« Blogger resigns from Pentagon detainee post
Reality Show Wannabe Couple Gate-Crashes First Obama State Dinner »
I’m going rogue! (And make war on fish)
Nov 26th, 2009 | 6 responses
I’d like to think I am one of very, very few customers who bought both Going Rogue and Eating Animals as part of the same order from Amazon.
What could be more inconsistent than buying an anti-factory farming polemic and the autobiography of a woman who asserts that every animal has place — right next to your mashed potatoes? What will Amazon now recommend for me? Books on cognitive dissonance?
Anyhow, some initial thoughts on both books:
I don’t expect politicians to write fair and balanced books. But there is a difference between an interesting book and a set self-congratulatory of talking points, like Hillary’s auto-bio. I don’t mind a partisan book, as long as it makes a good argument.
So what have I found in the first sixty pages of Palin’s memoir? So far, it’s mostly about the peculiarities of Alaska from the perspective of the Lower 48. That’s reasonably interesting. In terms of arguments, there isn’t much yet. But there is plenty of self-congratulation. That’s annoying.
When it comes to Eating Animals, I have to begin with a disclosure: I was good friends with the author in high school and college, although I’ve barely seen him since. Early on, Foer admits that he knew what he expected to find when he started researching the meat industry. It would be ugly. So let me respond with my own confession: I know what I expected to think of an entire book that dwells on the moral implications of eating animals. It will be fatuous. It will lecture the reader on animal suffering while downplaying human tragedy.
So far, I feel sort of vindicated. On page 33, Foer tells us,
As I came to see, war is precisely the right word to describe our relationship to fish–it captures the technologies and techniques brought to bear against them, and the spirit of domination.
Foer has an extraordinary sense of humor, but I don’t sense any of it here. Best I can tell, he’s dead serious. I hope that later in the book he asks whether a morally serious person can talk about a war on fish without trivializing actual wars, like the ones in Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq.
I confess, I’m not too optimistic. On page 35, we learn that “Technologies of war have literally and systematically been applied to fishing.” So? A Pentagon research agency basically invented the internet. Will high-minded liberals now boycott the blogosphere?
opinions powered by SendLove.to
6 Responses to “I’m going rogue! (And make war on fish)”
What a combined book tour those two would make. She in a moose cap with baseball bat waiting for one of those four-foot jumping carps . Twack, a home run, and saving Lake Michigan from the menace.
He, bewildered but flummoxed. Perhaps a little training and an underwater electricity generating waterwheel. Either way, got to get in the docu-campaign film and do the clip on: “Fish have feelings, but darn it so the people watching me on SNL (or will it be Tina Fey?)”.
“Oh well, tomorrow we go to NYC to film rats at Taco Bell”. “I got a leg up on this one”, says he, “they could go to labs for research instead of becoming ratsicles”.
“All, in all, a great book tour”, they both said.
Yes…I wonder what Amazon will recommend you next. Perhaps you'll set their server off into meltdown with a malfunction. As for the animal books..I am always oscillating between the belief that vegetarians are right and then the next day tucking into a big burger. A bit weak I know!
“She in a moose cap with baseball bat waiting for one of those four-foot jumping carps . Twack, a home run, and saving Lake Michigan from the menace.
He, bewildered but flummoxed. [...] 'Fish have feelings'”
He solicits donations for PETA's bid take over the lighthouse at a favorite fishing spot in Michigan:
http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=13137
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by TMV, PostRank – Politics. PostRank – Politics said: I’m going rogue! (And make war on fish) http://bit.ly/6eBedg #postrank #politics [...]
David,
When you get far enough through Going Rogue, maybe you could put a quick summary of Palin's political positions as stated in the book. Everything I hear in the media about her is all style and no substance. I hear all about her rabid fanbase and the controversies she has or has not caused but very little analysis as to what she believes.
Yeah, I guess you could say that I'm lazy in that I could buy and read the book myself.
On the other hand, I don't think I should have to pay money to learn what a politician believes. Either they state plainly what they believe during their political speeches or debates or they're not worth my time.
I'll be glad to help out once I've read enough of the book. But is it really free to find out what pols believe? How much do we pay for internet connections? For cable television? Newspaper subscriptions. I believe it was an old WaPo ad whose slogan was “Free specch: 25 cents”. Amazingly, that's what the paper cost in the first years of this decade.