Full Description
Rikki Ducornet's essays explore eros, violence, dreams, fairy tales, and art as alchemy—the Deep Zoo at the core of humanity.
Within the writer's life, words and things acquire power. For Borges it is the tiger and the color red, for Cortázar a pair of amorous lions, and for an early Egyptian scribe the monarch butterfly that metamorphosed into the Key of Life. Ducornet names these powers The Deep Zoo. Her essays take us from the glorious bestiary of Aloys Zötl to Abu Ghraib, from the tree of life to Sade's Silling Castle, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to virtual reality. Says Ducornet, "To write with the irresistible ink of tigers and the uncaging of our own Deep Zoo, we need to be attentive and fearless—above all very curious—and all at the same time."
Contents
The Deep Zoo
Book of Natural and Unnatural Nature
A Memoir in the Form of a Manifesto
The World in a Seed
Houses on Fire
Water and Dreams
War's Body
The Egyptian Portal: The Paintings of Linda Okazaki
Silling
Eros Breathing
A Cup and a River
Witchcraft by a Picture
Her Bright Materials: The Art of Margie McDonald
The Practice of Obscurity
Candles of Ink
