surely think of times when they felt similarly, it is very normal for a child to feel out of place when they’re in a setting with predominantly adults, talking about very adult things. And every kid in the world who has experienced this has at times attempted to include themselves in some way, whether it’s to draw the focus toward them or to just shift the subject to something they do understand better. And it’s not uncommon for them to be shushed or to be especially embarrassed if they get overzealous and make a mess of some kind.
Kids are expected to know how Aladdin feels in this situation, even if they might be too young (or otherwise too different from him) to understand the dynamics of privilege and culture present in a scene like this, and I think the exaggeratedness of the disaster to follow is meant to underscore that.
From a purely plot-related standpoint, Aladdin is a hero. It’s what he does for a living, and while Jasmine appreciates him, he’s still fighting a losing battle every day to prove himself worthy to the people surrounding him – the affluent citizens of Agrabah who likely never knew he existed before Jasmine hooked up with him.
Right now he’s clearly feeling his way through this, and this episode is going to be about growth – rare for Aladdin, who takes a REALLY long time to learn lessons. The first thing he is going to try, of course, is to emulate these people and see if that earns their respect. We’ll see where it goes.
There are so many contradictory elements in the Aladdin series that I might as well just throw up my hands, since the writers clearly hadn’t agreed on a setting.
When you write fanfic or RP within the setting you kind of have to make your own assumptions, which is kinda the direction I run in. I’ll concede that sometimes I think the writers just went “they’re kids and they won’t know the difference” and carried on, but sometimes it’s fun finding things like this.
So Aladdin and Jasmine are at one of her father’s parties. Many people from the richer parts of Agrabah (I’m assuming they’re all from Agrabah because it’s never said otherwise, and several of these people are alwaysvisiting) are gathered around, eating awesome eats, and apparently having quip competitions.
Seriously, almost every piece of dialogue in this is a quote from someone famous. The problem is that at least one of these quotes would have required a time machine for the speaker to pick it up.
The only new addition to the group, as far as people we don’t usually see at these gatherings that are shown, is this guy:
This is Daru, who has shiny hair, a really waspish dialect, and features that for a suitor (or anyone otherwise – since he appears to just be a merchant who is not even attempting to hide that he’s flirting with Jasmine) are designed to be a little more conventionally handsome than usual. In fact he vaguely resembles Sean Connery and I almost think this was intentional.
He’s pretty much designed to make Aladdin feel inadequate in every possible way.
Anyway, to the discussion they’re having, apparently about art. I’m going to just give you basic scripted rundown of the first part of it, because it’s where all of my “there’s a disturbance in the force” alarms started going off:
Daru: All art is a revolt against man’s fate. Jasmine: Perhaps. Although I adore art, I prefer nature.
I want to pretend this is Jasmine’s subtle way of indicating she thinks this guy is fake as Hell.
Daru: Hmm. Nature itself is but art – art known to thee.
And then Iago puts in with a quote of his own. Because I think he knows exactly what Daru is going.
Iago: The perfection of art is to conceal art.
This entire scene seems like it’s trying REALLY HARD to talk over the heads of the intended audience (and Aladdin, for that matter).
However, what I think Daru is trying to do is sound impressive by spouting off a bunch of brainy quotes to impress Jasmine. She’s not buying it, and that bit from Iago up there? Was a surprisingly classy way for Iago to indicate that he’s not buying it. That’s pretty much the smoothest way someone could have said “BE LESS OBVIOUS, JACKWAGON.”
Now the episode may prove me wrong later, but let me have this.
But here’s why I’m bothered by it. That first quote from Daru, “Art is a revolt against man’s fate”? Yeah, that’s Andre Malraux, French novelist and art theorist, who hasn’t even been dead 50 years yet. The second one, “Nature itself is but art – art known to thee” – that’s Alexander fucking Pope, from his Essay on Man. Wrong cultures, wrong region, wrong millennium.
Iago’s quote, by the way, is from Quintilian, a Roman rhetorician, first century AD, which even if we’re going to fudge time periods is still more appropriate and believable than what this guy is throwing out. Nobody here is Roman, but since Agrabah kinda pushes itself as a melting pot and a meeting place of several cultures, and the show itself acknowledges all these different systems of thought and religions existing at the same time – it’s less of a stretch than Pope and Malraux, that’s for damn sure.
Anyway, Aladdin is uncomfortable. If you think Aladdin is about to ruin everything by being a total spaz, there will be nothing in the next post that surprises you.
Production Code Episode 18 – My Fair Aladdin
Surprise, I decided to do another Mechanicles episode! My roommate mentioned liking this one, and because I didn’t give his episodes a lot of chances as a kid, this is one I haven’t seen from beginning to end. I thought I’d watch it through before doing the full liveblog, but I realized there were things I wanted to talk about pretty much from the beginning, so here we go!
Since it’s a Mechanicles episode I’m going to go ahead and warn in advance for potential ableism or sanism, based upon what I observed the last time I did one of his episodes. No seriously.
After a very long delay (three part time jobs will do that), I’m wrapping up this episode by just focusing on the one thing that I thought needed to be discussed and then moving on to the next one.
While Jasmine and Iago are trying to steal food for themselves, they hear a mother calling her children to dinner. Jasmine climbs up to a window to look in and see what she can nick, only to discover that the family in question is so poor that all they can eat is a single date each, because they need to make their food last.
This is kind of important for Jasmine, because she’s displayed on more than one occasion before this that she’s kind of ignorant to how rough it is for poor people. She was almost seriously injured in the first movie because of it. She doesn’t understand how Aladdin can sympathize with creatures like rats because even though she’s had glimpses into this kind of life before, it’s always been from a very safe vantage point.
For the first time, I think Jasmine really gets it.
So the melon she and Iago swiped (or were about to swipe) is left on the doorstep for this family. Because nobody should have to go to bed with a single date in their belly.
This becomes important later when, after Jasmine’s ordeal is over with and she’s human again, the first thing she’s concerned about is talking to her father about the poor in Agrabah and what they should do to make things better.
The Sultan, of course, replies, “We have…poor people in Agrabah?”
I’m going to throw him a bone for this one. Jafar was the one running the city for the longest time. He was the one giving orders to the guards. He was the one handling all of these affairs and leaving the Sultan feeling perfectly content that all was well in his fair city – when in reality, there are people homeless, or starving just to keep a roof over their heads.
This is the first time anyone in the show talks about dealing with it on a state level. This is important.
Want more episodes? See the Episode Masterlist. Hop on over to the Series Theories page for organized rambling. Send me an ask if you have questions or requests or just want to talk about any ideas YOU got from reading all this. See my support page if you’d like to send a donation!
The semester is finished at the university, so I have no classes left to teach, no more grades to get in. My last day for the semester is done at another of my jobs too.
I’m celebrating Yule this Saturday with a nice swanky party that needs preparing. After that…I’m pretty well open for anything, and will probably start on a new episode this week. I will do a brief note to finish out “Do the Rat Thing” because there is KIND OF only one other thing I wanted to talk about in that episode that was really really significant.
I’m not sure what episode I’ll be doing next, because I’ve forgotten a lot of the requests (I’m sorry). But I may just jump on one I like so I can get back in the swing of things.
The DVD Fairy 