The title of a Sara Lautman cartoon in the New Yorker issue of 10/27/23:
(#1) The instrument emerges from the primordial ooze, climbs onto land, and ascends, eventually to stand upright at the pinnacle of evolution
Two things here: the musical instrument; and the cartoonist.
The upright bass. From Wikipedia:
(#2) Master bassist Ron Carter pictured playing with his quartet at the Altes Pfandhaus in Cologne (photo from Wikipedia)The double bass, also known simply as the bass, amongst other names, is the largest and, therefore, lowest-pitched chordophone in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar in structure to the cello, it has four, although occasionally five, strings.
The bass is a standard member of the orchestra’s string section, along with violins, viola, and cello, as well as the concert band, and is featured in concertos, solo, and chamber music in Western classical music. The bass is used in a range of other genres
… In jazz, blues, rockabilly and other genres outside of classical music, this instrument is commonly called the upright bass, standup bass or acoustic bass to distinguish it from the (usually electric) bass guitar.
Sara Lautman. There’s a Page on this blog about my postings on Sara Lautman’s cartoons. Now from the About page on her website:
Sara Lautman is an illustrator, cartoonist, and teacher in Baltimore, MD. Her drawings have been published by The New York Times, Playboy, Mad, The Paris Review, Tablet, The Awl, Catapult, and other publications. She is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, where her cartoons have appeared since 2016.
Her published books and mini comics are Lying & Cursing, The Ultimate Laugh (Tinto Press), Ghost Sex, Pictures of Bananas and Funny Bugs (Birdcage Bottom), I Love You (Retrofit), The Humble Simple Thing (a collaboration with the novelist Sheila Heti), Red Clover (Atomic Books), and Types: A Consideration of Queer Elderhoods (Pressing Concern).
She is the illustrator of Emily Danforth’s Plain, Bad Heroines (Harper Collins), a national bestseller, winner of a 2021 ALA Alex award and shortlisted as a Stonewall Honor Book. Her graphic novel, called Jason, is currently being serialized on slaut.itch.io.
Sara teaches comics at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
She is also a member of the queer art collective Smutt Mart.
November 25, 2023 at 5:01 pm |
She should do her cartoon over again, this time with an upright centrarchid fish rather than an upright bowed chordophone.
November 25, 2023 at 9:25 pm |
I was trying to decide if the fish in the water represents, for example, a largemouth bass.
December 2, 2023 at 11:29 am |
Perhaps the next step is the walking base?