Reading literature through the looking glass of theory.
The Lives of Animals, by J.M. Coetzee
Jeez, this title sounds like a moldy oldie. In some ways Coetzee is playing off of ancient, noble-sounding titles here. The Nobel-prize winner's novella, The Lives of Animals, is a central text for...
The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells
Doctor Moreau has gone really gone off the deep end… and landed on his own private island. Moreau is a disgraced scientist who was booted out of London because of a little project that came to be...
How the Dead Dream, by Lydia Millet
Yikes, the title makes it sound like this novel is going to be mor-bid. How the Dead Dream is a contemporary novel that takes on issues of extinction and human longing. Extinction and human longing...
We3, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly
If this title makes you think of Star Wars' C-3PO, then you're on the right track. Cyborgs abound in We3. It is a beautiful, violent graphic novel by famous comics writer Grant Morrison. Morrison's...
Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy was a nineteenth-century lad with a soft spot for animals. In his letters scholars have found evidence that Hardy cared for and was concerned with the wellbeing of nonhuman critters. S...