vulpesevanidum

[vulpesevanidum]

[vulpesevanidum]

[vulpesevanidum]

I recently picked up an anthology of Victorian era werewolf fiction called Terrifying Transformations. I have so many short story collections and novels of that period’s supernatural horrors, but so little of that material has featured werewolves that I assumed the monster simply wasn’t as popular back then as the usual vampires and ghosts. So I was thrilled to not only find this collection, but to get caught up in its introduction which delivers a brief history lesson on the many ways the werewolf character was held up as alternate symbols of villainy, madness, and freedom by the various movements that took place within the period. Including that of the anarchists.

Case in point, this Punch comic, which is included in the book itself:

The Were-Wolf of Anarchy, a symbol of the horrid anarchists out to dismantle good polite English society!

Just as the werewolf was worn by female villains in fiction, boasting strength, individualism, sexual liberation and, gasp, devouring rather than nurturing children; the New Woman in fur.

Just as it stood for the commoners and working-class parties striving for rights and recompense against the aristocrats and nouveau riche.

Beasts abound, howling and tearing. Anarchy! This bit says it best:

I haven’t even gotten deep into the stories themselves yet, but this little opening essay has been delicious to chew on. Werewolves have always been part of the modern Other-symbolism crowd, shouldered up against the undead and the uncanny. Monsters to alternately fear within or without, or else performing as outright escapism in shedding human constraints and the collars of society.

It never occurred to me how that particular lupine flag has been waving since at least the 1800s.

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Crochet cat!

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bat eared foxes do NOT like the jackal (sound on for their angry-but-cute purr)

[source]

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im like if the sleepiest person in the world was awake

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A polite kitsune says hello and asks you if you’ve remembered to feed your pet bugs!!

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convo between two kids at my job just now

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Its all cute until he does THAT in the morning

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anxiety days

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found you a new hat.

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A cavorting kitsune to ring in spooky season! The pose was partially based off a photo by Hisakata Hiroyuki: https://www.instagram.com/photo.accent/?hl=en

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i like the genre of animal photos where you can tell they just dipped their face into a carcass and they dont even care (artistic interpretation)

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i think ultimately you do really have to kill that part of your brain that vividly imagines how you would redo parts of your life.

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a moment of clarity

[vulpesevanidum]

Manuel Amado (1938-2019)—That's the Princess [oil on canvas, 2004]