The Lives of Animals by J.M. Coetzee (English) Paperback Book

Description: The Lives of Animals by J.M. Coetzee, Amy Gutmann The idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye: humans, especially meat-eating ones, seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms and in slaughterhouses, factories, and laboratories across the world. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description The idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye: humans, especially meat-eating ones, seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms and in slaughterhouses, factories, and laboratories across the world. Costellos son, a physics professor, admires her literary achievements, but dreads his mothers lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches. His colleagues resist her argument that human reason is overrated and that the inability to reason does not diminish the value of life; his wife denounces his mothers vegetarianism as a form of moral superiority. At the dinner that follows her first lecture, the guests confront Costello with a range of sympathetic and skeptical reactions to issues of animal rights, touching on broad philosophical, anthropological, and religious perspectives. Painfully for her son, Elizabeth Costello seems offensive and flaky, but - dare he admit it? - strangely on target. In this landmark book, Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. Coetzee uses fiction to present a powerfully moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity. He draws us into Elizabeth Costellos own sense of mortality, her compassion for animals, and her alienation from humans, even from her own family. In his fable, presented as a Tanner Lecture sponsored by the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, Coetzee immerses us in a drama reflecting the real-life situation at hand: a writer delivering a lecture on an emotionally charged issue at a prestigious university. Literature, philosophy, performance, and deep human conviction - Coetzee brings all these elements into play. As in the story of Elizabeth Costello, the Tanner Lecture is followed by responses treating the reader to a variety of perspectives, delivered by leading thinkers in different fields. Coetzees text is accompanied by an introduction by political philosopher Amy Gutmann and responsive essays by religion scholar Wendy Doniger, primatologist Barbara Smuts, literary theorist Marjorie Garber, and moral philosopher Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation. Together the lecture-fable and the essays explore the palpable social consequences of uncompromising moral conflict and confrontation.The audience of the 1997-98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton probably expected South African novelist Coetzee to deliver a pair of formal essays...Instead, he gave his listeners fiction: a philosophical narrative about an imaginary feminist novelist...and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College. - Publishers WeeklyThe Lives of Animals is a moral argument within a fictional framework...But fiction has the power to disturb and inspire strong emotions, and this book, thoughtfully argued and committed, is certainly a case in point. - Maren Meinhardt, Times Literary SupplementI found The Lives of Animals a genuinely troubling book...I imagine that Coetzee feels the force of almost all the ideas and emotions that his characters express. He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals. - Ian Hacking, The New York Review of BookFluent, challenging lectures on the ethics that shape the human-animal relationship...Coetzee takes no prisoners...[An] ethical tinderbox. - Kirkus ReviewsA little-known but brilliant tour de force...Its the most artful, thoughtful piece of writing Ive come across on the subject of animal rights. - Marni Jackson, The Globe and Mail Back Cover "Coetzee stirs our imaginations by confronting us with an articulate, intelligent, aging, and increasingly alienated novelist who cannot help but be exasperated with her fellow human beings, many of them academics, who are unnecessarily cruel to animals, and apparently (but not admittedly) committed to cruelty. The story urges us to reconceive our devotion to reason as a universal value." --From the introduction by Amy Gutmann "Magnificent. . . . Coetzees powerful and subtle text is irreducibly about real animal suffering, but it is also about much more." --Phil Baker, Sunday Times (London) Author Biography J. M. Coetzee is an internationally renowned novelist, essayist, and literary critic whose many books include The Childhood of Jesus and Age of Iron. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2003. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Amy Gutmann 3 THE LIVES OF ANIMALS J. M. Coetzee The Philosophers and the Animals 15 The Poets and the Animals 47 REFLECTIONS Marjorie Garber 73 Peter Singer 85 Wendy Doniger 93 Barbara Smuts 107 CONTRIBUTORS 121 INDEX 123 Review J.M. Coetzee, Winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature "[A] beautifully constructed, troubling, provacative book which resonates in the mind and heart long after youve turned the last page."--Helen Kaye, The Jerusalem Post "If Coetzee ... were an animal, he would be a fox-quick, aloof and crafty... [A]nimal rights and ethical vegetarianism are natural subjects for him. The debate about them turns on questions of suffering, something to which Coetzees sensorium is pitched with particular keenness."--Benjamin Kunkel, The Nation "The audience of the 1997-98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton probably expected South African novelist Coetzee to deliver a pair of formal essays... Instead, he gave his listeners fiction: a philosophical narrative about an imaginary feminist novelist ... and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College."--Publishers Weekly "For Coetzee fans and others interested in the links between philosophy, reason, and the rights of nonhumans."--Booklist "Fluent, challenging lectures on the ethics that shape the human-animal relationship... Coetzee takes no prisoners... [An] ethical tinderbox."--Kirkus Reviews "An accessible, thought-provoking introduction to the issues surrounding animal rights."--Adam Lively, The Sunday Telegraph "Coetzees dense, witty hybrid is very welcome; ... [he] brings a rich array of themes into play, including the differences between animals and humans, the nature of philosophy and poetry, the purpose of a university, the role of a reason and the emotions in moral deliberation."--Ben Rogers, Financial Times "The Lives of Animals is a stimulating and worrying book. It is hard to imagine anyone coming away from it without a new perspective on our relation not only to animals but to the natural world in general, and, indeed, to ourselves."--John Banville, The Irish Times "The Lives of Animals is a moral argument within a fictional framework... But fiction has the power to disturb and inspire strong emotions, and this book, thoughtfully argued and committed, is certainly a case in point."--Maren Meinhardt, Times Literary Supplement "I found The Lives of Animals a genuinely troubling book... I imagine that Coetzee feels the force of almost all the ideas and emotions that his characters express. He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals."--Ian Hacking, The New York Review of Books "There is a general message that resonates throughout this novella, and one that I found quite compelling. It is that we often assess our relationships with animals based on whether they have human-like mental status, like rationality or self-consciousness, and if they dont, then we feel justified in using them as objects ... I found the book deeply disturbing ... [It] offers a passionate and compelling look at one side of the debate."--Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature Neuroscience "A little-known but brilliant tour de force... Its the most artful, thoughtful piece of writing Ive come across on the subject of animal rights."--Marni Jackson, The Globe and Mail Prizes Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature 2003 (Sweden) Long Description The idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye: humans, especially meat-eating ones, seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms and in slaughterhouses, factories, and laboratories across the world. Costellos son, a physics professor, admires her literary achievements, but dreads his mothers lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches. His colleagues resist her argument that human reason is overrated and that the inability to reason does not diminish the value of life; his wife denounces his mothers vegetarianism as a form of moral superiority. At the dinner that follows her first lecture, the guests confront Costello with a range of sympathetic and skeptical reactions to issues of animal rights, touching on broad philosophical, anthropological, and religious perspectives. Painfully for her son, Elizabeth Costello seems offensive and flaky, but -- dare he admit it? -- strangely on target. In this landmark book, Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. Coetzee uses fiction to present a powerfully moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity. He draws us into Elizabeth Costellos own sense of mortality, her compassion for animals, and her alienation from humans, even from her own family. In his fable, presented as a Tanner Lecture sponsored by the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, Coetzee immerses us in a drama reflecting the real-life situation at hand: a writer delivering a lecture on an emotionally charged issue at a prestigious university. Literature, philosophy, performance, and deep human conviction -- Coetzee brings all these elements into play. As in the story of Elizabeth Costello, the Tanner Lecture is followed by responses treating the reader to a variety of perspectives, delivered by leading thinkers in different fields. Coetzees text is accompanied by an introduction by political philosopher Amy Gutmann and responsive essays by religion scholar Wendy Doniger, primatologist Barbara Smuts, literary theorist Marjorie Garber, and moral philosopher Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation . Together the lecture-fable and the essays explore the palpable social consequences of uncompromising moral conflict and confrontation. The audience of the 1997-98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton probably expected South African novelist Coetzee to deliver a pair of formal essays...Instead, he gave his listeners fiction: a philosophical narrative about an imaginary feminist novelist...and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College. -- Publishers Weekly The Lives of Animals is a moral argument within a fictional framework...But fiction has the power to disturb and inspire strong emotions, and this book, thoughtfully argued and committed, is certainly a case in point. -- Maren Meinhardt, Times Literary Supplement I found The Lives of Animals a genuinely troubling book...I imagine that Coetzee feels the force of almost all the ideas and emotions that his characters express. He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals. -- Ian Hacking, The New York Review of Book Fluent, challenging lectures on the ethics that shape the human-animal relationship...Coetzee takes no prisoners...[An] ethical tinderbox. -- Kirkus Reviews A little-known but brilliant tour de force...Its the most artful, thoughtful piece of writing Ive come across on the subject of animal rights. -- Marni Jackson, The Globe and Mail Review Quote There is a general message that resonates throughout this novella, and one that I found quite compelling. It is that we often assess our relationships with animals based on whether they have human-like mental status, like rationality or self-consciousness, and if they dont, then we feel justified in using them as objects . . . I found the book deeply disturbing . . . [It] offers a passionate and compelling look at one side of the debate. ---Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature Neuroscience Details ISBN0691173907 Author Amy Gutmann Short Title LIVES OF ANIMALS Pages 144 Publisher Princeton University Press Language English ISBN-10 0691173907 ISBN-13 9780691173900 Media Book Format Paperback Residence Adelaide, AT Birth 1940 Year 2016 Imprint Princeton University Press Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States Edited by Amy Gutmann DEWEY 179.3 Translated from English Series Princeton Classics Series Number 43 Publication Date 2016-10-04 UK Release Date 2016-10-04 NZ Release Date 2016-10-04 US Release Date 2016-10-04 Replaces 9781400801268 Audience General AU Release Date 2017-01-01 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161689778;

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