Miker-
Boy, are you streeeeeeetching.
I saw Pelecanos praising the dog for its loyalty and
lovability, which said "passivity" only exacerbated.
Cattle are not especially lovable (at least not to me), and
as my rancher grandfather (who was too soft-hearted to
butcher them himself, and would raise them, then sell them,
or hire someone to do the deed) used to say, "Cattle are
loyal to whoever is dumping the bales of alfalfa out of the
back of the truck, and then only as far as their first
mouthful."
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Robison
To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Pelecanos on dogfighting
in the New Republic
Brian Thornton on training otherwise tame pets to
kill
for sport and butchering cattle:
I've participated in the latter, and I have to
tell
you, half the time the cattle didn't even know
they
were dead. There's a reason that a group of
mindless
people are frequently referred to collectively
as
"cattle." Smart, they are not. They never
know
what's coming to them, and they have a pretty
good
life up to that point. More to the point it's
done
humanely.
*****************
There are at least some subtle contradictions in
the
cow and pit bull discussion. Pelecanos praises
the
passive and harmless nature of his half breed
pit
bull, while the very same nature in a cow is
likely to
evoke disgust. So do we value this passivity
or
despise it? The answer lies between the pages
of
noir. Noir glorifies struggle, stripped of any
moral
content, as a bare knuckle existential
celebration of
life. Thus, the pit bull's easy ways are
only
admirable in light of its propensity towards a
raging
savagery. The lovable exterior is a thin
veneer
masking a killer. The cow is so overwhelmingly
docile
that it just don't get no respect. And when it
does
erupt into a dangerous animal, such as in a
bullfight,
it gets respect. So what on the surface appears
to be
an admiration for a passive nature is
deconstructed to
reveal a reverence for savagery.
The above is my pomo interpretation of the
privileged
passive binary over its agressive opposite. Hope
you
had your hip boots on.
miker
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