From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Subject: 4 Recommended Novels
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 05:31:48 GMT

     Well, now that summer is coming to a close, permit me to
suggest some leisurely reading.  The reading of good literature
is a marvellous and inherently satisfying activity.  There is a
genre of well-written, contemporary fiction that offers a
different way of grasping some important insights into our
treatment of non-human animals.  Indeed, literature provide a
different way of "understanding", one that complements and
deepens our more discursive ways of knowing, one that helps us to
reach out beyond ourselves to understand that which our narrow
self-centered material concerns would otherwise disregard.

     There is now a growing body of fiction where animals figure
as central characters and where OUR treatment, exploitation and
killing of them is powerfully questioned.  I must admit that the
vivid and earnest descriptions that these novels achieve -- so
very touching are the stories that they tell -- have brought
me to tears.  Indeed, I've found it even difficult to
proceed at times, so painful and very tragic are the narratives.
For those who dare to suffer a truth many would simply scorn, I
would highly recommend the following 4 novels:

     Frank Davison, MAN-SHY, 1931.
     Henry Williamson, TARKA THE OTTER (1927)
     Allan W. Eckert's THE GREAT AUK (1963)
     Beat Sterchi, COW (1983)

To provide a hint of how very moving these books can be, I've taken
the liberty to cite a passage from each book.  No doubt, being so
dismember from the larger context, these passages may not be as
moving for you as they are me.



     "The mustering for drafting and branding was a distressing
     time for the cattle.  There was no escape from the stockmen
     -- hard-bitten fellows, who came jig-jogging through the
     timber astride of slim-legged horses that could outpace the
     fastest bullock.  They were armed with whips, and their
     companions were sharp-fanged little dogs, trained to happy
     slavery and zealously obedient to the whistled signals that
     directed their work.
          The stockmen gathered the small mobs from the
     waterholes and the camps, and drove them in big mobs to the
     stockyards.  Here, there was dust and shouting and
     bellowing.  There was clouting and prodding with sticks,
     scraping of ribs on rails, and banging of hip-bones on
     posts, together with a burning of hides, and a confusion
     very distressing to the bovine temperament."

From Frank Davison, MAN-SHY, 1931.  [a moving story of range cows
that provides a lot of interesting information about the rich,
sentient but tragic lives of cows.  Was awarded the Australian
Literature Society's gold medal for best Australian novel
published in 1931]



     "Tarquol [Tarka's cub, an otter] ran out of the thorns just
     before Render's muzzle pushed into his hiding-place; but
     hounds leapt the low hedge and overtook him, before he had
     gone very far on his short, tired legs.  Deadlock seized him
     and shook him and threw him into the air.  Tarquol sprang up
     as soon as he fell, snapping and writhing as more jaws bit
     on his body, crushed his head, cracked his ribs, his paws,
     his rudder.  Among the brilliant hawkbits--little sunflowers
     of the meadow--he was picked up and dropped again, trodden
     on and wrenched and broken, while the screaming cheers and
     whoops of sportsmen mingled with the growling rumble of
     hounds at worry.  Tarquol fought them until he was blinded,
     and his jaws were smashed."
     
From Henry Williamson, TARKA THE OTTER (1927), Ch. 19 [captures
well the otter's from the otter's perspective the events of the
hunt as a chaotic cacophony of meaningless, terrifying human
acts]



     "As the female [great auk] darted between two [of the men]
     and headed for the cliff edge a bloody club streaked down in
     a vicious arc and crushed her skull.  She was dead before
     her body stopped rolling.
                    The great auk managed to elude the swings of
     two men and then was hist a glancing blow by the third.  He
     rolled over, scrambled back to his feet and continued his
     pitiful wobbling run toward the cliff edge.  The men rushed
     in pursuit--and one of them, intent only upon the fleeing
     form, stepped on the single large egg and crushed it into an
     obscene yellow stain on the gray rock.
                    Only a dozen feet separated the great auk
     from the edge now, but it was too much.  A whistling blow
     from a club slammed into his neck and shoulders, shattering
     bones and stopping him permanently."

Allan W. Eckert's THE GREAT AUK (1963), pp. 125-6
[This is very moving novel that draws upon historical records of
the actual circumstances pertaining to the human destruction of
the last flock.  Unfortunately, I believe this novel is no longer
in print.  Another reason why people should not begrudge buying
books, otherwise important books like this go out of print.
Anyway, check your library antiquarian bookstore for a dusty
copy].



     "Blosch remained quiet.
         Even during the humiliating ritual of weighing, she kept
     her aura of ancient creaturely warmth, and domestic cattle
     belong to the species of European cattle.  The original
     forms of other cattle species can still be found in the
     wild, but not that of domestic cattle.  It was the aurochs
     which was still extant in Europe in the Middle Ages, and
     immune to scorn.  Blosch declined to lower her head to butt,
     but made no use of the strength that still dwelt in her
     great body.  Even given the justification of self-defence,
     she declined to use any kind of force.  She was civilized
     inside and out, horn to udder, and even on the abattoir
     platform she remained submissive and meek.  These principles
     had worldwide currency, and Blosch stayed true to them to
     the last."

Beat Sterchi, COW (1983), Ch. 2  [this is an important novel of
great literary merit, maybe equal to Celine's "Death On The
Installment Plan").

     Have a good and meaningful read,

                                       ted