The Elegant Variation: COETZEE ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

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February 26, 2007

COETZEE ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

J.M. Coetzee's latest speech in defense of animal rights is excerpted at the Sydney Morning Herald.

It would be a mistake to idealise traditional animal husbandry as the standard by which the animal products industry falls short. Traditional animal husbandry is brutal enough, just on a smaller scale. A better standard by which to judge both practices would be the simple standard of humanity: is this truly the best that humans are capable of?

We certainly don't begrudge Coetzee his beliefs but we sure hope that the newly delivered novel isn't an animal rights polemic. OK, we're heading out for a burger.

Posted at 12:17 AM | Permalink

Comments

'pain' and 'suffering' are beliefs?

that was really funny, going out for a burger, that's great that you don't care

really funny, witty, and great

i commend you for responding to an animal rights speech by going out for a burger, the exact opposite of the speech's rhetoric

really, really funny and just really awesome of you to think of that

Posted by: tao | February 27, 2007 at 01:49 AM

holy shit you are stupid, tao. you might be the most retarded human on the internet. that's really awesome too!!

Posted by: ReaderOfDepressingWebsites | February 27, 2007 at 08:10 AM

It's okay, Tao. I had a veggie burger at Astro to balance TEV.

;)

Posted by: Cal Godot | February 28, 2007 at 01:01 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
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February 26, 2007

COETZEE ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

February 26, 2007

COETZEE ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism