Scorpion Soup in Q&A with Tahir Shah

Jan 08, 2013 H.M. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Scorpion Soup: Dancing to a different drum

Tahir Shah has been steeped in traditional storytelling, folklore, legend and creative mythology from an early age and he was brought up in a family gifted in the art and possessing vivid creative imagination. This shines through in the interlinked short stories which comprise Scorpion Soup: A story in a story, which was inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights.

As each tale is recounted and segues into the next -- as if hinting at and mimicking the wo Scorpion Soup: Dancing to a different drum

Tahir Shah has been steeped in traditional storytelling, folklore, legend and creative mythology from an early age and he was brought up in a family gifted in the art and possessing vivid creative imagination. This shines through in the interlinked short stories which comprise Scorpion Soup: A story in a story, which was inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights.

As each tale is recounted and segues into the next -- as if hinting at and mimicking the world itself emerging and blossoming in a stream of consciousness -- the reader is tantalized by what he has read and drawn into and drawn along by what "moreish" tale might come next. Tales not only of creative imagination, but also -- as is the way of the world -- partly-cautionary tales about its wayward cousin, spurious imagination; at times recurring tales of wondrous destiny and also of less happy fate; tales whose apparently-opposing warp and weft are craftily and necessaily woven together to augment the rich tapestry of life.

As a Westerner, brought up with the literary and technical products of the modern Western world and -- alas -- possessed of an all-too-analytical mind, I would have liked to have seen more clearly delineated dénouement along the way, and I must admit that I felt a certain discomfort and sadness in leaving behind one, not as yet fully resolved, story and moving onto the next. But the Eastern realm, in which these tales are set, dances to a different drum, has its own technical ways of operating and appeals to altogether different and more subtle faculties, and the world is that much richer as a consequence.

I think the whole point is that this is a never-ending tale, with 1,001 possibilities and that it rightly leaves much to the reader to exercise their own imagination so that he or she may fill in the gaps. "What happened to the old witch?", they might ask, and yet another vivid story might be invoked in response, and this can happen because this fairytele framework is inherently open, fertile and liberating, rather than the often closed system, paradigm or prison to which we in the West are, alas, more accustomed.

All in all, then, I heartily recommend Scorpion Soup to both the young and the young at heart. ...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Holly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I absolutely loved Scorpion Soup. It's a wonderful collection of eighteen nested stories, each one seamlessly leading into the next. In this work, the author's background from a family rich in storytelling tradition shines. It has all the magic of In Arabian Nights, and yet is so much richer. It's a book that I've already recommended to friends, and I will continue to do so. As another reviewer commented, Scorpion Soup is a feast for the mind and for the soul.

I'd be at a loss if I had to choose ...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Robs rated it it was amazing

A magical tale told majestically by a consummate teller of tales. The sort of story that enriches the reader and enables them to reconnect with their imagination. Highly recommended.

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Jan 24, 2013 Glenn Davisson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A true masterpiece is what Tahir Shah has given us with this masterful tour-de-force of the human story. In these tales-within-tales Tahir has woven nothing less than the essentials of life. Part of the mastery of what he has accomplished is that the reader doesn't even have to have a clue that anything important is contained within the story. It is sufficient unto itself in that it is immensely entertaining to read and experience - similar to a white-water rapids ride that is perilously close t ...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Lauragais rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Märchenerzähler – gibt es das noch? Sie sind rar geworden, und vielleicht lassen sich die Menschen nicht mehr ganz so leicht verzaubern, oft übersättigt mit Events und Terminen, mit GeTwitter und dem Strom der SMS- und Facebook-Nachrichten…

Und doch! Es gibt noch Erzähler von Märchen, die es vermögen, uns tausend Nächte und noch eine mit wundersamen Gedanken und Vorstellungen füllen können und uns zum Zuhören oder Mitlesen verlocken. Wie ein blanker Kieselstein, der in einen spiegelglatten See fä Märchenerzähler – gibt es das noch? Sie sind rar geworden, und vielleicht lassen sich die Menschen nicht mehr ganz so leicht verzaubern, oft übersättigt mit Events und Terminen, mit GeTwitter und dem Strom der SMS- und Facebook-Nachrichten…

Und doch! Es gibt noch Erzähler von Märchen, die es vermögen, uns tausend Nächte und noch eine mit wundersamen Gedanken und Vorstellungen füllen können und uns zum Zuhören oder Mitlesen verlocken. Wie ein blanker Kieselstein, der in einen spiegelglatten See fällt und dort weite Wellen verbreitet und immer größere Kreise zieht, märchenhaft in Flüsse wandert und weiter zum Meer, so sind diese Märchen über Jahrhunderte lebendig geblieben. Wertvoll waren Märchen und Geschichten immer schon, sie wurden erzählt und weitererzählt und so bewahrt vor dem Vergessen, lange ehe das Schreiben weit verbreitet war.

Haben wir dann also heute noch Freude am Fabulieren? Am Versinken in Märchen, am Verfolgen von traumhaften Geschichten? Früher bewahrten Geschichtenerzähler mündlich Überliefertes, das seinen Ursprung in wahren Begebenheiten findet, sie trugen Legenden und Moralgeschichten vor. Märchenerzähler hingehen bedienten die Elemente der Fantasie, des Zaubers und des Fabelhaften. Magisch wurde man in den Strudel der Erzählung gezogen, eine Begebenheit versteckte sich in der anderen, Wege und Seitenwege taten sich auf und führten auf verschlungenen Pfaden zu einem unvorhersehbaren Ende – oder einem neuen Anfang?

"Scorpion Soup“ von Tahir Shah ist ein Märchenbuch in bester Erzähltradition, das alle Erwartungen erfüllt. Bei Tahir Shah ist das opulente Fabulieren der Ausdruck seiner Persönlichkeit und seiner Familientradition, er lebt in seinen Erzählungen und Büchern und lässt uns durch seine meisterhafte Erzählkunst mühelos in seine Fantasiewelt folgen. Man möchte meinen, dass er zum Erzählen geboren sei…

Wie soll man dieses vielteilige Märchen in seiner Mannigfaltigkeit in wenigen Worten bewerten? Fast scheut man sich davor, die Kapitelinhalte schnöde in ein paar Sätze zusammenzufassen, wie bei einem Sachbuch oder einem Reiseführer, einem Buch aus der realen Welt.

"Scorpion Soup“, das sind achtzehn kunstvoll ineinandergeschachtelte märchenhafte Begebenheiten, spannungsreich geschrieben, brillant und fantasievoll erzählt, man wird fast unmerklich von Kapitel zu Kapitel geführt. Jedes der Kapitel schlägt den erwartungsvollen Leser erneut in den Bann und verleitet ihn zum Weiterlesen, man wird zum staunenden Kind, erlebt aufs Neue die Freude am Zu-Hören von geschriebenen Worten, und wie in vielen Märchen bleiben in Tahir Shahs Buch Freiräume für eigene Ideen und ausufernde Fantasien, für endlose Spekulationen über den Ausgang der Erzählung oder über das weitere Schicksal der beschriebenen Personen. Ein Buch ganz zweifelsohne für Kinder und für Erwachsene, ein Buch zum Abschalten und Träumen, zum Vergessen der Alltagsrealitäten, oder einfach zum Freuen.

(also see: http://miracledesign.blogspot.fr/2013...) ...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Toni rated it it was amazing

The stories, the one dragging into the other are as multifarious as the other reviews suggest. We are again in Arabian Nights, beautifully written, beautifully presented. 'A chair, ' he went on, 'that is powered by clock work and that can travel through time. 'Page Sixty Four of the hardback edition. Let the quote serve for travel through time, if that is what time is. Look up or down through floors and ceiling of glass, the reference to Troyes haunting. The beginning is the end, the end the beg ...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Paul rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Scorpion Soup: A story in a story

I was wondering how Tahir Shah would follow Travels with Myself and he switched direction and produced Timbuctoo. Now another switch, a book that he himself describes as " a hymn to The Thousand and One Nights". It is much shorter than that classic , around 33,000 words but it is so rich and multi-layered that it feels so much longer. A hymn yes, but a choir of angels,grotesques, hermits, princesses, children and all sorts of magical creatures to sing it.

Here we ...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Ita rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

An innocent man finds himself incarcerated in a grim prison cell and knows he may never leave it alive. He also knows that, although his body is confined, his spirit is not bounded by time or place, and his imagination is not confined to the physical forms of the familiar world. To survive he tells himself stories, each linked to the next; and, when the last story has been told, he starts again.

Through his stories the prisoner travels to places as distant as Senegal, Iceland and China. But, a st ...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Neil rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A brilliant multilayered and spiralling reading experience. In the tradition of the Arabian Nights and of Kalila and Dimna. I read the nested stories in one evening and will read it many times more. The stories transport you out of the everyday and must reawaken even the most jaded imagination. Tahir Shah has always produced excellent work and this book maintains his very high level art of storytelling. I look forward to the hard copy version later this year.

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Jan 12, 2013 Paul Berglund rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Read Scorpion Soup and enter a waking dream...wondrous and horrendous... with a magical non-linear quality that takes you on your journey through the stories-within-stories all the way to...the end? As always, the author's writing is energized and full of vivid color, wide-ranging dynamics, and fascinating imagery. Absorbing and delightful reading, with the added enchantment of being like a 'dream' you can go back and experience again..and again...and again. ...more

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