Interview with Jonathan Potter celebrating the release of Tulips for Elsie, new from Korrektiv Press

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Emblem

March 5, 2017 by at 5:02 am

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7 Comments Filed Under: animalia, cartoonish, Catholicish writers

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  1. job says
    March 5, 2017 at 12:00 pm

    Once upon a time Matthew Fox said to Badger Joe, “Why don’t we go down and get usselfs some of thattare moonshine you been storin’ away in your den…?”

    Heh.

    Reply
  2. Quin Finnegan says
    March 5, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    This might need a little more explanation, at least for those who don’t follow every blessed comment. The title originally belongs to the great Shusaku Endo, at least where NesCafe Gold circa 1972 is concerned; Matthew said he liked the title; I decided to find out exactly what they, the Japanese Mad Men, meant by it, and did a little research.

    You can read Dr M W de Visser’s great work, The Fox and the Badger in Japanese Folklore, available online here:
    http://www.onmarkproductions.com/Fox-and-the-Badger-in-Japanese-Folklore-from-Transactions-of-the-Asiatic-Society-of-Japan-Vol-XXXV1-Year-1908.pdf

    There’s a more reader-friendly account here by Mizuki Shigeru:
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/hyakumonogatari.com/2013/07/30/kori-no-tatakai-kitsunetanuki-battles/amp/

    I skimmed the first and learned, as you might guess without reading anything, that the the fox and badger were something like fairies, trickster spirits really, with a long history in Japanese folklore. The Fox and Badger Sage was someone who somehow tamed these spirits and used them to his advantage … one story tells of an old man who kept them in a kind of pipe (not the smoking kind, although that’s a nice image as well) and released them whenever he needed them to work their magic. Another story has them kept in the sage’s pocket, whispering to him whatever he might need to know, and giving him the power to see clearly into both the past and future. This certainly applies to Endo for Silence, the Samurai, Kikiu’s Story and all the others. But I think it applies to the author of Alphonse and Surfing with Mel.

    If Matthew doesn’t like it, I’m happy to take the title for myself.

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    • Broderick Barker says
      March 6, 2017 at 8:46 am

      Oh I like it plenty. I’m just pretty sure that I don’t deserve it. You take it. I’ll go with the Sloth and Crow. Great work on the image.

      Reply
      • Broderick Barker says
        March 6, 2017 at 9:55 am

        A word of explanation, because the Korrektiv is nothing if not an endless explanation of the self: I’m going with crows because everything – charity, art, civilization, etc. – begins at home, and my backyard and its trees often play host to whole hosts of crows. So there’s presence for starters. And then there’s meaning: I read this passage about Me and Crows in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain a long time ago, but it stayed with me. As for sloth, I think my rate of production speaks for itself. But over and above that, I like that the sloth has a silly face and ridiculously long and sharp claws. If it ever bothered to rouse itself, it might be able to do some real damage…

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