Sergio Andreu |
Barcelona (EFE) a human”, a fun manual illustrated by Laura Agustí, also a lover of felines.
“How to tame a human” is a small editorial phenomenon, “hot book” at the last Frankfurt Fair, in the words of the editor of Lumen Lola Martínez de Albornoz, who took over the rights in Spanish, as well as eleven publishers more than many other countries.
Editorials hypnotized by the irony and humor of the advice that an intelligent and vicious kitty offers his fellow creatures to make the “primates” who welcome them in their “burrows” comply with their whims and assume, without question, their uncomfortable and constant rudeness , a vision that disrupts the canonical concept of the relationship between “companion animal and owner”.
“One of the reasons for the success of the book is, without a doubt, that there are many people who love cats; another reason is the focus, the point of view that it gives of the human species, a reflection through the eyes of a cat, in which many will see themselves reflected”, this smiling Italian writer explains to EFE, capable of infecting with her way to express your love for these animals.
“They are beautiful, loving and give a lot of affection, although those who don’t know them don’t know it, because there are many prejudices about them. They bring tenderness to our lives, but above all, there is their relationship with the wild. Within our domesticated world, a cat is a little tiger, a wild animal that chooses to love us. And that is something we need”, argues the author.
Illustrations by Laura Agusti
The Spanish edition has the “extra premium” illustrations by Laura Agustí, a very wise choice.
The Barcelonan, true master of ink, is the author of several books on these creatures, her first work “Cats in the head” or the latest “Historia de un gato”, a title behind which hides an autobiographical tale of adolescence in a small town of Teruel.
“It’s just that it’s what I like to draw the most, I’m very catlike and after all these books -now she’s illustrating another one- it’s clear that I’ve loved them since I was little”, she points out about an almost obsession from which she has taken professional advantage.
The narrator devised by Babas gives advice to other cats not so much to manipulate humans, but to train them based on “tricks” with which to gain their trust and increase their self-esteem (that of the supposed master, not that of the feline, who will left over): purrs, yawns, “purrs” between the legs, kneading bellies, meows or what he calls the “Olympiad of madness”, those exhibitions of racing at full speed around the house, climbing to the most unlikely points.
Anything, even “telepathy” through the gaze, to catch the attention of the human, “the most harmful and dangerous species in the world” – details the wise cat – uselessly “obsessed with the little things” it possesses, but capable of create “inexplicable phenomena such as fire, light or canned tuna”.
For this reason, he recommends choosing the human “with the weakest will as a provider of food”, the one that each cat likes the most “as a provider of love”; thus, he concludes, the ideal primate would be “a female”, if possible “without young”. White and bottled.
Independent character of cats
Capponi knows that despite the humor he brings to his work, not everyone sees it in the same way, that there are many who consider the cat an unpredictable and territorial animal, with a difficult character – “like many people, right?” even aggressive and compared “without much sense” with the dog, the other domestic “companion” and, in general, a more submissive and hierarchical entity.
“We tame dogs, cats tame us. They are almost like an alien, keeping their distance, when they want… ”, points out the Milanese writer, who has had many cats throughout her life, the latest Leopoldino and Capitán Fracassa.
An independent character that Babas, a former publicist for large campaigns and also the creator of small altarpieces of pop culture figurines, sums up in an anecdote from her youth.
A full blown betrayal, when his mother found Luigino, the family pussycat, at a neighbor’s house, where he had been leading a double life for a long time, with another name and other owners, and when he saw her enter the door he didn’t even he flinched from the throne on which he sat: just a look of disdain.
For the illustrator Laura Agustí, who recognizes that she does not know how to live without animals, the cat has shown that it is a constant source of inspiration due to its daily behavior and a “highly mediatic” species, as demonstrated by “the thousands of followers who have the videos of ” kittens” on social media.
“I have two cats that I took as adults in a shelter and they have me at their mercy. They give me a lot of mental relief every time I’m stressed at home working, and when I do my technical stop it’s to cuddle them, I’m with them all the time, and in the end you end up nourishing yourself from the things they do”, comments the unarmed cartoonist in front of the influence of their “owners-pets”.