Fritz the Cat

"People have no idea of the sources for my work.  I didn't invent anything; 

it's all there in the culture; it's not a big mystery.  I just combine my personal

experience with classic cartoon stereotypes."           ~            Robert Crumb

Image courtesy of Lambiek.net

Someone once said if you remember the sixties you didn't live them right.  Even if you did live them right, you probably still remember underground comix, Robert Crumb, and his arguably most popular character, Fritz the Cat.  (My favorite was always Mr. Natural.)

The Crumb boys as kids entertained themselves by drawing.  Robert and his older brother Charles drew their own comic strips.  In 1959 Robert created a homemade comic book called "Cat Life", based on the family cat, named Fred.  In Crumb's 1960 "Robin Hood", Fred morphed into Fritz and became anthropomorphic.  Fritz became a regular character in "Animal Town" strips drawn by Robert and Charles, sometimes with Fuzzy the Bunny, who was Charles' creation.

An early homemade comic strip featuring a cat from 1961.

R. Crumb has claimed that most of the comic books he enjoyed as a boy were funny and based on animals.  He liked working with animals because they were easy to draw and one could get pretty silly with them.  When he was older he was influenced by Walt Kelly's Pogo strip.  He has also stated that TV shows like Howdy Doody and the Lone Ranger deeply imprinted on him.  (Crumb's sexual fetishes are well-known, as is the fact that as a boy he was sexually attracted to Bugs Bunny.)

In the mid-60s Crumb drew strips with Fritz the Cat for his own amusement. Later they began to be published in magazines and underground comix.  Fritz became almost an icon for underground comix, and one of the most familiar characters in that whole underground scene.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Fritz is self-centered, amoral, unethical, and hedonistic.  Art critic Thomas Albright described him as "a kind of updated Felix with overtones of Charlie Chaplin, Candide, and Don Quixote."  He was a cool and hip character, cocky and smooth-talking.  Although he has been called Crumb's alter-ego, Crumb himself denies any personal connection, saying Fritz was just fun to draw.

Fritz's brief stint as a no-good terrorist and revolutionary.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The strip was set in a "modern 'supercity' of millions of animals".  At first the stories were simple, but they became more and more complex as the characters reacted to contemporary situations.  Fritz had some pretty crazy adventures, and lots and lots of sex.  He was in different strips a beatnik, a pop music star, a hippie poet, college dropout, a CIA agent, and a terrorist and revolutionary.

In this episode, Fritz the guitar-playing pop idol takes one of his groupies
to his hotel room, then devours her - literally.

As Fritz gained popularity, he came to the attention of animator Ralph Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz.  They wanted to make an animated film, but Crumb was not enthusiastic about the project.  Unable to reach an agreement with Crumb, Krantz went to Crumb's ex-wife, Dana, who had power of attorney.  Crumb received $50,000 and ten percent of Krantz's proceeds.

This cartoon refers to the famous quote art critic Robert Hughes
made calling Crumb the Bruegel of the 20th Century. 

Fritz the Cat was the first animated feature film to receive an "X" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.  The distributors cashed in on this - "X-rated and animated" angle, and it became a worldwide hit. The 1972 film became the most successful independent animated feature film of all time.  It is listed #51 on the most recent list of top 100 animated films by the Online Film Critics Society, and has appeared on Britain's Channel 4 list of greatest cartoons.  (A sequel was made, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, by Krantz without Bakshi or Crumb.  It is, however, considered inferior to the first film.)

Cell from film courtesy of Wikipedia.

Crumb disliked the film so much, he attempted to have his name taken off the film's credits.  The bad feelings poisoned any potential relationship between Crumb and Bakshi.  Crumb disliked the voice used for Fritz, what was (he felt) condemnation for the left, and that the dialogue was not consistent with the character, but instead "red-neck and fascist".

In fact, Crumb was so incensed by the film, that he later drew a strip where Fritz was killed off:

Fritz did effectively die with that strip, and from what Crumb has said in interviews since, he will remain so.  Art critics and historians still ponder the popularity of that strip, and in fact the popularity of Crumb, himself, who has outlasted most of his fellow comix creators.  The original comix books and other paraphernalia bring big bucks, and collectors still avidly strive to find them.  If people find Crumb weird and sick for creating it all, what does that say about the people who made him popular and keep his work alive?

***************

Unless otherwise stated, images from R. Crumb's website.

For one of the best videos on an artist, check out Terry Zwigoff's documentary Crumb (1994).

*******************************

The Orioles That Fly and Sing

An adult male Baltimore oriole.  Image courtesy Wikipedia.

Mornings usually find me in the hot tub, unkinking and preparing to carry on with life.  The other day I was soaking and heard an oriole sing.  It was a trill of many notes, a slight pause, and then one last, rather long, note.  I imitated it, as I am wont to do when I hear birds, but since I'm not accustomed to whistling, I omitted the final note.  The oriole repeated his song, and I did, too.  A third time.
The fourth time he hopped out on a branch of the 65' pine he was in so he could see me and I could see him.  This time, looking straight at me, he sang it again with a long pause and a very loud, sustained final note.  This cracked me up - he was teaching me the song.  I repeated it again and omitted the last note.  He hopped out closer, and sang it again with a long pause and loud final note.  I did it right.  He tried it again without the emphasis on the final note.  I whistled it with the final note.  Satisfied, he took off and two of his brothers followed him.

An adult female Baltimore oriole.  Image courtesy Wikipedia.

People think critters are not that smart, and many people would think I am anthropomorphizing, but I think if they paid attention, and did so with respect and an open mind, they would be surprised.  As to anthropomorphizing, I've often wondered whether it was alternately true that we claim certain behaviors to be human, when in fact they may be universal.  I'll never forget the field mouse that was caught between our front door and the screen door.  When I swung open the door, looked down and saw him, he looked up at me.  He then sat on his haunches and covered both his eyes with his front paws and started shaking.  When I cracked the screen door so he could get out, he looked up at me first, then hied home.  Pretty typical behavior when a defenseless creature is approached by a possible predator, especially a human child.

An adult male Bullock's Oriole, courtesy of Wikipedia.

I love birds and notice them wherever I go.  The supermarket we often shop at has a diner around the corner where a huge gang of grackles hang out, and they constantly discuss things in a language I can't hear enough of.  It's a sure sign of a healthy environment if there are birds in the area.  Some friends have a gorgeous backyard - the lawn is very lush and green and there is always something in prolific bloom.  But there is not an insect or bird anywhere, and their yard has a ghostly silence.  Of course, they use chemicals to keep it insect-free and lovely, but it's not healthy.  When their dog started getting mysterious burns on his paws which the vet couldn't figure out, I knew it was the chemicals.

An adult female Bullock's oriole, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Back to orioles...we've had them come to our high desert property every year, but the last two either they didn't come or I totally missed seeing them, which is not likely.  This year they are back.  I keep seeing the rather drab females a lot, but don't see the boys too often.  Oddly enough, when the orioles come round, grosbeaks usually do, too, but so far no sign of them.

Yellow Grosbeak (also Mexican Yellow Grosbeak), courtesy of Wikipedia

Black-head Grosbeak, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Although they are often confused with orioles, grosbeaks are a loosely-grouped
category of songbirds with large beaks belonging to different families, such as
finches, cardinals, tanagers, and weavers.

They feed off the hummingbird feeders, which does not make the hummers very happy.  One hummer in particular.  I call him Godzilla, not only because he is large for his species, but he is very aggressive and tries to keep every other hummer away from the feeders, expending more energy in defense than in feeding.  I was in a local pet store chain when I noticed oriole feeders and bought two.  This seems to keep the hummers, Godzilla in particular, happy, although they've been known to steal a sip or two.

Oriole feeder by Perky Pet.

Orioles are a part of the blackbird family, formally known as Icterus.  They are perching birds, and are great mimics.  They love oranges, but also apples, cherries, berries, figs and nuts - just like me!  They also eat insects (unlike me) which makes them nice to have around.  They like tall trees and lots of underbrush.  They also like jams and jellies, and you can even buy specialized feeders that hold jars for them.

Baltimore orioles were named for Lord Baltimore, whose coat-of-arms bears the colors of the males.  They are also the namesake of the baseball team in Baltimore, Maryland, where they are also the state bird.  They live in the eastern U.S., and winter in the south of Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.

Map of Baltimore oriole habitats courtesy of here.

Bullock's orioles were named for William Bullock, who was a British traveller, antiquarian and amateur naturalist.  They live in the western U.S., and migrate to Mexico and northern Central America.  At one time Baltimore and Bullock's orioles were considered to be one species, the Northern oriole.

Map of Bullock's oriole habitats courtesy of here.

There is a third common species of oriole in the U.S., the Orchard oriole.  It is the smallest, and lives in the eastern to middle U.S., wintering in southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America.  They prefer the edges of wooded areas, or open areas with groups of trees.  They are called "nectar robbers", as they obtain nectar from flowers without pollinating it, by piercing their bases.

An adult male Orchard oriole, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Map of Orchard oriole habitats courtesy of here.

There are many members of the Icterus family besides the three mentioned, at least thirty-two.  You can't have enough of a good thing!  I hear my teacher singing his heart out, so perhaps it's time for another lesson...

George Lamsa's Bible

One of the history of religion courses I took at UCLA was on early Christianity. When my professor was going over the syllabus on the first day, he called attention to the fact that we would need to bring bibles to class each session. Recently I had bought a copy of the Lamsa Bible on the recommendation of a friend, a Church of Religious Science minister.  I was intrigued with it and asked my professor if I could use it for his course.  He hemmed and hawed, then went into a five-minute discussion without revealing his own thoughts on it, but said no - King James Version (KJV) or New International Version (NIV) only.

The Lamsa Bible is a translation of the Peshitta, the Aramaic scripture, into English.  It appealed to me because his translations of some of the passages that I knew made more sense.  As in Matthew 19:24, which in the KJV is translated as, "And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."  Lamsa writes that passage as, "Again I say to you, it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."  Makes more sense and is more logical, especially to an illiterate population fed on imagery.

An excerpt of Exodus 13:14-16 from a section
of the Peshitta, British Library Add. 14,425.
The scribe of this manuscript added that it was
written at Amida in 464 CE.  

The Peshitta is the standard version of the Syriac Bible.  The name means "simple" or "common".  The Old Testament (OT) is thought to have been translated from Hebrew in the 2nd century CE; the New Testament (NT) by the early 5th century CE.  It had a wide circulation in the East, used by all the numerous sects of Syriac Christianity from the 5th century onward.  There is evidence it was taken to China from a tablet found in the city of Hsingan-fu (formerly Ch'ang-an) in the province of Shensi in northern China.

The monument from China circa 781 CE.
Image courtesy of this site.

No one knows who was the author of the Peshitta, unlike the Latin Vulgate. Although some scholars disagree, both were revisions however, which is what they have in common.  The Peshitta is considered the equivalent of the Latin Vulgate and the Septuagint (LXX).

1 Esdras 2:1-8 in Greek uncial
from the Codex Vaticanus.

George Lamsa (1892-1975) was born in Armenia in what is now the extreme east of Turkey near the Iraqi border.  That area speaks Aramaic as their native language, and he was a member of the Assyrian Church of the East.  He translated the Peshitta OT and NT into English, working on the hypothesis that it was the original text for the NT and the Greek version was a translation of it.  (He maintained that the OT, although originally written in Hebrew but lost, was rewritten from the Peshitta.)  This he based on the fact that Aramaic was the language of Jesus, his disciples, and the earliest Christians.

George Lamsa - image courtesy the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation.

Lamsa was raised in the Nestorian church, which can be traced to 431 CE when the Council of Ephesus declared that the patriarch Nestorius was teaching a false view of Christ.  His followers fled to Persia and developed their own rituals, customs, and theology, which are reflected in all of Lamsa's writing.  He stated that he was raised in an environment that had changed little from the time of Jesus.  He even called Jesus his "neighbor".

The main criticism of Lamsa is his theory of Aramaic (therefore Peshitta) primacy. He takes Syriac texts to be preeminent.  Most translators take them into account, but don't assign them the importance that Lamsa does.  Also there were many dialects of Aramaic.  Biblical and language scholars note that Peter's Galilean dialect is noticeably different in the Bible, even though he lived 60 miles away from Jesus.  Both of their dialects were representative of western Aramaic, which were even more different from eastern Aramaic dialects.

The inter-relationship between various significant manuscripts of the OT.
Note:  Hebrew and Arabic written languages add specific accents to letters
and characters.  When considering ancient manuscripts, one has to remember
that the surfaces they are written on are not pristine and clean.  Therefore
translators must be very careful to make sure that any diacritics or marks actually
belong to the letter or character and are not imbedded in the manuscript material.

Lamsa was raised in a culture that was basically Assyrian.  His ancestors would have been Zoroastrian in the time of Jesus, and they repudiated Mosaic laws and culture.  His forefathers would have had very different customs, politics, education, ethnicity, neighbors, and religion.  The only similarities between their culture and that of Jesus would have been a hatred for Roman rule and their dialects.  Furthermore, where Lamsa was raised is about 700 miles from Jerusalem, thus far removed from Hebrew influences, and it was Hellenized after Alexander the Great and 250 years of Greek rule.  So much for being "neighbors".

Another of Lamsa's claims is that the area where Jesus and his disciples lived was only occupied by the Greeks for seven years, so few knew Greek.  But in fact, Greek was the lingua franca for government, commerce, and education.  Greek was a second language even in less-Hellenized areas, including farmers and slaves. Archaeology supports this; so many coins in the area were struck in Greek - even those of the Herodian Kings and Romans.  Key trade routes passing through required knowledge of Greek.  That Jews outside of Israel could not read Hebrew was the impetus for the Septuagint.

Just as Assyrian culture changed over the centuries, so did Semitic culture.  Even the Bible lists Jews with different cultures:

Herodians:                Roman in culture, educated in Greek, religiously tolerant,
                                 unfaithful to Mosaic law
Sadducces:               Roman politically, but temple Jews in religion
Essenes:                   Detached, communal, led disciplined lives
Zealots:                    Sought to overthrow Romans
Pharisees:                 Lay leaders of Mosaic practice
Hellenistic Jews:      Raised outside Israel, spoke Greek, learned to live among
                                "heathens"

They all shared a common heritage, time period, and geography but differed in custom and language.

Most of Lamsa's detractors are Evangelists and those who take the Bible literally. They do not like the fact that he refers to the Trinity as three attributes, and not three persons.  He claims that Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, but rose with his "spiritual" body, as if he were a glass of water that evaporated.  Lamsa felt that the Second Coming is not a physical event, but a spiritual one that will raise people's consciousness.  Sins are errors, not grievous actions.  Demons are wrong thoughts, desires, and practices, not horrifying, punishing creatures.  He did seem to have a distrust of anything Greek, which some scholars claim is the centuries-old bias that stemmed from the Greeks censuring Nestorius.

A copy of the Peshitta.  Image courtesy of www.aramaicpeshitta.com.

He was a prolific author, but seldom stated his own views.  He wanted to unite everyone in a universal understanding.  He therefore avoided dogma and sought the lowest common denominator of all religions.  Unfortunately when asked about supporting evidence he stated, "What is a fact needs no defense".  There have also been claims that his education background was not what was stated.

During his life he published 21 books (from 1921 to 2001), the periodical Light for All, and had a radio program "Lessons for Living."  In 1921 he founded the Christian Mohammedan Society to pursue unity by emphasizing common ground. He also founded the Aramaic Bible Society in 1943, and the Calvary Missionary Church in 1947.

He has been embraced by followers of metaphysics and "mind science" churches such as Religious Science and Unity.  Evangelical Christians and scholars have disregarded and criticized his work, and refer to him as a cult figure.  While I find his hypothesis and thoughts on history spurious, I find his interpretations refreshing.  Then I find the Bible to be a story book, composed of moral lessons for an uneducated population, and not meant to be taken literally.  But what do I know?

***************

All images unless otherwise noted are courtesy of Wikipedia.

******************************

Cinco de Mayo

United State Post Office issue in 1998.

My Mexican friends have always reacted angrily when the fifth of May is referred to as Mexican Independence Day (which is actually September 16th).  For good reason - Cinco de Mayo is an American Civil War holiday celebrated all over the United States, but virtually ignored in Mexico outside of the state of Puebla.

Mexico was involved in several wars in the latter half of the 1800s.  In the aftermath of the Mexican-American war of 1846 - 1848, a civil war in 1858, and the Reform War in 1860, the government was virtually bankrupt.  President Benito Juárez asked for a two-year moratorium from paying foreign loans.  In response, Spain, Britain, and France sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand repayment. Britain and Spain negotiated a deal and withdrew their forces, but France had ulterior motives in mind.

The Charge of the Mexican Cavalry at the Battle of Puebla.

It was feared that France sought to back the Confederacy and weaken the United States as a whole.  By establishing a base in Mexico, France would be in a good position to do that.  The Union could not afford to fight both France and the Confederacy simultaneously.  Napoleon III (nephew of THE Napoleon), upon hearing that Spain and Britain were sending naval forces to Veracruz, decided to send both naval and army forces, and began to consider who he would install as emperor in Mexico.  With the United States occupied with its civil war, he couldn't miss this opportunity to gain a foothold in the Americas.

Benito Pablo Juárez Garcia circa 1868.

In late 1861 the well-armed French troops invaded Veracruz and drove President Juárez and his forces into retreat.  The French had not been defeated in war in fifty years, and had 8,000 men; the Mexican army was half of that number - 4,000 men. Moving toward Mexico City, the French met heavy resistance, and were defeated at Puebla.  This was a huge boost in morale for the Mexican army and the Mexican people.  However, the defeat was short-lived.  A year later the French captured Mexico City and put Maximilian I of the House of Habsburg to rule as Emperor of Mexico.

Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.

Maximilian I's rule was also short-lived.  After three years (1864-1867), it ended when the U.S. provided assistance to Mexico, which it could afford to do since the Civil War was over.  Following a court martial, Maximilian I was sentenced to death.  Despite many prominent figures and crowned heads of Europe who pled for his life to be spared, Juárez refused to commute the sentence.  He felt it was necessary to send the message that Mexico would not tolerate foreign rule.  The execution was carried out by firing squad on June 19, 1867.

The body of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico in 1867.

A paper published by the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture in 2007, states the origin of the observation of Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. first started in California in the 1860s to honor that resistance to French rule in Mexico. The study notes that the date has been celebrated in California since 1863.  The holiday was spontaneously created by Mexicans and Latinos living in California.

Children in traditional dress celebrating.  Image courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica.

Today it is recognized as a day to celebrate the culture of Americans of Mexican ancestry, much like the Chinese-Americans, Irish-Americans, and German-Americans have Chinese New Year, St. Patrick's Day, and Oktoberfest, respectively, to celebrate their ethnicities.  On June 7, 2005, a Joint Resolution by Congress called on the President to issue a proclamation bidding the people of the U.S. to observe Cinco de Mayo with activities befitting the Mexican culture.

Of course, the celebration has been heartily embraced by the food and beverage industries, and has become a commercial success:

Image courtesy sandiegolist.com

If the Mexicans had not defeated the French at Puebla, and France had been able to easily take over Mexico, the course of United States history may have gone a very different route.  With French backing the Confederacy may have successfully ceded from the Union, and the U.S. would probably not have become a super power. Mucho gracias, Mexico!

***************

Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy of Wikipedia.

*******************************

The Language of Flowers

A common purple lilac expresses the "first
emotions of love" in the language of flowers.

In the Victorian era, when social interactions were closely watched and regulated, flowers and floral arrangements were cleverly used to communicate.  Functioning as coded messages, one could express feelings that might be unwise to state verbally, in light of those rigid social conventions.  There were even dictionaries of "floriography".  Their meanings were universally understood, so one had to be careful, which probably added a little enticing danger to the communication.

A copy of the 1847 volume of The Flowers Personified, published in New York
by N. Cleaveland, Esq.  It is a translation of Les Fleurs Animées by Grandville.

A bouquet of flowers, also known as a posy (posey or posie), nosegay, or tussie-mussie, were often given as gifts, even in medieval times when they were a necessary accessory to hide bodily odors.  (Hence the term "nosegay" - to keep the nose gay, when that word did not have a sexual connotation.)  An arrangement of flowers could be used to convey a sentence or verse.

A hybrid Oriental lily, the meaning could be purity.

Flowers and arrangments gained popularity from 1837, during Queen Victoria's reign, when they became the fashion.  A listing of flowers and their corresponding meanings were in all popular household manuals and social guide books.  Madame Charlotte de la Tour wrote a flower dictionary in 1818 called Le Language des Fleurs.  This inspired Miss Carruthers of Inverness to write Flower Lore: The Teachings of Flowers, Historical, Legendary, Poetical and Symbolic in 1879.  Her book was very popular in England and the U.S., and has become the standard for symbolism.

A camellia could be excellence

The meanings can have some complexity.  The shades of a type of flower have different meanings, and two different colors of a flower in one bouquet can mean something entirely different.  Pictures of flowers on stationary also had meaning, and the pictures could be more important than the letter.

A poppy meant pleasure or fun.

The presentation of the flower(s) held meaning as well.  Given by the right hand meant "yes"; the left hand meant "no".  A flower held upright was a positive sign; held upside-down was a negative sign.  A ribbon tied to the left referred to the giver; tied to the right referred to the receiver.

Pink roses mean happiness.

However, despite the books, lists, etc., there is little evidence that Victorians actually ardently used the "language of flowers".  It was mainly used by artists, writers, and poets who wanted to spice up their creations with a little romance - or not.

Rosemary is for remembrance (these are in flower).

Floriography has its roots in other cultures - most sources list Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Roman, and Middle Eastern cultures.  From the Turkish harems came selam (or salaam, a Turkish greeting), which was not a language of flowers but a mnemonic system.  This coded system was not limited to flowers, but included objects as well.  By handing someone a pear you told them not to despair - Ermut, Ver bize hir umut (Pear, give me hope).  Luckily this example also rhymes in English!  The difference between the selam and the Victorian system was the selam meanings had to be shared only among a small group of people in order to be safely secret, whereas the Victorian system was known by all.

Jonquil/narcissus/daffodil means "return my affection".

Hanakotoba is the Japanese system for the language of flowers.  Although theirs has tended to become westernized, it was once a separate system of meanings. The Japanese did not limit flower giving to women.  Japanese men, including Samurais, were cultured and loved things of beauty, including flowers.

We still give flowers, but today the selection seems to be based more on price and preference than any inherent meaning.  Perhaps that will change.  How fun to send a message with such things of beauty!

***************

Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

For language references, this site is interesting.

*******************************