4 ms·
The man who reinvented the cat
- ViktorRay 2y agoThis article is focused just on western views on cats. Particularly British views. Views of cats throughout history and in other parts of the world aren’t covered in this article. No mention of how changing British views of the cat may or may not have had influence on the culture of British colonies either. I did find the article interesting though.
- warkdarrior 2y ago[flagged]
- ViktorRay 2y agoI can’t tell if you are being serious or sarcastic but either way your comment seems unnecessarily incendiary.
- solardev 2y agoNow you've got me curious. What are some other cultural views of cats?
- adolph 2y agoGreek historian Herodotus reports that, [in ancient Egyptian society] whenever a household cat died, the entire family would mourn and shave their eyebrows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_cats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_cats
- solardev 2y agoGood rabbit hole (cat tree?) to dive into. Thanks!
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> What are some other cultural views of cats? Cats were given ritual burials in ancient Egypt [1]; killing one carried the death penalty [2]. Puss in Boots is based on India’s Panchtantra; they feature positively in Persian, Chinese and Japanese literature and mythology, too [id]. The exception to the rule, in fact, seems to be the Norse, from whom I presume the Britons acquired their disposition. (We continue to treat pets as property under U.S. law.) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_in_ancient_Egypt https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_in_ancient_Egypt [2] https://www.worldhistory.org/article/466/cats-in-the-ancient-world/ https://www.worldhistory.org/article/466/cats-in-the-ancient...
- throwup238 2y agoSee also Feral Cats in Istanbul: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_cats_in_Istanbul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_cats_in_Istanbul
- alamortsubite 2y agoThere's a great documentary titled Kedi [1] about street cats in Istanbul and the culture surrounding them. If you're into cats it's a must-watch. [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4420704 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4420704
- dano 2y agoLet us not miss one of my favorite Just So Stories, The Cat That Walked by Himself [1] or as narrated by Sterling Holloway [2] 1. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/79/just-so-stories/1296/the-cat-that-walked-by-himself/ https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/79/just-so-stories/1296/the-cat-t... 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ8HBSUo-MM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ8HBSUo-MM
- jt2190 2y agoIt’s a book review column, and the book is “Catland” by the literary critic Kathryn Hughes. She focuses on Victorian literature, so it’s not surprising that this isn’t a global survey of cultural attitudes about cats through the ages.
- snitzr 2y agoThere's a movie with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Wain. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021). Not my favorite movie, but maybe someone here might like it.
- corytheboyd 2y agoI agree, I don’t particularly like it as a movie… but I also can’t stop thinking about it, and Wain. I even just brought it up at work today, so funny to see a story about him on HN a few hours later!
- Lammy 2y agohttps://archive.ph/Qw2Kf https://archive.ph/Qw2Kf
- gweinberg 2y ago"Weasel-faced and rat-tailed". WTF? Has this guy ever seen cats, rats, and weasels? Weasels have long pointy faces, cats have short flat ones. Outside the primates, you would be hard-pressed to find an animal whose face looks less like a weasel's, nor more like a human's, than a cat's. Similarly, rates have naked tails, cats have fluffy tails. A cat's tail looks less like a rat's tail than a monkey's does. The only animals that are less "rat-tailed" than cats are ones that have no tails at all.
- tim333 2y agoThe article of course is about how Mr Wain invented one (rather odd) image of cats in Victorian literature. The cats themselves seem to have remained much the same for millenia. Which in itself is interesting as dogs have hugely been changed from their wolf origins by selective breeding but cats seem to have mostly remained independent and done their own thing.