Bestiary

Product Information

Twirling my finger inside the hole above my ass, I decided that it must be the beginning of a fault-line, a seismic shift of my spine. The bestiary was also translated from Latin in other languages, notably French, further extending its popular reach. While the Taiwanese cultural elements were accurate and refreshing, unfortunately some aspects of this book didn't work for me. Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals. The narration switches between the Mother and the Daughters' perspectives, interspersed with letters from the Grandmother.

It presented real and legendary creatures as living allegories, with their physical and behavioral characteristics symbolizing central aspects of the Christian faith. I usually enjoy when the reality blends with imaginary, however the magical realism in this case wasn't favorable for me to follow the storyline and it felt disjointed at times.

For example, in one bestiary the eagle is depicted in an illustration and is said to be the “king of birds. The whole book is written with wordplay—wordplays between Mandarin and English, in-between English, in-between Mandarin, beyond languages and tongues, and based on Tayal folklore and the cycle of life and death, of consumption and creation.

The beasts and their tales became so familiar that they often escaped from the pages to inhabit an array of works of art, ranging from ivories and metalwork to stained glass and tapestries. I initially read BESTIARY in ebook format and it didn't help with my reading experience - this format compromised the letters structure and footnotes. Mapped species included legendary people believed to live beyond the bound of Europe, which fascinated medieval audiences.This fidelity to a particular set of images is relatively rare, setting the illuminating practice in the bestiary tradition apart from other manuscript genres in Europe during the Middle Ages.