“This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smile
“This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smiles. Everything was hidden away.”
This book made me laugh out loud, and that doesn’t happen very often. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this good. The plot is a bit of a joke, the characters are all a bit ordinary and boring, but it is the irony and the dry wit that makes it all so brilliant.
Perspective can be an extraordinary humorous thing when the world is viewed through the eyes of an emotionless and uncaring alien. He arrives on earth and takes over the body of a maths professor, Andrew Martin. The alien is unaware of human social rules and basic etiquette and walks around campus completely naked at Cambridge University. He is quickly arrested, taken away, and finds himself having to explain his actions to the authorities. He doesn’t understand the world and is all a bit lost.
Ironically, the family of Andrew begins to prefer the alien to the original version. He is far more interesting and attentive to their needs in his efforts to conform to human social norms. He was sent to Earth to erase a big mathematical discovery that the original Andrew made, to halt the progress of humanity and to restore balance to their development. His mission is to also erase everyone who may also know about Andrew’s discovery, so it remains a permanent secret. However, the alien begins to like his newfound humanity and struggles with his task. He quite likes having a wife and a son and seeks an alternative life, a human life.
“Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.”
And that’s important advice and the book is full of it. Matt Haig is a self-help author as well as a novelist, and that does shine through the narrative. I feel like his books are always written with the intention of helping people in some way shape or form. This is the first novel I’ve read in several months because my reading time has been taken up by academic books, so I’m glad I chose wisely and had so much fun reading this. I hope you do too.
On another important note about the author and the book, I recently realised he’s a vegan. I didn’t know going into this but came across this quote:
“A cow is an Earth-dwelling animal, a domesticated and multi-purpose ungulate, which humans treat as a one-stop shop for food, liquid refreshment, fertiliser and designer footwear. The humans farm it and cut its throat and then cut it up and package it and refrigerate it and sell it and cook it. By doing this, apparently they have earned the right to change its name to beef, which is the monosyllable furthest away from cow, because the last thing a human wants to think about when eating cow is an actual cow.”
The alien is horrified by the ways in which we treat animals, and how we hide behind this façade of renaming them to make the notion more attractive to us. Things are hidden from the human eye behind wrappers, false names and distance. And this is certainly a great point to take away from this book and to close my book review with.
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I am so impressed with Dale Vince and his story. I find success stories really inspiring, and this really is quite a remarkable one. Dale Vince went fI am so impressed with Dale Vince and his story. I find success stories really inspiring, and this really is quite a remarkable one. Dale Vince went from living in a van, to the owner and founder of a multi-million-pound green energy company as well as the chairman of a football club.
How did he achieve all this?
He did it through green principles and green politics; he did it by creating a green electricity company and building the foundation for clean and renewable energy in Britain. It started with one windmill, producing a small amount of power, to many windmill farms producing huge amounts and powering massive companies. So, this is a biographical piece that is inspiring and driven by powerful principles that have led to success. And nothing was harmed in the process!
"I reckon being vegan is the biggest single factor, biggest point of interest- even now, years later. It just doesn’t get old."
Dale Vince has done this in a clever way, he used his football club to bring his ideas to the masses. Forest Green Rovers have become a vehicle to create change. Eco-awareness through sport is a fantastic idea. The football club promotes the energy company on their shirts and eat a plant-based diet when they are at the stadium. The club only serves such food and demonstrates the need for change in the behavior of all consumers if we are to tackle the climate crisis (see what I did there!)
"We explain to our fans not just what we are doing but why, and we hope they take something home with them, that they become open to making changes themselves. We don’t preach, don’t tell people what to do – we just do the things we believe in. We lead by example. "
There’s a lot of history here too. A firsthand account of the battle of beanfield that I found quite shocking along with dealings with other industry giants. Behind it all though, there’s a drive to do good and to change the world. A drive to lead by example and to encourage others to act in a way that benefits others and the planet.
This is a great book, informative and knowledgeable, that presents a striking case for the need for green change in energy, transport and food. I was given the book for free by Ecotricity representatives at Vegan Camp Out festival here in the UK, and I am so glad of it. I learnt so much here and I recommend this book highly.
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This is a book that seeks to challenge you. It wants you to consider your food choices and your morals. Can you really love animals if you still eat tThis is a book that seeks to challenge you. It wants you to consider your food choices and your morals. Can you really love animals if you still eat them? This is the question Jeffrey Masson asks.
And it’s an important one because many people call themselves animal lovers but continue to eat them. Is this not morally inconsistent? Masson delves into the emotional lives of animals, highlighting the pain and torment they go through when they are farmed for human consumption. He highlights the unnatural environments, the unnatural behavior patterns they display and how far removed they become from their natural selves.
He focuses on chickens, sheep, cows, ducks, and pigs. He looks at how unhappy they are in farmed conditions, and proposes that we should stop using animals entirely on moral grounds because we enforce on them the most unnatural of lives. He also looks at how they treat each other, how they fight for their young and how they seek to protect members of their same species. He considers their emotional intelligence and considers that perhaps we could learn a thing or two.
“Just imagine how rewarding it could be to contemplate the emotional superiority of an animal when it comes to compassion or love: to think we have something to learn.”
I like this quote in particular because it captures the intrinsic value that comes with non-human animals; it captures that, in many ways, we could learn a thing or two because our values have become so distorted. Overall, this is a great piece of writing.
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Wim Hoff is quite the enigma. I have no doubt that he is quite insane and also quite brilliant. It is clear to me that the two walk hand in hand.
ThereWim Hoff is quite the enigma. I have no doubt that he is quite insane and also quite brilliant. It is clear to me that the two walk hand in hand.
There’s something to his words, something true and quite profound. There’s no doubt his method works for him. He has figured out some mental knack to allow him to transcend the perceivable limits of the human body, which sounds a bit crazy, but he can do things most of us can’t and he seems to be genuinely interested in teaching these methods to other people. However, this book doesn’t really scratch the surface of capturing what he does.
Practice is the key. As is learning. And this book doesn’t quite pin down precisely what is needed. It’s like he’s trying to convince us that his method is real, and that it works, but he doesn’t quite show us what his method is. He gives us data and a lot of biography. He tells us how he came to his method and why he felt it was necessary. And it’s very convincing. I believe in what he says. I think he has found something, and he understands a crucial fact of human existence: none of us ever really discover our true potential.
“In nature, it is not only the physically weak but the mentally weak that get eaten. Now we have created this modern society in which we have every comfort, yet we are losing our ability to regulate our mood, our emotions.”
But how do we implement it? Hoff suggests we start with cold showers and that our bodies will eventually adapt to the cold. Afterwards our general fitness will improve. We should meditate and allow love into our life. We should open our hearts and our minds and embrace human experience, true human experience in which our survival instincts become activated. And that’s the key: going back to nature and allowing our adaptive responses to be brought into everyday existence. Life is too comfortable, and our bodies have forgotten that we are animals with drives that are not used.
This book certainly made me think. Unfortunately, Hoff is not the most talented of writers. Don’t get me wrong, I believe he is a very accomplished individual. However, I don’t think this book captures the essence of his ideas particularly well. He is a much better speaker, and it’s a shame he didn’t do the recording for the audiobook version of this. It may have helped clear things up a bit and to carry forward more of his personality. His social media videos are much more powerful and convincing. They make me want to try his method more.
Overall, this book is a curiosity with some wisdom to share. One thing I was shocked to discover is that he is a vegetarian – or perhaps even a vegan – because he never really talks about it much. It helped him form a spiritual connection with the earth and nature. It helped him on his way to discovering who is he is. Clearly, it’s a big part of who he is and I wish he would push it a bit more publicly.
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This was so much fun! Despite how the title appears, this isn’t some dig at meat eaters. It’s a clever piece of comic-fiction that pokes fun at the reThis was so much fun! Despite how the title appears, this isn’t some dig at meat eaters. It’s a clever piece of comic-fiction that pokes fun at the reactions meat eaters get from vegans, and also how vegans (especially activists) are perceived by the public in general.
It doesn’t take itself too seriously. Primarily, though, it explores how dietary differences and lifestyle differences affect relationships. What happens when one person becomes vegan, and the other person does not understand why? Relationships can break down – I know I’ve seen it in reality. It really can cause breakups and divorce. Crazy really, but when you care about a cause and your partner doesn’t – it really can break things apart.
Here, though, the “dirt-bag” as he comes to style himself pretends to be vegan to make his girlfriend happy. In a subtle form of conversion tactic, he attempts to bring her back to meat-eating by infiltrating the movement from the inside. Naturally, such deceit only leads to more problems for himself and his relationship. And it becomes quite comical as he attempts to hide it and save his relationship at the same time. He is an unlikely vegan, someone who is numb from war trauma and indifferent to most things; yet, slowly he begins to see the logic behind the ideas he’s pretending to hold.
From a personal point of view, from someone who is a vegan and is an activist, I really appreciated the barriers that are broken down with a piece of writing like this. It shows both sides of the debate but, ultimately, it pushes a vegan message without being too preachy and hard-hitting. It’s chatty, relatable and a pleasure to read.
-The author sent me this copy in exchange for an honest review.
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I think it is very fair that I start this review by speaking about my own personal bias.
I’m a vegan. I’m also an animal rights activist and I’m an acaI think it is very fair that I start this review by speaking about my own personal bias.
I’m a vegan. I’m also an animal rights activist and I’m an academic with an interest in diet and the development of vegan ideas. I have the words “animal liberation” tattooed on my arm. I believe in it. I want it. I work for it. Therefore, I am naturally predisposed to agree with the arguments presented in this book. I am very unlikely to criticise them because many of them are also my own beliefs. So, if you want to understand what this book means to me and why I think these arguments are of vital importance, please read on. I promise to talk in a factual and relatively non-judgemental way.
Firstly, it is important to start by establishing exactly what animal liberation is as per Peter Singer’s definition. There’s are many common misconceptions associated with the term animal rights. It’s often satirised because it is seen as an indictment for giving animals rights equal to us in society. That’s not the case. On a very basic level, animal rights in the context of this book means the right to live. Animal Liberation is a case, an argument, that advocates that animals have the same natural inherent rights as us: they have the right to live and to not be used and exploited by others. Animals are not ours to eat or use in anyway. They have their own natural independence by this reasoning.
A large proportion of the book is focused on vivisection. It came out in the 1970s when much of this information was, perhaps, not as well known as it is today. It discusses all manner of animal experimentation that led to fruitless results. The counter for the animal rights argument is often that scientific advancement, medicine, and cures for various diseases would not have been achieved without animal-based research. It’s often dubbed as a necessity for human progress, but there are ethic alternatives available. And more to the point: Peter Singer demonstrates, through case after case, how much of this experimentation was completely pointless and fuelled by corruption, money and greed. It was often about producing paper after paper rather than achieving any real results.
It is my most earnest belief that the world would be a much better place if we had animal liberation because I believe that if we had a world where we treated animals as they should be treated – with respect and dignity- we would also have a world where we treated other humans so too. It is a logical extension of such a moral code. How could we harm another human when we cannot harm an animal? This is, of course, all hypothetical (and perhaps even idealistic) but there’s no denying that we would be more ethical, altruistic and better as a society if we did not use animals in such heinous way (or anyway.)
This is a book about ethics, the ethics of using and exploiting animals. Peter Singer provides a compelling and convincing case. He supports his claims with stories, examples and statistics to elucidate just how horrific the systems that exploit animals are. And I urge everyone to read it because it just may challenge the way in which you see the world.
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I’ve been vegan for over a decade, and I’ve read a lot of arguments for and against the lifestyle choice. There’s a lot of information (and misinformaI’ve been vegan for over a decade, and I’ve read a lot of arguments for and against the lifestyle choice. There’s a lot of information (and misinformation) out there and it’s a very contentious and heated subject. Even now, as I write this, I expect to get trolled in the comments section or be hit with people trying to justify their consumption of animal products. I promise you, there is absolutely nothing I haven’t heard before. Or, at the very least, I know I will lose followers when I post this review. I always seem to when I post this kind of content.
Admittedly, I have found the Goodreads community to be much more welcoming to veganism than most. There seems to be quite a few vegans on here and those that are open-minded. So, I’m going to talk about this book quite freely and engage with the most important question it poses:
Why do we eat some animals but not others?
This is an interesting question and Dr Melanie Joy’s purpose here it to make you think; it is to make you understand that there is a great deal of prejudice involved in our food choices and even more hypocrisy: it is to demonstrate the absurd nature of the entire food system. Essentially, at least in the west, we love dogs and cats but happily and unflinchingly eat cows and pigs and chickens. We see some animals as more worthy and deserving of respect. We call them pets and we could never imagine eating them. Why? Why do they deserve life when our “food” does not?
This is called carnism, a belief system that deems it okay to eat some animals and not others. This is often culturally determined and conditioned by society. We essentially exist in a system that has made this seem morally acceptable and normal when it is totally bizarre. The treatment of animals, at the root of things, is determined by their species. Dr Melanie Joy coined the term carnism, and she uses it to demonstrate this phenomenon with the hope that more people will give up eating and using animals entirely.
Today, she works toward promoting a vegan world with her influential organisation Beyond Carnism. What’s interesting here is her credentials as a clinical psychologist and the way in which she has written this book. She has strategically laid out her argument to make the reader think critically. She asks a lot of questions, and she builds slowly and carefully up to her point. And it’s a very effective device. I really do encourage everyone to engage with these ideas because they are quite revealing.
As a vegan academic, I find discussions like this fascinating. So this was a very interesting and rewarding book for me.
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Shelley’s poetry will always have a special place in my heart. His poems were the first I truly loved, and to be totally honest, I didn’t even enjoy pShelley’s poetry will always have a special place in my heart. His poems were the first I truly loved, and to be totally honest, I didn’t even enjoy poetry before I read his words. He was my gateway into a lot of things.
There’s just so much power, optimism and vision in his writing. I find his ethos fascinating and it’s the reason I’m even writing a PhD. His ideas were the gateway into my research topic because his arguments on the vegetable diet are strikingly relevant today. Recently I gave a paper on this at a research conference, linking his activism with his diet and view for reform. Essentially, I’m trying to say that I would not be at this stage of my academic career had Shelley’s words not reached me.
There’s so much I could talk about here and so many poems I could quote and discussions I could present in this review. And this is because of the huge wealth of Shelley’s poetry and prose: he wrote so much. Unique to him though, among the romantic poets, is the fact he rivalled his poetic output with essays and prose. He supplemented his poetry with facts and it acts to enhance the quality of it because he makes his political and philosophical stance so clear. In this sense his poems become quite direct in their intent, and they really were designed to affect the reader in a number of ways. Ozymandias is a good example.
Ozymandias
Percy Shelley saw the world for what it was, and what it will be. He saw through the cracks of civilisation and human greed; he saw what man has become and will always be unless he changes. Ozymandias is a simple homage to human power, to human corruption and to human ruling. This is a poem with true universal value.
"I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
[image]
Ozymandias is not remembered. For all their monuments of human suffering and power, they achieved nothing. A statue does not define success; a stone likeness is not tangible to Godliness. All it does is evoke man’s own blackened heart. Human structures are futile. They are temporary, brief and finite. They will shatter and break like the men who built them. But nature, nature remains. Indeed, “the lone and level sands stretch far away” and will continue to stretch long after man ceases to walk them.
Notably, this poem has a strong afterlife, and it permeates modern culture because it is such a powerful allegory. Shelley argued that poets were "the unacknowledged legislators of the world" as they were those who tried to create changed through their words as they captured the problems of society through them. And this is precisely what Ozymandias does, it demonstrates how foolish humans can be and how empty our monuments are.
There's so much to say about this piece of writing, and this is just one of Shelley's works. There's so much more I want to add here but I know that if I really went into the topic of Shelley's work I'd go way beyond the character limit. So I will end by simply saying that I don't think I'll ever be finished with Shelley's words and ideas. His writing is certainly something I will be revisiting many times through my lifetime.
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“Hope is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be prepared to work hard to make it so
“Hope is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be prepared to work hard to make it so.”
Jane Goodall is a shining beacon of light in a dark world; her words radiate hope, wisdom and integrity: she is nothing less than an inspiration.
I find her story truly remarkable. As a young woman, with next to no qualifications or experience, she found herself in a position many would dream of. Because of her strength of character and belief in the intelligence of non-human animals, she was granted the opportunity to observe Chimpanzees directly in their natural environment. Her discovery, the fact that they use tools like humans, awarded her a PhD and led to multiple campaigns directly addressing the use of animals for vivisection.
Jane has been a lifelong vegetarian and recently turned vegan (hurrah!) She understood the consequences of eating meat on the planet and eventually made the decision to ditch animal products entirely. This is monumental because not only is she a person of great influence, but the move also fully matches her actions with her beliefs. It signifies so much and it suggests that you are never too old or too set in your ways to change your behaviour and better represent your own morals. This gives me hope. And for those that claim to love animals, Jane is an excellent example to follow.
“If everyone starts to think about the consequences of what we do, for example, what we buy – and I am including young people thinking about what they ask their parents to buy from – if we all start to ask whether its production harmed the environment, or hurt animals, or is cheap because of child slave labour or unfair wages – and, if so, we refuse to buy it – well, billions of these kind of ethical choices will move us to the kind of world we need.”
Jane has worked so hard to affect change and to educate people; she has dedicated her life to improving the welfare of others through multiple initiatives. Fundamentally, she hopes for a kinder a fairer world and she has changed these hopes into action. The young generation hold the key to change. Jane writes these words as a rallying cry; she wants the young generation to act, as she did; she wants them to work for a better world for all living beings. Jane is also deeply spiritual. She believes, well she knows, that her path was one of purpose and it was chosen for her. She had a calling and she answered it with all her enthusiasm. She simply knew what she must do with her life; she knew what change she could affect if she tried, so that’s precisely what she did: she gave her work her absolute all, and she has done so much good in this world.
I especially like the way in which she gets her message across. She is clever and careful and uses stories to represent her beliefs. Rather than telling people her point, she shows the facts to them through a narrative and attempts to sway the reader (or listener) to her cause when they are presented with simple facts. Education is the key to change. And this can be difficult when the ones you are educating are the cause for problems you are so opposed to. Patience and understanding is the key.
“Its main message: every single individual matters, has a role to play, and makes an impact on the planet – every single day. And we have a choice as to what sort of impact we will make.”
I cannot quite express how important this idea is. We each have an individual part to play, and we are each individually responsible. I have read so many environmental books that believe the power to affect change belongs only with governments, and our key to affecting change is to get them to act. It’s not that simple. We must each individually make conscious decisions with our consumer habits. We cannot expect others to act for us. If we hope for a better world, then we must each do something about it. If anything, this is the key to Jane’s message and one of the most important pieces of advice you could ever listen to.
Jane Goodall gives me hope: this book gives me hope.
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"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are"
Everything we read, watch or listen to is food: it is material we are choosing to consume a
"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are"
Everything we read, watch or listen to is food: it is material we are choosing to consume and pollute our bodies, minds and environment with. Naturally, we should be quite selective of this material because mindful consumption can save the planet.
Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) was a vegan Buddhist monk and spiritual teacher and through this book he discusses the impotence of Zen in changing the world for the better. Mindfulness is needed on so many levels. Mindful actions and mindful consumption are required to create a peaceful environment. We must first change ourselves if we want to encourage others to live a kinder life. And I cannot quite stress enough how important this is. So many people look to others to create change, such as governments and politicians, but we must first make active attempts to change individually.
“When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing.”
If we wish to save the planet and act in an environmentally sustainable way, then we must first act. We must make changes to our diets and our habits, and we must encourage others to do better. Thay’s words are important and insightful; they are an indictment for peaceful living and a peaceful word. They're so desperately needed, and I wish more people would listen to them. To put it simply, if the entire world did listen to them the Earth would be reformed.
Thay passed away last year, but I think it's fair to assume what his current stance would be regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thay would encourage peace, conversation and a kinder approach because the planet is at stake. We must always strive to do better and to be better. Achieving change is possible in the world, and I'm inclined to agree with his Zen approach that suggests we must first change ourselves before we can affect change at large. We must be beacons of peace and we must teach others the errors of their ways.
I absolutely loved this book. It is so inline with how I think and feel about advocacy, climate change and our environmental responsibility. I could not rate it any higher. I highly recommend this to other activists because it's insightful, energetic and entirely altruistic across species lines.
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“Everybody knows what’s happening. But we all look away.”
How do we tell our children that the world is on the brink of environmental collapse?
Bew“Everybody knows what’s happening. But we all look away.”
How do we tell our children that the world is on the brink of environmental collapse?
Bewilderment explores this question by borrowing elements from Flowers for Algernon, creating a character whose regressive condition can be mitigated through contact with his deceased mother’s brain patterns.
The mother was a vegan activist. And as time goes on Robin (the son) begins to act and think like she did after experimental exposure to her cognitive processing. He organises protests and actions. He begins to actively attempt to improve the world from a very young age. And, quite naturally, he becomes enamoured by a vegan teen activist on the autism spectrum, Inga Alder (a character based heavily on Greta Thunberg.) Robin identifies with her words and her ideas about climate change, and he realises that he is just like her. To quote some of the rhetoric Robin regurgitates here:
“The creatures of this state do not belong to us. We hold them in our trust. The first people who lived here knew: all animals are our relatives. Our ancestors and descendants are watching our stewardship: let’s make them proud.”
“That’s why they’ll all go extinct. Because everyone wants to solve it latter.”
Robin becomes extremely focused on these ideas and works hard to mitigate the apathy of society. He wants change and understands change can only occur if one changes their own behaviour and works to change that of others. He dreams of a better world and gazes at the stars with his father, creating one in his mind.
And through this Bewilderment questions the restrictive nature of labels that hinder individualism. Accurate classification can be a problem when “disorders” such as autism exist on a spectrum. How do we precisely define what someone has? We can’t. No two cases are the same as no two people are the same. And I think this is an important idea to push. People should not be grouped up under such a label that diminishes their identity and personality. And for me this became one of the strongest elements of the book.
Bewilderment is a careful novel; it is introspective, slow and very conversational. And as with the narrative progress of Flowers for Algernon, it becomes clear the positive effects Robin has received (his ability to affect change and to manage his emotions) due to experimentation will soon begin to fade. Powers alludes to this heavily from the beginning, and without giving away spoilers, the interaction between the two novels is quite clever. And it did much to enhance the story here.
Whilst the novel explores many modern themes in a clever way, it lacks the energy and power of The Overstory. It is also simpler, less chaotic and far more precise. There’s much less to take away too in comparison, but I do hope Powers builds on these themes in latter books. He’s quite sensitive with them, but I feel like there is still much left to say. This is a very good novel, but it could have been a great one if it had a little more energy. __________________________________
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Sean Barrs
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