What Will They Think Of Next?

I've been pretty scarce lately as life has taken on new twists and turns. Hoping to have more time and concentration for The Butterfly Jungle soon, but I simply HAD to share this video with you. Check out this incredible new product that will completely blow every other bit of similar technology off the map. I'm not kidding.

I originally came across this video on Paper Online, where it was posted from Popularlibros.com. Of course I plan to get as many of these as I can afford. I bet these new devices even smell good.

In keeping with today's theme of incredible paper technology, I would like to share this lovely gal with you.



Via Wikimedia.org



This is the Rice Paper butterfly, also known as the Paper Kite or Large Tree Nymph butterfly (Idea leuconoe) and is of Southeast Asian origin. If you visit a greenhouse or butterfly conservatory, chances are pretty good that you will meet this delicate gal. My sharing this photo with you today also serves as a foreshadowing of a future post. Won't you check back in?

Chrysalis- and I Don't Mean Me

I just finished reading Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd. Maria Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany and grew up in the family publishing business. Her artistic talents were encouraged and nurtured almost from the day she could hold a paint brush. Ms. Merian was also fascinated by butterflies, moths, caterpillars, and metamorphosis. As a young girl, Maria spent countless hours searching out caterpillars and cocoons to bring home, sketch, and observe, trying to unravel the mystery of insects.



Image via Ursus Books & Prints



Merian began working in her family's publishing business, learning the delicate task of engraving plates for printing and at the age of 28 published her first book, New Book of Flowers, a collection of her sketches, drawings, and paintings. Merian married early, began a family, moved to Nuremberg, divorced her husband, moved to a secluded cult compound, fled from there to Amsterdam, and finally, at the age of 52, travelled to Suriname in South America for the sole purpose of studying, painting, and exploring as many of the Amazonian butterflies, moths, and caterpillars as she could discover. She had metamorphosis fever.



Public domain image from German Wikipedia



Oh, did I mention that she left for Suriname in the year 1699? Yes, that's right, 1699.



Photo by Terry Dunn via Flickr



Now, there are two things in life for which I have a special passion. One is obviously butterflies. The other is the Amazonian River Basin. It's been a fantasy of mine since childhood to travel up the Amazon River to it's source, or as close as I can get. I read whatever I can about the early exploration and history of the Amazon River Basin and I know from my readings that the Amazon jungle, even now, is no place for the weak of body or faint of heart. Though it is still a wild and dangerous place (sometimes in ways that have nothing to do with geography), the Amazon jungle defeated more early European explorers than can be counted. It is a beautiful yet brutal place. In those early years of exploration,  the animals of the jungle such as leopards and snakes might get you but it was more likely that if the indigenous tribes didn't do away with you the insects and plant life would surely do the job. Savage, that's just all you can say about some of the ways the tiny fauna of the Amazon can dispense with you. And some of the fauna ain't so tiny.

 Note- After a photo search, I have decided to skip over inserting a visual aid at this point as even I was getting a bit freaked out. No need to illustrate giant insects  of the Amazon Jungle because I would like for y'all to come back to the Butterfly Jungle (where there are no giant insects).

With 90% of the animal species in the Amazon being insects, Merian was in her glory. A single square mile of rain forest has on average more than 50,000 insect species, with an estimated 4,000 of those being butterflies. Emphasis on "estimated". Merian had originally intended to stay in Suriname for five years and quickly established herself in the coastal capital of Paramaribo, developing relationships with the indigenous tribes along the rivers she travelled to the interior. Fearless, Merian hired guides to cut paths into the jungle. Merian sketched, painted, collected, observed, and interviewed. After only two years and weak from what was most likely malaria, Merian was forced to return home.

I picked up this book because the idea of a woman in her early 50's packing up and heading out into the Amazon Jungle in 1699 AD to study metamorphosis intrigued me- naturally. But this book is not just a biography of an acclaimed artist and self-taught entomology pioneer. It is also an exploration of the study of metamorphosis. At the time, the prevailing belief about where insects came from was that they arose from "spontaneous generation". In this context, "spontaneous generation" did not refer to the origin of life (life oozing up out of the primordial soup) but to the origin of the mice in your cupboard, for example. If you wrapped cheese and bread in rags and stashed them in a dark corner you would soon have mice in the rags and so- spontaneous generation of mice. Insects arose from rotting mud or fruit, old books, and dew. Old wool turned to moths, frogs arose from raindrops, flies were generated from old snow. Leave a woman's hair in the sunlight and it turned to snakes. Basil between two tiles held together with horse dung and placed in the cellar for a month gave you scorpions. To get a bee? Well, first you beat to death a three year old bull..... not kidding, there's a poem to help you remember the lurid details. These theories come from a casual observation of the natural world without a systematic investigation. Yes, if you leave trash in a heap you will get maggots but in the 17th century the curious-minded were only just beginning to say, "Wait a minute...." Bolstered by a growing contingency of theologians who reminded that all life was created by God, the debate and investigation were just getting under way. These early entomologists developed ingenious experiments to test their theories but Merian went a step further by seeking the association of caterpillar with its environment, the food it ate, the pupae they formed, the life that emerged from the cocoon. She sought to solve such mysteries as why, when she observed a caterpillar spin a cocoon, flies would on occasion emerge instead of a moth or butterfly. The depiction of these real life contexts are what made her paintings so revolutionary. Merian sought to depict all life stages from larva through the imago with the host plants in one painting. Merian's constant experimentation with pigments and style paved the way for her to soon be a much sought after and well-respected illustrator, in addition to her contributions to the understanding metamorphosis. During this period in history, insects were associated with witchcraft and the Devil, so Merian had to tread lightly to avoid being ostracized, particularly while she lived in Germany, where witch burnings were still taking place.

Stages of an Emperor Moth: Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensis, Plate XI
Image via UH.edu

The book concludes with a very interesting discussion on just what does happen during metamorphosis. Ms. Todd points out that it is the caterpillar, not the butterfly, that is the engine of metamorphosis. Please, I can't even start talking about metamorphosis because it is so cool and I'll just never shut up. HOWEVER- did you know that a caterpillar is not just a goo-filled eating machine but that there are components of the imago, the finished butterfly, in the caterpillar before it winds itself into a cocoon? Oh please, it's all so fascinating! It's the caterpillar that does all the metamorphing- the butterfly just steps out and gets all the glory!

Image via The British Museum

The one disappointment about this book is that Merian's actual time in Suriname takes up only a small portion of the book. That disappointment most likely comes from my wanting to be there, to live vicariously through the descriptions of Merian's adventures and misadventures in the Amazon Jungle.

Image via Powell's Books

You can do an image search to explore more of Merian's paintings but I came across ArtCyclopedia that links to online museum collections which contain her prints.

 

For the kids, there's Summer Birds, Merian's story, by Margarita Engle.

Dover Publications also has a book and CD of Merian's prints.

Note- the books in this post link to Amazon but I am not an Amazon Associate and am not trying to sell you something so I can get one of those huge cuts of the pie from Amazon. The links take you to Amazon simply for your convenience should you be interested.

So OK, that's it. Go get a good book to read. See ya next time.

It Wasn't Just Hitler

(Warning- this post is for history buffs. There are no cute crafts, sinfully yummy recipes, or whimsical reminiscences. Not even any butterflies. Sorry, but History is what I read and like to share. Expect more. You've been warned.)



Finished this book lthe other night. In 1933, William Dodd became the US Ambassador to Germany. In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson follows Dodd's first year in Germany (there's a bit a of wrap-up at the end). Dodd, a history professor, had studied in Leipzig during his college years and went into his tenure as Ambassador with warm feelings toward the German people and nation but no diplomatic experience. Dodd was not Roosevelt's first choice for Ambassador. Or his second. Or third. In fact, Dodd was embarrasingly low on the list. No one else wanted the job. While the persecution of the Jews, initially subtle, was beginning to be discussed in political circles, Dodd felt that most Jews were over-stating the problems in Germany and strove to be neutral on the issue. Dodd and his daughter Martha both looked at life in Nazi Germany with rose-colored glasses, wanting to believe in it's innocence and quaintness. Consequently, it was almost a full year before Dodd and his family (wife, daughter, and son) came to understand the truth of Hitler's threat to the world. The last straw was the June 30th 1934 purge of the leadership of the Storm Troopers, then led by Ernst Rohm. Hitler, as did many of his loyal fellow leaders, saw the Storm Troopers, the SA, as a threat to the traditional German military and their own political ambitions. Between June 30th and July 2nd, Storm Trooper commanders and supporters were arrested and executed for treason. No trial, just executed. This purge became known as the Night of Long Knives. Hitler declared to the German people that he had averted an attempt by certain SA leaders to overthrow the German leadership and was thus justified to naming himself judge during the purge. Hitler claimed just over seventy traitors were executed but the historical record shows that individuals who opposed Hitler, such as a priest, journalists, Jews, and others were killed in the action. Some estimate the casualties closer to 700. We will most likely never know the exact number, but for the shootings to have continued for three days indicates that the violence was more widespread than the Nazis wanted the world to believe. We see clips of Hitler giving speeches in which he is ranting and spitting like a mad man (huh, image that) but to read some of the translations is interesting. Hitler was a master orator and manipulator (oh and a lair, just sayin') and the German people by in large, at least in the beginning, swallowed his speeches hook, line, and sinker. Later it was fear that kept them silent. The Night of Long Knives was a pivotal truning point for the German people, who had been increasingly dissatisfied with Hitler and his Nazi tactics, his initial use of the SA as his personal bully army as part of the reason. By regining in the SA, the German people believed Hitler had actually eliminated a threat to their security and way of life. Some did see it for the dire warning that it was.



Image via Traces





Larson's book focuses mostly on Dodd and his daughter Martha, who had several affairs with high ranking German officials, as well as a man who turned to to be a Soviet spy who has been tasked with recruiting Martha to spy for the Soviets. Martha was, as they used to say when it used to matter, a floozy. Dodd and his left-leaning daughter could not have been more opposite if they had tried. Larson provides an interesting look, through diary excerpts and official cables, at how the US Embassy functioned, Dodd's struggles as Ambassador, the daily lives of those living in Germany, and gives insights as well into the Nazi leadership and the psyche German people after WWI. It wasn't just Hitler. Himmler, Goebbels, and Goring to name the big three were power hungry- oh let's just say it- lunatics- who manipulated Hitler and used his mental instabilities to their own advantages.

Image via Amazing Discoveries



There was a point, around the time of the Night of Long Knives, when Hitler could conceivably have been stopped. Had Roosevelt heeded the increasingly dire reports from Dodd and other Embassy personnel, as had the leaders of other countries from their personnel, things may have turned out differently. But for some reason, which Larson wonders about but does not pursue, Roosevelt and other world leaders did not want to speak out against Hitler. In The Garden of Beasts, however, is an interesting look inside Nazi Germany in the years immediately prior to World War II.

This is just a brief peek inside In The Garden of Beasts. Visit Pittsburgh Live for a better review. I like Erik Larson, having read everything he's published since happening upon Issac's Storm several years ago and would recommend any of is books.

So call dibs on the best reading chair, pour a glass of iced tea, and get to reading. I would love to hear what book you've got your nose into.

Be Still My Reading Heart

Image via Fotocommunity.de

I let out an audible gasp when I stumbled upon this picture. My first thought, after I started breathing again, was "You wouldn't see me for days."




Photo by sendung via Flickr


From what I've been able to discover, this is the central reading room of the study center at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany.

One million volumes. Just sharing.