Official Field Guide to Shoosty Bugs
If comedy is the most difficult to write, then whimsy is the most difficult of com - edy writing. Like the exquisite care with which Shoosty Bugs are represented, the fact that the subject is light gives no lee - way from the precision with which they must be represented. The concept of creating a gallery of fan - tastic insects is in the tradition of art that insists on the participation of the viewer. Both the artist and the viewer know that the bug in question does not exist in the real world. Except that it does exist in the mind of the artist and of the viewer where it stimulates that most potent human attri - bute — imagination. In a fantasy, the key is not merely to write descriptive copy but to capture the whimsical mood of the art and to sustain the illusion that the world they create is real. The poet Marianne Moore once said, “Poets create imaginary gardens in which we find real frogs.” That’s what we are do - ing here.
Fantasy is illusion. And illusion always has an aspect of reality to it that anchors the viewer/reader — something familiar to ease the way to the strange. In a non-fiction book of insects, we might find accompanying text that describes the context within which the insects appear in various circumstances and cultures. Shoosty Bugs borrows the style of such text (the familiar) to present a strange, but somehow plausible scenario. With Edward Lear on one shoulder and Lewis Carroll on the other, we dove fear - lessly into the deep.
Jim Boring, Editor
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