From Walt Kelly to Joanna Russ, and Then Back

THE POGO SUNDAY PARADE, by Walt Kelly. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1958. Click for a larger view.

From THE FEMALE MAN, by Joanna Russ:

As the bear swore in Pogo after having endured a pot shoved on her head, being turned upside down while still in the pot, a discussion about her edibility, the lawnmowering of her behind, and a fistful of ground pepper in the snoot, she then swore a mighty oath on the ashes of her mothers (i.e. her forebears) grimly but quietly while the apples from the shaken apple tree above her dropped bang thud on her head:

"OH, SOMEBODY ASIDES ME IS GONNA RUE THIS HERE PARTICULAR DAY."

And yet the bear, Barnstable, is not a woman, not a female man, but a plain ordinary man. I've never understood why Russ considered him female.