The Art of Cute and Cozy in The Tea Dragon Society

The Tea Dragon Society has been flagged for it’s uniquely cute and cozy atmosphere. While this may seem simple enough, there is an art to cute and a history to cozy that merits some consideration within a book that has quickly become comfort food to a generation of readers. #teadragonsociety 1/12

Conceptually, O’Neill’s approach is elegantly simple: combine dragons, a subject of dramatic fantasy fascination with tea, a beverage associated almost exclusively with the concept of relaxing, unwinding, and making time for reflection. 2/12

In executing this pivot, O’Neill makes the dragons a) adorable and b) very tiny. Though they’re feisty enough to cause minor bites when touched in ways they don’t like, the series places a great deal of emphasis on their vulnerability (as opposed to ferocity). 3/12

Everything in the book is cute. In “The Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness,” Dale et al. argue that “indulging in and communicating through cuteness provides an important coping strategy for subjects caught up in the precariousness inherent to neoliberal capitalism”. 4/12

This cuteness, expressed through creature, character, world, and theme, has a greater currency in our modern world, essentially, and we can see a lot of the narrative orienting around that as a fantasy that presents itself as a tonic to the social and political climate of the late 2010s. 5/12

In that sense, the nostalgic visuals, cozy atmosphere, and soothing colours of the story all speak to the challenges of our modern world, if only through contrast. As much as the series looks timeless, it is very much grounded in a historical moment and speaks to it quite directly. 6/12

We see this most evidently in the morals that the story advances: companionship and community, harmony with nature, empathy for everyone, respect for life, and the overwhelming need for both self-care and self-cultivation. 7/12

Mey Rude notes “This book is full of characters with soft voices, soft hearts, and strong character, and the art makes all of that even more clear. This is a world filled with soft leaves, soft fabrics and soft people. It’s a kind world that will soothe you when you’re stressed out.” 8/12

This lines the series up with the Japanese concept genre of iyashikei, which, according to Japanese Studies scholar Paul Roquet, creates an “aesthetic of calm” designed to heal weary readers and provide much-needed stress relief. 9/12

As Roquet notes, iyashikei comes from “iyashi,” which can be translated as “healing,” “soothing” or even “therapy,” and “kei,” which means “type.” Patricia Thang simply states that iyashikei provides “a feeling of warmth and comfort, like curling up in a big blanket with a cup of tea and fuzzy socks.” 10/12

While this idea of healing fiction has not been heavily theorized by Western readers, there is, of course, no question that there is a longstanding tradition of comfort food reading, even if the Western literary tradition places greater emphasis on conflict at the structural level. 11/12

However we frame it or name it, there is a downright medicinal quality to The Tea Dragon Society, one that can be approached through complex, transcultural theories of the ways that fiction can provide important wellness interventions. Or we can just sip our tea and enjoy it. 12/12