Invented by Spanish booksellers in the 1920′s, the World Book Day coincides with the date of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, as well as the Catalan tradition of celebrating Saint George’s Day on 23 April by men giving roses to the ladies of their hearts. Since 1925, the tradition was updated: in return for the rose, the woman gave a book. (Falco and Mayann are therefore wearing costumes from Catalonia.)

Since 1995, UNESCO celebrates the World Book and Copyright Day on this date. Confused Brits claim that it is also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, but forget that the staunchly anti-papist Elizabethans did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until much later. Thus, Shakespeare died 10 days after Cervantes, although both died on 23 April!

Don Quixote has been considered the first modern novel; it introduced many previously unknown or sparsely used storytelling techniques. The anti-hero also shows character development, contrary to many of his idols in earlier chivalric romances – Don Quixote makes a pessimistic inner journey from enchantment to disillusion. (Let’s hope that Falco’s and Mayann’s journey will be a happier one.)

These two double editions are now available – get them from me or come to SPX Stockholm this weekend!

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But for Falco… Even before the war, a decent cassock would cost 65 Fr., and his meager scholarship has certainly not been updated to catch up with the rising costs of living. No wonder he needs a part-time job or two. (Those kid gloves and that silk cincture… not exactly standard equipment for a simple deacon!)

Observe, too, how expensive the ladies’ shoes are in comparison. The worth of their undergarments must remain a mystery, but I would guess that Mayann wears the skimpiest and most expensive ones…

Inspired by this front page of Le Petit Journal, July 4th, 1920.

Frohes Fest – Happy Holidays – Glad Helg – Onnellisia Pyhiä …
Whatever you are celebrating.

I’m a bit late for Christmas, but not too late for Japanese New Year, which of course must be celebrated with – Mochi.

Name the characters whose eyes you see above! It’s nice how humans (and dogs!) belong to a small gene pool but still manage to show beautiful variation in their phenotype. Dog eyes, by the way, differ from human eyes in interesting ways – the tapetum lucidum, which reflects light, gives a dog’s eye colour an iridescent effect which can be seen up close. I was always fascinated by the irises of our Akita Mitsu, which were dark brown but softly scintillating in rainbow colours. I’ve tried to imitate that effect to give Mochi’s eye an ominous glow.

Colouring is fun, but so time-consuming… I guess I just need more practice.

… And that was how I came to know Julot and Gigolette,
And we would talk and drink a bock, and smoke a cigarette.
And I would meditate upon the artistry of crime,
And he would tell of cracking cribs and cops and doing time;
Or else when he was flush of funds he’d carelessly explain
He’d biffed some bloated bourgeois on the border of the Seine.
So gentle and polite he was, just like a man of peace,
And not a desperado and the terror of the police.
(Robert Service, 1921)

Lord knows what Falco thinks he can do with his umbrella. Perhaps it’s something he learned as a missionary in Japan, or maybe he is familiar with the Cunningham system.

Studying popular imagery of the clerical class over the centuries, one is struck by the ubiquitous umbrella, if you pardon the pun. Here some Jesuits chase away a secular scientist from a Bavarian university in the German satirical magazine Jugend (1913).

Uninvited guests in the seminary.

I got the idea from studying Parisian argot, the famous slang of the underworld, which contains many imaginative, rude but sometimes poetical synonyms to the regular vocabulary. A priest, for example, could be called sanglier (wild boar), marcassin (wild piglet), corbeau (raven), or taupe (mole); all animals could be described as black like the priest’s cassock. In the days of Victor Hugo, seminary students were called mômes noirs (black kids: see also la môme Piaf).

There is an even more interesting explanation to the term sanglier. According to the Dictionnaire Du Jargon Parisien by Lucien Rigaud from 1878, “Le sanglier est sauvage ; le prêtre vit retiré du monde comme le sanglier au fond des forèts”. The wild boar prefers the deep forests, the priest must keep away from worldly life – being “in the world, but not of it”. From the point of view of the urban proletariat, the clerical class seemed as removed from their world as the wild boar in the forest.

*) N.B.: Pigs can be very useful helpmates in the garden. Our potbellied pig Sergei kept the lawn neat and free from weeds, trimmed and fertilised the rose bushes, and kept the ant and slug population in check.

Sorry 'bout the guinea pig...

Sometimes people ask what historical period I would like to live in. Well, the last 30 years have been pretty okay. Antibiotics and developed contraception methods guarantee that I can live my life without many of the worries that Mayann and her friends would have to deal with in reality. In biographies of people living in the 1910′s and 1920′s, it’s striking how many suffered and even died because of sexual health issues, even well-to-do people. Others were victims of psychiatric issues, and we still haven’t found solutions for many of those. And then there were countless quacks wreaking havoc on people’s savings and sanity.

Goldie is not a quack, of course. She represents the cutting edge of science with a feminist goal. Just look through her bookshelves for inspiration! The book right behind Falco’s ear is titled Idéologie d’hier: Dieu, la morale, la patrie (“Ideology of Yesterday: God, morals, fatherland”), by Dr Madeleine Pelletier, a famous French feminist doctor and social activist. No wonder our dear deacon recoils in horror. So what might Goldie be concocting? What makes even convinced animal rights activist Mayann beam with glee?

By the way, the word Guinea Pig in the sense of ‘object for experiments’ was first recorded in the English language precisely in the year 1920.