What do you make of the other two deep, mythical relationships we have with animals - cats and horses? The "cat lady" is a common trope, but we don't seem to infantilize cats with a smothering mercy the same way as dogs (is there any pug equivalent among cat owners?). And horses still seem to be a way that we seek spiritual liberation, not comfort without responsibility.
I just watched the original 101 Dalmations last night. The opening sequence is a fun example of the mutual exchange of characteristics between dog and owner.
It's funny how all the narrative motion is generated by the dogs because the owners have no agency, to the point of the dogs calling their owners "pets".
I think my favorite part of your essays is that they consistently spark ideas in me. For example:
"The dog's beauty was cultivated in relationship with an embodied need in the world... To be a beautiful dog is to be built for a job."
So now I'm thinking about what happens to a human when they are surrounded by jobless things and how that fosters irresponsible behavior, which you touch on. Super rich. Thanks James!
Alternatively, the fact that humans selectively bred dogs for us to love could be interpreted to mean something really lovely about our species. I wrote about that here:
I think pets just say something really interesting about humans, because keeping pets that don’t have jobs (beyond being pets) is universal across cultures, and something that Team Rationalism should recognize as not being in our evolutionary interests: sure, the sacrifice of material resources I make for my pets is not the sort of sacrifice one makes for children, but also my pets cannot help me pass on my genes in any way. Pet-keeping is genetic altruism all the way down. But as you note, Team Rationalism usually doesn’t even try to handwave this away, and to the extent that they do it’s with what you’ve written about here, that pets have evolved to exploit an evolved human fondness for cute human children. But we did that! We love love so much that we made ourselves more creatures to love, despite the fact that it’s not in our evolutionary self-interest to do so.
That was a crisp and beautiful essay.
What do you make of the other two deep, mythical relationships we have with animals - cats and horses? The "cat lady" is a common trope, but we don't seem to infantilize cats with a smothering mercy the same way as dogs (is there any pug equivalent among cat owners?). And horses still seem to be a way that we seek spiritual liberation, not comfort without responsibility.
I just watched the original 101 Dalmations last night. The opening sequence is a fun example of the mutual exchange of characteristics between dog and owner.
It's funny how all the narrative motion is generated by the dogs because the owners have no agency, to the point of the dogs calling their owners "pets".
I think my favorite part of your essays is that they consistently spark ideas in me. For example:
"The dog's beauty was cultivated in relationship with an embodied need in the world... To be a beautiful dog is to be built for a job."
So now I'm thinking about what happens to a human when they are surrounded by jobless things and how that fosters irresponsible behavior, which you touch on. Super rich. Thanks James!
Alternatively, the fact that humans selectively bred dogs for us to love could be interpreted to mean something really lovely about our species. I wrote about that here:
https://doctrixperiwinkle.substack.com/p/the-paragon-of-animals
Actually, I do make that point too!
I think pets just say something really interesting about humans, because keeping pets that don’t have jobs (beyond being pets) is universal across cultures, and something that Team Rationalism should recognize as not being in our evolutionary interests: sure, the sacrifice of material resources I make for my pets is not the sort of sacrifice one makes for children, but also my pets cannot help me pass on my genes in any way. Pet-keeping is genetic altruism all the way down. But as you note, Team Rationalism usually doesn’t even try to handwave this away, and to the extent that they do it’s with what you’ve written about here, that pets have evolved to exploit an evolved human fondness for cute human children. But we did that! We love love so much that we made ourselves more creatures to love, despite the fact that it’s not in our evolutionary self-interest to do so.
And tell your dog I said hi. 😀