Edith Wharton Meets Fitzcarraldo: A Year of Change, But No Change of Heart

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88 – August, 2021

By Sarah Montague

In the 1890s, a Peruvian rubber baron arranged for the transport of an entire ship across an isthmus. In Werner Herzog’s 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, a reimagining of the story, a mad Irishman decides to build an opera house in the middle of the Amazon.

I’ve been thinking about Fitzcarraldo a lot since June, after witnessing the Westminster Kennel Club’s similarly monumental feat—that of moving an historic—and entirely urban—dog show into the midst of the country.

Well, that happened

In January of 2020, the Co-Vid 19 pandemic rolled over us all, and we’ve talked extensively in these pages about how bravely and imaginatively the fancy measured up to the challenge.

But clearly the Westminster show was going to feel like the ultimate test, just as it often does for the showing community. And, we can judge it by the same standards. Newcomers to Best In Show judging tend to pose the same question: how does the judge compare such different types of dogs to one another? And the answer (BIS 101) is, of course, they don’t. They compare each dog to its own standard.

So by that measure, we’re judging how well the Club did this year in comparison to the only standard they have: their own. Result? If there were a trophy, they would have earned it.

New and Old and New

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88 – August, 2021

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