[refugee]

Over in the main discussion thread, some of us have mentioned alternative genie and the lamp stories; jayessel, for instance, links to the Popeye version.

So here's a thread for collecting djinn-and-lamp stories.

I'll start off with this one, from hacker extraordinaire Richard Stallman (aka RMS, not to be confused with that other uberhacker, ESR), "Jinnetic Engine".

Quote

"I'm not allowed to grant that wish. You are making difficulties by wishing for things for other people. Why don't you wish for something for yourself, something to please you personally?"

"To benefit humanity in this way would give me more pleasure than anything else I can imagine. What are you after? Why do you object to helpful wishes?"

"To tell the truth...your wish is supposed to be selfish, so that the aftermath can prove how foolish you were. Where would we jinns be, granting wise and noble wishes?"

The wishing literature is fairly large, I think, so let me suggest a couple of limitations:
1. Stories should be about lamp genies, rather than, for instance, deals with the devil, or objects purchased from little shops you've never seen before and can't find again.
2. Preference given to stories that discuss wish-making rules and limitations.

[Celtic Minstrel]

refugee, on 28 April 2010 - 09:51 AM, said:

1. Stories should be about lamp genies, rather than, for instance, deals with the devil, or objects purchased from little shops you've never seen before and can't find again.

Um. How do deals with the devil or objects purchased from little shops have anything to do with djinn? (Well, unless you consider the devil to be a djinni like Islam does.)




Anyway. I recommend the Children of the Lamp series. It gives a lot of description of djinni powers, including but not limited to the granting of wishes. One notable thing is that, if a djinn has offered you a wish, you can claim it at any time afterwards, even if the djinn itself is not present. (Djinni in this story don't live in lamps, but they can be trapped in them; they will grant three wishes for being released.) There's a whole set of rules in that universe about wish-granting. I'm afraid I can't remember everything though.

[refugee]

Celtic Minstrel, on 29 April 2010 - 04:41 PM, said:

Um. How do deals with the devil or objects purchased from little shops have anything to do with djinn? (Well, unless you consider the devil to be a djinni like Islam does.)

They're examples of the larger class of wish-granting stories. Other than that, no connection, which is why I'm not much interested, at least in this context.

Quote

Anyway. I recommend the Children of the Lamp series.

Gonna have to look those up. Interesting premise.

[capricornamy]

refugee, on 29 April 2010 - 01:47 PM, said:

They're examples of the larger class of wish-granting stories. Other than that, no connection, which is why I'm not much interested, at least in this context.

Gonna have to look those up. Interesting premise.

Should be interesting reading ... always wondered about the history behind Djinn's and Jeannies

[Celtic Minstrel]

"Jeannies" has nothing to do with Djinn, apart from sounding similar to "genie".

[DreadPirate]

I watched "The Thief of Bagdad" (the one with Sabu) recently, and it really holds up well.