Old T.S. Possum

Old T.S. Possum

Friday, 27 September 2024 07:27

Happy Birthday Old Possum, born 26 September, 1888 in St Louis, Missouri. One of the most significant figures in modernist literature, he was a poet, playwright and essayist whose work explored the malaise of modern life - existential angst, disillusionment, fragmentation, societal decline, endemic alarm and despondency, and so forth. His writing style, an innovative mash-up of classical and modern references and allusions and the juxtaposition of poetic and vernacular language, carved new pathways through the cultural jungle for others to follow. His most famous works include The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), The Waste Land (1922), and Four Quartets (1943).

He used the name Thomas Stearns Eliot for these works but reverted to his own name for his masterwork, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939), which is the one everyone knows and is certainly the most lucrative after it was used as the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline musical extravaganza, Cats! (See post Jellicle Joy.)

Old Possum claimed that he wrote these poems for his godchildren. He sent them in letters, and later they were rounded up and published by Faber and Faber, where he worked as an editor, They are written with such affection and deep knowledge and understanding of cat psychology, behaviours and attitudes that you would conclude Possum had a clowder or two in the home, for reference. You’d be wrong.

Although there is plenty of evidence that he was very fond of cats, there is no indication that he shared a home with one or several. The question is, if he didn’t live with them, how did Possum get cats so right ? The raffish McCavity, the finicky Rum Tum Tigger, the professional mouser Jennyanydots? How did he know that cats won’t speak to you unless you bring tokens of esteem? How did he know about the names?

Many people are bemused and baffled by this,

Belvedere and I have a theory (at least I have).

Old Possum is himself a cat.

He joins our growing list of People who are Secretly Cats (Steve McQueen, Wolfgang Mozart, Cary Grant - see posts One Cool Cat, Wolfie the Cat, Happy Birthday Cary Grant),

Look at the evidence

* He knows all about the different ways a cat can behave

* He does not own one, as he already is one

* The very first poem in the book is The Naming of Cats in which he explains

1. [When I tell you,] a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES

2.. First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,

Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James

3. [But I tell you,] a cat needs a name that's particular,

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified.

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat

4. [And that is] the name that you never will guess;

The name that no human research can discover—But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

* when choosing a family name for himself, he went for Tom

I rest my case

You can see why he would want another name, as the weltschmerz, angst. despair, alienation , lament at the human condition etc don’t really fit with the feline worldview.

So why did Possum feel the need to write all this soul-searing stuff?

Greater brains than I may say differently, but I suggest it is a cunning plan to keep humanity in a constant state of self-loathing and servitude, to break their spirit so they will feel grateful and honoured to act as butlers for the miniaturized apex predators that are slowly achieving world domination one cat at a time. Discuss.

If you need help, watch Possum as T. S. Eliot read The Waste Land.

TS Eliot reading The Waste Land https://youtu.be/CqvhMeZ2PlY?si=zSJ4O_BGHlXLa_fP

For more about cats and literature, see Literary Cats part of the Creative Cats series for Clowder Press.

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