Cottagecore Cat

Amidst the madness, the cat prevails

Created on Midjourney

Lilibet loved cottagecore as much as the next person. All right, maybe a smidge more than that. She had started with cute gnomes for the garden, then gone on to add a cornflower duvet with matching pillowcases and curtain in her bedroom.

She decided to start writing letters again, instead of emailing and even bought a wax seal stamp kit to seal the envelopes. Next, she took up calligraphy and made a macrame hanging shelf for her plants.

That’s when things got a little crazy. A friend saw the shelf and asked her to make one for him. A small home business grew from this simple request, followed by an Etsy shop that grew to a multimillion-dollar business.

Throughout all of this, Stripes, her long-suffering cat, had sat on the sidelines and watched. Finally, having had enough, he began to take over, one item at a time. He expropriated her embroidered pillows, hoarding them in a corner. Knick knacks would disappear, only to turn up under the sofa or the bed.

Stripes wasn’t satisfied until Lilibet had created his own little cottagecore corner, complete with cushions and a mushroom bed. For his part, Stripes kept his purloined goods, transferring them into his new territory from which he continued to watch the madness that had overcome his human.

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I really love following image prompt trends to see what new things I can try out with generative art. Lately I’ve been looking at “core” trends. There are so many of them!

Cottagecore was completely new to me, but apparently it’s a really big thing. The Good Trade defines cottagecore as “an aesthetic that celebrates simple living, particularly in the countryside.”

Dictionary.com has this to say about cottagecore:

Cottagecore isn’t just referring to a cottage. Rather, it’s a romanticization of the “aesthetic or imagery inspired by an old-fashioned, rural lifestyle, characterized by rustic décor and fashion.” Also called farmcore, cottagecore often presents as an idealized version of Western agricultural life.

I have to admit that it isn’t just cottagecore that was new to me. The entire core phenomenon was something I’d never heard of. (Do I live under a rock?) Fortunately for me, Dictionary.com had lots more to say.

On its own, the word core means “the central, innermost, or most essential part of anything.” So, in one interpretation, all of the different -core movements are named in a way that indicates what the trend or aesthetic is centered around.

But the -core suffix may also be related to the word hardcore, or the “the permanent, dedicated, and completely faithful nucleus of a group or movement.” Ultimately, -core movements are fandoms that spring up around different aesthetics and trends. Even the trend of naming movements has its own -core name: namecore.

I’ve learned lots of new words—everything from goblincore to angelcore to fairycore to mumblecore (“a genre of film or TV typically characterized by naturalistic dialogue, a small budget, relatively unknown actors, and a plot that focuses on interpersonal relationships.”).

If you follow the link to Dictionary.com, you can read about more core fandoms including cluttercore (an answer to minimalism).

Let me know what you think of all of this in the comments.