Response to The Postmodern Animal By Mark Linggi (04/21/10 23:38:49)
Postmodern. If I was in a room filled with people and asked to raise our hands if we knew nothing about postmodernism, mine would probably be one of the first hands up. I'd hate to admit it (although I do), but postmodernism and I don't know each other too well. I guess this is why I am glade I got a further explanation from lecture.
Originally, I didn't get too much from the text. The words seem to bypass my consciousness and what I did pick up was the miniscule and the small details. Not to say its a bad thing, but not exactly what we were supposed to focus on. One such example, that I found particularly interesting, yet we were not supposed to focus on was how things are manipulated. Hate to be a broken record, but it has to do with science again. The paper talks about r-selected species. It says that r-selected species are invasive and nonnative species detrimental to a habitat and species living there. R-selected species are fast growing as well. This is partially correct. Not all r-selected species are invasive. In fact, in ecosystems like the rainforest, they are an important part of the life cycle. I also found it funny how the author didn't mention the other half to the story. Contrary to r-selected species, there are k-selected species as well. K-selected are slow, but put more of their resources in producing stronger and fewer offspring.
SIDE NOTE AND OFF TOPIC. I m finding this funny. When I m in art class I am the first one to defend science majors and get offended when scientists are told how uncaring and mechanical we are. But, and this is a big but, I am also the first one to defend art majors when scientists have something to say about us. Just in the same way, I get offended when assumptions are made against us art majors. This really off topic, but I just felt like putting this out there.
I thought the concept of love in The Postmodern Animal was particularly interesting. I like the idea that sometimes it is more than just a love for animals (I mean, who doesn't love animals?) but it is also about the love of the work with, of, and between animals. How the wisdom is steamed by this initial sense of love. For me, it brought a particular understanding of what I've always done is just combined what I love, animals and art, and pursued both knowledges without regard to the extra hardship that might have came from studying two completely different majors in 4 years.
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