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Im & Aer: Chick Geek of the Week - Beatrix Potter

Imoen Aerie Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter Mycology

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#1 Guest_Coutelier_*

Posted 02 January 2013 - 07:23 AM

I wrote this, along with the last Im & Aer, but decided to split it in two for now.  The main subject of the conversation is of course, Beatrix Potter.

 

Im & Aer

~*~

Chick Geek of the Week:

Beatrix Potter

 

Imoen:  Now, apart from the chocolates and cookies and a hug, Aerie did have one other condition I had to agree to before she would let our conversation be recorded.

 

Aerie:  I didn’t want it to just be silly.  I-I thought we could be educational and informative.

 

Imoen:  Right.  See, little Aerrers here, she might look like she stepped out of an anime with her big almond eyes, but what people may not know is that actually, you’re… you’re something of a natural philosopher, aintcha?

 

Aerie:  If… i-if you say so…

 

Imoen:  I mean, you’re like a true, blue skies, science-y type.  You’re not interested in trying to change the whole world at once.  You just want to know why the world is what it is now… you’re fascinated by discovering how things work and how they all connect and relate to each other.  And you’re a real polymath as well, ‘cos you’re into everything.

 

Aerie:  Whereas, y-you’re only interested in things if they go ‘pop’, or make Anomen itch, or my tongue change colour…

 

Imoen:  I’m more practical, sure.  But anyway, you’ve been reading a lot of history and literature lately, and you want to tell us about some people who have stood out to you.  Like heroes.

 

Aerie:  Well… I-I think they’re worthy of respect, yes.

 

Imoen:  Out of interest, who are your heroes?  Supergirl, maybe?  She can fly, right?

 

Aerie:  Er… n-no.  I don’t like Supergirl.

 

Imoen:  You don’t?  Why not?

 

Aerie:  Is it important?  I-I think we should just…

 

Imoen: Well, I think we should sort it out, ‘cos she might be listening.  You know what she’s like; soon as she hears her name mentioned she’ll start homing in…

 

Aerie:  I-I’ve nothing against her as a person.  I'm not saying she should be banned, or anything like that.  I-I just preferred the Batgirl comics.  I think all those ‘super’-people are just too powerful.

 

Imoen:  You want your heroes to be underdogs, then.  People who have to really struggle to overcome obstacles and foes, ‘cos that’s you find relatable.

 

Aerie: Is that a problem?

 

Imoen:  Nope.  I mean, I’m with you; I don’t really like heroes who are just the strongest and best at everything, or who only ever get into fights if they're choreographed.  What I like more is heroes who are smart and use their wits.

 

Aerie:  Right.  Well, t-the people I want to talk about didn’t get into that many fights, I don’t think… but they were smart.

 

Imoen:  They’re all women, aren’t they?  Women who have contributed to civilization and society, but who you think don’t always get the credit they deserve.  Women you think should be… I don’t know, feminist icons?  You think they deserve that more than say, Wonder Woman, whose main contribution has been running around with a whip in a leotard.

 

Aerie:  I-I think it’s a lasso…

 

Imoen:  Doesn’t matter; she can’t hear us.  The women you wanna talk about are not necessarily every man’s fantasy, but are nevertheless pretty wonderful, right?

 

Aerie:  Right.

 

Imoen:  Right, so, we’ve decided to call this ‘Chick Geek of the Week.’

 

Aerie:  Well… y-you decided to call it that.  I was against it…

 

Imoen:  So, Aerrers, who is chick geek of the week this week?

 

Aerie:  Oh… i-it’s Beatrix Potter.

 

Imoen:  She’s already quite famous, though.  Mainly for her work with rabbits… but, there has been a film made about her, and everything.

 

Aerie:  Right.  B-but, I was disappointed that the film didn’t really go much into her interest in mycology.

 

Imoen:  Which is?

 

Aerie:  T-the… the study of fungi.

 

Imoen:  Mushrooms.  You… you think that would have made a much better film?

 

Aerie:  I… I-I don’t know, but… i-it was a big part of her life.  I-it was what she wanted to do before writing stories... s-she was fascinated by science and nature, and that's what helped feed her imagination...

 

Imoen:  Maybe if we’d eaten mushrooms before watching it?

 

Aerie:  (snickers)  I… I-I don’t know.  But, be-before she started drawing rabbits in blue coats, s-she spent a lot of time studying fungi under a microscope and drawing those.  She was actually very interested in almost every science, but in particular in botany and shrooms, yes.

 

Imoen:  So she was very eclectic.  Bit like you.  Wasn’t there somethink ‘bout her being the first to realise that lichens were made up of two separate organisms?

 

Aerie:  Fungi and algae… b-but that isn’t true.  I mean, it is, but she didn’t discover it.  O-or she might have done, but it had already been discovered by someone else…

 

Imoen:  Aerie, take a breath… slow down and say what you mean.

 

Aerie:  She… she did come up with her own theories on the germination of fungal spores, which she had to submit to the royal society via her uncle, because women weren’t allowed in.  But then, w-we don’t know why, but she later withdrew her paper.

 

Imoen:  Was it that no-one would take her seriously?

 

Aerie:  Maybe.  O-or maybe she just felt it needed more work.  I don’t know.  But it was the problem she had.  She was very clever and talented, doing all these amazing, really detailed illustrations of fungi and what she saw under the microscope… b-but because she was a woman, she couldn’t get access to the scientific institutions and to all the other people doing research as well.

 

Imoen:  So, how did she become interested in shrooms?

 

Aerie:  W-well, like most other Victorian women of her… h-her class, she was privately educated and became interested in art and science, and her parents never discouraged her.  She… s-she kept a diary from when she was fourteen, w-which she wrote… something I might think about doing…

 

Imoen:  Yeah, go ahead; I like a challenge.

 

Aerie:  A… a-anyway, lots of Victorians were interested in botany and nature.  Beatrix was, l-like you said, eclectic.   She collected fossils, and did some archaeology, and looked at insects… b-but, she was drawn to fungi because she liked the colours and their… evanescence.  Then, when she was on holiday, she met a man who was a naturalist…

 

Imoen:  Ewww… what, in Victorian England?  Wouldn’t she have run away screaming?  And he’ll have been locked up and everything he touched burned?

 

Aerie:  A… a naturalist, Imoen.  Not a nudist.  Anyway, he taught her more and she became more interested, and she went away and started developing her own theories.

 

Imoen:  So he got her hooked on mushrooms, I guess just ‘cos he was such a fun guy to be with, right?

 

Aerie:  uhhhg… that’s… t-that’s awful…

 

Imoen:  But the mushroom stuff sort of fell through.  But, luckily, she had a fall back career, right?

 

Aerie:  Yes. She started writing, a-and illustrating, children’s stories.  Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny.

 

Imoen:  And the rabbit drawings, for reasons we cannot begin to fathom, became more popular than the mushroom drawings?

 

Aerie:  Y-yes...  I-in fact, I found out that Peter Rabbit was the first character ever to be licensed and have his own… h-his own brand of toys and other merchandise.

 

Imoen:  Shocking.  It sounds like, though, you really just like her because she’s a bit like you; eclectic, interested in all sorts of stuff, and likes fluffy things as well.  Your children’s hasn’t reached the public yet… but you are working on it?

 

Aerie:  I-I don’t know.  I don’t think I could come up with anything that compares to Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter… underneath the big fir-tree.

 

Imoen:  Sure, that’s… that’s genius.  Forget Shakespeare.

 

Aerie:  Well, y-you’d have probably stayed awake through his plays if they’d been acted out by animals.

 

Imoen:  Yeah… imagine if Hamlet had been a pig?

 

Aerie:  (grins) T-the play could have been called ‘Danish Bacon’.

 

Imoen:  (snortles)  Anyway… that wraps it up for this week I reckon.  Beatrix Potter; a possible genius who was denied by the prejudice of society… but who got her own back by inflicting fluffiness on the world.  G’night.


Edited by Coutelier, 03 January 2013 - 08:04 AM.


#2 Guest_Blue-Inked_Frost_*

Posted 02 January 2013 - 10:07 AM

Highly amusing and informative at the same time!  Well done, Aerie (and Coutelier). :)  I like Aerie's taste in non-powered superheroes, although she should also consider Marvel - plenty of angst there.  I enjoyed the parts about Beatrix Potter's mycological research.

 

Is there going to be more of this? :D



#3 Guest_Coutelier_*

Posted 02 January 2013 - 02:32 PM

Highly amusing and informative at the same time!  Well done, Aerie (and Coutelier). :)  I like Aerie's taste in non-powered superheroes, although she should also consider Marvel - plenty of angst there.  I enjoyed the parts about Beatrix Potter's mycological research.

 

Is there going to be more of this? :D

 

I don't see why not.  Plenty of topics to talk about, after all.  And maybe have guests.  Like, Nalia could come in to talk about society and politics, or Jaheira could give a lesson in biology or natural history.  And plenty more candidates to be Chick Geek of the Week. :)



#4 Guest_Blue-Inked_Frost_*

Posted 02 January 2013 - 08:15 PM

That would be very enjoyable. :D  (And educational too.  So it's like feeding your audience nutritious brussels sprouts combined with yummy bacon.)



#5 Guest_Coutelier_*

Posted 07 January 2013 - 02:50 PM

That would be very enjoyable. :D  (And educational too.  So it's like feeding your audience nutritious brussels sprouts combined with yummy bacon.)

 

I'll see what I can do, then. :)

 

In the meantime, here's the accompanying pic for this:

 

BeatrixPotter2.jpg

 

I obviously wanted to show the pair surrounded by shrooms and bunnies... unfortunately, I discovered I didn't actually have any models of bunnies. A quick search only revealed toon and plushie doll type things.

Luckily, I remembered I still had Minsc and Yoshimo dressed in their easter bunny outfits.

 

Apologies as well; I've spent the last few days setting up a blog for Im and Aer, and I'm afraid I've been neglecting everything else.

 

Here's the blog, anyway.



#6 Guest_Blue-Inked_Frost_*

Posted 07 January 2013 - 07:17 PM

Delightfully & appropriately surreal background there!  Minsc and Yoshimo must be feeling pretty warm in those bunny suits. :)



#7 Guest_Coutelier_*

Posted 07 January 2013 - 10:16 PM

Delightfully & appropriately surreal background there!  Minsc and Yoshimo must be feeling pretty warm in those bunny suits. :)

 

Imoen thought she was making them look silly, but actually they are very comfy... Minsc now wants to wear his all the time.



#8 Lily M Green

Posted 21 August 2013 - 02:01 AM

How did this pass me by?  I loved it.  When I visited Beatrix Potter's cottage the 'shroom stuff passed me by, mind you I was rather young so mostly in it for the bunnies.  Very good!







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