Stereotyping Animals [Part 1]

So I will be looking at stereotypes of animals, this is all research for my short story I want to attempt to write. I want to characters to be symbols of human traits. Even if I wasn't doing this unit for my MA, I think its good knowledge to know because I use animals all the time in my illustrations and I use them to symbol how I feel or how I want the audience to feel. Other than naive deer or stubborn bull, I feel like this should be general knowledge for me.

Ants: Hard working to the point of losing all individuality. Less emphasised than with bees.
Antelopes and Gazelles: Gentle, graceful and very swift.
Baboons: Fiercer and more aggressive than other monkeys.
Badgers: Cranky, stubborn, tough but not evil.
Barracudas and Pikes: Cruel, ruthless and often evil.
Bats: Nocturnal, poor eyesight, sometimes bloodthirsty and sometimes eccentric and insane.
Bears: Intimidating and ferocious when provoked, but also calm, slow-moving and wise. Young cubs are portrayed as calm, cuddly and brave. ✷
Beavers: Industrious.
Bees: Hard-working, dutiful and territorial. Queen Bee is always stern.
Birds of Prey: Fierce, dignified and serious. ✷
Boars: Extremely aggressive and irritable, tough and quite dangerous if provoked. ✷
Bulls: Short-tempered, intimidating, tough and extremely strong, but somewhat stupid. ✷
Butterflies: Shy, meek and inoffensive as caterpillars, but bold and beautiful as adults.
Camels: Not very energetic, but slow and steady once they get going; they can endure any hardship. Cranky, stubborn and bad-tempered, but not actually aggressive. ✷
Cats: Clever, curious, and rather arrogant and vain. Aloof and independent, can be portrayed as manipulative and smug but also may be cute and heroic.
Chameleon: Often stealthy tricksters, portrayed as rather weird
Cheetahs: Known for their speed. 
Chickens: Cowards and prone to self-destructive panic.
Chimpanzees: Erudite and snarky.
Cockroaches: Dirty.
Cows: Contented and docile, not especially bright.
Coyotes and Jackals: Cunning and tricky. ✷
Crabs and Lobsters: Crabby, unhelpful and easily angered.
Cranes: Majesty, grace and strength without aggression. ✷
Crocodiles and Alligators: Lazy but strong, usually vicious bullies and more savage than other animals.
Crows and Ravens: Cunning and often ominous; an archetypal symbol of death. ✷
Cuckoos: A harbinger of spring and also being insane.
Deer: Delicate and unperilous. ✷
Dogs: Loyal and friendly, but not too bright and easily distracted. ✷
Dolphins: Cheery, playful, friendly, clever and extraordinarily graceful.
Donkeys and Mules: Humble, hardworking and somewhat stubborn. ✷
Ducks: Clumsy but possessing a strong will and perhaps a hidden grace.



✷ symbol is a mental note for me for potential characters
Baboon artwork by Miroco Machiko
Bear artwork by Jen Collins
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"Now that's a sewing finger, honey"

Over Easter break, whilst trying to find creative things to do, I took up embroidering. I've always admired embroidering and I always think its a great skill to learn.

At first I thought it would be quite difficult, I read a few blogs on how to and even watched a youtube video. But It was very easy! I know how to sew in general from sewing on patches and fixing up wear and tear on my own clothes. But it seemed so simple and I feel a bit silly for not trying this out years ago.

But I didn't know what I wanted to be my test piece, I decided on my hand logo. I have this on my business card and the bottom on my emails.

From this trial, I have learnt that:
A. Use less thread.
B. Buy enough of the same colour thread.
C. Draw on the material with a light pen not a pencil and try and rub it out.
D. Be as neat as possible when starting the outline
and E. Practice makes perfect! This wasn't going to be a masterpiece but it turned out better than I actually imagined.

Anthropomorphism

This is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.

This is common in literature such as:

Religious texts

There are various examples of personification as a literary device in both Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament and also in the texts of some other religions.

Fables

Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well established literary device from ancient times. The story of "The Hawk and the Nightingale" in Hesiod's Works and Days preceded Aesop's fables by centuries. Collections of linked fables from India, the Jataka Tales and Panchatantra, also employ anthropomorphized animals to illustrate principles of life. Many of the stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as the wily fox and the proud lion, can be found in these collections.

Fairy Tales

Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from the earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great collections of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault. The Tale of Two Brothers (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and in Cupid and Psyche (Rome, 2nd century CE) Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche away. Later an ant feels sorry for her and helps her in her quest.

Modern Literature

Building on the popularity of fables and fairy tales, specifically children's literature began to emerge in the nineteenth century with works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Carlo Collodi and The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling, all employing anthropomorphic elements.

Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to a sub-culture known as furry fandom, which promotes and creates stories and artwork involving anthropomorphic animals, and the examination and interpretation of humanity through anthropomorphism.

Artwork by Monica Ramos
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Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

Came across this book when I read the short story, The Distance of the Moon:

"At one time, according to Sir George H. Darwin, the Moon was very close to the Earth. Then the tides gradually pushed her far away: the tides that the Moon herself causes in the Earth’s waters, where the Earth slowly loses energy.

...Moon’s phases worked in a different way then: because the distances from the Sun were different, and the orbits, and the angle of something or other, I forget what; as for eclipses, with Earth and Moon stuck together the way they were, why, we had eclipses every minute: naturally, those two big monsters managed to put each other in the shade constantly, first one, then the other.  

Climb up on the Moon? Of course we did. All you had to do was row out to it in a boat and, when you were underneath it, prop a ladder against her and scramble up.

Now, you will ask me what in the world we went up on the Moon for; I’ll explain it to you. We went to collect the milk, with a big spoon and a bucket. Moon-milk was very thick, like a kind of cream cheese.  

Transparent medusas rose to the sea’s surface, throbbed there a moment, then flew off, swaying towards the Moon.

I saw her become restless, as if on pins and needles, and then it was all clear to me, how Mrs Vhd Vhd was becoming jealous of the Moon and I was jealous of my cousin.

I took to singing in a low voice that sad song that goes: ‘Every shiny fish is floating, floating; and every dark fish is at the bottom, at the bottom of the sea...’ and all the others, except my cousin, echoed my words.

raised my eyes as I did every time I touched the Moon’s crust, sure that I would see above me the native sea like an endless ceiling, and I saw it, yes, I saw it this time, too, but much higher, and much more narrow, bound by its borders of coasts and cliffs and promontories, and how small the boats seemed, and how unfamiliar my friend’s faces and how weak their cries!

.,..she too would remain distant, on the Moon. I sense this, seeing that she didn’t take a step towards the bamboo pole, but simply turned her harp towards the Earth, high in the sky, and plucked the strings. 

 I could distinguish the shape of her bosom, her arms, her thighs, just as I remember them now, just as now, when the Moon has become that flat, remote circle, I still look for her as soon as the first sliver appears in the sky, and the more it waxes, the more clearly I imagine I can see her, her or something of her, but only her, in a hundred, a thousand different vistas, she who makes the Moon the Moon and, whenever she is full, sets the dogs to howling all night long, and me with them."

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Onwards and Upwards

Start of a new term. Feedback has come back and I'm more than disappointed within myself. I feel like I let general life get in the way of my work. I feel as if I shouldn't dwell on marks but I think it's important to remember I'm on a course. I need to show all development of my ideas. I need to think what I am actually doing. And I need to stop abandoning things, and working only on things which are just easy and aesthetically pleasing finished looking things.

I'm going to start with a narrative. I'm going to concentrate on that narrative, mock up a story board, work on characters. And in the next couple of day find story that will influence myself to make up a narrative with a Magic Realism style.
Magic Realism in the first brick of this MA building. I felt like last term I just relied on it too much and just read narratives for months.

Now I need to just simply get on with it.