Re: RARA-AVIS: Pelecanos on dogfighting in the New Republic

From: bobav1 ( rav7@COLUMBIA.EDU)
Date: 06 Sep 2007


Dear Miker:

I am a longtime fan of your intelligent, well-supported posts, and still give thanks to you for wading through so much literary criticism in a user-friendly manner. That said, I find your posts on dogfighting and meat-eating way way off base, and your criticism of Pelecanos's logic (and your pomo parody) confusing at best. Are you saying that because people kill animals for food that there's no such thing as animal cruelty?

I know there's plenty of moral and ethical paradoxes brought up by PETA, Peter Singer, etc., but there's a real-world context that draws some pretty big, longstanding distinctions. Plenty of people do make the argument that there's no difference between (socially supported, judicially approved) capital punishment and murder, or abortion and murder, or wartime actions and murder. I don't think many make the leap to condoning murder, though.

Miker, you've got Brian Thornton sorta supporting something Pelecanos wrote - that alone should tell you something's wrong. And props to Pelecanos (yes, I'm a big fan, go ahead, make fun of me) for writing ahead-of-the-curve Drama City and other books that grapple with real-world social and moral issues. At their best, hardboiled and noir
(no definitions, please) do that job very well.

All best,

Bob V in NJ, a carnivore who's known some silly, gentle Dobermans, and a pit bull I let my 2 year old play with

--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison
<miker_zspider@...> wrote:
>
> Brian Thornton wrote:
>
> Boy, are you streeeeeeetching.
>
> *************
> Haha. A standard pomo tactic.
>
> miker
>
>
>
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