Paulc
January 10, 2008, 02:29 PM
Has anyone read the K-PAX Trilogy by Gene Brewer or seen the film with Kevin Spacey?
Great story with some hugely interesting themes: Mental Illness in particular autism, the environment, the relationship between humans and animals, vegetarianism and the possibility of life on other planets.
Well the reason i bring it up is i just finished K-PAX 4 (its no longer a trilogy!). And the central theme is mans relationship with other animals in particular apes, gorillaz and chimpanzees with whom we share 99% of our DNA. The point being made was that conducting things like animal experiments or locking these animals up in zoos or using them for bushmeat is akin to child abuse, false imprisonment and cannibalism because genetically they are our cousins.
In fact if we take the view that we afford "human" rights to these animals why not apply the same rights to all animals?
It really reminded me of some of the things Morrissey has said about animals in the past especially the "child abuse" comment he made in the channel 4 doc and also it touched on many of the themes we talked about in the recent meat is murder thread.
I highly recommend this book both because it is hugely entertaining and well written but also because it has a pretty unique slant on the whole human -animal relationship debate.
Great story with some hugely interesting themes: Mental Illness in particular autism, the environment, the relationship between humans and animals, vegetarianism and the possibility of life on other planets.
Well the reason i bring it up is i just finished K-PAX 4 (its no longer a trilogy!). And the central theme is mans relationship with other animals in particular apes, gorillaz and chimpanzees with whom we share 99% of our DNA. The point being made was that conducting things like animal experiments or locking these animals up in zoos or using them for bushmeat is akin to child abuse, false imprisonment and cannibalism because genetically they are our cousins.
In fact if we take the view that we afford "human" rights to these animals why not apply the same rights to all animals?
It really reminded me of some of the things Morrissey has said about animals in the past especially the "child abuse" comment he made in the channel 4 doc and also it touched on many of the themes we talked about in the recent meat is murder thread.
I highly recommend this book both because it is hugely entertaining and well written but also because it has a pretty unique slant on the whole human -animal relationship debate.