What I Don't Know About Animals
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
'I was so absorbed by her writing it was unreal . . . I find myself hungry to find the next morsel of who Jenny was and what her life was like' EMILIA CLARKE (on Why Didn't You Just Do What You Were Told?)
What does Jenny Diski know about animals? She's really not sure. She remembers the animal books she read in her childhood; the cartoons she watched; the meals she ate; the strays she found; the animals who have lived and still live with her. She examines human beings, too, and the way in which we have looked at, studied, treated and written about the non-human creatures with whom we share the planet.
Subtle, intelligent and brilliantly observed, What I Don't Know About Animals is an engaging look at what it means to be human - and what it means to be animal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Don't be fooled by the title--British novelist, essayist, and memoirist Diski (Skating to Antarctica) knows quite a bit about animals. In this treatise, she tackles the unknowable: philosophical questions about animals' consciousness; what she refers to as "an abyss of knowledge that we simply can't cross"; and ethical questions about how humans treat them. Beginning with childhood memories, she examines the cartoon animals she watched in the cinema, as well as her many trips to the zoo, where she once witnessed a chimpanzees' tea party. As an adult, she visited the Kenya Tsavo wildlife reserve and studied elephants with Dr. Barbara McKnight, and a Somerset farm during the lambing season. At age 58, she overcame arachnophobia by participating in the "Friendly Spider Programme" offered by the Zoological Society of London. In addition, Diski examines animals in the abstract, discussing the ideas of Derrida, Bentham ("perhaps the founding father of the animal rights movement"), and controversial animal trainer/philosopher Vicki Hearne, among others, and reflects on passages from the Bible and other creation stories that involve animals. While her anecdotes make for engaging reading, Diski raises far graver questions than the cover image of cuddly lambs would suggest.
