Friday, July 04, 2008

IF - Sour


Lemon Tea painted digitally in Corel Painter IX.5

I've been re-reading the Morse books by Colin Dexter. Its really odd how on this second time through I keep on noticing all the middle-aged male ego stroking; Morse is a middle-aged, paunchy, morose, sour, crotchety, pedantic bachelor. He is obsessed by pornography, cigarettes and alcohol. He is only able to think with a drink; his lunches are typically liquid. His intellectual superpower is being able to do the Times crossword in 10 minutes and spot a spelling or grammatical mistake in any piece of writing.

The Morse of the books is far less refined than the Morse of the TV series, yet throughout the stories all the women need only see him once, speak to him on the phone or even hear about him to become besotted! At the very least they spend far too much time thinking about him... and at the worst they run around doing time-consuming errands for him in the hopes of pleasing him. No-one ever reacts to how he must smell with all that drinking, smoking and lack of exercise...

It is also interesting to see how the early Morse changes in the later books to become a lot more like the Morse of the TV series... the battered Lancia is suddenly no longer mentioned and he's driving an eye-catching Jaguar; his whisky is no longer Bell's but malt or Glenfiddich and he becomes worse at buying rounds. His interest in music becomes more pronounced too.

But for me its the constant attraction that even the really young women, all of them, find for Morse, and some of the other older men, that is the least believable aspect of the written stories. Its a superpower too far. Luckily the TV Morse is a lot more presentable, though still not my cup of tea.

For more Sour illustrations see this week's Illustration Friday.

13 comments:

studio lolo said...

wonderful setting! I love the lemon's reflections in the fluted dish, and the cup has a wonderful design.

andrea said...

I love how you've tied the artwork and your current reading to the IF theme. Brilliant my dear!

merlinprincesse said...

I really love this illustration, Caroline! Really!!!! Yup.

Tony LaRocca said...

mmm... I think I'm going to have some tea right now!

Caroline said...

Studio Lolo - you are too kind

Andrea - glad you appreciated the linking

MP - I thought I'd overdone it a bit... but then I'm practising overdoing things a bit at the moment!

Tony - you are a wise man ;-)

parisa mahmoudi said...

So so nice!!!

Roberta said...

This is really lovely!

valerie walsh said...

you did a beautiful job on this! i heart Morse :)

Caroline said...

Parisa mahmoudi - thank you!

Roberta - glad you like it.

Valgalart - which Morse do you prefer? The TV Morse is much the most attractive in my view.

Anonymous said...

Bingo! You've got the ghastly Morse down to a T. I only saw one episode, but he struck me as a cantankerous old sod.And I wasn't happy with the plot line. All of which probably sets me in the sour frame!
Lovely tea cup in this painting.

Anonymous said...

HAHHAAA, I liked the Morse series on television but he sounds a lot more vulgar in the books! We always choose UK television to American, so he's a lot better than a lot on other stations! I like your collage Caroline :)

Anonymous said...

I'm not familiar with Morse, but he does sound a bit sour!I like your lemon tea, and the labyrinth-like lines moving around it - it looks a-Mazing!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Yes, I noticed that link between the art and what you've written. I don't know about other women but Morse definitely does not sound like my cuppa tea.