Elizabeth Minkel (original) (raw)

• fansplaining:

  🐑🐏🐑 Our latest piece is live! 🐑🐏🐑 @morgan-leigh dives into the world of Three Bags Full, a beloved mystery novel by German author Leonie Swann in which a flock of sheep try to solve the murder of their shepherd—narrated, of course, from the perspective of the sheep. The movie version, which is out this week, is titled The Sheep Detectives.

  This book—which Morgan describes as “magic in a bottle"—has developed a cult following over the past two decades. But why?

  Reading Three Bags Full had fully persuaded me of its genius, but its popularity remained a mystery. How had a decades-old book about sheep solving a murder become such a phenomenon? To solve this mystery, I set out to do some detective work of my own. I retraced my steps, picking up the trail of Three Bags Full devotees first back to the Bluesky book club, where I got insights from Cait and “the Mayor of Bluesky,” Joshua J. Friedman. Then I sought out historical context and expertise from crime fiction aficionado Sarah Weinman and books podcaster Christopher Hermelin. I swung by my friend’s German husband, Simon, to get a sense of what reading the book had been like when it was first published all those years ago. And finally, I got to the heart of the matter: I spoke to Leonie Swann herself.

  [ed note: @elizabethminkel started reading the book to edit the piece and Morgan is right, it is SO GOOD.]

  Click through to read the full piece or listen to an audio version! 🐏
  Look, I wrote the editor’s note here haha, but I will REITERATE: this book is so good!! It’s partly because, as Morgan writes in the piece, it takes the perspectives of sheep so seriously. They’re really fascinating POV characters because they conceive of the world so differently.
  I also will say: this piece is so good!! It’s exactly the kind of smart book writing that I wanted to publish when I thought about what an expanded Fansplaining could look like. Part reporting on fans/readers/community, part literary criticism. I’m hopeful we’ll get to publish many more pieces like this one in the future, from Morgan and from other writers, too.
  (If you want to help us do that, please consider subscribing! We currently have way more great pitches than we can afford to commission. It’s 7amonthor7 a month or 7amonthor70 a year for our basic tier. )
  🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑

• fansplaining:

  ALT

  We’re just putting the finishing touches on tomorrow’s piece—here’s a hint. 😉

• 
  huariqueje:

  Andromeda - Irina Cumberland

  Ukrainian, b. 1975 -

  Oil on wood panel , 48 x 48 in.

• 
  joeinct:

  Three Marines, Oceanside, California, Photo by Greg Girard, 1978
  (via joeinct)

• 
• 
  unsubconscious:

  Ethel Greene, “The World’s Greatest Parking Lot,” oil on canvas, 1969

• huariqueje:

  

  Calm Sea at Crovie - Anne Skinner , 2024.

  Scottish , b. 1955 -

  Acrylic on board , 7 x 7 in .

• fansplaining:

  ALT

  The core of her project was, therefore, the sheep rather than the murder, though the book couldn’t exist without both. “Taking them seriously as sheep was really important,” she told me, as was not imposing human morals onto their perspective. “It was quite important to me that they don’t have [our] moral background to work with. They have values, but they’re not moral values; they’re more like practical values. I find that refreshing, because it takes away a lot of things we take for granted, and it helps me to look at things the way they are or the way they would appear to somebody who doesn’t come with all that moral baggage.” Though, of course, she does recognize that a truly realistic novel about the consciousnesses of sheep would be “grass and nothing else.” Fiction writers are allowed some creative embellishment.

  In our latest, @morgan-leigh interviewed Leonie Swann, the author of Three Bags Full (originally published in German as Glennkill), aka the source for the film The Sheep Detectives. If you enjoyed the movie this weekend, read (or listen to) this piece—and then read the book! 🐑

  “**Three Bags Full’s Faithful Flock: How a German novel about Irish sheep (detectives) inspired a legion of devotees around the world**.”

• federer7:

  

  Chess players, Washington Square, New York City, late 1950s

  Photo: Molly Malone Cook

• huariqueje:

  

  Bowl with Red Fruits - Annabelle Six , 2014. *

  Dutch , b. 1949 -

  Oil on panel , 40 x 50 cm.

  *correction

• huariqueje:

  

  Setting Sun - Joseph Keiffer , 2020.

  American , b. 1952 -

  Oil on canvas , 25 ¾ x 29 7/8 in. framed.

• 
  huariqueje:

  Miss in the green - Ingrid Smuling, 2015.

  Dutch, b. 1944 -

  Oil on panel , 13 x 13 cm.