Two (slightly less heavy) contributions to a discussion on animals

I've settled down to start on the Derrida piece this afternoon. Although I'm wary of bogging us down with too much reading, I'd like to suggest two additional short pieces on the non-human animal, and its place in contemporary society.

John Berger's "Why Look at Animals" was published in 1980, and is often considered to be the founding piece of writing for the interdisciplinary field of Animal Studies. John Berger is an Art Historian by training, as well as a fiction-writer, and best known for his 1972 book, "Ways of Seeing."

You can access the entire essay here. And it's a short one.


The second is a piece of fiction by multi-disciplinary author Annie Dillard. Dillard is sort of a strange mix of theologian, natural historian, literary critic, and poet. This short story is a different kind of commentary on the place of the animal in human society.

The full (also delightfully short and sweet!) story can be found here.