References To "Real World" Culture
The book contains several clever references to our world in the things that Fooley brings back from his balloon ride.
- The names of the periods are derived from common abbreviations (Ltd. means limited, Co. means county, Bros. means brothers, etc. (that's one too))
- Paintings are family trees and family trees are paintings. This is because Fooley brought back a painting of a tree in front of a house and when the villagers matched the list written in Fooley's book with the things he had brought back they thought it was a family tree and they called the family tree a painting because it was the last thing left.
- Fooley also brings back the poem Mary Had a Little Lamb and it is the prevailing opinion that something that doesn't follow its rhyme scheme and meter is not a poem but a scribble.
Read more about this topic: The Gammage Cup
Famous quotes containing the words real, world and/or culture:
“Books are for the most part willfully and hastily written, as parts of a system to supply a want real or imagined.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Our pleasance here is all vain glory,
This false world is but transitory;
The flesh is bruckle, the Fiend is slee:—
Timor Mortis conturbat me.”
—William Dunbar (c. 1465–c. 1530)
“The first time many women hold their tiny babies, they are apt to feel as clumsy and incompetent as any man. The difference is that our culture tells them they’re not supposed to feel that way. Our culture assumes that they will quickly learn how to be a mother, and that assumption rubs off on most women—so they learn.”
—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)