Animals in stories
Jun. 4th, 2010 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatI was thinking today, as I was reading stories to the scant few children who weren't on the beach, that I hardly ever encounter images of wild animals outside the world of children's books. I seldom watch wildlife documentaries, since things tend to get eaten bloodily, so my main image of animals comes from books written for the under fives.
And what a strange image it is! Wild animals, from lions to parrots to wombats, live in a vague generic Jungle, in a happy collective where no-one ever eats anyone else. I'm not entirely sure what they do eat. They do sometimes pick fruit, but since they generally learn that fruit is far more tasty and satisfying when cut into tiny morsels and shared out amongst a crowd of friends than when you eat an entire banana all by yourself, this can't be enough to keep them alive. Sometimes the animals wear clothes and eat pizza, but this is more likely to happen with bunnies than with giraffes. Rabbits seem to be unusually prone to wearing jackets and eating off plates. I suppose they've been taking notes for years from their hutches.
A few animals do occasionally try to eat other animals, but this is Bad, and they do it because they are Evil. Wolves and foxes are morally suspect because they try to eat other animals. Crocodiles are almost always excluded from the happy animal collective, and lurk in rivers, trying to lure animals to their doom. Other carnivores occasionally arrive as strangers, and cause a brief moment of terror, but usually reveal that they Only Want To Be Friends. Bears and dinosaurs are particularly likely to do this.
Flies have bad PR. Flies can happily get eaten, without the eater being castigated as evil for doing so. And nobody ever worries about plankton. They probably should.
And what a strange image it is! Wild animals, from lions to parrots to wombats, live in a vague generic Jungle, in a happy collective where no-one ever eats anyone else. I'm not entirely sure what they do eat. They do sometimes pick fruit, but since they generally learn that fruit is far more tasty and satisfying when cut into tiny morsels and shared out amongst a crowd of friends than when you eat an entire banana all by yourself, this can't be enough to keep them alive. Sometimes the animals wear clothes and eat pizza, but this is more likely to happen with bunnies than with giraffes. Rabbits seem to be unusually prone to wearing jackets and eating off plates. I suppose they've been taking notes for years from their hutches.
A few animals do occasionally try to eat other animals, but this is Bad, and they do it because they are Evil. Wolves and foxes are morally suspect because they try to eat other animals. Crocodiles are almost always excluded from the happy animal collective, and lurk in rivers, trying to lure animals to their doom. Other carnivores occasionally arrive as strangers, and cause a brief moment of terror, but usually reveal that they Only Want To Be Friends. Bears and dinosaurs are particularly likely to do this.
Flies have bad PR. Flies can happily get eaten, without the eater being castigated as evil for doing so. And nobody ever worries about plankton. They probably should.
