This week I've been watching One Hundred Years of Solitude; in a recent episode a character was described as a "fellmonger," so I had to look it up.
A fellmonger was a dealer in hides or skins, particularly sheepskins, who might also prepare skins for tanning. The name is derived from the Old English ‘fell’ meaning skins and ‘monger’ meaning dealer. Fellmongery is one of the oldest professions in the world and since ancient times, humans have used the skins of animals to clothe themselves, and for making domestic articles.
Those interested in exploring the subject matter more fully (including details of the technique and equipment) can tackle this (very)longread in the internet archive Wayback Machine.
The phrase "require but very little labor" (or one like it) appears so often in older books, like the the book linked in your Wayback link. Who were they kidding? :-)
ReplyDelete"very little labor" is relative as many of the books describing industrial stuff are about labor saving changes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the leather thing is deep but interesting.
Muspratt’s Chemistry, Theoretical, Practical & Analytical (ca. 1859)
After 5 sections on peripherals there’s 6-Preparation of hides 5267 words, 7-Tanning 5924 words, 8-Finishing Processes 3351 words, 9-Fancy and Specialty Leathers 8848 words.
xoxoxoBruce
Just finished One Hundred Years. I appreciate how Netflix can make shows based on novels, feel like novels. Despite the title, I wasn't prepared for the darkness. Bonus emotional hit: the build-up to the war felt a little too 2024 (or scarily 2025). Much more about it I could say, mixed emotions, ultimately.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I watched it because it was very well acted and filmed, but all-in-all it's basically the story of one family through multiple generations, like a Forsyte Saga or the Dallas TV series. What made the book great was the language of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which can only partially be captured in film.
Delete"Basically the story of one family" rung in my brain was I am rewatching Arrested Development, which opens with Ron Howard voice over "Now the story about a wealthy family that lost everything". And the episode I just watched had Buster alarmed "Am I a monster", which resonated with the ending of One Hundred Years in a weird way. I think it would be interesting to further compare the two shows, but not now.
ReplyDelete