New Book ‘Eating Animals’ turns Natalie Portman into Vegan Activist
Will it turn me veggie? (Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company)
Animals are delicious.
My two favorite foods:
-BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
-Chicken Korma
The thought of never again eating of my mother’s famous slow-cooked crock-pot BBQ pork again, or feasting upon tender chicken smothered in curry makes me shudder in horror. This is why I am nervous to read ‘Eating Animals,’ the new book by Jonothan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which apparently has turned Natalie Portman into a vegan activist.
Foer is my favorite author of all time. I worship him and everything he has ever done. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, mind-bogglingly amazing, changed my life after I read it, shifting how I looked at literature and what books were capable of.
Thus, I am obligated to read his freaking vegetarian manifesto thing, even if I love love love meat x100. Actually, x∞.
Sigh.
The work is an investigation into, well, eating animals. According to the New Yorker, Foer has been an on again/off again vegetarian since he was 9 when he first realized that chicken is in fact chicken and not some magical delicious substance that appears at dinner time. Despite many relapses, after marrying his wife (fellow novelist Nicole Krauss) who also had been trying to be a veg half-successfully for most of her life, they both vowed to do better. He wrote this book after having his first child, feeling compelled to articulate why he chooses to abstain from meatly delights.
Did I mention Natalie Portman liked it? She wrote a whole article for The Huffington Post outlining how much she liked it, especially the chapter on ‘animal shit’ which she emphasizes quite a bit.
Even if it doesn’t turn me into a vegetarian, I can’t pass up reading about animal poop.
Can you?
Don’t worry – I’ve read the book, and it actually isn’t a vegetarian manifesto. This is not to say that in light of the facts you’ll encounter you won’t feel inclined to give up meat (my guess is you will), but he is not trying to convince you to do that and it is not written as an articulation of why he chooses to abstain from meat – as far as I can tell, he starts of writing it with a fairly open mind and isn’t actually a strict vegetarian at the time of writing (although he becomes one later on). In any case, it is a fabulous book and I can highly recommend it – especially if you’re a fan of his work. It is at times very tough to read simply because the things he describes are so horrible, but it is also at times hilarious, funny and beautiful, and it tries to give a voice to many different people (from farmer to slaughterhouse manager to vegan activist). Ironically, one of the things he says in the beginning is that almost everyone who hears that he is writing a book about eating animals more or less automatically assumes that it is going to be a vegetarian manifesto (which, strictly speaking, it isn’t). That’s quite a curious fact in itself that, I believe, tells you quite a bit already.
Don’t fret Kelton! Even if you read the book and decide to be be vegetarian, vegan, or even just eat less meat, you’ll probably be just as happy. I LOVED LOVED LOVED meat when I was younger, ate all the rare meat I could get my hand on. But after reading and learning (and being nudged towards good books for similar reasons), I am happy to say I have been vegan for 16 years. It is the thing I am most proud of, so who knows, you might like it too. And if not, at least you got a good read in.
Cheers!
Anika
Class of 2001
When we take antibiotics, many of us get diarrhea (and get sick). Since the factory farmed chickens, cattle, and fish are on antibiotics \all the time\ . . does that mean that they have diarrhea (and are sick) . . \all the time\?