"The Lemming with the Locket"

Okay, I don't like having the Christmas thing just sitting there at the top of the page indefinitely, so here's this.  Oh yeah, happy 2019 and stuff.  Well, here's this in any case, but let's say here's this because of that.

ONE HALF OF HIS ENTIRE FORTUNE! GOOD LORD! I feel like there ought to be, I don't know, repercussions from this. Like, it seems like a big flippin' deal. I know you have to just sort of let it wash over you, but WOW. Somehow, it never really struck me when reading this story, but HALF HIS FORTUNE. For a set-up you'll never see again after this story! Bad investment, Scroogie! Or such is my opinion.

I think I talked about this a little re the Ducktales episode based on this story, but it does seem kind of hilariously narcissistic of him to have a statue of himself here. Still, when you think about it, you have to ask yourself: okay, but what else could it be a statue of? Yes, in the cartoon it's Goldie, which Rosa himself would also have done, but obviously it can't be that in a Barks story, nor any other kind of call-back. So...what are you left with? I guess it could be some sort of McDuck ancestor or whatnot (whom Rosa would later have immortalized), or maybe a bit of civic pride with Cornelius Coot, but beyond that, I dunno, man. It seems like it really IS pretty slim pickings. Incidentally, look how this statue was colored in Disney's republication:

I mean...I suppose there's nothing wrong, in theory, with the statue being colored, but it looks awfully weird to me, like some kind of action figure. And why is it wearing a blue hat? Where does that come from?

The fact that Donald and HDL like this imported cheese is really just a mechanism to drive the plot along, and yet it's also delightful in itself. Do you usually picture them as being, like, gourmands? Probably not, but here we are. There's also just something about that old-fashioned-sounding "we like so well." Good stuff.

Seems a little eccentric for them to just dump a rodent on Scrooge's desk, but I guess it makes sense, at least in theory. I also like that Scrooge doesn't actually have an answer beyond freaking out.  Sure, he can be depicted differently in different stories by different writers and there's nothing wrong with that, but I find an omnicompetent Scrooge kinda boring.

One thing that always dissatisfies me a little about this story: that title. "The Lemming with the Locket." It is a good title. I approve. AND YET, we don't actually find out that it's a lemming we're dealing with until halfway through, or we wouldn't if the title didn't give it away. It just seems like it oughtn't to be thus. I don't know what solution there could be, though.

It's not anything all that amazing as set-ups go; anyone could do it, or something like it. But somehow--and this is one of those things where it's hard to articulate what it is--it's better when Barks does it. It may be silly, but it still feels weighty and consequential, somehow.

And now, to think way too hard about this. I mean, okay, fishing schooners go everywhere. Fine. But you gotta wonder about that "Tokyo or Casablanca." Okay, so take it as a given that Duckburg is on the west coast. Japan would be a straight, if long, shot. Morocco, not so much. There are a bunch of big ol' land masses in the way. And how does he know where to go? Is it just, AH HA, FISH! Let's follow them! And sometimes they lead to relatively straightforward destinations, and sometimes they require brutally complicated, epic sea voyages to get there? And what do these destinations even mean? Do the fish they find, like, lead them to breeding grounds, that may be in the north Pacific and may be in the midAtlantic there's no way to tell? I mean okay, maybe they're in communication by radio, so it's not a matter of finding fish, just of learning where they are and going there. But still. Seems like a logistical nightmare to me.

Okay, obviously I'm skipping ahead. You know this story; you don't need me to cover it beat for beat. So now we're in Norway! Good for us. And, indifferent coloring notwithstanding, that is some NICE scenery. Gives Rota a run for his money, no question.

It's silly, but I like this, and I like Scrooge's reaction to it. That is all.

You really expect a "rat"--or any animal--to just scurry into the middle of buncha dudes with nets? I think this scheme needs rethinking, and I must take exception to the notion that it's in any way "smart."

...Carl. You know I love you, but here's a hard truth: your Nordic children are terrifying. They look like dolls that have come to life to murder you in your sleep. Crikey.

Nice. Reminds me of the part in Horton Hears a Who where the fascist vulture drops the flower in the giant flower field.

The question of where this idea of suicidal lemmings came from is an interesting one. This story was released years before the award-winning Disney documentary in which they slaughtered thousands of them to trick their audience, and GOOD GOD what kind of sociopaths WERE these people? The mind boggles. But anyway, I think people have always had weird ideas about them, and this is an excuse to quote one of my favorite things ever, from the Wikipedia article:

In the 1530s, geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg proposed the theory that the creatures fell out of the sky during stormy weather and then died suddenly when the grass grew in spring. This description was contradicted by natural historian Ole Worm, who accepted that lemmings could fall out of the sky, but claimed that they had been brought over by the wind rather than created by spontaneous generation.

Science back in the day was hella weird.

I dig the kids' sticktoitiveness in the face of Scrooge's whining. I know it's totally unfair and uncalled-for and probably nonsensical to make this comparison, but I wish Rosa's Scrooge had sometimes acted like this.

I like how, in spite of the fact that this is kinda gruesome when you think about it, the story sorta skims over that with "none ever goes back to the mountains," the reasons for this remaining unexplained. I also really like the ducks' defiance and its total futility.

Bye! Welp, that's that. I just like this picture. Anyway, Scrooge is poor now, so I guess we're done here.

Well, maybe not. Gotta say, "there's only ONE lemming smart enough..." is a pretty massive logical leap. How do YOU know? What's your sample size? Maybe ALL lemmings are that smart, djaever think of that? Hmm.

I dunno, you can't complain too much, given how much you're supposed to love that cheese. But was Scrooge paying them thirty cents an hour here? I certainly hope they weren't working for free, entertaining as it may have been. I actually think this is one of Barks' better endings. Whereas the ending to this blog entry is...not my best work.