Misadventures in the Land of Fables #81
~~~ A slug claims its disorderly trail is in fact a considered, purposeful path to getting where it is today. It was always travelling straight ahead, it says. This was the starting point for a new fable. But was it enough? It doesn’t have an obvious message. There is no dramatic action, let alone action […]
Misadventures in the Land of Fables #80
Many of Aesop’s fables are what you might call realist in the political sense. They contemplate power and counsel how best to accommodate it. They are cautionary. Think of ‘The Lion’s Share‘ or ‘The Wolf and the Lamb.’ Sometimes the powerful, the despotic are brought down. More often it is the overreaching fool, the greedy […]
Misadventures in the Land of Fables #79
SHADOW PLAY Seems I like shadows. I mean I wouldn’t include them in a list of my favourite things. It’s more of a revealed preference, revealed by the frequency they turn up in my writing. They are useful as narrative device, but their appeal goes beyond usefulness to their particular meaning-generating characteristics. Shadows are spontaneous; […]
Misadventures in the Land of Fables #78
We had an ant infestation this summer. My mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s and advanced dementia, is a very untidy eater. The floor beneath her seat at table is littered with debris, mostly breadcrumbs and grape skins. Rising in the heatwave, the ants must have caught the scent and found the ‘mother’ lode. I came […]
Misadventures in the Land of Fables #77
~~~ Another fable inspired by an illustration. This time a watercolour, most likely from a Chinese natural history collection. The first thing that struck me was the number of insects the spider had caught. What a haul! What a feast! I don’t know the quantities a spider needs to survive but this spread would seem […]
Misadventures in the Land of Fables #76
It must be two years since I wrote a version of Aesop’s ‘The Frogs who wanted a King’. A few days ago I saw this illustration (above) from a trading card in the mid-1920s. It must have been inspired by the same fable and it prompted me to produce another of my own, with the […]