Sunday, August 31, 2008

City of foxes - by Deb


I have, for quite a time now, held a fascination with foxes. My mind wanders back to the marvellous world of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox, the first to plant in me seeds of curiousity about these cunning and mysterious orange-furred bushy-tailed creatures of the night. Then along came the doco' of the somewhat insane and bizzare 'Grizzly Man', Timmothy Treadwell. Silver and Rocket, two foxes he grew an affectionate attachment to in his own excentric way, equally stole my heart. Unluckily, Timmothy not long after met his demise by the jaws of the very bears he loved (attacked, mauled and eaten by a massive male mountain Grizzly, along with his then gf - all scarily recorded on film). And how could i go without mentioning the magical and wonderfully enticing world of Miyazaki.. In his anime, foxes take on forms of the curious entities of the spirit world, intelligent, sometimes crude and business like, sometimes elegant and proud. Finally, a dash of reality to cap it all off... As i roam about the lands doing my research (as an environmental scientist does), i often cross paths with the foxes of the countryside. Where are they going, what do they do, what adventure are they journeying on? ..and so the little sparks of my curiousity burn ever brighter.

So this week, my city is dedicated to the foxes. A city of foxes.

1 comment:

Shell said...

brilliant debb. i am again inspired by your use of textas. how fantastic was mr fox!! a book i have on my list to re-read. i saw my first fox over here the other week, he was on a mission somewhere and disappeared from the road into the bushes quick-smart!