Friday Five: Still Cross Stitch

I've had a lot of time in the evenings for this cross-stitch malarkey. I enjoy it and it helps me to feel productive while I'm at home watching television because we haven't been able to leave the house for a while. Social media means the word still comes to me, and a lot of it makes me angry, so this helps deal with some of those feelings too. The designs and words are from Rayna Fahey's Really Cross Stitch: For when You Just Want To Stab Something a Lot. The poor execution and random colour changes are due to a certain level of disorganisation on my part for which she cannot be held accountable.

Rebel rousing: Stick it to the man

"Are you pretty rebellious? This pattern is rebellious and pretty.

"Were you one of those kids whose teacher used to complain because you asked too many questions? Excellent. My favourite kind of human. Never, ever stop questioning.

"Do you know what I ask myself when faced with a big political challenge? What would Pippi Longstocking do? Well, the world's favourite feisty nine-year-old would probably throw a few politicians up a tree, while turning cartwheels and mocking gender roles."

Nanacore: With age comes wisdom

"#1 slogan of the nanacore.

"Once upon a time, a long, long, long time ago, and then a bit before that, women took to the streets to march for the right to have control over their bodies.

"My body, my choice, has always seemed a pretty basic concept to grasp. For some gobsmackingly unbelievable reason, there are still men in this world who believe they're better placed to make these decisions. Who are these people? Don't they have something better to do with their lives? It would be nice if some bro gangs would pull them to one side and remind them that women aren't property anymore."

Act your rage: We've got this all stitched up

"The best thing about this pattern is its versatility. No matter what the issue of the day is, you'll be ready! 

"Before photography, a protest sign was made to inform passers-by of the reason and logic of your protest. They were often lengthy and rather verbose. The advent of photojournalism and then television meant signs got shorter and snappier. Now we have social media the humble placard has evolved into a locus of wit.

"Sometimes, however, the rage is too intense for puns. In that case, this pattern is perfect."

If I must *sigh*

"Throwing your hands in the air in despair rarely gets you anywhere. Try shaking your fist instead.

"As my grandmother used to say, 'It is what it is'. You've just got to get on with it. It's just like weeding a garden. You pick a weed out but it's already self-seeded so you need to weed again but also plant some wildflowers in its place. And you say, 'Shit man, I already took care of that,' but the roots are already in there and it's gonna take a few goes. Sometimes loads of goes.

"So get together your small committed group of determined people and change the world already!"

Results are in: Not being dead is pretty ace

"You know politics has gone completely ridiculous when scientists have to take to the streets in the name of well, facts.

While I was writing this book my kids all went down with influenza. Thanks to antibiotics, they're still alive! Then there was that time I got cancer, and then got rid of it. Still alive! Thanks Science! Science is great for lots of things aside from helping us stay alive, make beer and shoot rockets into space. Science is also great for letting us know if we're killing our planet and what we should do about it. Which it's currently doing. Let's listen to the experts, huh?"

Childhood entitlement: Birds, Beasts and Relatives

Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell

Penguin

Pp. 245

This is the second instalment of Gerald Durrell’s Corfu Trilogy in which he continues with stories from the first book because the family say he has missed out all the best bits. As it is the same time period as the previous work, we don’t really need re-introductions, although it is interesting to see what the family members thought of their portrayal.

Gerry introduces several extra characters to us, mentioning Larry’s many friends who come to visit, including Max and Donald, and Sven who plays the accordion. We are also introduced to Countess Mavrodaki, “the recluse par excellence”., and we learn about his tutors, such as George, and his final (for this book) tutor, Kralefsky, a keen aviculturist (a person who keeps and rears birds) and a storytelling fantasist. He also provides greater depth to characters we have already met, and he describes his meeting with Theodore Stephanides, to whom the book is dedicated ‘in gratitude for laughter and learning”.

Gerry still collects animals for his menagerie: an owl called Ulysses; three dogs; and “there were rows and rows of jam jars, some containing specimens in methylated spirits, others containing microscopic life. And then there were six aquariums that housed a variety of newts, frogs, snakes and toads. Piles of glass-topped boxes contained my collections of butterflies, beetles and dragon-flies.” I remember things that I learned from reading these books as a child, such as the fact that snails are hermaphrodites.

Gerry has a child’s viewpoint and assumes that people and things exist for his entertainment. He experiences bucolic activities such as harvesting olives, but also is witness to live birth, and his reaction is less palatable. The description is anatomical but also unpleasantly dispassionate, perhaps because the human is foreign. “I was so used to the shrill indignation of peasants over the most trivial circumstances that I did not really, consciously, associate Katerina’s falsetto screams with pain. It was obvious that she was in some pain. Her face was white, crumpled, and old-looking, but I automatically subtracted ninety percent of the screaming as exaggeration.”

Furthermore, his description of the gypsies is somewhat uncomfortable in a modern setting. “I had always wanted to get on intimate terms with the gypsies, but they were a shy and hostile people… and although they would allow me to visit their camps, they were never forthcoming, in the way that the peasants were in telling me about their private lives and their aspirations.”

When Mother receives unwanted attention, and even a proposal of marriage, from a ‘disgusting old brute’, Captain Creech, she is naturally horrified and a little bit afraid. The children all laugh and ridicule, and she counters, “When there’s a real crisis, you children are of absolutely no use whatsoever.” Yes, this is an amusing anecdote, but she is a single woman in a foreign country in the 1930s with no respectable family to protect her.

Gerry writes of people as though they were specimens to be studied as his animals, birds and insects; because they are foreign (or female), they are other and this dispassionate approach is a little off-putting. These are still great stories of their time, but a deeper look reveals some more unsavoury aspects, which can be excused from a child’s account, but not really as an adult reader.