Delightful! (The absence of female animals in Wind in the Willows is another point of concern.) I’ve just finished reading The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin, set in a kind of alt Russia similarly haunted by problems of scale. The are horses the size of mice but also occasionally horses the size of ships - and humans are similarly prone to these slippages of proportion. There’s something about it that makes perfect intuitive sense in Russia context. But also maybe a childhood imaginative context - these things are both animals and proxy humans at the same time and so why wouldn’t they be hedgehog sized and human sized at the same time?
You’re right, of course. They’re kinda quantum animals. Lack of ladies in the TWITW is very much not an accident but a feature of Grahame’s very troubled psychology, imo
In terms of Merch, I also love that she used an illustration of her very own fireplace at Hill Top in The Tale of Samuel Whiskers so that (I like to think) a hundred years later coachloads of tourists could flock to Hill Top to see the original. Now that is forward thinking!
Enjoyed this, I read a lot of BP to the kiddos. Tailor of Gloucester: all the beasts can talk from midnight on xmas eve, but the Tailor sends his cat, Simpkin, who also starts to talk after midnight, to go and buy sausages when it's still daytime on xmas eve, so he can't talk yet. How is he buying sausages then?
I had a little Peter Rabbit book when I was a tot and remember enjoying it, but I can’t recall reading any other BP or knowing then that there was other BP to read. I should explore more now; I’m sure I’d enjoy myself!
By the way, that particular blue of Peter’s jacket absolutely enchanted me; I didn’t even have to look it up just now to summon it precisely to my mind.
Did you (you surely did) encounter the pic excised from Peter Rabbit but included in a beta-version: a delicious-looking pie, all crust and (I want to recall) a blue-and-white striped dish, with a pair of rabbit-ears protruding (à la stargazy pie's pilchards) therefrom. Fortunately (?) I didn't have that edition as a child and only met it much later. Peter's unfortunate papa. Nasty, definitely nasty. PS I tried to find it, but all there is is 'the missing illustration' in which Mrs McG is serving up a rabbit pie, but no ears. (https://hamiltoncs.org/lit220/uncategorized/the-missing-illustration/).
I think there was another 'missing' pic in the beta-edition, nothing nasty IIRC, but again, the drawing style seemed slightly 'wrong' and I assumed that was why they were both disqualified. But, I must admit, do I recall? Yet I see those ears even now.
Her status as nightmare fuel should be marked 'adults only'. My favourite, so my parents said, was ‘The Tailor of Gloucester’. Esp. the sensuality of the cherry-coloured twist. But surely that's a tale of terrible worry against a deadline, helpful so-called vermin and a domestic animal gone (temporarily) to the bad. Except I just loved it. So the question: at what age do we start seeing these alternative interpretations? (Bloody Narnia let this nice Jewish boy down when he was, I dunno, 9).
Delightful! (The absence of female animals in Wind in the Willows is another point of concern.) I’ve just finished reading The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin, set in a kind of alt Russia similarly haunted by problems of scale. The are horses the size of mice but also occasionally horses the size of ships - and humans are similarly prone to these slippages of proportion. There’s something about it that makes perfect intuitive sense in Russia context. But also maybe a childhood imaginative context - these things are both animals and proxy humans at the same time and so why wouldn’t they be hedgehog sized and human sized at the same time?
You’re right, of course. They’re kinda quantum animals. Lack of ladies in the TWITW is very much not an accident but a feature of Grahame’s very troubled psychology, imo
The Tale of Schroedinger’s Kitten even? I always thought of Wind in the Willows as just a wonderful extended metaphor for coming out.
In terms of Merch, I also love that she used an illustration of her very own fireplace at Hill Top in The Tale of Samuel Whiskers so that (I like to think) a hundred years later coachloads of tourists could flock to Hill Top to see the original. Now that is forward thinking!
Excellent spot. Thank you. I hadn’t clocked that!
I love this, and Mrs Tiggywinkle’s cottage, a vision of paradise, is basically our Devon farmhouse.
Enjoyed this, I read a lot of BP to the kiddos. Tailor of Gloucester: all the beasts can talk from midnight on xmas eve, but the Tailor sends his cat, Simpkin, who also starts to talk after midnight, to go and buy sausages when it's still daytime on xmas eve, so he can't talk yet. How is he buying sausages then?
Bonkers, she is
Thank you, Sam, I’m never going to sleep again.
Was BP a feature of your childhood? I don’t know how much she travelled. Definite nightmare-fuel, that particular story
I had a little Peter Rabbit book when I was a tot and remember enjoying it, but I can’t recall reading any other BP or knowing then that there was other BP to read. I should explore more now; I’m sure I’d enjoy myself!
Stay safe!
By the way, that particular blue of Peter’s jacket absolutely enchanted me; I didn’t even have to look it up just now to summon it precisely to my mind.
Like the mantle of the BVM, only for wabbits
HOW BIG IS SAMUEL WHISKERS? 🤣 I’m dying.
Inquiring minds want to know!
Also I want RULES on which animals can talk and which can't.
For sure. The worldbuilding here is distinctly wibbly wobbly
I blame Aslan.
I wrote this: https://substack.com/home/post/p-202691053.
Loved The Haunted Wood, have recommended it to many people.
Thank you! Music to my ears.
Did you (you surely did) encounter the pic excised from Peter Rabbit but included in a beta-version: a delicious-looking pie, all crust and (I want to recall) a blue-and-white striped dish, with a pair of rabbit-ears protruding (à la stargazy pie's pilchards) therefrom. Fortunately (?) I didn't have that edition as a child and only met it much later. Peter's unfortunate papa. Nasty, definitely nasty. PS I tried to find it, but all there is is 'the missing illustration' in which Mrs McG is serving up a rabbit pie, but no ears. (https://hamiltoncs.org/lit220/uncategorized/the-missing-illustration/).
That’s brilliant. Don’t remember seeing that. Expect I would have!
I think there was another 'missing' pic in the beta-edition, nothing nasty IIRC, but again, the drawing style seemed slightly 'wrong' and I assumed that was why they were both disqualified. But, I must admit, do I recall? Yet I see those ears even now.
Her status as nightmare-fuel is underacknowledged
Her status as nightmare fuel should be marked 'adults only'. My favourite, so my parents said, was ‘The Tailor of Gloucester’. Esp. the sensuality of the cherry-coloured twist. But surely that's a tale of terrible worry against a deadline, helpful so-called vermin and a domestic animal gone (temporarily) to the bad. Except I just loved it. So the question: at what age do we start seeing these alternative interpretations? (Bloody Narnia let this nice Jewish boy down when he was, I dunno, 9).
As a similarly inclined Beatrix Potter fan, I loved this! 🙂
Thank you. There are those who would say I’m being too literal-minded, but chiz chiz we diskard them