Educating by love - detailing a way back to natural creativity

Part VI: Review of Sam Garton's I am Otter by Béatrice Dumiche

We left off in early December discussing how Otter & Keeper educate each other through humor - let's pick up here detailing how education through love can get us back to a natural creativity. 

Special note - black & white drawing herein of Mij © Gavin Maxwell & courtesy of The Ring of Bright Water

So, I am Otter represents the initial story of a series which aims to gather a community of readers who enjoy playfulness because they find back on their own - however unconsciously guided by Otter like Keeper - to what made the success of human evolution and to become inventive again.  For that reason, it questions a traditional education which relies on idealized models of adults to conserve social values as if they were natural and therefore eternal.  It teaches conformism as a way to materialistic achievement which would be the only valuable form of personal recognition. More precisely, it takes position against the heritage of nineteenth century’s positivism which related behavior to moral patterns in which to submit if one wants to play a significant role in society.  The highly improbable couple of Otter and Keeper can appear as a grotesque provocation to this crude realism which extends its censorship to imagination: Keeper’s symbolic femininity along with Otter’s innocent vitality are indeed a provocation for all who consider life according to pre-determined categories while negating life’s natural evolution by exchange and adaption. The synergy between

Otter and Keeper demonstrates that the oddness is not there where it is normally supposed to be because their undeniable reciprocal love lets the readers guess that the quest for perfection is properly absurd.  It means running after an abstraction while losing the consciousness of the natural faculties which effectively guaranteed the survival of humanity and which Otter is there to remember and promote in a contemporary adequate form by revealing to children the power of their own fantasy to transform adults and let them travel back to a more adapted way of living making them actually happy rather than projecting their hopes of personal achievement on their offspring.

Sam Garton’s choice of an otter who bears a generic name is nothing but just a fancy: she is the emblematic representative of a species which perfectly matches his educational purpose and is already associated with a narrative tradition where an otter and its keeper became famous book-characters much loved by the public.  So, Garton, in his interviews, refers to Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water which tells the story of Mijbil - probably the first otter ever kept as a pet in urban surroundings – tells how he borrows major traits from him to feature Otter. More generally, her encounter with Keeper is inspired from the Maxwell’s humorous account of his life with his unpredictable playful animal whose mischievous and exclusive being transformed his existence deeply. There is some resemblance between Mijbil’s revengeful attacks on the contents of Maxwell’s home when he left the otter alone and Otter’s mess while Keeper is away: Gavin Maxwell’s and Sam Garton’s book both show that living with an otter is a fight to keep one’s own space and not let the otter totally overwhelm by its exuberant energy. Garton’s originality is that he had transposed this realistic, yet already literary exploited, element in his own narration to give it some inner consistence and credibility. Otter appears not his subjective invention as if she would come out of nowhere, there are former references even for her as a drawn character since Gavin Maxwell himself studied Mijbil’s movements in sketches which revealed the remarkable flexibly of his otter body. Hence, Sam Garton’s reference to The Ring of Bright Water is actually the quest for a caution to legitimate his own Otter book as a fictional story founded on real characters, giving it both: existential density and veracity.

Otter’s evolutionary ability to change forms and adapt physically wouldn’t have been possible without Gavin Maxwell’s inspirational drawings which have a symbolic meaning linking natural capacities and psychological needs.  The animal’s flexibility becomes the symbol of Otter’s function as a transitional object which is no longer only associated with childhood and the special role it plays for acquiring personal autonomy at this stage of evolution. The fact that she is the companion of an adult, who, like Gavin Maxwell himself, is not an average man, underlines the specificity of the challenge. Keeper is a pioneer, as was Maxwell, because like him who explored the behavior of his pet otter and advocated for his species through its personalization, Keeper tries to understand the mystery of Otter’s vitality: their humoristic face-to-face however is more the look at a mirror as his passivity, his exhaustion, let him recognize how distant he has become from a creature who incarnates the success of evolution throughout ages. Unlike him who has lost the contact with his childhood, Otter represents the only species where the individuals keep playing throughout a lifetime. So, her natural existence becomes Keeper’s personal challenge - it is up to him to reconnect to his childhood by reacting to her and learning to live again.

With Sam Garton, Gavin Maxwell’s narration of his unusual experience with an otter which hits the imagination of readers becomes a symbolic dimension on a philosophical and psychological background which elevates the children’s book to the rank of an artwork: the simplicity of its language is just that of life which hides an unconscious complexity since evolution is instinctive and based on playfulness to sort out the fittest adaption for the survival of the species. Keeper’s encounter with Otter features a contemporary man meeting his imaginary, yet symbolically matching, origin where animal and man are intricately linked through the same evolutionary process despite their divergent development. This allows the author a cultural criticism of an unnatural way of living and the irrational behaviour it generates opposing a hyper-standardized social existence and most irrational individual quests for nature which create stress and frustration because the contradiction between both seems to have become insurmountable.

Otter lets Keeper’s crisis become evident while at the same time, she figures a way to distract him, as entering into a dialogue with her, means he already has transformed his relationship with childhood and has integrated it symbolically into his actions; freeing himself from the nostalgias which paralyzed him and hindered his evolution. She leads him and the readers of the book to change their minds about the meaning of childhood from the evolutional point of view. On the contrary, it appears their symbolic link with its primary energy which needs to be favored all the time for individual well-being and the development of a tolerant, yet coherent sociability. Thus, comforting and developing the structural power of childhood by encouraging, from the initial stages, creativity and autonomy in order to preserve lifelong adaptability becomes the state of modern children’s literature and not its adjustment to adult standards. Hence, children’s books play a fundamental role for literature as they set the relationship between reality and fiction training the public to recognize and interpret symbols according to their own vital needs and to put them in a larger perspective, often thanks to and encouraging humor. Sam Garton underlines that reading must be taught for the sake of human evolution to resolve the discrepancy between their aspirations and their materialistic culture which has inhibited their ability to relate to themselves and each other, crippling their fantasy and imagination along the way.

Otter and Keeper - An Education for both through humor

Part V - Review of Sam Garton's I am Otter by Béatrice Dumiche

With a main character like Otter, Sam Garton uses imagination to structure human thinking and acting and advocates games as a necessity for personal evolution throughout life because they help restore the link with former stages of existence and do the best to reinvent new relations with it. The arrival of Otter at Keeper’s home inverts exemplarily his own perspective on a society he has grown unconsciously tired of without finding an alternative to it as he is already stuck in its greyish dullness which he seems to get through in a sort of half-sleep in order to protect himself. His passivity, the opposite of her hyperactive playfulness, lets readers guess how societal organization takes individuals away from their own achievement while generating melancholy, loneliness and depression. Adapting to societal norms is not based on reciprocity, it is exclusively focused on productivity and normative standards conceived to increase it, which creates the feeling of an impersonal purpose against which there seems to be no remedy. This way, it cripples the aptitude to relate to others and exchange with them, and eventually, all the human faculties that open one to diversity and let one enjoy life.  An imbalance is created between a highly developed industrial civilization and the evolution of the human population which is led into psychological regression because they were taken away from their innate challenge which consists in the symbolical integration of individual diversity by imagination and creativity through empathy and love.

That’s why Otter, for whom playing is still an instinctive activity and who knows no limits in playing since it is her only way to exist, “gets into trouble” when she disturbs Keeper’s day and goes too far with her games. Her insistent antics – often uncontrolled and not thought through - to vie for Keeper’s undivided attention are the most touching appeals for love he has received because he matters to her since he is unique although she cannot appreciate much of his individuality. While he is apparently not socially recognized as somebody exceptional, Keeper means the world to Otter and her feelings help him reconnect with the vital energy he has kept in within himself as he is rather introverted. So, although he is still mostly a spectator or a slightly unwilling participant in her exuberant games, such as the concert she gives for him, he is fascinated by her innocent self-affirmation which he can’t help but fall in love with. There are of course, still remnants of his former passivity in his tolerance towards her, yet his major preoccupation is to protect the precious carefree vitality she brought back to him and to provide her with a place where she can express her imagination in perfect freedom for the betterment of her own development.  But, also because – and this is as important to him ‒ she brightens his weekends and gives him a personal reason to live and enjoy his life. Thus, her presence changes his own priorities and lets him find the inner strength to reconsider what is truly best for himself and leave behind what he was taught; ideas which are based on the transmission of normative standards which reduces creativity to only materialistic achievements.

His indulgence towards her unbridled playfulness is therefore not a sign of weakness, it shows his sovereignty and the wisdom he has acquired by meeting her - from the moment he let her settle down, he realized that he must take care to allow her to make the most of the current stage of her evolution in order for her to develop in the best way. Keeper also realizes it would be wrong to apply his grown-up standards to what she was doing or push her toward a pretended achievement. For example, the creation of the toast restaurant goes awry and she concludes for herself the mishap of her plan. So, his educational role doesn’t consist of telling her what she could have made better, it resides in his empathy to let her feel when she was too ambitions in letting her imagination go too far; overestimating her own capabilities. He helps her relate and understand a sense of scale while learning to recognize what is actually useful for her personal progress at the moment. Thus, his physical distance from her, which the illustrator emphasizes well and which she tries to surmount to get more of his attention and love, appears to be Keeper’s most efficient educational tool. He shows her that what she interprets as his frustrating and unjust indifference is only the symbolic representation of his difference which she must become aware of in order to increase her own creative faculties – not to please or impression him!  She must follow her natural development and accept it to evolve rather than measuring herself against Keeper – who cannot truly be a model for her as she is not a human and because she hasn’t grown up yet.

That’s why, when her unconditional love for him turns into self-denegation, he reminds her of the abilities he esteems she can be proud of, letting her know that he loves her precisely because of what she is and the joy her innocent playfulness brought into her life as well as his own. So, her awkwardness, which she was ashamed of and angry at, becomes part of her charm as it shows her desire to do her best to get his recognition (as well as that of the general public who, she hopes, will read her “ramblings”). Her mistakes can’t but touch since they hint to her desire to become socialized and do something useful. Keeper’s generosity and thoughtfulness allow her to understand that she is already on her way and that, even at her modest point, she contributes to the meaning of usefulness by giving it an emotional sense that he himself has been deprived of for too long. Thus, I am Otter is the expression of Keeper’s love for Otter. The artist, you’ll recall is Keeper’s alter ego, so the story of Keeper and Otter helps him share with others who will appreciate and even be transformed by Otter’s self-confident originality in order that they will develop their own creativity and appreciate social diversity just by daring to become a bit more themselves.

With Otter, Sam Garton created a character who readjusts the role of love in education because it becomes a factor of socialization based on reciprocity and not on affective dependence. It is no longer used to enforce the adaptation to standards which don’t take into account the indispensable exchange between individuals who learn to respect their difference for their own sake and for a more intense and richer life through daily practice. Failures are part of this process since mediating between individuals requires individual solutions which can’t be but symbolical to allow the evolution of opposite viewpoints into a creative synergy like between Otter and Keeper. Both are bound by their reciprocal desire to make the other one happy according to his abilities instead of personal expectations. Each cannot but be disappointed which would deprive them of what’s best in otherness: being surprised again and again by new aspects the differences never cease to reveal.

The author stresses this more humorously and explicitly in one of his internet stories where Keeper lets Otter draw what she is good at to cheer her up: “Climbing things I’m not supposed to – Fighting the hoover – Looking pretty for the otter keeper – Teaching people who know less than me – Hiding from the otter keeper – Looking after things – Sneaking up on my ball when it’s not looking – Sleeping” summing up the “Things (she’s) really good at”.  This odd list underlines his purpose; by doing it, she becomes aware of what she is really able to do and what matters to her so that she no longer feels attracted by achievements which don’t match her real interests. At the same times, her naïve drawings do Keeper much more good than by him trying to behave like a working adult.

She surprises him by revealing to him who she is: a young otter living at his home joining animalistic antics with the whimsical behavior of a young girl! Her unpredictable character can’t help but perk him up in comparison with his regular life, her activities appear humorously distracting because they are carefree like her drawings which she did only for her and Keeper’s pleasure. So, no matter how ridiculously awkward they might seem to anyone who isn’t involved in her life, they give Keeper an immeasurable value like any child’s drawing do for their parents. They are not artwork, as the implicit comparison with the illustrations suggest, they are most precious testimonies of her unconditional love which, remember, was important for her during her evolution. However, Keeper an evolved artist, realized that her strength was precisely her inner freedom which lets her express spontaneously what she feels simply because she needed to express it.  He rewarded her innocent generosity towards him by making her the heroine of the book which tells how they get along together in a reciprocal playful mode inciting them to do the best of themselves for their common pleasure. Thus, their unlikely couple opposes creative emulation to social competition and bets on love to change mentalities progressively because it lets everyone become aware of what is precious for another.

Continues soon....stay tuned!

Exploring imagination and socialization within "I am Otter"

Part IV - Review of Sam Garton's I am Otter by Béatrice Dumiche

Moving from the exploration of Otter's imagination and growth, we begin to look at imagination and how that leads to socialization. 

By the way author Sam Garton adapts the tradition of myths and tales which were integrating children into the adult community, he brings about the key-role of imagination for socialization. He shows that only imagination lets Otter realize her physical evolution and figure out the continuity of her being. This enables her to relate to others through empathy and compassion despite apparently objective differences.

Through the relationship between Otter and Keeper, Garton illustrates concretely how the experience of being linked with others helps build self-knowledge and identity as well as self-confidence because it contributes to broaden the vision and the appreciation regarding the frustrating awareness of our own subjectivity. He demonstrates that imagination, when it is nourished and supported by others, is the opportunity to invent oneself; he proves practically that imagination is a way to find friends as nobody should be alone. For that reason, Keeper has Otter as a fictitious, yet vital companion and Otter has Teddy, whom she gives some personality through her fantasy, and their interactions create a multi-layered fantastic reality which helps provide a different look at everyday life. The author stresses that we all need fiction existentially because building up an original identity supposes the ability to appropriate other’s experiences according to what appeals to us and allows us to integrate them to evoke new associations which give a surprising, if not improbable, humoristic sense.

Fictitious existence, as it is incarnated by Otter, represents the freedom to relate to others’ fantasy in order to realize the most of what you are and which will always be more than you can be physically. It opens an endless opportunity for experiences. That’s why, in his book, Sam Garton stimulates his readers’ imagination, inviting them to interpret the story as they wish, incorporating their own truth.
The power of imagination reveals the link between all living beings who have realized that playfulness makes no sense if it remains only self-related, as it is destined to awake a communicative joy which is based on the intuitive belief in an understanding of otherness. It is the empirical proof that individual life cannot exist and persist without a symbolical link with others which will help structure its future evolution. Thus, it is the motor of creativity which lets the mind create alternatives and ways to experience them. So, it causes a feeling of tolerance which lets in an awareness of nature’s necessity to diversify for the continual development of life. Playing helps imagine changes without denying reality, it relativizes it as a transitional stage which can be modified by invention to better fit one’s personal development.

Sam Garton demonstrates that being creative is an innate faculty which needs to be trained from the very beginning of individual consciousness because it enables one to conceive otherness and cope with the difference, no matter how surprising it might be.  Otter’s arrival at Keeper’s home answers their reciprocal longing for an achievement which will make them both feel happier and more accomplished. Thus, their meeting unveils symbolically the challenge of creativity for the author himself, when Otter ‒ the creature he has imagined ‒ becomes an autonomous character who will play a role in a scenario which will feature from the beginning how she develops, confronted with Keeper, his own fictive alter ego. So, the realization of the book which actualizes his own imagination transforms him as it gets its own dynamic despite being a fiction. He has indeed to acknowledge that, as the protagonist of text he wrote for children, she however doesn’t respond to his desire to find a way back to an idealised childhood he misses. Otter’s troublesome personality lets him guess that his creative impulse had been motivated by regressive nostalgias which couldn’t fit her from the moment she became independent and began to challenge Keeper. So, the fiction itself forced the author to modify the relationship between his characters to save their credibility, showing that imagination can only exist in correlation with adaptation to differences which always always happens in any kind of being.

Considering Otter’s autonomous and already unshaped being from the empathetic point of view of the socialized adult, places Keeper automatically in the position of an educator who realizes how subjective his vision of childhood was compared to that which he actually lives with. Instead of passively identifying with the fictitious creature the author has created, he faces a living character that reminds him of the anxieties and the troubles he had forgotten, surmounting them while growing up. In the story, Keeper must find real solutions as an adult who must cope with problems generated by Otter’s hyperactive, infantile imagination which challenges his own imagination as it must react adequately, relating his experience with an unconscious past in order to help Otter evolve. This leads him to the realization that he can get back to childhood only symbolically through an activity which stabilizes her fantasy without hindering its evolution. Staying in a playful dialogue with her thanks to her own drawings gives him an insight into what she feels and with the illustrations which show her behaviour, he orients her towards a more realistic appreciation of herself. Sam Garton emphasizes here that growth is a never ending process of reciprocal symbolic exchanges where imagination plays a decisive role as long as it helps surmount differences by empathy. It is not a linear progress, it is the actualization of an emotional interaction which Garton features in I am Otter where he replaces the unilateral concept of teaching by that of adaptation which supposes reciprocity, yet not equality since it relies on experience which helps strike the balance between imagination and its best application at the moment.

Thus, beyond the story he tells his young public - through the unlikely relationship between Otter and Keeper - the author additionally features how he transformed himself while inventing her. Like in the book, she let Garton transform his interests from the narrowness of a “nine-to-five job” to his own personal artistic achievement despite the sleepless nights this meant for him. This personal implication - makes Otter lively and appealing as if she were real - gives her a credibility even for adults. She unconsciously interjects them into her fictive environment, bringing them into her playful adventures.  She lets them follow their creative experience in their own way; reactivating their imagination, which had been forced out by everyday life. Otter’s inventive vitality pesters adult readers to let go as doing so would make them feel much happier. From this, Garton adds a new dimension to his story which creates a beautiful metaphor for the profound mental transformation the birth of a child generates. He represents it as a universal experience which makes the mystery of life symbolically understandable to anyone who is able to develop an empathetic imagination, and therefore, to find its own original expression which provides the infinite imagery of collective Unconscious and its feminine grounding. The author’s great talent reveals in his specific understanding of the well-known female characteristics of fantasy since he goes beyond the idea that artists can feel what it means to give birth through their creations. He stresses that this consciousness is accessible to anyone who is curious enough to explore life and to link its experience with the reactions it provokes in his imagination which reaches deeper into pre-existing affinities. Thus, contrary to some contemporary children’s books, I am Otter doesn’t take part in the debate about the social definition of gender; it demonstrates the power of fantasy which is able to create mental correspondences that are strong enough to transform the conception of life by its own inner means. Undertaking to change men’s psychology by letting them experience that they can give their proper expression to the feminine determination which is at the unconscious beginning of their lives signifies however working according to the sense of evolution to restore its creative dynamism independently from any social improvement. This is a necessity for the human species, which needs to readjust the balance between imagination and the way to live it out through appropriate symbols at any stage of consciousness.  

That’s why Sam Garton’s empathy with his public consisting of children and adults reflects in his dual language the interactions between text and images through which he expresses discretely the transgression of gender as the proper characteristic of fantasy which at this moment of children’s development has no erotic connotation: the written discourse which is associated with masculine symbolic order is reporting Otter’s subjective opinion whilst the illustrations, which are related with the rather feminine power of imagination, help getting a more objective insight of what was actually going on. Their reciprocal humorous interferences regenerate the primitive pleasure of playing as the possibility to enjoy life through seemingly endless transformations. Hence, the author represents fantasy as the vital need to animate what you feel attracted to in order to get into a dialogue with it which will unveil the energy of an unknown part of yourself. He features it as a form of constructive love which enables one to guess affinities while enlarging one’s own emotional experience where the adult he had become reconnects with the representation of his childhood and recognizes that his life is a permanent dialogue with an idealized feeling of difference. This way, Garton underlines that childhood is far from being the idyllic era of mere innocence; it is remembered in sentimental memories. Thus, finding one’s way back to childhood is the contrary of encouraging nostalgia; it is the pleasure to create a fictional world inside reality as its critical humorous replica to question its conventionally admitted superiority. Playfulness becomes a most innocent argument to favor what is good for his evolution, which will eventually change social relationships. It does indeed suggest to question the prevalence of so called realism just because we are used to it and show that it leads to ridiculous distortions generally attributed to fantasy.

To be continued next week....

Exploring Otter's imagination & growth

Part III - Review of Sam Garton's I am Otter by Béatrice Dumiche

Reminder: part II explored the idea of exploring the unconscious through playing and drawing.

The imagination and personal growth of Otter

Moving along into Otter’s imagination and personal growth, the reader discovers - through several illustrations in the book – Otter relies on what had been told to her about herself before she was able to refer to some personal memories. Thus, the major twist, marks the point where her imagination meets what Keeper told her about how she was with the beginning of her consciousness of her own life; she struggles with this concept. She has to make a deduction about the stage she has reached so far and this speculation leaves her feeling alienated and insecure about who she really is.  She can only move forward thanks to the mischievousness of her playful being and the pleasure she has to transform herself. This pleases the child reader while it lightens the adults’ mood. Both are invited not to brood on what they don’t understand, but to simply seize the moment.

That’s why Otter evokes through Keeper’s words that she indeed grew up and he refers to her as she no longer is and like she never knew she was. For Otter, she reflects on Keeper talking about her when she was younger stating “He says back then I was very small. I’m still quite small, so I must have been really tiny. I wish I’d made the most of being that little."  But, Otter still defines only through Keeper, as she views him as the superior authority since he is the only person with whom she has contact.  So, Keeper remains in her mind a sort of mythical god because he knew her from a time she can’t remember. And, because he told her about her past, he has created more of a bond with her while also helping her understand her past self. Thus, he puts her in a situation where she is able to appreciate her own growth as it relates to her past – she is able grow and accept her own  normal evolution because she is able to integrate the experience of having once been different into her self-construction.

Keeper only stimulated her imagination when he told her she was very tiny - he linked her emotionally to her body and its sensations - its affectations so that she could figure out by herself what she looked like through how she is at the moment. So, the drawings do more than illustrate the text, they literally bring to life how Otter experiences her feelings as intimate sensations. The illustrations show the tremendous power of her imagination helping her approximate the transformation of her body as she begins to determine what she could have done when she was tinier. She discovers and enjoys the abilities of her very adaptable body which she is able to scale in comparison to the different household items surrounding her.

Sam Garton’s brilliant artistic talent is revealed in his ability to invoke realistic pictures by simply changing perspectives as his heroine does by growing and expressing how naturally funny it is to switch into another one’s skin and experience their life from their perspective. Garton demonstrates that trusting fancy is pleasant and liberating because it enables one to find expressions for that what exceeds reality yet still corresponds to a reality provided the readers allow it. Thanks to his heroine and the identification she generates, he can combine these two perspectives and emphasize the benefit of imagination.

When Garton draws Otter, first hidden under an oversized pirate hat and then curled up in a tea cup peeking over its brim with a telescope, drawn with a skull emblem as if it was a pirate device. Humorously, Otter had even attached a piece of paper, deeming herself “Otter Pirate”. Garton allows his readers an insight in how imagination works: it crystallizes past and present. The pirate hat, in which Otter found by chance, was the beginning of an invented improbable story where she plays the role of a character she can’t realistically be since she guesses that the hat is far too big for her. Nevertheless, she explores the idea symbolically; imagining how she would have been as a pirate which enables enables her to transform her environment - conceived by and for adults - into her own playground. Spontaneously, her fantasy lets her see common practical items not as if they were there for another purpose, but only as they will play into her imaginary plan.

Simultaneously, Garton shows that the way Otter uses the accessories in her environment is not actually the result of her own invention as it is unlikely that she would realize that the piece of paper would make a mat. Garton stresses that Keeper collaborated and Otter helped since imagination takes shape only through interactivity and connectivity between the intimate personal bond of past and future.  Originality can only be expressed metaphorically within an image that assimilates otherness and alteration in the construction of the self and its conscious development through time and space. Otter needs Keeper to grow into her personality; he gives her the opportunity to be creative while the illustrator [Garton] responds to her expectations, drawing what she would like to do if she could. He draws her a rather complex scene with the fancy pirate ship while at the same allowing the spelling mistakes to exist in the inscription of the sail because it’s how she would think it is correct. Sam Garton’s genius is that he creates an acceptance for this surrealism which sneaks into everyday-life via minute differences which only humor lets guess and appreciate.

The drawings within I am Otter, expressed in the most simple form, create an unconscious continuity to sustain the story and help children feel how liberating drawing can be in response to what is told about them and what they can’t totally understand yet. Identifying with Otter awakens their curiosity about their past and the mysterious circumstances of their birth which can only be satisfied by imagination. That is why Garton is able to emphasize the importance of the tales and myths he employs because they cast bridges to others throughout time and space. He advocates for the children’s book extending the oral tradition of using drawings as a most elementary mental support in the transmission of life’s essentials from generation to generation; symbolized by the relationship between Otter and Keeper.

Children’s literature has evolved into a more sophisticated artistic genre transposing the way to self-consciousness into an open exchange which lets the readers take part in the characters’ interaction. This participation opens their minds as it gives them the opportunity to compare with others and to utter their own feelings constructively in a discussion facilitated by the book. The adult, reading to a child, becomes the mediator who is there to moderate the child’s reactions. Similarly the artist and author, tells the story and hopes that he has awoken a love – within the readers – of reading and drawing; encouraging them that these are stimulating activities that make life happier and richer.

To be continued....

Part II - Review of Sam Garton's "I am Otter" by Béatrice Dumiche

I am Otter, an interactive book

Exploring how the book stimulates the unconscious by playing and drawing

I am Otter is easy to read despite its complexity. In fact, it gives much pleasure at several times as it can be understood at many different age levels. It is destined to last and reveal for many years more hidden and subtle aspects of life, sharpening its critical sense while developing its humor to embrace the inevitable paradoxes in life instead of denying them and then suffering from this denial as an inner conflict.

Sam Garton’s extraordinary drawing talent contributes to this process to a major extent. Garton appeals to the unconscious of his young readers as he is able to illustrate their contradictory feelings and fears into comforting and simple scenes which will not spoil their imagination; like Otter who only begins to write and communicates with Keeper through her drawings which readers have to interpret if they want to understand her. So, the pictures will not lead readers further than they want to go at the moment; they may feel like they are sharing secrets with Otter.

By identification, Otter will be the child readers’ unnamed confidant for whom they will make their own drawings, sharing with her what they feel, yet can’t express verbally. Her blanket-like shape reinforces her attraction for the child reader, appealing to their unconscious need for the maternal protection they lost from the moment of their birth and which they must confront throughout their lifetime. Otter’s example shows readers that uttering what bothers or simply overwhelms them emotionally can be transformed into a pleasant, fantastical experience via a symbolic language which doesn’t require words. The play enables them to surmount unspeakable frustrations of feeling helpless and abandoned by expressing them in a harmless way through games. That’s why both, children and adults, can smile at Otter’s whiskers which look like lightening when she gets angry or at her eyebrows when she frowns because something annoys her. Readers enter Otter’s story at another level where they can relate to it; guessing at her exaggerations through the illustrator’s unspoken language. Otter simply shows that no matter how awkward you might be, you deserve sympathy as long as you try to express yourself. So, children are incited by this experience to use drawings to communicate with adults in a freer way as they create a symbolical space where feelings, fears and frustrations can be uttered without shame.

Originally, Otter appears as a metaphorical figure where author Sam Garton modifies a Biblical image, to represent Otter’s origin; she arrives at Keeper’s doorstep and he adopts her immediately as if she is destined only for him. She had been put there in a box with many tags asking those who handle it as well as the finder to take care of the otter inside. Her origin is clearly mythical and fairylike, freeing the author from any supplemental explanation. He simply alludes to the idea that she may have had an existence before, yet she just isn’t aware of it since, overall, it didn’t matter; her life began when she became conscious of herself in Keeper’s care.

That’s the point where Sam Garton no longer follows the general concept that readers will take their story for granted. He takes into account that children’s consciousness of reality has evolved. Therefore, Garton represents psychological and developmental stages which can’t help but be featured through metaphors. Thus, Otter’s arrival in a box is a concrete picture which describes, in a very simple way, the general human experience of birth. With this example, he shows that everything, even the most complex and obscure experience can be expressed and worked out in a drawing if you give in to your imagination. Your own imagination will find a matching image within your own experience.

Thus, Sam Garton opens the way to a pictorial culture which aims to bring his readers a sense of images which give a communication method beyond childhood as the drawings serve as imagination’s proper medium. They preserve the original emotional ability to create bonds when language fails even though it is necessary to interpret them and give them their own specific meaning. Here, the author’s art is really most brilliant since he shows in the drawings and with his own words how imagination is linked to the awakening of self-consciousness. There is no doubt that Otter’s box has become the place where she stows away her toys and this is the best evidence for her own physical and mental growth. It underlines that she is a real living being who is able to take action on her own as she evolves by playing. She literally got off the box in which she arrived and began exploring her surroundings on her own.  So, she transformed the place, where she had been kept, into her personal accessory - her tool, used for the belongings she actually recognizes as her own.

To be continued....

All photographs and illustrations © Sam Garton

I AM OTTER, by Sam Garton - A Children’s Book, Not only for Children or Otter Lovers

Part I of a in-depth exploration of Sam Garton's I Am Otter story
by Béatrice Dumiche

Otter and the troublesome appeal of idealized childhood

Otter and Keeper, a humoristic couple

I am Otter is far more than a children’s book although it will enchant them, transforming their environment, which they’ll discover from a very new point of view, thanks to an amazing fictional character - Otter - who will reveal a mischievous and clever companion to them. Otter indeed gathers the appealing features of a stuffed animal and a blanket – being total fluffiness without any angularity ‒ and the unpredictable spontaneity of a child’s mind. Like it tries by its games to find its own place in the strange world of adults, whilst they are dedicating to their serious business, Otter attempts to get herself an occupation when (her) Keeper is at work. Introducing this grown-up protagonist who reacts to her fancies, Sam Garton gives his story a twist which makes its originality.  With much humor, he shows, thanks to her and her two major toy-friends, how relative and questionable the compelling rules of adults’ life appear in retrospect from childhood which meant the freedom of just experiencing and improving one’s own faculties to grow up. However, there is no nostalgia in his story which only represents what our pretended common sense and our mental restrictions are likely to become from the moment we adopt another innocent perspective on them: it questions the rigidity of our mind when it gets used to a regular way of life which is mostly determined by the alternation of work -and holidays and doesn’t let much personal independence to even figure out an existence which wouldn’t fit this frame.

Otter’s uneducated, instinctive being shows what happens when you listen to your inner child and remember what a pleasure it is to do things only for fun instead of spending all the time at work to earn your living. So, when she decides to open a toast restaurant to imitate Keeper and have a business to be occupied during his work hours, Sam Garton uses her grotesquely failing experience to build up an alternative humoristic world where you can apparently take fun seriously whilst becoming aware of how ridiculously absurd it might be to follow the standards of a society. Otter reintroduces surprise in Keeper’s life. She troubles his well established, but dull order in life, without being aware of it since she just follows her instinctively playful being, she in fact sways away all his certitudes and expectations.

Thus, even her arrival to Keeper is a surprise:  she lands per chance someday out of nowhere at Keeper’s home in a little box and she is wondering what she is doing there, in these strange surroundings which are far too big for the tiny creature she is. She feels really intimidated by the personality of her human host who is so tall that she can see him in his full length only when he kneels down to her, when he is sitting at the table or lying in his bed. He himself is intrigued by her who is so different from him and whom he can’t get in touch with through his usual rationally understood language. Her arrival is a real personal challenge to him as she seems to have been sent to him by fate: although he doesn’t know why she had come to him, he instinctively guesses that she is there for him and whilst he accepts her at his home without any question, he is guided by his spontaneous attraction to her, postponing any reasonable judgement.

Teddy, the symbol of childhood

To help Otter become accustomed to Keeper himself and have something on her own in his world where she feels like a stranger, he gives her a teddy to be her playmate and also her advocate, or her scapegoat, in her relationship with Keeper. This gift, which stresses that kindness needs no words, seals the deep bond between Otter and Keeper; where it appears that she defines herself only related with him in an almost symbiotic union and considers that he should be exclusively devoted to her. This exclusivity will be at the origin of the trouble which she will bring them both into and which will give the first impulse to their adventures.

However, it would be too simple to reduce Teddy to what Winnicott calls a transitional object which for the child is a concrete substitute of its mother’s body to keep it safe, whilst she stays away, and help it accept its separation from mother. Teddy is indeed more than that: he is a real symbol as he is very significant for Keeper, being sort of a fetish; he lets Keeper get in touch again with unconscious and highly sought memories of his own childhood. Teddy expresses his own secret longings for someone to care for who would reward him for his love; then Otter appears in his life. Her childlike character reminds him not so much what it means to be a child, but how tiring it is to live with one. She might be fictional, however, she eventually leads him back to a more realistic appreciation of what his own childhood must have been and challenges him to integrate her untamed, overflowing vitality in his life and work.

With much thoughtfulness, I am Otter introduces a modern conception of parenthood based on psychology and common sense which corresponds a highly developed and differenced society. It gives an artistic answer to a message of tolerance; it demonstrates that imagination is a gift accessible to anyone; one who accepts for love’s sake to change one’s usual perspective. That’s why empathy and love become the significant and determining aspects of the relationship between Otter and Keeper, who don’t communicate verbally; Teddy becomes the symbol of their unlikely cohabitation which reveals how much feelings can be shown through unconscious projections and body language and therefore need to be adjusted by one’s experience.

Keeper becomes aware that childhood is reachable for him only through empathetic recalling which requires that he adapt his personal memories to Otter’s unusual and unpredictable being causes him to feel a bit helpless. Getting in touch with Otter requires an imaginative effort from Keeper, which is highlighted by the story’s artwork.  When Keeper introduces Teddy, he must kneel down and wave with him to attract her out from behind the armchair, and while he does this, he looks pretty humorous for those who aren’t involved in the story. Even for those who are indulging with the storyline, guess that Keeper’s willingness to adopt Otter’s perspective is a gesture of kindness, setting himself apart from other adults who wouldn’t have done the same. Teddy is his welcome gift and he will help express her feelings towards Keeper which she can’t express directly as he seems out of reach to her, like a god with whom she will never be able to establish immediate contact. Teddy reduces the distance between Otter and Keeper with Otter recognizing immediately the calming effect Teddy has upon her.

Teddy is Keeper’s representative - whom she can voice all the grievances she wants to utter against Keeper and his authority when he leaves her alone to go to work which also hurts her love of him and  her desire to be a grown-up like him. She is also unaware that, while she uses him to vent her frustrations, she already accepts him as a real companion with whom she can share all she couldn’t with Keeper because he is an adult and has no longer the same needs and personal interests. Yet, she only realizes that he is her loyal playmate when he gets lost; she misses him as a real friend whom she loves to stay with when Keeper is away because she can play with him and let her imagination go free without referring to him as an authority. He symbolizes Keeper’s alter ego when he was a child and who still would enjoy spending his time playing with her, whilst he himself has evolved and can only look back to it with sympathy and humor, which gives him the strength to be an adult without any regret. This appears clearly with the concert she gives for him where he looks rather bored and self-ironic whilst Teddy is sitting there quite impassibly as the partner who will be much more able to respond to her exuberant character which he is too old to immediately deal with. With Teddy, she can experience life by testing her skills and exploring her environment without any fear since he will be there to take over the responsibility for any mistake she makes and let her take the credit for any success and, moreover, unlike her, he won’t plan any revenge for anything she might accuse him of. Thus, since Teddy is Otter’s personal toy, but not a person like Keeper, he is able to tolerate her unconscious contradiction between her desire to be secure and simply enjoy the freedom to do whatever she wishes, whenever she wishes it.

So, her relationship with Teddy illustrates in a caricatured way what she projects, both positive and negative, on Keeper who is in the role of the annoying, yet highly praised and idealized parent, whose authority she can’t deny for that may cause her to lose his love and protection. By his mere presence, Teddy teaches Otter that there is the reality she lives, yet another reality in which Keeper lives, which overrules her reality despite his sympathy for her own reality of play and games.

 Teddy’s evolution from a toy to a soul-mate

Teddy helps Otter forge bonds. Although he might just be a toy she imagines she can manipulate as she wishes, he defies his own material resistance: he apparently has no will of his own with which to answer her high expectations, yet this flaw appears to be his strength because he allows her realize that she is not omnipotent, and that she needs a friend for reasons other than to just rule over him. She begins to understand that she has flaws, like when she regrets having reacted with so much anger against him as she never imagined he could have his own will and disappear. She becomes aware that she can’t do without him not because of his docility, but because of his apparent indifference, which forces her to assume the responsibility for the consequences on her relationship with him. So, she begins to develop empathy and to think like a person.

That’s the point when she learns that she determines her own impact on reality by the link she establishes between imagination and sympathy. At the edge of consciousness, she is able to make both levels meet, such that she finally finds him on her own, through an intuition that allows her associate her decision to dismiss him as the manager of her toast restaurant in their game and the rude way she treated him when she threw him, without caring, into the box with all the other toys. She realizes Teddy didn’t leave her because he was angry at her like she was at him, he got lost only because SHE considered him an insignificant thing instead of the symbolic friend he represents to her because he had been given to her by Keeper as his soul-mate. From the moment she admits him as a real friend because of her affectionate link with him, and no longer treats him like any other toy, she also accepts that Keeper leaves every day for work.  She has internalized his symbolic role and is happy with her own world, which she guesses is quite different from those adults live in. Her failure to incorporate that into her job experience also revealed to her that she was not only unprepared for it, but it also let her recognize the worth of friendship as independent and know that it is far more precious than an uncertain social success. So, finally, she stays on the windowsill with Teddy waving to Keeper, who sadly, reluctantly goes to work, bending his head forward as if still half asleep. Unlike him, she can enjoy her life by spending it with games that broaden her mind, becoming aware of herself and what she loves. They help her improve her skills whilst she develops creative answers to the psychological challenges they confront her with, according to her own evolution.

Teddy is the indispensable stimulator of her imagination in a multi-layered story which features mostly types defined by the function they were given in the plot. Neither he nor Keeper, nor even Otter herself, have been endowed with many individual traits.  Those are revealed only through the drawings, which make the personality traits more clear. The only difference with Otter is that they create constancy that is opposed to her changing imagination and spontaneity; there just to react to her and her fancies and to help her get mentally involved.  So, she is the only one of the trio who gains a more sophisticated personality which is unveiled through the story where she transforms into having a dialogue with herself where her “ramblings” are confronted with the substantiality of the illustrations. Sometimes, the account of what happened in Keeper’s absence or her interpretation of his reactions and his instructions actually match, yet only the readers get the whole insight of the situation, since they are “eye-witnesses” of the events she relates “innocently” from her subjective point of view which differs a lot from what the readers “objectively” see in the drawings. Her personal interpretation is therefore never disqualified, no matter how unbelievable it might be, it is simply realized to be Otter’s own perception which is changed by her total emotional implication in her story. Her version is questioned by the drawings, but she is never viewed as a “fibber” although it is obvious she takes advantage of embellishing her tale. In fact, her example lets those who are prone to judge her become aware that she has a naiveté and innocence – daring to speak freely as many readers would like to, yet don’t, because they fear being ridiculed.

Paradoxically – and this is the touch of humor which makes Otter’s selfishness so cute and appealing, for either an adult or a child – Otter appears to be the most sincere creature ever to have transgressed the social codes as well as the narrative logic and conventions. She incarnates the dream of an innocent being with no other reason to be than to generate fun by thinking outside the box and is then confronted to rules which appear meaningless to her as they do for any child growing up into the adult world and thereby, acquiring socialization, which often also means adaptation to rules for which they don’t necessarily agree. That’s also why she is without any doubt the main character: her fictional being meets child and adult perspectives, both projecting their secret desires and expectations on her. The child must recognize that innocence is not an excuse for being rude to others and the adult must acknowledge that he himself would like to sometimes break social rules, but understands the need to be empathetic and at times indulgent towards others. Otter will initiate a dialogue based on the sympathy she brings forth in both children and adults which leads to an interaction beyond the book itself. From the beginning – even before Sam Garton published his first book ‒ he created Otter as an interactive character who communicated with her readers by commenting on her “ramblings”. You can find these pre-book publications on the website: www.iamotter.co.uk where can even play with Otter. There is especially a hilarious game called Dress Otter where she will comment on choices that she finds silly and inadequate.

To be continued....

The otter is a cunning and evil beast: Nemo and his fellows, now and in the past

Respectfully reviewed & submitted to Otter News by Béatrice Dumiche

That is the title of a unique exhibition taking place from October 30, 2015 thru March 6, 2016 at the Fabry Museum in Hilden near Düsseldorf, Germany. The exhibit is organized by Wolfgang Gettmann, former director of the Aquazoo and member of the IUCN Otter specialist group, and last but not least Nemo’s caregiver and otterly friend.

For ten years now, the cheeky Asian Short-clawed otter, Nemo, has spread all of his charming cuteness and natural cheerfulness to advocate, in numerous meetings and TV programs, against the prejudices his fellows are still the victims of. 

Although otters have been protected since the late seventies of the 20th Century, they had been nearly eradicated before, less due to the superstitions they were associated with in ancient times than for economic reasons like many predators: they were considered a threat to fishery as otter pelts created wealth for their hunters. They were indeed most appreciated because of the density of their fur to be transformed into blankets and coats before they became a sign of prosperity, worn by royalties and noblemen, and, eventually later in the 20th century, an outstanding fashion accessory.

So, despite the recovery of the European otter - now returning to many of its former territories - defending the cause of otters, is still necessary since at least 6 species around the world remain endangered. Moreover, their vulnerability in our highly industrialised and globalised contemporary society reveals new challenges for their protection such as water pollution, an increase in road casualties and primarily a loss of their habitat.

That’s why Nemo, who has gained worldwide popularity, being the IOSF ambassador of the 13 acknowledged otter species, introduces the exhibit from an original perspective. Each species is featured with items informing about their anatomical characteristics via dermoplastics - a taxidermic technique - skeletons or skulls, and their environment. Yet the great originality of the exhibit, which mostly come from Wolfgang Gettmann’s private collection, is that it relates these physiological data with the cultural representation of otters in the different civilizations where they occur.  A portion of the exhibit illustrates the current hunting practices and the way the animal was perceived in the past beginning in the Middle Ages when it was treated as a fish and thereby could be eaten during the Lenten fast. So, the visitor will find oddities like cooking recipes and lots of works showing otters in the fine and applied arts giving an overview of their imagery throughout history.

Yet, the emphasis lies on the educational effort which has been undertaken by several countries and associations to gain the approval by local people for the otters’ protection. Stamp and coin collections play an important role within the display and one will be surprised by the quantity of otter stamps issued throughout the world, bringing attention to their vulnerability. Most of the stamps and coins rely on popular arts showing that an educational purpose needs to be rooted in a tradition which awakens an early interest in otter conservation.

Hence, a range of stuffed toys and children’s books round out the exhibition and let it close with some hope.  The collection itself reveals that this shy and elusive animal is more present than expected in human imaginary and thus points to a more favorable future where otter trophies and fur coats will be replaced by a different variety of fashion - t-shirts, caps and badges – to gain the support of the larger public.

Together with the Wilhelm Fabry Museum, Wolfgang Gettmann has organized a cycle of conferences which underline the connection between natural and cultural sciences and the necessity to create synergies between local and global perspectives in order to make otter conservation a sustaining success.

Details on the special conferences:

(all times listed are in Central European Time - CET)

November 8th 2015, 11:00 am (CET)
You otter know! … Pictures of an otter world

Conference by Wolfgang W. Gettmann, Former director of the Aquazoo Düsseldorf, Member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group

November 26th 2015, 7:30 pm (CET) 
All animals are equal – but some more than “otters”

George Orwells famous satire Animal Farm performed by an actor and an accordionist, 13th literary concert in Hilden with Peter Welk and Lutz Stenger

January 14th 2016, 7:30 pm (CET)
Otters in the fine arts

Conference by Sandra Abend, doctorate holder & director of the Kinderartothek within the Wilhelm Fabry Museum. Abend also provides lectures in fine arts at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

February 11th 2016, 7:30 pm (CET)
The otter is back in North-Rhine-Westphalia - What tracks and genetic fingerprints actually tell us                                                                                                                                                     
Conference by Jan Ole Kriegs LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Westfälisches Landesmuseum mit Planetarium Münster

February 25th 2016, 7:30 pm (CET)  

On otters, giant sharks and the Isle of Sky: on the tracks of Gavin Maxwell, the lonely “citizen of the world”
                                                                                                                                      
Conference by Wolfgang W. Gettmann, Former director of the Aquazoo Düsseldorf, Member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group.

These conferences are held in German. An English summary might be delivered on prior request.

The Museum is located Benrather Strasse 32a in Hilden and is easy to reach from Düsseldorf by bus with the lines 783, 784, 785 and 03 (Stop: Fritz-Gressard-Platz/Wilhelm-Fabry-Museum) as well as with the S-Bahn 1.

Entrance fees: 3 euro (reduced 1, 50)

Hours:
Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday: 3pm to 5pm
Saturday: 2pm to 5pm
Sunday and Holidays: 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm

The museum is closed on December 24th, 25th and 31st and on January 1st.

For further questions and if you require a private or a group visit please contact:
Wilhelm-Fabry-Museum via info@wilhelm-fabry-museum.de

All photographs courtesy of the Dr. Wolfgang Gettmann collection & exhibit promotional materials.