tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post926257295138382028..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: they served me for a bridleUmbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-38554932553601630312012-08-31T09:27:41.274+10:002012-08-31T09:27:41.274+10:00I see that everybody really likes water. "Pai...I see that everybody really likes <i>water</i>. "Paint me water, paint something standing next to the water, that's what I want to see." Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-53939620668637241802012-08-30T07:00:40.186+10:002012-08-30T07:00:40.186+10:00What a fabulous painting! It reminds me of one of ...What a fabulous painting! It reminds me of one of works done by Russian artists Komar and Melamid, created by polling people about what they'd like to see in a painting:<br /><br />http://awp.diaart.org/km/painting.htmlseraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-39611936737898021632012-08-29T17:45:15.143+10:002012-08-29T17:45:15.143+10:00If they're that small then I'm starting to...If they're that small then I'm starting to think it's lucky he didn't accidentally squash the poor thing when he sat on it. It died though, they killed it, and he took it home to England, preserved with taxidermy. Simson is crisp: "The only part of this description which can or may be considered true is, that the cayman was landed, and that Waterton, in a fit of hare-brained enthusiasm, got on its back ... What purpose," he asks, "could it have served to get on the back of a cayman?"<br /><br />A painter named Edward Jones turned the whole episode into a picture: http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_197933/Captain-Edward-Jones/Charles-Waterton-capturing-a-caymanUmbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-23619290934034872272012-08-29T15:05:28.374+10:002012-08-29T15:05:28.374+10:00This comment has been removed by the author.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-55617226760428139622012-08-29T08:24:02.738+10:002012-08-29T08:24:02.738+10:00I was around cayman (caiman) a lot when I was a ki...I was around cayman (caiman) a lot when I was a kid. I probably attempted to ride one too at some point, since they're fairly small, like nippy little leather dogs, so while the telling of Waterman's riding of a cayman sounds like a boastfully exaggerated fishing yarn, the fact of his riding one might well be true. Perhaps. seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-50089736573729576192012-08-28T08:39:18.226+10:002012-08-28T08:39:18.226+10:00"Perhaps" and "might" and &quo..."Perhaps" and "might" and "maybe" are just useful. "I can't prove it, but everything I'm about to say will make sense if you and I pretend that it is proven." <br /><br />People apparently questioned the cayman-riding story but none of the eyewitnesses ever wrote a book, and nobody seems to have asked them what they saw. (I found this out online, in a scan of a book by a naturalist named James Simson, who thought Waterton was a serial liar. "But the best reply to Waterton's positive assurances is to be found in the conversation of intelligent people who are living or have lived, in Demerara [the area of South America where he was taking care of an estate]... a laugh is generally raised when allusion is made to some of the statements in his <i>Wanderings</i>; that of "riding the cayman" causing the loudest one." Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-69052016936851115852012-08-28T00:14:18.630+10:002012-08-28T00:14:18.630+10:00"Perhaps" - I don't know it is true,..."Perhaps" - I don't <i>know</i> it is true, but I like to <i>imagine</i> it is true. I am a ruthless abuser of "perhaps," so I recognize the tell.<br /><br />I greatly enjoyed this explication of the Pykk method. Perhaps that story about riding the cayman is true. The response of the animal sounds about right.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.com