THE LIVES OF ANIMALS J. M. Coetzee The Philosophers and the Animals 15 The Poets and the Animals 47 REFLECTIONS Marjorie Garber 73 Peter Singer 85 Wendy Doniger 93 Barbara Smuts 107 CONTRIBUTORS 121 INDEX 123. As a child he briefly kept hamsters; otherwise he has little familiarity with animals. . It is hard to imagine anyone coming away from it without a new perspective on our relation not only to animals but to the natural world in general, and, indeed, to ourselves." The universe is built upon reason. If she wants to spend her declining years making propaganda against cruelty to animals, that is her right. and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College. . This is done in the form of a short novel in which author Elizabeth Costello is invited to give two lectures to her literary peers. We may not, all of us, believe in pollution, we may not believe in sin, but we do believe in their psychic correlates. Series Title: University Center for Human Values series. . . In some ways Coetzee is playing off of ancient, noble-sounding titles here. Today that feeling is even stronger, for reasons that I hope will become clearer to you. . "Lectures often begin with lighthearted remarks whose purpose is to set the audience at ease. . This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. No wonder it won the Booker prize. It means what it says. Few authors have captured the illustrious lives of animals in fiction. Creative Context for Animal Rights Review, Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2008. Norma and his mother have never liked each other. This is a cause of bitterness to her, and of conflict between the two of them. . It is hard to imagine anyone coming away from it without a new perspective on our relation not only to animals but to the natural world in general, and, indeed, to ourselves. We as humans derived from a peaceful, rational, instinctive, mostly vegetarian, territorial being: the ape, to grow into the cruel, aggressive, unsatiable devourers and destroyers of Nature and all of her realm. --Booklist "Fluent, challenging lectures on the ethics that shape the human-animal relationship... Coetzee takes no prisoners... [An] ethical tinderbox." Coetzee : Philosophers and the animals; Poets and the animals --. In the past decade there has grown up around her a small critical industry; there is even an Elizabeth Costello Newsletter, published out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Coetzee takes no prisoners. Costello’s son, a physics professor, admires her literary achievements, but dreads his mother’s lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches. If you're a seller, Fulfilment by Amazon can help you grow your business. . Though I have no reason to believe that you have at the forefront of your minds what is being done to animals at this moment in production facilities (I hesitate to call them farms any longer), in abattoirs, in trawlers, in laboratories, all over the world, I will take it that you concede me the rhetorical power to evoke these horrors and bring them home to you with adequate force, and leave it at that, reminding you only that the horrors I here omit are nevertheless at the center of this lecture. Under the circumstances of Hitler's kind of war, ignorance may have been a useful survival mechanism, but that is an excuse which, with admirable moral rigor, we refuse to accept. . In the abstract we may be able to count to a million, but we cannot count to a million deaths. Unit 2702, NUO Centre The Lives of Animals is a stimulating and worrying book. "The people who lived in the countryside around Treblinka — Poles, for the most part — said that they did not know what was going on in the camp; said that, while in a general way they might have guessed what was going on, they did not know for sure; said that, while in a sense they might have known, in another sense they did not know, could not afford to know, for their own sake. Coetzee's powerful and subtle text is irreducibly about real animal suffering, but it is also about much more. Sitting in the front row beside his wife, he tries to will strength into her. Coetzee, uses fiction to present a powerful and moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity. in 1973.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton ... A compelling history of liberalism from the nineteenth century to todayLiberalism dominates today's politics just ... A compelling history of liberalism from the nineteenth century to todayLiberalism dominates today's politics just The prose is beautifully clean and lucid , excoriating at times . -- Helen Kaye "The Jerusalem Post". It reviews some of the main arguments, but in the context of two lectures given by an aging academician. On the contrary, reason looks to me suspiciously like the being of human thought; worse than that, like the being of one tendency in human thought. Instead, he gave his listeners fiction: a philosophical narrative about an imaginary feminist novelist . At the dinner that follows her first lecture, the guests confront Costello with a range of sympathetic and skeptical reactions to issues of animal rights, touching on broad philosophical, anthropological, and religious perspectives. With an eye-catching layout, accessible text, and easy-to-use ... One of the most amazing and accessible wildlife-watching destinations on earth, the Top End of ... One of the most amazing and accessible wildlife-watching destinations on earth, the Top End of Costello's son, a physics professor, admires her literary achievements, but dreads his mother's lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches. asks Elizabeth Costello a second time. Separate up to five addresses with commas (,). Coetzee, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Together the lecture-fable and the essays explore the palpable social consequences of uncompromising moral conflict and confrontation. --From the introduction by Amy Gutmann, "Magnificent. [An] ethical tinderbox. We look (or used to look) askance at Germans of a certain generation because they are, in a sense, polluted; in the very signs of their normality (their healthy appetites, their hearty laughter) we see proof of how deeply seated pollution is in them. It is that we often assess our relationships with animals based on whether they have human-like mental status, like rationality or self-consciousness, and if they don't, then we feel justified in using them as objects . He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals." J.M. . Industrial agriculture is horrible to animals. It's the most artful, thoughtful piece of writing I've come across on the subject of animal rights. In a few days, blessedly, she will be on her way to her next destination, and he will be able to get back to his work. . The vexed question of whether animals have a soul and a conscience and therefore deserve rights on the same footing as humans , is the driving force behind the narrative . . . as it decisively shaped the American and European past. . Would you also like to submit a review for this item? Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2013-10-03 13:06:14.072463 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1156615 Boxid_2 CH129925 City Princeton, NJ Containerid_2 X0008 I found the book deeply disturbing ... [It] offers a passionate and compelling look at one side of the debate." Coetzee is a philosophical look at the heart of vegetarianism and animal suffering rather than a discussion of the hard raw facts that most books include on the subject. - strangely on target. In Germany, we say, a certain line was crossed which took people beyond the ordinary murderousness and cruelty of warfare into a state that we can only call sin. . He draws us into Elizabeth Costello's own sense of mortality, her compassion for animals, and her alienation from humans, even from her own family. Something went wrong. B.A., University of Cape Town, 1960; M.A., 1963; Ph.D. in Literature, University of Texas, Austin, 1969, Grow Your Child's Library with Top Young Reader Series, 50% Off All Funko Wetmore Forest POP!, Plush, and More, Knock Knock Gifts, Books & Office Supplies, Buy One, Get One 50% Off Holiday Boxed Cards, Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, The University Center for Human Values Series, Animals of the Serengeti: And Ngorongoro Conservation Area. There's a problem loading this menu at the moment. The Lives of Animals: (The University Center for Human Values Series). This small book provides a wonderfully insightful perspective on the issues surrounding compassion and respect for animals. Something went wrong. Beijing 100016, P.R. . . Elizabeth Costello the novelist will be staying with them for the three days of her visit to Appleton College. . . University Center for Human Values series.\" ; University Center for Human Values series\" ; Animal welfare--Moral and ethical aspects\"@, Export to EndNote / Reference Manager(non-Latin). and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College. . The subject field is required. InThe Lives of Animals, the 1997–98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton University, John Coetzee displays the kind of seriousness that can unite aesthetics and ethics. [This book] uses fiction to present a powerfully moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity.-Back cover. . the early 1960s, when students of evolution began to examine sociality as a product of natural selection. To him she looks old and tired. "Coetzee stirs our imaginations by confronting us with an articulate, intelligent, aging, and increasingly alienated novelist who cannot help but be exasperated with her fellow human beings, many of them academics, who are unnecessarily cruel to animals, and apparently (but not admittedly) committed to cruelty. Coetzee's powerful and subtle text is irreducibly about real animal suffering, but it is also about much more. "Why? You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. . . "No," says Norma, "they are eating in the playroom." He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals. The lecture is scheduled for the late afternoon. They have never been a demonstrative family. I imagine that Coetzee feels the force of almost all the ideas and emotions that his characters express. They are all around us as I speak, only we do not, in a certain sense, know about them. INTRODUCTIONAmy Gutmann 3THE LIVES OF ANIMALSJ. Why Look at Animals? "—Kirkus Reviews, The Lives of Animals is a moral argument within a fictional framework. This is very readable and is intelligently written. . The crime of the Third Reich, says the voice of accusation, was to treat people like animals. Even so , the result is invariably uplifting and enriching . University Center for Human Values series. © 2008-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. . There is a general message that resonates throughout this novella, and one that I found quite compelling. On that occasion I felt a little like Red Peter myself and said so.