The Duck-Billed Reader by Claire Laporte features weekly essays on literature (mostly Victorian), occasionally dipping into art or philosophy.
I recently walked away from a 30-year career as a lawyer. I was the Head of Intellectual Property at a biotechnology company, and before that, I was a trial lawyer in private practice focusing on patent and trade secret cases. I also spoke widely on the role of intellectual property, industrial policy, and AI, including, most recently, before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. I litigated many pro bono cases relating to domestic violence, marriage equality, and service by transgender people in the military.
But while I was doing all that, I was also reading Victorian literature of all kinds and participating in book groups. Recently I became the president of The Trollope Society USA, a non-profit society dedicated to the works of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, one of my favorite writers. I plan to spend the next phase of my life on literature.
Unlike most Substack writers, I have no plan to ask for paid subscribers. But I will feel that my efforts have been rewarded if you join The Trollope Society USA here.
A note about the logo I’ve used for this Substack:
The image I’ve used is a detail from the left-hand panel (reproduced in part below) of Hieronymus Bosch’s great painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych at the Prado museum in Madrid. I’ll write something more substantive about this painting at some point. For the moment, I’ll note that the panel from which the logo image is taken is devoted to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It depicts an idyllic scene, yet there are signs of trouble to come:
Specifically, the initial meeting between Adam and Eve occurs right next to a dank pool crawling with squabbling creatures that seem anything but paradisiacal. The duck-billed reader floating serenely in the pool (bottom right-hand corner in the above image) is the strangest figure of all. What reading material exists in the Garden of Eden? Who is this duck-billed creature, and why is it reading? Is it a symbol of the forbidden knowledge the First Couple will soon acquire at the cost of their comfortable home?
Here’s a larger view of the duck-billed reader:
Whatever it means, this creature’s desire to read even when world-historical events are occurring immediately next to it reminds me of my own childhood refusal to look up from my book when my family was driving through the mountains. So I have used the duck-billed reader (with background lightened up) as my logo.
Thanks for reading!
-Claire Laporte (LinkedIn page)
