A Menagerie

Conjunctions: 61, A Menagerie is a collection of previously unpublished essays, fiction and poetry that seek to imagine the world of our fellow beings--animals. From Adam naming the animals in Genesis to Ovid's Metamorphoses and Melville's Moby-Dick, writers, philosophers and scientists have long been fascinated by our interplay with the rest of the animal kingdom. Our mythologies and pantheons are populated with snakes, monkeys, cats, jackals and whales. Our species' relationship with other animals is complex, difficult and wildly contradictory--they are friends, enemies, tools, food. Descartes decided they didn't have souls; Linnaeus cataloged them; Darwin connected us to them. A Menagerie embraces the world of beasts, from parasite tongues to octopi art, from elephants singing in harmony with trucks on the highway to psychic pets and pet psychics. Contributors include Temple Grandin, Joyce Carol Oates, T. Geronimo Johnson, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jonathan Ames, Susan Daitch and others.


Genre: Literary Fiction