This was a painful read. The major problem of the book was summed up in the conclusion which is comprised of Carpenter's standard combination of hacknThis was a painful read. The major problem of the book was summed up in the conclusion which is comprised of Carpenter's standard combination of hackneyed rhetoric, painfully ignorant social commentary, narcissism, and total inconsistency: In one breath she tells us that she has not changed the land, it has changed her, and in the next she tells us that perhaps she has altered the future of Oakland (so actually she thinks she has changed the land). She tells us that she has finally found her identity (a farmer) and in the next breath tells us that she was recently shocked to discover that roosters crow early in the morning. She tells us that she has a deep respect for animals and her relationship with them, but makes absolutely ZERO effort to understand them and when the rooster crowing becomes annoying she is all to happy to have the animal killed- not as a sacred offering as she describes the process earlier, but because the crowing is a pain in the ass. She loves living in the ghetto, but hopes the ghetto changes to her conception of what poverty could be. She is self-deprecating as far as calling herself (as well as everyone who has ever been useful to her) a "freak" and an "asshole", but is incapable of showing this humility when it comes to seeing what a total lack of care she has when it comes to the animals. In her dealings with animals the attitude seems to be " Well, just because I have no experience and have no understanding of X animal, doesn't mean I shouldn't buy some; If it doesn't work out they'll either die off due to my ineptitude or they'll live long enough for me to kill them."
This woman is insufferably pretentious, made worse by her total lack of awareness or sense of humor. Most of the beginning of the book is devoted to her describing how she has had every cool idea that ever occurred -- but no one appreciates how incredibly cool she is because the rest of us are so lame and stupid-- unless you're a vegetarian and then you're an annoying sentimentalist-- or also if you're from California, you're a fake freak that has come here to "reinvent" yourself-- unlike the author who has always been impossibly cool and ahead of the crowd. Or you work at the post office, or buy your food at the grocery store, or you do farm but don't have bees, or you are a republican, or you live in a good neighborhood, or you live on a rural farm, or you're an anarchist, or you're straight edge...
Who is a jerk? - people who work at the post office - urban farmers that don't eat their animals - rural farmers - everyone else who lives in California - people who ask her questions - vegetarians - people who shop using catalogues - homesteaders - anarchists - people who name their animals - the poor What else sucks? - clean streets - Cold weather - nice things - house rules when living with roommates
artisan butchers that don't do things the way she imagined them in fantasyThis is made even worse by the totally artless prose, peppered with expletives and horribly boring details that do nothing for the narrative e.g.
-- a page devoted to how she doesn't generally shop from catalogues and has low grade aggression against people who do, but would make exceptions when it came to farm equipment. -- a story about how she borrowed a friend's truck and decided not to tell him that she had overloaded the truck bed and possibly damaged the suspension. End of story. --Apparently "no one in the city" of Oakland knows how to tell if a watermelon is ripe so she had to drive to Mendocino. Really? While this is absurd, it also speaks to the fact that she never made a single friend in years of living there- or even on a speaking basis with any farmer/basically competent person in vegetables. On killing slugs: "I felt great. I killed so others might live. Death is all around us, even in an innocent watermelon. You just have to know where to look. "
I am not sure what "others" she imagines we're fighting for survival on her watermelon (nutritionally vacuous) but the histrionic prose is abundant. ...more
There were several moments during this book when I thought, "WTF!?" but due to other obligations, I did not write them down and prepare a review.
1. IThere were several moments during this book when I thought, "WTF!?" but due to other obligations, I did not write them down and prepare a review.
1. I had forgotten all about the book until reading an article about the feral dog epidemic, when I remember that one of the more insane things in this book is when Herzog posits that if we keep spaying and neutering all our animals, someday (soon) there won't be any left so breeding dogs/pets is a good thing. He then cites the Netherlands, where spay/neuter is illegal, as an excellent example of how stopping all the spay/neuter efforts would work out just fine.
2. Being a vegetarian is sort of like having anorexia-- both are be about having control and anxiety issues and the implication is that going veg is probably pathological. As an example of someone "healthy" he tells the story of a recovering vegetarian who drinks a pint of cow blood every morning for breakfast and "feels great".
3. As others have pointed out, there is a major problem in the cockfighting section when Herzog claims that the animal rights community is against cockfighting because they are actually classist and don't like the poor and illegal aliens.
Oh, and my favorite: even though cruelty to animals is listed as a hallmark of antisocial/conduct disorder (formerly known as psychopath) doesn't mean that perfectly normal don't abuse animals. Abusing/maiming/killing animals is perfectly normal and part of a healthy child's development.
I was interested to learn about anthozoology, a field I had never heard of before. However, there are probably better books than this on the subject.
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