Footnotes to a Conversation, July 19, 2021
The Man Who Drew Cats
H.G. Wells said that Louis Wain “invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.” Wain’s wide-eyed cats delighted so many people and yet he died in an asylum after struggling with schizophrenia. Benedict Cumberbatch, who will play Louis Wain in an upcoming film, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, calls for greater kindness towards “oddballs and eccentrics.” Louis Wain’s Cats by Chris Beetles will be published later this year. [The Guardian]
Scanned Images: Above is On the Sands by Louis Wain, the second image is Family Walk by Alex Ayliffe, while the third is Cat with Bicycle with Karin Van Heerden
Napoleon’s Gardens
I find historical accounts far more interesting when they move beyond dates and battles and rulers. Although Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows by Ruth Scurr focuses on one ruler and his sequence of battles, it provides a more rounded picture of the man by also discussing his gardens. As a result, we learn a little about his childhood, education, and place in an age of discovery. Napoleon takes scientists, naturalists, and artists along with him to Italy and Egypt and brings home vast collections of plants, animals, artworks, and the like. His interest in gardening is partially driven by his interest in the new discoveries of the natural world, but it is also part of his drive to conquer, whether it be other countries or nature. He has an insatiable urge for new palaces and gardens as concrete symbols of his achievements.
Fictional Food
I’ve never given much thought to the food fantasy writers include in their books, so I found an article about the food found in the books of Ursula Le Guin and Eli Lee quite fascinating. In Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin, the ingredients are familiar but the recipes are not (fortunately they’re included in the book). Lee does something similar in her forthcoming novel, A Strange and Brilliant Light: “The familiarity of the ingredients helps root this dish in things readers already know, whilst the new name and context are part of the novel’s worldbuilding. Inventing a specific cuisine helps to create a more complete world.” [Vittles]
Did You Know?
The peanut butter and jelly sandwich began its life as “a fancy tearoom treat for the upper class,” but by 1910 it evolved to become “the schoolboy’s lunch.” Its popularity spread and organizers of the 1963 March on Washington suggested participants bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich “for sustenance during the long rally.” [JSTOR Daily]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces (downloadable directly from the website).