Went to the used bookstore and picked up a few things on the recommended list–“If A Lion Could Talk,” “The Island of the Colorblind,” and “The Day The Universe Changed.” I already plowed through “Island” which was really interesting, even if I don’t get quite so enthusiastic about cycads as the author. (I mean, I like a good cycad as much as the next person, but…err…right.) Now I’m heading into the one about lions, which starts out promising, discussing the tendency towards anthromorphism as blinding us to the inherent coolness of animals on their own terms.
It’s a little ironic that, big fan of furries that I am, I get rather twitchy about tendencies to romanticize animals themselves. I get particularly worked up when people start talking about natural harmony, as if it were something achieved by restraint and cooperation, rather than by an amazing balancing act where everybody’s desire to eat and screw and so forth is played against everyone else’s, and somehow it all holds together. Which is amazing in and of itself, and does not require us to believe in the forebearance of predators or that bunnies are practicing conscious birth control or something. (I know, I know, bunnies will spontaneously reabsorb offspring in cases of overcrowding. But I think it’s a lot more likely that it’s a response to the particular stress of overcrowding, and not a bunny thinking “By Frith! I can’t bring another generation into a burrow this crowded! It’d be immoral!” or something.)
Ahem. That said, have an anthromorphic beast–other tadpoles may think Leroy is weird, but Gaucho Leroy, an Xmas present for my husband’s boss, who runs a company called Gaucho Games, thinks he’s cool in his new cowboy outfit. (He’s apparently going to appear as grafitti in their next game, which amuses me to no end…)
