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A review by cryo_guy
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
5.0
"But my grandest creation, as history will tell,
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell."
Well, my dear dear friend Jill got me this book for xmas (thanks Jill!) and since it was so short and also since I've made such AMBITIOUS plans to read many many books this year (cf. my reading challenge) I concluded that I would read it at once, being as slim a tome as it is. I should mention that I also like Eliot pretty well, although I've really only read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock which I think is just great aside from excerpts of his other stuff, notably The Waste Land.
I think Jill picked this because I got two cats recently and we both share a fondness for Prufrock, but the other thing about this volume is its illustrations by Edward Gorey, who is a really cool illustrator. What she doesn't know (I haven't even told her as of writing this, teehee) is that as a child I had a pop-up book by Edward Gorey that I loved called The Dwindling Party. So reading this has reminded me of Gorey's art style that I liked so much as a child!
At any rate, what of the poems my good Anders? Well they're marvelous fun. I knew that this was the basis of the musical Cats which I've seen once or twice. I can't say that I got much intertextuality out of that however; maybe it's just been too long since I've seen it. They're fun to read aloud. I think my favorite was "The Naming of Cats" but I also liked Growltiger, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, and Macavity (The Jellicles, I'm sad to report, were a bit too jellicle). My favorite illustration was one for "Gus: The Theatre Cat" which depicts his grandest role: Firefrorefiddle. It made me sad that the poem says nothing more of Firefrorefiddle than it was Gus's (short for Asparagus) grandest role but I'm overjoyed that Gorey took the opportunity to expand upon this mere name (a magisterial name, at that) by depicting a solid black, pupilless demoncat engulfed in flames gliding about the night's sky, peeking through billowing clouds streaked with thunderbolts alongside the full moon, all above a nondescript British(?) moor-like scape with three rock steles, or rather, menhirs if you will. Firefrorefiddle deserves this, and more!
In conclusion,
Everybody wants to be a cat
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at.
Tell me, everybody's pickin up on that feline beat
'Cause everything else is obsolete.
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell."
Well, my dear dear friend Jill got me this book for xmas (thanks Jill!) and since it was so short and also since I've made such AMBITIOUS plans to read many many books this year (cf. my reading challenge) I concluded that I would read it at once, being as slim a tome as it is. I should mention that I also like Eliot pretty well, although I've really only read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock which I think is just great aside from excerpts of his other stuff, notably The Waste Land.
I think Jill picked this because I got two cats recently and we both share a fondness for Prufrock, but the other thing about this volume is its illustrations by Edward Gorey, who is a really cool illustrator. What she doesn't know (I haven't even told her as of writing this, teehee) is that as a child I had a pop-up book by Edward Gorey that I loved called The Dwindling Party. So reading this has reminded me of Gorey's art style that I liked so much as a child!
At any rate, what of the poems my good Anders? Well they're marvelous fun. I knew that this was the basis of the musical Cats which I've seen once or twice. I can't say that I got much intertextuality out of that however; maybe it's just been too long since I've seen it. They're fun to read aloud. I think my favorite was "The Naming of Cats" but I also liked Growltiger, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, and Macavity (The Jellicles, I'm sad to report, were a bit too jellicle). My favorite illustration was one for "Gus: The Theatre Cat" which depicts his grandest role: Firefrorefiddle. It made me sad that the poem says nothing more of Firefrorefiddle than it was Gus's (short for Asparagus) grandest role but I'm overjoyed that Gorey took the opportunity to expand upon this mere name (a magisterial name, at that) by depicting a solid black, pupilless demoncat engulfed in flames gliding about the night's sky, peeking through billowing clouds streaked with thunderbolts alongside the full moon, all above a nondescript British(?) moor-like scape with three rock steles, or rather, menhirs if you will. Firefrorefiddle deserves this, and more!
In conclusion,
Everybody wants to be a cat
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at.
Tell me, everybody's pickin up on that feline beat
'Cause everything else is obsolete.