Zoontologies: The Question Of The Animal

by Cary Wolfe

Those nonhuman beings called "animals" pose philosophical and ethical questions that go to the root not just of what we think but of who we are. Their presence asks: what happens when "the other" can no longer safely be assumed to be human? This collection offers a set of incitements and coordinates for exploring how these issues have been represented in contemporary culture and theory, from Jurassic Park and the "horse whisperer" Monty Roberts, to the work of artists such as Joseph Beuys and William Wegman; from foundational texts on the animal in the works of Heidegger and Freud, to the postmodern rethinking of ethics and animals in figures such as Singer, Deleuze, Lyotard, and Levinas; from the New York Times investigation of a North Carolina slaughterhouse, to the first appearance in any language of Jacques Derrida's recent detailed critique of Lacan's rendering of the human/animal divide.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Animals, Academic, Theory

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Rinin · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 Words:
Think-tank
octopussying
mingle
lift

[Martin Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolfe has put together an eclectic anthology on what the subtitle calls (after Derrida) "the question of the animal." Wolfe's excellent introduction and his long examination of Wittgenstein's famous dictum—"If a lion could talk, we could not understand him"—range much further than simply an analysis of language games and are worth the price of the book in themselves. I look forward to reading Animal Rites immensely. I thought Steve Baker's "Sloughing the Human" about animals and art deserved to be longer and Alphonso Lingis's "Animal Body, Inhuman Face," which I'd read in Animal Others, once more provded fascinating, weird, and very suggestive. I can't say I really "got" Judith Roof's essay on Freud's psychoanalysis of the single-celled organism, and my predisposition not to take psychoanalysis seriously as a science probably colored my response to Derrida's deconstruction of Lacan's Cartesianism in "And Say the Animal Responded?" (Wolfe explains Derrida much better than I think Derrida does!) Ursula Heise's chapter on virtual reality, dinosaurs, and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was thought-provoking and Charlie LeDuff's investigation inside a racially divided slaughterhouse in North Carolina once more reminded me of how politicized and gendered the killing and consumption of animals is. Indeed, this piece (which comes at the end of the book) highlights that when it comes to animals, it (philosophy, theory, food) can never be only about theory. A well-constructed and provocative volume.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel I should note that the two stars given this book aren't so much a judgment of its overall quality as they are a judgment of its relevance to my current work.

I found Ursula Heise's essay on extinction and representation of animals fascinating, but otherwise the essays just didn't as directly touch on my project. Also, in a few cases, I was turned off with excessively theoretical language (I like even my theory to be straightforward if possible).

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A handful of fascinating essays from fields as diverse as philosophy, art and journalism. LeDuff's NYTimes piece "At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die" is probably the most captivating and brutal writing in the whole book.

[6655321 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best parts are dated, the worst parts are unbearably pretentious and Alphonso Lingis is Alphonso Lingis... there are worse ways to spend circa 200 pages